What are the best hotel promos for March 2017?

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.  Thank you.

Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here to buy.

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Our monthly credit card round-up has always been a popular article, so I’ve decided to trial a similar monthly round-up of the best hotel offers from the major chains.

All of the information in this article can be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Indigo, Staybridge Suites etc)

The Spring version of IHG’s ‘Accelerate’ is probably the best choice for most people with lighter schedules.  As targets are personalised it is totally dependent on what you were offered but you should be able to rack up a significant number of bonus points with just a few stays.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 15th April.  This was the article I wrote on it.

Everyone has individual targets, but they are generally fairly easy.  You can earn around 30,000 bonus points with the points starting to flow from your first stay.

My wife, for example, got this for 41,000 points:

• 3,000 points on her next stay
• 1,000 points for a stay in January
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 2,000 points for applying for an IHG Rewards Club credit card
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 21,400 points for completing three of the four targets above excluding the January bonus

This is exceptionally easy.  All she has to do is make ONE stay, for one night, on a Bonus Points Package rate!  As long as she also applies for the free IHG credit card, that will be 30,000 points banked.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is in the article above.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

The Hilton offer also looks good.  You will receive 2,000 bonus Hilton Honors points per night, which I would value at £6-£8.  This offer stacks with the ‘earn up to quadruple Avios’ deal so you can earn both on the same stay.

I wrote about the ‘doubling up’ aspect of this offer last week.  Here is my main article on the ‘2000 points’ offer.

Both of these offers run until 30th April.  Importantly, the ‘2,000 bonus points’ offer kicks in from your first stay so it is a bonus you can hit even if you’re only doing one stay over the next few weeks.

Both offers need registration – the links are in the articles above.

Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red)

For hotel stays before 31st March, the Club Carlson offer is attractive too.  You will receive 5,000 points, worth £15-£20 on my valuations, per night.  The only snag is having to guess in advance how many nights you will do in the quarter.

Anika used this in Hamburg recently and picked up 14,000 points for a weekend stay that cost her under £200 which was a good return.

Full details are in this article.  Remember that Carlson points can be topped up at a generous 1:3 ratio by American Express Membership Rewards points.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc) and Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc)

This is less exciting, unless you have an expensive stay planed.

Starwood and Marriott are basically running the same promotion following their merger – double points for your first three stays at each chain.  It certainly isn’t a reason for shifting business to either chain but you should obviously register if you will be doing a stay anyway.

You must register by 15th March even though both offers run until 15th April.  Full details are in this article.

World of Hyatt and Le Club AccorHotels

Neither is running a global promotion at the moment.  Le Club AccorHotels is running a 3-4-2 promotion for bookings made by 28th March – see here for details.

Points-based online travel agents

If you need to book an independent hotel instead of a chain, don’t forget these offers from the ‘we pay you a load of miles for booking’ hotel bookers.  Click to read the relevant article:

Up to 15,000 bonus Avios with Agoda PointsMAX (book by 31st March, stay by 30th June)

50% bonus Etihad Guest miles with Kaligo.com  (book by 30th April, stay by 31st December)  

50% bonus Virgin Flying Club miles with Kaligo.com  (book by 31st March, stay dates unknown)  

You can, of course, also book chain hotels via these sites but you won’t receive points in the hotels own programme or any status benefits you are due.  This is because they are treated as non-qualifying third-party bookings by the chains who want you to book direct.

Conclusion

There are plenty of options out there this month.  My personal preference amongst these ‘big chain’ options is IHG’s Accelerate or the combination of Hilton’s ‘2000 points’ and ‘quadruple Avios’ offers.

PS.  If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.

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Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.