What are the best hotel promos for October 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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 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 14,500 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 October?

This is what you have to choose from:

IHG‘s Accelerate, which started on 1st September, has personalised targets so it is impossible to tell if yours are worth doing or not.  You have until 31st December to achieve them.

Hilton‘s new Power Up offer is the easiest.  You get double base points per stay, until 5th January 2020, increasing to triple points if you still have – and pay with – the old Barclaycard Hilton Honors credit card.

World of Hyatt’s Bonus Journeys is offering double base points (triple points on stays at Hyatt Place) on stays until 15th December.  This only kicks in from your second stay after registration.  Registration closes on 31st October.

Marriott is oddly quiet but I expect a new promotion to launch soon.  Radisson Rewards and Le Club AccorHotels are not offering any global promotions.

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

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

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:

25,200 bonus points for staying at four different brands

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

2,800 bonus points for staying at three different hotels

8,000 bonus points for four stays using the corporate rate of the company I haven’t worked at for nine years and which very few hotels accept!

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.

IHG Rewards Club is running a second promotion which doubles up with Accelerate.

You will receive 3,000 bonus IHG Rewards Club points for every stay at an InterContinental hotel before 30th November.  You need to register for this offer here.

If you pay $200 to join the InterContinental Ambassador loyalty scheme, the bonus is doubled to 6,000 points per stay and you will receive an additional 10,000 points with your membership kit.  I discussed the pros and cons of this offer in this article.

The IHG home page is here.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has an Autumn offer called ‘Power Up’.  You can register here.  Our full article on Power Up is here.

You will earn DOUBLE Hilton Honors base points for every stay between 9th September and 5th January.  If you pay with the old Hilton Honors Barclaycard, no longer available to new applicants, you will receive triple base points.

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.

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 for 90 days with a stays target for getting Gold or Diamond until 2021 – I explain how to do get a Hilton status match in this article.

The Hilton booking page is here.

Le Club AccorHotels

Le Club AccorHotels is not running a global promotion at the moment.

However, Accor has launched a new offer for stays in the UK and selected parts of Europe.  Stays in the UK plus Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden are eligible.

You will earn 300 bonus points on your next stay in these countries at these brands: ibis, ibis Styles, Mercure, Novotel, Novotel Suites, Pullman, MGallery and Sofitel.

There are three key points to note:

• You can only earn the bonus once
• You must register in advance via this page of the Accor website
• You must book a FLEXIBLE (ie refundable) rate

300 points is OK given that each point is worth 2 Eurocents if you redeem for Accor vouchers.  You would get €6 back in total for your next stay.  300 Accor points is also worth 300 Avios if you convert them to Iberia Plus (but only 150 Avios if you convert to BA Executive Club!).

You must register and book before 27th November, and stay before 31st December.  Existing bookings made before you registered will not count

There is, however a snag.  There is NO ‘register now’ button on the landing page!  This is despite the fact that the rules say you must register before booking.  No idea what Accor is playing at here, or what you can do about it.

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

Marriott Bonvoy is not running a global promotion at the moment.

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

Radisson Rewards is not running a global promotion at present.

However, Radisson Rewards members will receive 3,000 bonus points when booking in the current EMEA sale. I would value 3,000 Radisson Rewards points at £9+ so this makes a substantial difference, especially if you are booking at cheaper Park Inn hotels.

The sale covers hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  You must book by 31st October and stays must be taken between 1st November 2019 and 29th February 2020.

You can find full details, and book, on this special sale page of the Radisson website.

World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt, which covers Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Regency, Park Hyatt, Thompson and many other brands, is offering Bonus Journeys.

This is a decent offer which is spoiled by two unnecessary rules:

registration closes on 31st October even though the offer runs until 31st December

the bonus only starts from your second stay after registration

You will receive double base points on each stay.  Stays at the lower end Hyatt Place brand will earn triple base points.

Our main Head for Points article on Bonus Journeys 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.