Should I use cash, points, miles, a free night award or a credit card benefit to book your hotel?

A friend of mine recently hugged the points and lifestyle of thousands. Lately, we have spent some fun afternoons discussing strategies to win and use points and miles. During one of our recent sessions, he asked an intelligent question:

“When I plan a trip, how do I decide if you should pay in cash, use points, a free night award or a credit card benefit for a hotel stay?”

I love that question because thinking about your preferences will now help you address this enigma more effectively every time you plan a trip.

It also helps to continuously execute your options so that you do not forget a lucrative possibility. This is especially important as you build points balances in multiple programs and increase your credit card portfolio with all kinds of added value benefits.

Step 1: Consider your hotel options

Start at the beginning. You want to book a hotel and, of course, make the best decision on how to pay it.

Look at your target destination and write a list of places to stay. Barrier the main loyalty programs for options: Hilton honors, IHG A reward, Marriott Bonvoy and Hyatt world.

If you are a budget traveler, you can pay to verify Best Western Rewards, Privileges of choice and Wyndham rewards. If you are a luxury traveler, look Accor live unlimited -With high -end brands such as Raffles, Banyan Tree, Fairmont and Saba.

Using this process for a trip to Paris, for example, I would see that all the programs mentioned above have hotels in the city of Luz. My main hotels are World of Hyatt, Marriott and IHG, and I feel like a luxury vacation, so my brief list of hotels could be seen like this:

• Park Hyatt Paris-Singe or Hotel Du Louvre (World of Hyatt)
• Berri Champs-Asees hotel, a luxury, Paris or Prince de Galles, a luxury collection hotel, Paris (Marriott Bonvoy)
• Intercontinental Paris – Le Grand or Kimpton St Honoe Paris (IHG One Rewards)

Follow that with a brief list of hotels outside the loyalty programs in which I would pay in cash or use a credit card such as the Capital One Venture Rewards CED CED Creditthat allows you to use your miles to pay any encoded declaration charge as a travel expense. (The ratio is 1 cent for capital a mile).

For my purposes, I would add Shangri-La Paris and Hotel de Crillon, a pink stick hotel to the list of hotels.

When your hotel list is complete, choose two or three options that you prefer and write down the cash prices and points for your dates. Continuing with the issue of Paris, I would go for the Park Hyatt Paris-VandemeThe Prince of Galles or the Kimpton St Honoe Paris.

Step 2: Check cash balances, points and miles, in addition to credit card prizes and benefits

Next, consider your cash and dot balances for the programs of your target hotels. We will talk about when To use cash or points in a second. However, let’s list what you have first available.

Is any of these hotels loyalty programs a fourth or fifth free night in a stage of points? Read these stories to learn how you can get a free night when paying with points:

When completing this exercise, it also helps if you know what each point is worth. If you still do not have a personal calculation, see the TPG monthly loyalty currency Valuations For the main banks, airlines and hotels programs.

Always compare the hotel price compared to points price. If the cash worth Of the points required for a night stay is less than the price in cash, it is a good redemption.

Step 3: Take the inventory of any free night award

Now, place free night awards or certificates, like these, at the proverbial table:

It is easy to forget all your redemption instruments. Most free night certificates expire, so be sure to plan to use them so that they are not wasted. A good general rule is to reserve a hotel stay with its free night certificate as soon as it wins so that it does not risk letting it expire. You can book the stay for a future date, but try not to reserve it too close to your expiration date. That way, if your plans change, you still have time to reserve and use the certificate elsewhere before you expire.

Here are some tips on When to exchange free night certificates instead of hotel points. I will always use my certificates before immersing myself in my dot balance.

Step 4: What benefits from the credit card do you have?

It is time to place any credit card benefit in the equation. Is any benefit to pay in cash more attractive to this particular stay?

Think about the cards in your wallet. Maintaining certain credit cards can confer the automatic elite state, which can net benefits such as courtesy and late payment breakfast.

