Here’s a handy tool for planning hotel mattress runs

As the end of the calendar year approaches, you may have realised that you are a few nights short of retaining your hotel elite status.

You may have decided to try a hotel mattress run. This is where you book a hotel room for no real reason (usually in the town you live or work in) except to check-in and clock up the elite night credits.

(You MUST check-in, in person, for a mattress run to work. You will otherwise be marked as a ‘no show’ and won’t receive any credit.)

Finding the best hotel and the best date for a mattress run isn’t easy. Even in small cities, some hotel website don’t allow you to do month-long searches to find the cheapest night. In a city like London it is a thankless task.

I came across hotelmattressrun.com which has automated much of this. For Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt (but not IHG), you can input a city and a date range and you will be shown the cheapest hotel night available from that chain.

Let’s take Marriott for a one night stay on a midweek date in London in the week starting Monday 11th December. It takes a fraction of a second to show me that Moxy Heathrow (image above) on Friday 15th December is my best option at £75.

For Hilton, the cheapest option that week is the DoubleTree at Heathrow, which is directly opposite the Moxy. If your idea of London is somewhere inside Zone 2, the cheapest option is the Hampton near ExCeL.

You can also use this tool to maximise an American Express statement credit. For example, I have an offer for £100 cashback on a £250 Marriott spend on my Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. hotelmattressrun.com can help me find a hotel for a specific date range which gets me very close to £250 to maximise the value I get.

Note that the site only shows pricing in US$ and without taxes / VAT, but apart from that it seems very simple.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

Hotel offers update – March 2025:

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 an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points – no closing date is given. Click here to buy.

• Marriott Bonvoy is offering a 45% bonus when you buy points by 30th March 2025. Click here to buy.

• World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount (equivalent to a 33% bonus) when you buy points by 14th April 2025. Click here to buy.