Hotels Room Rates and Payment Methods (Points) - Trip Related

[carolinarider09]

Because of some "family" issues, we did not get a chance to be travel in 2023 as we have in years past. 

I am in the process of planning an upcoming trip.  Not much has changed (except the rooms seem to cost more but.....) except I was just looking at a room at a Holiday Inn Express. 

Since I have traveled I do have "points" and these points can be used in lieu of "dollars".  So, to get a bigger room (which I could not do using the points but that is another matter) I decided to use some points to keep the room's price lower.

So, I decided use 8,000 points and $99 for a room (was not the bigger room but...).  I was reading the fine print about the charges and saw that.....

If I wanted to use points to offset the price of the room (the 8,000 points I already had) I would, upon accepting the reservation, be required, at that exact time, to purchase additional points (15,000 I think) which was, they say, equivalent to the $99. 

So, in other words, by using the points I have, I would have to purchase more points to book the room.  Those points would, or course, stay with me if I cancelled the reservation but......I would have been forced to invest $99 in new points.

I have never seen that before.  In all the past cases of my "Point" using, you are charged for the cash part of the reservation when you check in.  (Also at that time the points are taken from your account)

Is this new or was I just not well informed about how things work in the "Hotel" industry and using "Points". 

[F6Dave]

That's interesting, but not surprising. I was talking to the owner of a Best Western and he told me that when he rents a room for points, Best Western only reimburses about $35, to cover cleaning and breakfast I guess. He's only reimbursed the full amount if his hotel is over 90% occupied on that night.

Over the winter that chain had a deal that if you stayed two nights, you earned a $100 gift certificate. I had one of those and was checking in at another location and noticed that it took the desk clerk a long time to credit me the $100. I was curious about the process (I write financial software) and she said the certificates are handled by a third party, so she had to login to another website and transfer the $100 to the hotel's account, then credit my room bill with the $100.  If their rate had been less than $100, it would have been even more complicated to partially debit my certificate. There's more to the hotel points game than I realized.

[John Schmidt]

I found all that hotel points business to be a PITA. It's somewhat like having a credit card with all kinds of perks. Nancy has one with Chase and loves all the extras and was stunned when I told her she's already paying for it with her high interest account...17% with a FICO in the 800+ range. She usually pays the balance each month but won't this month after 6 seeks in Florida. She was further surprised with the interest rate I pay on two different cards with two different credit unions...one at 6% the other one point higher. None of my cards have any perks, don't need them. I also have an "account" with three different hotel chains but have no perks...I like it that way, no muss...no fuss!

[cookiedough]

never traveled enough in my  life to earn any points.  All I know is getting nearly impossible to get a basic hotel room for 99 per night anymore, the few times we have tried finding a chain hotel.

One and only LAST time I will EVER pay was near 300 per night in Washington DC a fancy hotel, but did not even have a swimming pool...   

[Jess from VA]

My longstanding credit union credit card began giving me points (I never asked or signed up for).  I've only missed paying in full each month once in 20 years (just forgot and payment was a couple days late).

The only thing I ever use those points for is reducing my balance due at the end of the month... but it's never many points and never more than 20-25 dollars at a time.  My point balance is large. 

I must delete 5 emails a month asking if I want to sign up for some credit card with all these bells and whistles I don't need or want (or trust). 

[carolinarider09]

Well the points thing never really mattered to me until after I retired.  We traveled a lot (well for us) in 2021 and 2022, not much at all in 2023 (family health issue). 

My daughter worked at a Hampton Inn for several years and, because I was doing some traveling for work, I did join two of the Hotel "groups".   One was Hilton Honors and the the other was with Holiday Inn.

I did not use points very much unless the price of the hotel I wanted to say at was more than I wanted to really pay (and yes I know I could have probably found a less expensive hotel in the area, but....). 

But, with the COVID thing and its effect on travel and the fact that we were traveling more, I got up to Diamond class at Hilton and had almost 200,000 points.  I was also informed that as of March 31, 2024 (since I only had one Hilton Honors stay in 2023), my status would be "downgraded" to Silver.  Which is what I usually had unit 2022.   

Anyway, the reason for the post was that I don't remember ever having to buy points to use points for a room in the past and wanted to make sure I was not misreading the "data".

[F6Dave]

Anyway, the reason for the post was that I don't remember ever having to buy points to use points for a room in the past and wanted to make sure I was not misreading the "data".

That does seem odd, but I just looked at the IHG website and they disclose it up front: 'If you’re booking with Points & Cash, buy the points you need. If you’re using all points, skip to the next step.'

Maybe their reservation system can't split the payment. Dollars and points might be like paying with dollars and Euros, and some desk clerks might find that tricky.

As for those points, merchants pay about 3% to process credit card transactions, and hotel franchisees pay even more when you rent a room. Since those fees are built into prices, why not get some money back? Many credit cards return as much as 2% in cash, and hotels and airlines have generous rewards programs.

I don't travel that much, but 3 of my last 4 rooms were free, and the other one cost me less than $70. That offsets some of the inflated prices I paid on a ride last summer!