Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What are the best hotel promos for July 2017?

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

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Welcome to our monthly round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.  All of the information in this article can also 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.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 10,000 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Where should you credit your stays this month?

You are, to be honest, spoilt for choice at the moment.  I run through the options below.

Hotel Indigo Krakow

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

The Summer 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 nights.

‘Accelerate’ runs until 31st August.  This is my main article on the offer.

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

I have this for 48,900 points:

  • 5,000 points for a stay before 30th June
  • 2,500 points on my next stay
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
  • 11,200 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
  • 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
  • 11,000 points for completing four of the five targets above, excluding the June bonus

Even with my modest number of planned IHG stays (two!) I should be able to hit most of these targets and I should be able to slot in another night if necessary to ensure that I earn the full amount.

You need to register for ‘Accelerate’ – the link is here, where you will also find your personalised targets.  The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

The Hilton offer looks good and is very straightforward.  You will receive double base points on every stay until 31st August.  Diamond members will receive triple points.

I wrote about this offer here.  If you have top tier status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Diamond for 90 days which will allow you to receive triple points – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for double points by visiting this page of hilton.com.

Hilton is also running a separate offer which gives 2,000 Avios on your next five stays before 31st August.  This requires you to switch your earning preference to ‘points and miles’ instead of ‘points and points’ but it should be worth it unless you are doing a very expensive stay.  Full details, and the link to register for 2,000 bonus Avios, are in this article.

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

Club Carlson has its own generous offer which could – if the specifics make sense to you – be very lucrative.

Called ‘Free Fridays’, you will receive one free Friday night (valid at any hotel, to be used from October) for every two stays you do.

Alternatively, you can choose to receive 10,000 bonus Club Carlson points for every two stays.

The deal runs until 30th September and you’ll find full details in my article here.

Totally separately, this link gives you an exclusive 10% discount on many Radisson Blu hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Le Club AccorHotels

Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty scheme for Ibis / Novotel / Sofitel / Mecure etc, is currently running very generous triple or quadruple points offer in Europe and the Middle East.  You can register here and my article on it is here.  Book by 23rd July for stays by 3rd September.

Accor has  a similar 3x bonus offer for the Asia-Pacific region.  Specifically, it covers:

Cambodia, Greater China (including Hong Kong ,Taiwan & Macao), India, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, New Zealand

It is a good deal.  Again, you will earn TRIPLE base points on every booking you make and complete before 10th September.

Even if you have no Accor status, you will be earning 7.5 points per €1 equivalent you spend.  This is worth 15% of your spend back in Accor vouchers or (if you credit to Iberia Plus and not British Airways) 7.5 Avios per €1 spent.

Status members will do even better.

You need to register via this page of the Accor website.

Bookings made before 10th June will not count so, if you have existing flexible bookings, you should cancel and rebook them as long as the price is no higher.

Totally separately, see this article for how to earn 500 bonus Avios on your next Novotel or Mercure stay before 30th September.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt has no global promotion at present.

Starwood (St Regis, Westin, Sheraton, Element, W, Luxury Collection etc)

I wrote about the new Starwood promotion here.  It is a simple one but comes with a small catch – it requires a stay of 2 nights or more.

2+ night stays between 27th May and 4th September will earn double points.  If your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night, the entire stay will earn triple points.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood Preferred Guest website.  Check that your chosen hotel is on the list of those taking part.

I recommend this offer if you have a high value, multi-night trip planned, especially if it takes in a Friday or Saturday night.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc)

The new Marriott Rewards offer, ‘Infinite Points’, covers the same dates as the Starwood offer – 27th May to 4th September.

You must register in advance via this website.

You earn no bonus for your first stay between 27th May and 4th September.  After that, you receive 2,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for your 2nd and subsequent stays.

You also receive 2,000 additional Marriott Rewards bonus points for your 2nd and subsequent brands, so there is the potential to receive 4,000 bonus points per stay if you can brand-hop.

Because there is no minimum stay needed and because the bonus is a fixed amount, this offer works best for someone doing shorter and cheaper stays.  Don’t forget to register here.

Conclusion

The current offers are looking attractive, even without anything from Accor and Hyatt.

