How to transfer hotel points to another member – a guide for all major schemes

This article shows you which of the major hotel loyalty schemes let you transfer your points to another person.

Over the last few years it has become progressively easier to transfer hotel points to someone else, often for free. Whilst this always creates the risk of fraud, the schemes appear to believe that it is worth it because families want to combine the points they earn from their individual travel.

How can you transfer hotel loyalty points to someone else?

Let’s take a look at the six core hotel programmes we cover on Head for Points, which are those run by Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Radisson. I’ve also added in Best Western because it does allow free transfers and has a decent UK presence.

Accor Live Limitless

Accor points cannot be transferred.

Best Western Rewards

The FAQ on the UK website says:

Can I transfer points to another Best Western Rewards account?

“Yes. Points can be transferred between accounts that share the same physical address. To arrange a point transfer, please contact our Rewards Team at bwr.service@bestwestern.com”

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors allows FREE transfers via a service it calls points pooling.  You can send up to 500,000 Hilton Honors points per calendar year, albeit across no more than six transactions, and receive up to two million points.

This is clearly a generous deal in terms of the number of points you can move, although the annual limit of six transactions means that you can’t sweep them across from your partner on a regular basis.

It works well.  When my wife has a Hilton stay – which is twice per year at most – I move the points to my account. This is partly to keep things tidy and partly because I have higher Hilton status than her and it makes sense that redemptions are booked via my account.

Note that both Hilton accounts must have been open for at least 30 days with some sort of qualifying activity, or for at least 90 days if they are dormant.

You can find out more on this page of the Hilton Honors website.

IHG One Rewards

You can transfer IHG One Rewards points to anyone else for a flat fee of $5 per 1,000.

I did this once to top up my Mum’s account when she was 1,000 points short of a redemption – in this scenario it was $5 well spent (buying 1,000 would have been $13.50).

That said, IHG One Rewards is often selling points with a large discount – click here to see if there is a deal running. This can be as high as 50%, which means $6.75 per 1,000. If such a deal is running, it makes more sense to buy points rather than accept a transfer from someone else unless the points were about to expire.

Following a recent change, the $5 per 1,000 points fee is waived if you are a Diamond Elite member of IHG One Rewards. It is also waived if you are signed up for IHG Business Rewards, IHG’s small business programme, which is free to join. You can read more in this HfP article.

The link to arrange transfers is here.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy allows you to transfer your points to anyone, for free.  Full details are here.

There is an annual cap of 100,000 points per year from one person to another. This is relatively low given that many higher end Marriott Bonvoy hotels can cost over 100,000 points per night.

Transfers can now be done online which is a huge improvement on the previous phone-based process. The maximum number of points that any account can receive per year is 500,000.

Note that both Marriott accounts must have been open for at least 30 days with some sort of qualifying activity, or for at least 90 days if they are dormant.

Radisson Rewards

In theory, Radisson Rewards allows an account to make or receive transfers from up to five different people per month, with a maximum inbound flow of 100,000 points per month.

The online transfer process has been broken for many months. I believe it is still possible to make a transfer if you call.

You must have been a member of Radisson Rewards for 30 days in order to send or receive points. There is no longer any requirement to have elite status to make transfers. Details are on the website here (see 5d).

World of Hyatt

Hyatt points can be transferred to any other member for FREE by filling in this PDF form. You can only make or receive a transfer once every 30 days. In theory you are meant to redeem them as soon as the transfer is complete but this is not enforced.

On my recent experience, transfers take 3-4 days to get done so this isn’t something to leave until the last minute.

I have had problems in the past with the service centre insisting that both the giving and receiving accounts must have had a qualifying Hyatt stay during the previous 12 months.  This is what it means when the PDF form says that both accounts must be ‘active’. Other people have not had this issue, but be aware that it is a risk.

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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.