Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

HfP EXCLUSIVE: Get an extra Hotels.com Rewards free night credit with your next stay

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Hotels.com has offered Head for Points readers an exclusive promotion code.

And, unlike many Hotels.com promotions, this one is valid on virtually every hotel on their site – including all branded hotels.

When you make a booking at Hotels.com by 8th September, you will receive one free extra credit in Hotels.com Rewards.  The minimum stay required is 2 nights, the maximum stay 28 days.

If you book a stay of two nights, it will count as three nights towards the ten you need for a free night.  A stay of three nights will earn four credits etc.

If you are working your way towards a free night but are a little short, this offer could push you over the line quickly and release the ‘locked in’ value you have built up.

Why we like Hotels.com Rewards

A lot of people end up, by choice or by default, splitting their stays across a number of different hotel chains. They do a lot of nights, but never enough to build up status or a decent number of points.

For these people, Hotels.com Rewards is a better way to go.

Hotels com Rewards Review

Hotels.com will be familiar to most readers. It is a huge hotel booking portal covering pretty much every corner of the planet.

You won’t find Hotels.com much cheaper than booking a hotel directly. When a property is part of a bigger chain with a ‘Best Rate Guarantee’, you can be certain it won’t be cheaper. However, the majority of the properties on the site count for ‘Hotels.com Rewards’ (285,000 hotels, which is about 10 times more than all of the ‘big seven’ loyalty schemes combined.)

Hotels.com Rewards (their home page is here) – previously known as Welcome Rewards – is an idiot-proof loyalty scheme:

You earn 1 credit for every night you book, whatever the chain

When you have got 10 credits, you get a free night

The value of the free night is the average price you paid for those 10 nights

Your credits don’t expire as long as you have one stay every 12 months

There aren’t any catches when you redeem.  You can pick any property on Hotels.com that takes part in Hotels.com Rewards (ie most of them) and you can pay the difference if you want to book a hotel which is more expensive than the value of your free night voucher.

There is a lot of upside here:

ALL of your stays (assuming the hotels you book are in Hotels.com Rewards and most are) will count towards free nights. No more ‘wasted’ stays.

Your free night can be used to book any room on Hotels.com. Most reward schemes restrict the ability to book club rooms, suites, family room etc. That is not a problem with Hotels.com Rewards.

When travelling, you are free to stay at the hotel which is most convenient for where you need to be – no need to mess around with badly reviewed properties or out of the way hotels purely to find one in your favourite chain.

The only snag is that Hotels.com bookings do not count for points or stay credit in the loyalty scheme of the chain where you are staying.  You may get your status benefits but it is down to the goodwill of the hotel.  If you are booking independent hotels, or hotels chains where you do not collect their points, Hotels.com could make sense.

How do you get your extra Hotels.com Rewards free night credit?

The good news is that this special Head for Points code can be used at virtually any hotel that can be booked on the Hotels.com website.  There are no restrictions on what chains can be used.

Here is the process:

Stage 1:

Visit Hotels.com via this link, or any other link on this page.  The code will only work if you visit the Hotels.com UK site via a link on Head for Points.

Stage 2:

You must log into your Hotels.com Rewards account before booking.

Stage 3:

Select your room, which must be:

  • a pre-paid one
  • for a TWO-NIGHT or longer stay
  • completed before 31st December

Stage 4:

Enter the code RWD1H4PA17 when booking.

If you don’t see the price breakdown with the bonus free night highlighted, as in the picture below, it hasn’t been applied properly.  This could mean that you’ve visited Hotels.com via a third party and not via a link on Head For Points.

Hotels.com rewards night coupon

The last day to book is 8th September.

You can only claim one free night credit per Hotels.com Rewards account.

What is the small print?

You can find the full T&C’s on this page of the Hotels.com website.  There are no major exclusions or issues, however.

The last word ….

We’d like to thank Hotels.com for making this offer available to Head for Points readers.  If you collect Hotels.com Rewards free night credits, or you think that this is a good time to start, an extra credit will give you a good push towards your next free night.


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 (80)

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

  • Henk says:

    I also use hotels.com, and already got an email from them giving me the free rewards credit night. I guess I can’t use both…

    Also, I don’t think “virtually any hotel” can be through the rewards program. Many hotels are excluded, and I almost ended up wasting my free night.

    • Amit says:

      Yep they already junk mailed this offer a few days ago

      • Rob says:

        There are no blocked hotels with this one. Any general promo cannot be used with branded hotels.

    • Genghis says:

      The email offer I received recently was for double reward nights (x2) excluding all the chain hotels. This is one more reward night (+1) seemingly valid anywhere.

    • Rob says:

      ‘Virtually’ was based on earning – redeeming is a bit more restricted but not so much. Used my last one for a Club room at Park Hyatt Hamburg.

