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What are the best hotel promos for March 2018?

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Promos’ 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 11,000 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 in March?

You have some pretty decent options at the moment.  I run through the different promotions below.

Kaligo.com

It would be remiss of me not to give our exclusive offer with Kaligo.com another plug first!  If you book £700-worth of hotels via Kaligo.com, you will receive 8,000 bonus Avios on top of the standard Avios earned for using their portal.  First-time Kaligo.com customers receive an additional 2,000 bonus Avios

Hotels must be booked by 31st March but you can stay at any point until the year end.  The £700 can be spent over multiple transactions.

Full details and the special registration link are in this article.

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 nights.

The latest round of ‘Accelerate’ runs until 30th April.  This is my 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.

This was my target for 49,000 points maximum, comprising:

  • 2,000 points for a stay in January
  • 5,000 points for referring a friend to IHG who completes a stay by 30th April
  • 2,000 points on my next stay
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 2,200 points for two stays booked via the IHG app
  • 7,200 points for staying three weekends
  • 2,500 points for two stays booked via my corporate rate (the company I haven’t worked for in 6 years!)
  • 2,800 points for booking two stays on a Bonus Points Package
  • 2,000 points for getting the IHG credit card
  • 11,300 points for completing six of the seven targets above, excluding the January and referral bonus

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 is very straightforward but not hugely generous.  You will receive 2,000 bonus points on every stay until 30th April, with an additional 10,000 points for every five stays.  There is no minimum stay required and every Hilton hotel is participating.

I would value 2,000 points at around £6 so, especially on long or expensive stays, it is not a great rebate.

I wrote about Hilton’s ‘2000 bonus points’ offer here.

Hilton is still status matching too.  If you have status with another hotel programme, Hilton will match you to Gold or Diamond for 90 days – I explain how to do it in this article.

You MUST register for the 2,000 points offer by visiting this page of hilton.com.

If you collect Lufthansa Miles & More miles there is an even better offer.  For stays between now and 25th March you will earn:

  • 1,500 Miles & More miles on your first stay
  • 2,000 Miles & More miles on your second stay
  • 2,500 Miles & More miles on your third and subsequent stays, with no cap

You must register for this offer via this page of hilton.com.

Radisson Rewards (Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Red)

There is no global Radisson Rewards promotion at the moment.  If you want to know what has changed now that Club Carlson has morphed into Radisson Rewards, my article is here.

Le Club AccorHotels

Le Club AccorHotels, the loyalty scheme for Ibis / Novotel / Sofitel / Mecure etc, is not running a global promotion at present.

Best Western Rewards

Best Western Rewards is not running a global promotion at the moment.

Remember that Best Western is an Avios partner now (see this article) so you will earn 500 Avios on every stay if you choose miles instead of points.  You can also choose to receive Virgin Flying Club miles – details are here.

Full details of the Avios partnership are in my article here.  The same article also explains how to get a status match to Best Western Rewards.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt is offering bonus points for stays until 15th May 2018.

You can earn 1,000 bonus points for each eligible night, including reward nights, at

Park Hyatt, Miraval, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Regency, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Residence Club and participating MGM properties

You can earn 500 bonus points for each eligible night, including reward nights, at

Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties

The maximum bonus that can be earned is 25,000 points.  You must register for the promotion before your stay and the last day to register is 31st March.

We value 1,000 Hyatt points at about £10.  The deal works well for longer stays because you receive the bonus per night.

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

The Starwood offer is called ‘Great Weeks, Grand Weekends’.

Until 15th April, you will earn double base points per stay with an additional 500 SPG points at weekends.  However, the bonus only kick in from your second stay between 16th January and 15th April.

Full details are in this HFP article.

Registration is required via this page of the Starwood website.  Note that registration closes on 31st March even though the offer runs until 15th April.

Marriott (Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton etc)

Now that Marriott has acquired Starwood, the two groups are running similar offers.

The Marriott Spring promotion is another outing for Megabonus.

Until 15th April, you will earn 2,000 bonus points per stay, rising to 3,000 points at weekends.  However, the bonus only kick in from your second stay between 16th January and 15th April.

I would value a Marriott point at 0.5p so this is not a bad deal, especially for a cheap one night weekend stay, but remember that your first stay during the offer period does not count.

Full details are in this HfP article.

Registration is required via this page of the Marriott website.  Note that registration closes on 31st March even though the offer runs until 15th April.

Shangri-La

We don’t normally mention Shangri-La Golden Circle in this monthly round up.

At present, however, there is a very generous triple points deal.  As long as you book and check-in via the new Golden Circle app you will receive triple points on stays until 30th April.

As I explain in this article, this could get you a 30% rebate on the cost of your room.

Wyndham Rewards (Ramada, Days Inn)

Similarly, we rarely feature Wyndham Rewards as there are only a handful of Ramada and Days Inn hotels in the UK (Waterloo is above).

Their current offer is very generous, however, and potentially worth a look if you are travelling in North America where they are the biggest hotel grouping – they own Wyndham, Tryp, Wingate, Hawthorn, Microtel, Baymont, Super 8, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn and the US (not UK) Travelodge.

If you complete two stays at any Wyndham Rewards hotel globally by 1st July, you will receive a free night at any Wyndham Rewards property.  Full details are on the Wyndham Rewards website hereMy main article on the deal is here.

You don’t get a free night voucher.  What actually happens is that, after your 2nd stay, you receive 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points.  ALL hotels – every single Wyndham Rewards property on the planet – cost a flat 15,000 points per night whether they are one-star or five-star so this is good for a free night.

