What are the best hotel promos for December 2021?

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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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As travel begins to restart, we have brought back 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 15,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

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

World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion. The booking deadline has passed for the current Accor Live Limitless global promotion although there is a ‘Europe only, December only’ offer which we cover in another article today.

There are also ‘buy points’ bonuses running with Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt:

Where should you credit your stays for December 2021?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

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

You will earn DOUBLE Hilton Honors base points for every stay between now and 31st December. 

If you still have, and pay with, the UK Hilton Barclaycard you will receive TRIPLE base points. This card is no longer available to new applicants.

For most brands, you will earn 10 base points per $1 spent, plus an additional 10 or 20 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.  38 points per $1, which is what a Gold member with the Hilton Barclaycard would receive on every stay, is a 17.5% rebate on your ex-VAT spending.

You need to register in advance of your stay via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG Rewards (Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Hotel Indigo etc)

IHG Rewards is offering double or triple base points this Autumn.

It is a little more fiddly than is necessary, to be honest.

The offer runs from 1st October to 31st December. Registration is required which you can do here. Existing bookings DO count.

You will receive

• no bonus on your first stay after registration
• double base points on your second stay
• triple base points on your third and subsequent stays

This clearly has the potential to be attractive if your third stay is an expensive one, but the structure will frustrate many. You may even need to do a cheap ‘mattress runs’ so that you are on triple points by the time an expensive stay comes along.

Let’s assume that an IHG Rewards point is worth 0.4p (which we usually say it is) and that you have Spire Elite status and earn a 100% elite bonus:

• You spend £100 AFTER DEDUCTING VAT
• …. which is equivalent to $135
• You earn 10 base points per $1 at most brands, x3 as part of this offer, plus a 100% Spire Elite bonus on top
• You therefore receive 40 points per $1
• You receive 5,400 points for your stay ($135 x 40)
• At 0.4p, the points are worth £21.60
• You receive points worth 21% of your ex-VAT spending

Our full article on the Autumn IHG Rewards offer is here.

You can register here. The IHG home page for bookings is here.

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

Registration for the current Marriott Bonvoy promotion is now closed, although it ends this week in any event.

It is not hugely generous, offering 1,500 bonus points on each cash stay.  I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p so this is equivalent to a £7.50 bonus per stay.  It is clearly a better deal on cheap one-night stays than expensive week-long holidays.

The promotion started on 14th September and runs to 12th December. Registration closed on 28th November.

Our full article is here.

The home page for bookings is here.

Radisson (Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson Blu etc)

Radisson Rewards is offering a double based points promotion.

It is valid on stays until 19th December on stays in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. 

This is a good deal. I value a Radisson Rewards point at 0.33p so – at 40 points per $1 – you are getting a generous rebate of 18% of your post-tax spending. If you have Radisson Rewards status you will earn even more.

You need to register here. Note that existing bookings do not count.

Our full HfP article on Radisson’s ‘double points’ offer is here.

The home page for bookings 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 over £1.3 million 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.