Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What are the best hotel promos for November and December 2019?

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

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

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 14,500 email subscribers – means I am now running this monthly article as a handy summary of what is going on.

Because there isn’t much business travel around Christmas, I decided to delay the November edition of this article by two weeks and run it as a combined November / December round up.

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

Here are quick links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget:

IHG’s Accelerate – register here – plus register here for a separate promo offering 3,000 points on InterContinental stays – plus register here for the new ‘4x’ promotion (these promos stack!)

Hilton’s Power Up – register here 

Marriott’s Unlock More – register here

Whilst we don’t discuss it below, I also recommend you look at this article on how I earned 7,000 Heathrow Rewards points for a one-night hotel stay via a Rocketmiles promotion.

Where should you credit your stays for the rest of 2019?

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.

IHG has also launched two additional offers.  There are bonus points on InterContinental stays until 30th November.  More importantly, the new ‘4x’ offer will get you a 100% bonus on your 2nd stay, 200% on your 3rd stay and 300% on your 4th and subsequent stays after registration until 31st January.

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.

Marriott‘s Unlock More offers 2,000 bonus points for two stays by 14th January.  Once you have achieved this, you will be given an additional personalised target to achieve by 14th January.

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 closed on 31st October, however.

Radisson Rewards and Le Club AccorHotels are not offering any global promotions.

IHG Rewards Club current promotion

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

IHG has got a little carried away and is currently running three global promotions.

First up, 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 Acceleratethe link is here where you will also find your personalised targets.

The second promotion is focused on the InterContinental brand.

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 third promotion is called ‘4x’ and runs until 31st January.

You will receive 1,000 bonus points on your first stay registration, 2 x base points on your 2nd stay, 3 x base points on your 3rd stay and 4 x base points on your fourth and subsequent stays.

This could work out very well.  One reader told us he earned over 100,000 points for a four night stay at a mid-priced hotel, topped up by eating in every night and so expanding his bill!  Our full article on 4x is here and you can register here.

The IHG home page for bookings 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 hereExisting 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.

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

Marriott Bonvoy is running a promotion called ‘Unlock More’.

It is very simple but difficult to value because it is open ended.  You will receive 2,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points, which I would value at £10, when you complete two stays by 14th January.

Once you have done this, you will receive an additional personalised target.  This must be completed by 14th January.  It is obviously impossible to put a value on this as we don’t know what you will get.

Our full article on ‘Unlock More’ is hereYou can register 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, 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 closed 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.  Registration is now closed.

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.


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 (61)

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

  • Murray says:

    I’m about to buy some Hilton points under their new offer, but as it isn’t an insignificant amount (£1000+) I wanted to check if this kind of spend would be covered by travel insurance? We want to use the points to book a hotel stay and just aren’t sure if we’d miss out completely on the money if for whatever reason we couldn’t get there. Does anyone have any experience?

    • Rhys says:

      No experience, but surely the insurance doesn’t care HOW you paid for a trip, just that you are going on said trip?

      • Rob says:

        Your points are refundable until the last minute (special rules may apply at some resorts) so insurance is unlikely to be an issue. Not sure what would happen if you broke off half way.

        • E says:

          Points are refundable so you’d get the points back. You wouldn’t get the cash you’d used to buy the points back.

        • Murray says:

          Thanks Rob and E. I’m more concerned about if a flight were to be cancelled the day we check in – would travel insurance reimburse us what we paid for points?

          • Rob says:

            You’d get the points back from the airline in that scenario, so insurance would not kick in.

  • Rhys says:

    “allows full time employees of an Eligible Company”

    • Grant says:

      Why is the definition of Eligable Company missing from the terms?

      • Rhys says:

        Probably because if you’re part of an Eligible Company you are made aware….you’ll notice the link posted includes the word ‘Amazon’ so you can guess at least one company!

        • Grant says:

          I’ve seen elsewhere that “An Eligible Company is defined as a company that is specifically selected to participate in this promotion”

          Makes sense then that each company has its own URL.

          Wonder how well it is policied…

        • Sina says:

          I saw this ad in Holiday Inn in Lisbon, why would they put a big banner for everyone if this was specific to a company? that seems weird!

