What are the best hotel promos for May 2019?

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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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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 13,500 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

If you’d rather not spend cash on your next stay, this article looks at how to use Avios points to book hotel rooms.

Where should you credit your stays in May?

This is what you have to choose from:

IHG‘s Accelerate, which started on 1st May, has personalised targets so it is impossible to tell if yours are worth doing or not.  In general, they are NOT hugely generous this time.  Many people are also having trouble signing up.

Hilton‘s new Go More Get More offer, which started yesterday, is the easiest – double base points per stay, starting on your 2nd stay, plus additional bonuses for hitting 10, 15 and 20 stays by 8th September

Accor has two offers – a Europe / Africa / Middle East offer of 2x, 3x or 4x points on one stay only, with the bonus depending on which month you stay (4x is August) – and an Avios offer worth up to 4x miles

Marriott‘s offer of double base points on every stay until 4th June is valuable on expensive trips – but it only starts from your 2nd stay during the promo period.  Some people may want to do a cheap mattress run if their first stay after registration is going to be very expensive!

Hyatt‘s offer of 1,000 bonus points per night (1,500 points at its budget chains) could work out nicely for longer stays – but, like Marriott, it won’t pay the bonus on your first stay after registering.  Registration is now closed and the promotion ends on 15th May.

The scheme to avoid if you are seeking bonus points is Radisson Rewards which is not offering any global promotion at present.

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

IHG is running another version of its Accelerate promotion. It runs from 1st May to 31st August.

Everyone has personalised targets which, in general, are the least generous we have seen for a while.  This is my article on the offer.  You can register on the IHG site here.

Here is a typical set of targets for this round:

10,000 bonus points for staying five nights

14,400 bonus points for staying at three different IHG brands 

2,800 points for staying at two different IHG hotels

4,500 bonus points for booking one ‘points and cash’ stay

5,600 bonus points for 2 x 2-night weekend stays (Saturday plus another night)

Unusually, there is no additional bonus for completing all or most of the separate targets.  If you are being smart you could hit the first three targets with just three stays which totalled five nights.

Take a look at what you’ve been offered.  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)

Hilton has just launched a new offer called ‘Go More, Get More’.  You can register here.  Our full article on Go More, Get More is here.

You will earn DOUBLE Hilton Honors base points for every stay between 6th May and 8th September, starting with your second stay.

For most brands, you will earn 10 base points per $1 spent, plus an additional 10 promotional points plus any status bonus.

Given that I value a Hilton Honors point at around 0.33p, you are getting a good return on your spending here.  20 points per $1 is an 8.5% rebate and that is before you add in any status bonus.  There are also additional targets for heavy stayers:

10,000 bonus points after 10 stays

+ a further 15,000 bonus points after 15 stays (total of 25,000)

+ a further 20,000 bonus points after 20 stays (total of 45,000)

I would value 45,000 points at £150, so you’re getting an extra £7+ of points per stay if you manage to hit 20.  You have four months to do it, until 8th September, so for regular business travellers it may be achievable.

There is no cap to what you can earn. The only snag is that you only earn double points from your SECOND stay after 6th May.

You need to register in advance via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count, there is no minimum stay rule and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

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.

The Hilton booking page is here.

Le Club AccorHotels

Le Club AccorHotels, which covers Novotel / Ibis / Mercure / M Gallery / Sofitel / Pullman / Raffles / Swissotel / Fairmont etc, has no global promotion at the moment.

There are two niche offers, however.

The first offer requires you to book before 12th May, so you don’t have long.  You MUST register via this page of the Accor site.

For your next booking after registration, which must be in Europe, Middle East, Africa, French Guiana and Saint Martin (French part), you will receive:

• DOUBLE points if you stay in April, May or June
• TRIPLE points if you stay in July
• QUADRUPLE points if you stay in August

Existing bookings do NOT count. These need to be cancelled and rebooked. Don’t forget to register before booking (existing bookings will not count) via this page.

The second offer is very similar but is ONLY for Avios collectors.  No registration is required.

For ALL stays taken by 15th July, and booked by 15th June, you receive:

• DOUBLE Avios for stays of 1 or 2 nights
• TRIPLE Avios for stays of 3 nights
• QUADRUPLE Avios for stays of 4+ nights

Full details of the Avios offer are in this article.  You need to credit your stays to Iberia Plus and not British Airways Executive Club – the article explains why.

Marriott Bonvoy (Renaissance, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis, Luxury Collection, Moxy etc)

Marriott’s current offer is called ‘Double Take’.  You can register here.

It is valid for stays until 4th June, although registration closes on 21st May.

In theory it is very straightforward – you receive double base points on all paid stays.  Marriott has chosen to complicate matters by insisting that you only get the bonus from your second stay after registration.  This means that, if you have a very expensive Marriott stay coming up, it might make sense to do a cheap mattress run night first.

Our full article on Double Take is here.  You can register for Double Take here.  The Marriott booking page is here.

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

Radisson Rewards is not running a global promotion at present.

World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt is running a ‘per night’ bonus promotion valid across all of its brands.

Registration for this offer is now closed so it is not worth considering if you are not already signed up.

Until 15th May, you will earn 1,000 bonus points per night, increased to 1,500 at budget brands Hyatt Place and Hyatt House.

Like Marriott, Hyatt is insisting that your first stay after registration does not count.  This means that if you had a 10+ night stay coming up it might be worthwhile doing a cheap mattress run night first.  Reward nights count and will earn the 1,000 points.

Our full article on the promotions is here.

And finally …..

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 almost £1m of rooms so far.

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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.