Having a choice of:

a ‘Free Friday’ or 10,000 bonus points from Club Carlson

or

double or triple Hilton points plus 2,000 bonus Avios

or

double Starwood bonus points (for 2+ night stays)

or

2,000 – 4,000 bonus Marriott points (from your 2nd stay)

or

a potential 30,000+ fairly easy points via IHG‘s Accelerate offer

…. is not a bad choice to have.

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.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £500,000 of rooms so far.


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.

Comments (52)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Philip says:

    On IHG my targets included ‘earn when you redeem’ , ‘bonus weekend stay’ ‘book with IHG’ . I was wondering if a points booking qualified for the book with IHG category or does it have to be a cash book? Also could the weekend booking (stay F/S or S/S) be 2 separate bookings covering Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun or if it had to be a single booking for the 2 days?

    • Alex W says:

      Points booking will only count for the target which is for redeeming.

      If you need to spend X on food, spend during points booking would count (I think – worth checking with others).

      The weekends target I have needs the stay to be a Fri and Sat or Sat and Sun on the same weekend.

  • Yuff says:

    I have quite a few Hilton stays this month and have changed my settings to points and miles, however currently at the Conrad algarve and our bill is going to be reasonably high, should I Change my settings to points & points before we check out and change it back after the points have posted ?

    • Alex W says:

      It might be too late to change. Can try changing at the hotel but not guaranteed to work. Best to fix it prior to booking.

      You’re trading 5 HH per $ for 1 Avios per $ + 2000 Avios per stay.

      By my calculations your bill would need to be over $4000 USD to be worse off with the Avios.

      Based on 0.3p per HH and 1p per Avio.

      • Yuff says:

        Thanks Alex,
        It shouldn’t be over $4k unless I let the wife, and kids, off their leash 🙁

      • Alan says:

        No changing p+p/p+m works find, up until 23:59 CST the day of check-out – it’s the p+m partner earning prefs that you have to confirm at hotel as they’re locked in at time of booking.

  • Nate1309 says:

    I am clearing out my wife’s MR account. Can I transfer to my hilton honors or does it have to be hers?

    • Alex W says:

      Names need to match. But I think Hilton does points pooling now?

    • mark2 says:

      there is probably a check, but you can transfer between Hilton accounts.

    • Rob says:

      Yours. If surnames match, nothing stops you trying a very small transfer to hers and seeing if it gets through though.

  • Talay says:

    OT re Emirates 20% off your first booking (only mileage account opened, no credit card).

    I received this twice, once on my wife’s account (set up, never flew, shortly afterwards) and then again on a dummy account to try to replicate the email at a later date – successful.

    As we are dumping Etihad (probably), I could do with this again for a few long haul far east or Oz tickets and wasn’t about to replicate on another dummy account (ISP, address, etc. all different).

    Could be finished of course but if anyone has seen the same or similar, I’d be interested.

  • RussellH says:

    IHG Accelerate question.

    We need a hotel for the night of 31 August. The Accelerate Ts+Cs say “Number of bonus points listed above will be awarded after … Stays have been consumed by the member between 15 May 2017 and 31 August 2017 (both dates inclusive). It is still not clear to me whether a stay with arr. 31 Aug and dep 1 Spt will count or not.

    Any thoughts?

  • Matthew Taylor says:

    Hi– I’ve just booked a stay in Calgary – not using any of the promotions above, however if you click through your Avios account to booking.com they’re offering 8 Avios per £1 spend. (plus whatever you get on your card – in my case, Amex at 1.25/£, the total is 9.25/£1 spend.) It might be that this beats some of these deals?

  • Graham Walsh says:

    I am in need of 32k IHG points to do a cash + points stay. Anyone know if they will offer a bonus on buying points? Alternative is to transfer VS miles but that could take 2 weeks. Want to get it sorted ASAP. Gutted I didn’t buy back in May when there was 100% bonus 🙁

    • Rob says:

      Do a ‘cash and points and cancel’. Book a 50k hotel but use as few points and possible and pay cash for the rest. Once booked, cancel. Everything comes back as points – you don’t get any money back. You’ve effectively paid the same as buying them in a 100% promo.

      • Graham Walsh says:

        Great tip. Thank Rob. Any particular length of time I should wait between booking and cancelling?

        • JamesB says:

          I’ve cancelled straightaway like it was an error and then booked something else. Some people think doing so runs some risks though as you might be perceived to be abusing the system. Despite this I do not recall anybody stating they got their account closed for this.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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