What are the best hotel promos for March 2020?

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 14,900 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 for the rest of March?

This is what you have to choose from:

Hilton Honors is offering 2,000 bonus points on all stays from 6th January until 3rd May, with an additional 10,000 points for every 10 nights.  You can register here.

IHG Rewards Club has brought back its 4x promotion.  It starts slowly but by your 15th night you will be earning 4 x standard base points.  You can register here.  Bookings must be made by 15th April which is not ideal.  You can stay until 15th May.

Marriott Bonvoy is, from 17th March, offering 2,000 bonus points per stay.  This only kicks in from your second stay.  The offer runs until 14th June but you must register by 31st May.

Radisson Rewards has the most generous offer if you can manage 15 stays by the end of March – which you won’t, if you only start now!  This would earn you 150,000 bonus points, with smaller rewards for fewer stays.  You can register here. 

World of Hyatt is offering double base points on your stays up to to 15th May.  You don’t get the bonus on your first stay after registration.  You can register here.  Registration closes annoyingly early on 31st March, although there is no booking deadline.

Accor Live Limitless is not offering any global promotion at present.

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

IHG has had a change of direction for Spring 2020.  Instead of rolling out its ‘Accelerate’ promotion again, it has brought back the ‘4x’ offer which had a short trial during the Winter.

‘4x’ started on 15th February and runs until 15th May.  However, you must book by 15th April.  Existing bookings count OK.

You MUST register in advance via this link.  After that, you will:

Earn 1,000 bonus points on your first night after registration

Earn 2 x bonus points on nights 2-5

Earn 3 x bonus points on nights 6-14

Earn 4 x bonus points on nights 15+

This could work out very well if you can commit a lot of nights to IHG over the next three months, although it doesn’t offer a lot to the casual guest.

Note that reward nights don’t count, both in terms of earning bonus points (because a reward night earns zero base points) but they also do not count in moving your night count along.

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 Spring offer called ‘Points Unlimited’.  You can register here.  Our full article on ‘Points Unlimited’ is here.

You will earn 2,000 bonus Hilton Honors base points for every stay between 6th January and 3rd May.  There is an additional bonus of 10,000 points for every 10th night.

I value a Hilton Honors point at 0.33p so the bonus is worth £6.66 per stay with an additional £33 for every 10th night.

Existing bookings count.  Reward stays 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.  Remember to register for ‘Points Unlimited’ here.

Accor Live Limitless (Fairmont, ibis, Mercure, Novotel, Pullman, Raffles, Sofitel etc)

Accor Live Limitless does not have a global promotion running at the moment.

There IS a modest new promotion for British Airways Executive Club members which we will cover in the next couple of days.

If you want a sneak peak, the details are here.

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

Marriott Bonvoy is about to launch a new promotion called ‘Elevated Earning’.

It is not hugely generous for most people but could work well if you do a lot of cheap one-night stays.

‘Elevated Earning’ launches on 17th March.  Until 14th June, but only from your second stay during the period, you will receive 2,000 bonus points per stay.

I value a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p, so you are getting a bonus of £10 per stay.  This is great on a £60 one-night stay at a Moxy and terrible on a £1,000 three night stay at a St Regis.

You can learn more about ‘Elevated Earning’ in our main article here.

You MUST register in advance which can be done here.  Registration closes early, on 31st May, so you should register now just in case.

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

Radisson Rewards is currently running what may turn out to be, surprisingly, the most lucrative hotel promotion of the year.  It is getting a little late to take full advantage now, unfortunately, if you haven’t already jumped in.

The offer is called ‘150,000 Bonus Points’ and runs until 31st March.

It is a simple one, based on the number of STAYS (not nights) you do by 31st March:

• Complete 2 stays, earn 5,000 bonus points
• Complete 3 stays, earn 15,000 bonus points
• Complete 5 stays, earn 30,000 bonus points
• Complete 10 stays, earn 50,000 bonus points
• Complete 15 stays, earn 150,000 bonus points

I value a Radisson Rewards point at around 0.33p.  Let’s convert that into your return per STAY:

• Complete 2 stays, earn 5,000 bonus points – you get £8.25 per stay
• Complete 3 stays, earn 15,000 bonus points – you get £16.50 per stay
• Complete 5 stays, earn 30,000 bonus points – you get £19.80 per stay
• Complete 10 stays, earn 75,000 bonus points – you get £24.75 per stay
• Complete 15 stays, earn 150,000 bonus points – you get £33 per stay

This is ludicrously generous if you are doing cheap one-night stays.  If you have to do a couple of nights per week in dingy Park Inn hotels around the UK, you’d probably be getting 50% of your spend back if you hit 15 stays.

Our full article on ‘150,000 Bonus Points’ is here.  You can register by clicking here.

World of Hyatt (Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Regency, Park Hyatt etc)

World of Hyatt has brought back the ‘Bonus Journeys’ promotion which also ran in the Autumn.

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

registration closes on 31st March even though the offer runs until 15th May – although you can book after this date

the bonus only starts from your second stay after registration

You will receive:

double base points at all Hyatt branded hotels

double base points at all other hotels, eg Small Luxury Hotels of the World, which can be booked via the Hyatt website

an additional 1,500 bonus points per stay if you are a Hyatt credit card holder (not possible for UK residents) and stay over a Friday, Saturday or Sunday

I value a World of Hyatt point at 1p.  You earn 5 base points per $1 so, doubling this and adjusting for the exchange rate, you’re getting about 12% of your spending back in points. 

Our main Head for Points article on Bonus Journeys is here.  You must register by clicking 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 over £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.