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 £650,000 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 (45)

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

  • Ian says:

    As much as I love Starwood, their current promotion is very underwhelming. I’m platinum with Marriott/Starwood, under the current double points offer I earn 5 star points per $ (2 base, + another 2 for the double points and 1 for the elite bonus) which is 15 Marriott. That’s exactly the same earning rate as stays at Marriott (for a platinum) without a promotion..

    So come on Starwood, try and be a little bit more generous next time please!

    • Cate ⛱️ says:

      If you look on their special offers page you’ll note that most conclude on the 11th this month. I wouldn’t be surprised if they launch a new set of offers after this one has finished which may be more interesting.

      • Pangolin says:

        It’s also worth checking the SPG Dashboard to see if you’ve been targeted for one of the Select offers, which can even be as generous as 2x elite status credits for nights/stays.

    • Pangolin says:

      Starwood is known for being one of the worst for base points earning. If you’re a Plat you can offset that with the 500 point welcome amenity (a lot more generous than the 500 MR points from Marriott) and for stays > 1 night most hotels will give you 500 per night for the “Make A Green Choice” option (decline housekeeping).

      The poor points earning (and outrageously expensive redemptions at the top end) is a blemish on an otherwise excellent program (for Plats that is). This isn’t going to change before the SPG program gets subsumed into Marriott.

      • RussellH says:

        I have always taken advantage of the “Make A Green Choice” option, but have either ended up short of points, or had to complain to get them. And different hotels seem to have different systems – one place I stayed last year hanging the card outside the room was not enough – staff were supposed to slip a card under the door during the night, and one was then supposed to hand it in at check-out. I did not always get the card, was told just to put more dates on the card and it would be sorted – but it was not.

  • Chris Palmer says:

    Have many people taken advantage of the HfP Kaligo.com offer? I did look at rebooking a load of hotel stays, but they always came out more expensive.

  • The_real_a says:

    Its worth knowing that the hilton bonus is given ON redemtions. I have made good use of this in 5000 and 10000 night hotels in asia the last couple of months.

    • Pangolin says:

      Yes, Hilton is outstanding in this respect. They even let you count award stays towards completing Status challenges.

      • RussellH says:

        And at New Year I got both the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 bonuses, plus I think that the base points must have been calculated using the full room rate rather than the points+cash rate I paid. And at the beginning of this month I got another batch of base points – apparently as compensation for being on points and miles and not getting the miles. But if I had been on points+points, I would only have got 50% base points.

        Sometimes you’ve got to love rubbish IT systems – and two more points+cash bookings coming up in two weeks. Hope they work as well as the earlier ones!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    I can’t remember if the promo was called IHG ‘Accelerate’ back then but it does sound familiar. A few years back I had a job where I was often working somewhere that happened to be close to a Crowne Plaza and I ended up with over 200 nights in IHG hotels when I included work and leisure trips (my leisure trips were often in IC hotels so I got Royal Ambassador). The next year I didn’t have to travel as much but because of all that travel my Accelerate targets were ridiculously hard to achieve.

    • Pangolin says:

      If you ignore it for long enough (2-3 quarters) it should reset to something more achievable.

    • Alex Sm says:

      what I got this quarter was an absolute travesty!

      Earn 46,400 total bonus points.
      Complete all of your Accelerate offers and earn 46,400 total bonus points.

      My Offers
      Points Value Offer Description Status
      2,000 January Bonus Offer
      Stay once in January and get 2,000 bonus points.

      5,000 Refer a Friend and Earn
      Refer a friend to enrol into IHG Rewards Club, and receive 5,000 bonus points. The referred member must complete their first stay by 30th April.

      2,000 Stay Once Get 2,000 bonus points
      Thank you for being a loyal IHG® Rewards Club member. Stay once and earn 2,000 bonus points.

      10,400 Stay 8 Nights
      Get an additional 10,400 bonus points after night 8.

      3,000 Stay 3 more nights
      Get an additional 3,000 bonus points after night 11.

      3,000 Stay 3 more nights
      Get an additional 3,000 bonus points after night 14.

      3,000 Stay 3 more nights
      Get an additional 3,000 bonus points after night 17.

      3,000 Stay 3 more nights
      Get an additional 3,000 bonus points after night 20.

      15,000 Stay 3 more nights
      Get an additional 15,000 bonus points after night 23.

  • Mohammed Khan says:

    OT

    I have Etihad points that expire in April/May. Could I book flights and then cancel to get the points back to my account but with a longer expiration date?

    • Rob says:

      No, that won’t work.

      Just redeem them for cash via PointsPay. It is actually a half-decent deal due to the collapse of the £ against the $, you get close to 0.6p per point.

  • Matt says:

    Despite having 2 weeks’ worth of hotels to book for later this year I’m not going to be able to use Kaligo because some (touristy, well known) towns just don’t show up when I try to search on it’s website. Rather frustrating!

    • Cate ⛱️ says:

      That’s a shame. I thought the Kaligo offer stacked with the BA offer was rather good.

  • S879 says:

    Hilton-related: How long is the free weekend voucher taking these days. I hit the spend on Sunday and need it d soon.

    • TripRep says:

      Was wondering if the recent card news might affect these? I was on the Honors online chat the other day asking what happens if I spend £10k on Platinum Visa after April (when I’m due to drop to Silver), do I get Gold for a year or til 2020?

      The stock answer i got was “Hilton no longer have an association with Barclaycard Visa”, completely unhelpful.

      Rob – if your reading do you have an news on this??

      • Rob says:

        A new card seems a fair way off unless Hilton was being deliberately vague the other week (and Hilton is not massively helpful to us in general). I am half-expecting a call to design the benefits package 🙂

    • Rob says:

      They are batched based on previous experience. I got my last one very quickly but when I wrote about it, it turned out others got theirs on the same day and some had been waiting a while (a month or more).

    • Crafty says:

      Received mine 2 days ago having only very recently hit the spend.

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

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