Tips on keeping a Hotels.com free night alive? Cheapest (no stay) booking?

[allycat]

I have one free night voucher available on hotels.com worth £210 but they have let me know that unless I use the voucher or stay 1 night before mid January, I will lose the voucher. I don’t have a need to stay anywhere at the moment either to use it or keep it alive, so any good tips on booking the cheapest qualifying stay somewehere that only needs you to turn up and checkin but not actually stay? Or even better not have to turn up at all? I seem to remember discussion in the past about booking a cheap hostel somewhere in the world that didn’t actually need you to physically arrive to check in. They got a few bucks for a room they didn’t need to actually provide or service. I can see a £23 hostel in York for mid-November on a quick look that I could visit to check in, but I am long past sleeping in a bunk bed in a dorm for 12 I am afraid … TIA

[yonasl]

Check for some £2-5 a night hotels in Asia and book a non refundable. Most don’t tell hotel.com you never made it and in the system it will look like you spent a night somewhere extending your voucher validity.

[Rob]

I’ve done this and it works. Don’t pay more than £4.

[Jon]

Not wishing to contradict Rob 😉 but I did this once and it did not work… So I guess do it for a night as soon as possible, keep an eye on it, and be prepared to repeat a few times if need be before the deadline.

On the other hand, I’ve also had success a couple of times with non-refundable bookings where I’ve called in the morning to say I can’t make it due to illness (genuinely in my cases) and would they check me in anyway so I can get the points/stay credit, and they’ve been happy to do so. Granted that was with slightly more expensive hotels, and not as I recall booked through Hotels.com, but could be worth a try if all else fails.

[allycat]

Rob Burgess wrote:

I’ve done this and it works. Don’t pay more than £4.

Thanks Rob. Booked one night next week in Makassar in South Sulawesi in what looks like quite a decent place, 15sq mtr double room, sole occupancy for £3.12, and will report back if it credits OK!

[allycat]

Just a quick follow up to confirm this strategy worked ok and the reward night credited as normal. The 1 night voucher I have should no longer expire in January.

[Bill]

Appreciate the update @allycat 🙂

[BJ]

Apologies to OP for hijacking this thread to ask another quick Hotels dot com question please. I signed up/in to Hotels dot com and made a couple of booking there for the first time. Does this mean I am already signed up for the loyalty scheme or do I need to do something more? I am a little confused as I keep receiving emails from them encouraging me tovsign up; I thought I had already done so by creating the online account? Thanks.