If you want a subsidized holiday then you have to put in the legwork. I recently scored a suite in New York City’s Soho for one night valued at $953 for free, but it took three months of preparation to get to that room.
I’ve previously written about how I prefer hotels over AirBnBs and one of the reasons I provided was the opportunity to earn loyalty points. Points from stays, credit cards, or other special offers allow me to travel for a lower cost at elevated enjoyment. While a free night may only bring down the average price per night by a little bit over the course of a year, it can be harnessed as a significant perk if redeemed at a high-value location.
That’s exactly what I did in the first three months of 2024. I had trips planned to Florida and Kansas for February and March respectively and booked hotels with a flexible cancellation policy. A week before I was about to set off to Florida, Best Western launched a campaign that offered a free night at any room on any property offering a points redemption rate in North America if a member stayed two nights at any of their properties in the continent.
I took on the challenge and stayed one night at a Best Western in Florida for $113 and one night at a SureStay Inn in Kansas for $114. This satisfied the offer requirement and a free night gift certificate was sent to my email within 48 hours of completing the second stay.
I only had four months to use the voucher, so I looked for an upcoming trip of mine that could benefit from this free night. I had a trip planned to Alaska and Yukon, but neither of those locations had available rooms at Best Western properties I stayed in. The chain’s hotel locations didn’t work for my Illinois, Texas, Germany, or Luxembourg trips either. But I did have a trip to New York City coming up in May.
Initially, I wasn’t sure if there were even award availabilities this close to the travel date in Manhattan, but I tried my luck anyways. Of the three Best Western properties in Manhattan, the newly-renovated Best Western Plus in Soho still had 70,000-point rooms available, roughly commensurate with $700-$1,000 a night the website showed.
The most expensive room I could get on points was a one queen bed suite on a high floor worth $953 after taxes per night. I tried my luck with the voucher code and it worked! I ended up spending just $227 for three nights in hotels, one each in Florida, Kansas, and New York worth a total of $1,180. This represented 80.2% off the total rate of the three nights.
To top it all off, Best Western offered an extra 2,000 points for each night I stayed spending at least 5,000 points for the redemption. Since the night in Soho cost 70,000 and the voucher knocked 70,000 points off the room price, I received a bonus 2,000 points on top of the standard 500 welcome points for Diamond Select members. In addition to a free night, I also received 2,500 points in total, worth about $25.
The other night for the three-day, two-nights trip to the Big Apple was at a Hilton in New Jersey that I redeemed for 30,000 Hilton Honours points. I needed a car for that part of the trip, so I redeemed a free rental day voucher for a luxury $130,000 BMW X7 from National Car Rental after completing five qualifying rentals as a top-tier Emerald Club Executive Elite member earlier that year. I needed the car to get to places like Staten Island.
I only had to pay $440 for the flights, petrol, museum admission, and used up the remaining value on two MetroCards I had saved up from previous trips. I brought my own sandwiches for the trip and enjoyed the included hotel breakfast to save on food.