  • a270 says:

    O/T: Need to hire a car (like a 4 x 4 as ours is not very big) and wondering which would offer the cheapest option. Have AMEX Platinum (Hertz and Avis), I know Rob has mentioned the 1000 Flying Club Miles. I tried checking via Amex P link and it keeps saying ‘Call to book’. Can we not see rates online?

    • S879 says:

      Thanks. I have looked and it gives different providers like Alamo etc. Do they offer any upgrades as a 4 x 4 is still working out expensive unless I book an intermediate and get upgraded. I will give them a ring and see.

    • Rob says:

      Cheapest route:

      1. Go to Hertz Australia site
      2. Use the Plat CDP code (Google it)
      3. You have the cheapest deal possible

      Take 1,000 Virgin miles as your reward.

      • Rob says:

        wow, that is cheap, about half the price for a Hamburg rental that I booked provisionally the other day. Glad I bought a refundable booking. Would you get asked for the Amex Platinum card and do you have to pay with it?

        • Alan says:

          No & no

          I generally find Amex Plat CDP is decent – in many countries it also gets you an extra 4 hours on your rental too – so you can book from (say) 16:00 Monday to 20:00 Wednesday and only be charged 2 not 3 days.

        • Rob says:

          No and No – technically they could ask to see it for the discount, but no obligation to pay.

          Note that the Amex Plat rate may strip out some insurance, however, as car hire cover is a Plat benefit.

          • Rob says:

            Is there an Amex platinum code for Avis or is their deal only with Hertz?

  • James says:

    Could Hotels.com start emailing me when they DON’T have a flash sale on ?
    This would be of more use and cut down on emails by about 98%.

    • Stevejnr says:

      +1

    • Johnny Tabasco says:

      if only there was a way of stopping these obtrusive emails being sent to you

      • Doug M says:

        II assume you’re being sarcastic. The trouble with turning off marketing emails is you miss the rare worthwhile deal. I like hotels com, but they have no control with the volume of pointless offers. All the 8% off sales mean no rewards, so net benefit is zero, the flash sales have the same prices as before and indeed after, and the seemingly generous offers have more exclusions than inclusions. The basic 10 nights get one free deal is good, almost everything else is full of holes.

        • Rob says:

          Agreed – we get sent all of their general promos and only feature a few.

  • Stevejnr says:

    I had a similar offer by email from them this week too. Is the free extra credit at the same value as the nights booked?

    • Doug says:

      It always has been for me. Note the value they give you is the price without taxes.

  • BarnyD says:

    May I be the first to say thanks for taking the time to post this offer and giving all your readers this opportunity.

  • Tracy says:

    Having gained free nights previously, I know the value of the free night is the average of the 10 nights paid that generated the reward. Will the bonus mean that the average is of the 9 paid for nights or include a £0 night in the calculation?

    • Rob says:

      It will go in at the same value as the other nights for the booking.

      • David says:

        Slightly surprised by that.
        (Will that be an average of the other nights where they vary?)

        Instinctively I would have expected it to be a £0 earning night.

        • Alan says:

          Sounds like Rob’s sorted out a decent deal then 🙂

        • Rob says:

          If it was a £zero night, it would be a bit pointless, wouldn’t it?

          • David says:

            Not pointless – it would speed up the access to the 10% back by 1 night.

            It would be a reduced (but not zero) fulfilment cost to them.
            And it would help people who stay less frequently to more rapidly unlock the banked value they age acumlated with hotels.com

            For someone staying at an intensive frequencies the benefit would diminish.

          • David says:

            (“age” = “have” in the above, bizarre autocorrect)

  • the_real_a says:

    OT – Creation IHG customer service has now sunk to new lows. Having cancelled the card 6 weeks ago, and assured i would receive the free night certificate nothing has posted (plus the final month points went across as ZERO). Phoned yesterday to speak to a clueless droid who blamed it all on IHG and refused to allow me to open a complaint. Is there anyone with a brain in this organisation?

    • Alex W says:

      Sadly not it seems. My voucher appeared after I threatened.going to the ombudsman.

  • Rob says:

    Hi OT, I am travelling to Hamburg for a week on business. First time there. Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonable hotel (preferably IHG for Accelerate bonuses) in the city centre.

    • Barry cutters says:

      Crowne plaza is decent . Has an average lounge there too if you get a club room. Or if spire they let you choose it instead of the 600points

    • Rob says:

      Never stayed in the (few) IHG options. Meridian is OK but a little off centre, opposite Alster. Reichshof (Hilton Curio) is opposite station and an amazing Art Deco restoration.

      Anika hated the downtown old Radisson recently.

      Radisson at the airport is very decent.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.