        • Roy says:

          I guess that hotel gets a lot of business from an “eligible company”

        • Crafty says:

          Sina, you were probably in the hotel during a company conference.

        • Sina says:

          BTW I was upgraded to Spire elite yesterday! although I do not work for Amazon!? 😛

          Guess it was not for specific people after all!

          • Rob says:

            Or indeed was also for people who work for a major professional services firm ….

  • fivebobbill says:

    Hilton question, and probably a stupid one. As HH Gold, does a one category upgrade only come when you actually pay for a room, or can you also get one if you book the cheapest room with points?
    Have stayed in Hilton properties many times, but any time i use points I always book a “premier” reward with lounge access, so would never really see an upgrade even if it was policy. On this occasion however I am going to be in Dubai over the New Year, got a great points deal at Sheraton Grand for 31st Dec – 2nd Jan, but am now looking at Hilton for 2nd – 6th Jan. As you can imagine some of the cash prices are ridiculous the higher the room category you go, and to compound that, points redemptions for Exec rooms are coming in at even worse value, around 0.2 – 0.25p per point if you are lucky!
    So much so I’m actually tempted to book an entry level points redemption with a balcony and bring my own booze!
    Anyway, back to my original question, if I do book an entry level room on points, will an upgrade be possible “if available”?
    As I say, might be a silly question, but never struck me before to ask…

    • Rob says:

      A Gold upgrade can include the ‘best’ room in the category booked. Read the small print.

      • fivebobbill says:

        Yes Rob I know that, but I mean’t worst case scenario on an entry level points booking just that, the room you booked, or may there be at the discretion of the hotel, the chance of a better one.
        I was specifically referring to a points booking too, not cash, does it matter?

        • fivebobbill says:

          To be clear, can you still be upgraded even if you pay on points?

          • Anna says:

            I’ve always assumed that upgrades relate to status and not payment method (as is the case with free breakfast). The only time I haven’t been upgraded by at least one category is when I’ve stayed at the Manchester airport Hilton and they have been full (or so they said).

          • fivebobbill says:

            You see Anna, therein lies my dilemma, I’ve always (probably wrongly) assumed the opposite, that if you booked a particular room on points that’s the room you got, irrespective of status.
            On reflection probably a stupid assumption given that all your other benefits are honoured, but it’s something I’ve just gotten into my head over the years and wanted to see if someone could clarify one way or the other.

          • ankomonkey says:

            As HH Gold, I have been upgraded on points bookings at more than one Hilton. I would say my upgrade rate is over 50% on points bookings.

    • fivebobbill says:

      Thanks everyone, pity it took me nearly 10 years to work that one out 👀

      • fivebobbill says:

        Just to update, have now cancelled Conrad Dubai Exec Suite and booked a King Delux Studio at Hilton Dubai The Walk. Five nights, 1st – 6th Jan 240,000 points (inc free night), cash price an eye watering £1,843!!
        I make that almost 0.67p per point, which has got to be good value – the Conrad was giving me 0.23p.
        All we need now is a nice friendly person on the desk to upgrade us to the gin floor 😜
        Thanks again.

        • fivebobbill says:

          * 280,000

          • Peter K says:

            I’ve had upgrades to exec rooms before and no upgrade, and “upgrades” (told I’ve been upgraded but given the same room as booked) on points bookings.
            Overall it’s been a decent hit rate I have to say.

  • memesweeper says:

    Pay attention with Rocketmiles. Every attempt to book with the bonus points day saw the bonus disappear during the booking process. Gave up and went direct in the end. Will try again another night but keep your eyes peeled all!

  • Matthew says:

    With respect to the Marriott £50 back when you spend £200 Amex statement credit. It says expires 31 Dec. Does anyone know if it up to and including that date as I’m staying at a Marriott property on 30th and checking out on 31st Dec. Wanted to make sure it would still count if my card is charged on the 31st? Many thanks 👍

    • Stu P. says:

      Can you pay up front? I have just paid up front for a hotel in Brussels in January and the £50 has already posted.

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.