Some premium cards offer even more lucrative benefits. Has American Express Platinum Card®? If so, consider using your annual Prepaago Hotel Credit of $ 200 When reserving a property that is part of The hotel collection. Or reserve through American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts Programthat confers the following benefits, regardless of the duration of your stay:

• Update of the room upon arrival, when available on check-in (the properties can exclude some room types, and some can only give it a room with a better view)
• Daily breakfast for two people
• Guaranteed 4 pm.
• Check-in at noon, when available
• Courtesy Wi-Fi (when a property includes Wi-Fi in a mandatory resort rate, you will receive a daily loan equal to the cost of Wi-Fi)
• Experience credit (experience must be valued at $ 100 or more and generally consists of a property, a meter loan or spa)

It is worth looking at all your options because you will sometimes find sweet offers. Here is an example of the Fine Hotels + Resorts program. In addition to the above benefits, certain stays are also eligible for a free third night (included in the average night rate shown in screen capture below).

Many premium credit cards offer benefits of the hotel, so remember to check your wallet and check what you have access before booking a stay at the hotel.

Step 5: Consider the travel portal of your credit card for cash or flexible points or reserve miles

Of course, you can simply reserve a hotel through your credit card portal, such as the Chase Travel℠ Portal or the Capital One Travel Portal and pay with flexible or cash miles (in this case, Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Capital a milerespectively).

However, there are disadvantages to use these reserve methods, and I prefer to reserve directly with the hotel program. My reasoning is double.

1. Often, it is a better value to transfer my chase ultimate rewards, for example, to World of Hyatt and book there instead of paying in cash or using my final rewards points for a hotel that reserves through the portal of Chase.

2. If a problem with your hotel arises, I find it much easier to get help if I reserve directly with the hotel chain instead of an online travel agency, what are these credit card travel portals.

Make your choice: effective, points, miles, certificates or credit card benefits

Once you have surveyed all the options and have gathered the data, you can decide how to reserve and pay the hotel.

When to pay in cash

The easiest place to start is to decide if you have an appetite payable in the first place. For example, at the beginning of the year, I rarely want to pay in cash for a hotel stay because the end of the previous year is usually a cash drainage with vacation purchases, life insurance payments and annual installments of the Association of Owners of housing. You can also have a specific time of the year in which it is more advantageous to pay with points, miles or prizes instead of cash.

Consider paying effective in these circumstances too:

• When staying in a hotel that is not part of a loyalty program and can not be reserved through Chase Travel, Capital One Travel or other portal for which you can use its flexible points or miles or pay in cash to gain points or miles .
• When you are willing to give up the credit and elite night benefits and, instead, accumulate points or miles through a reserves portal such as Aadvantage Hotels.
• When booking more than one room on a trip for family or friends. Reserve your room in cash to win more points or miles while using your points or miles to pay the other rooms.

When to pay in cash through a credit card portal

• When you have a credit card benefit that will save money, such as the annual credit of $ 200, $ 200 on the platinum card for American Express, or you can book through a program like Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts for advantages as breakfast Free, room updates on availability, late box and spa or food and beverage credits.
• When there is a lucrative promotion that can only take advantage of the cash.

When to pay with points or miles

• When you want to keep cash, it doesn’t matter if you are getting the best value. What is more important for you now is to go to the trip without spending dollars.
• When points or miles are an incredible value. In other words, when the value of the points or miles you will use is much lower than the cash price.

Let’s look at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vinde as an example of a redemption of Good Points. I checked cash and points prices for a one -night stay on December 22, 2025. The member’s cash rate was $ 1,548, while only taking 40,000 points book the same room.

TPG February 2025 Valuations PEG World of Hyatt points to 1.7 cents each. That means that 40,000 points are valued at $ 680 (40,000 times 1.7 is equal to 68,000; divides 68,000 per 100 to obtain 680).

When to use a free night award or certificate

Free night certificates can represent a fantastic value or be an albatros that always lets expire before using. If you are constantly busy and have trouble tracking small details in your personal life, free certificates may not be the right points or miles of miles to pursue.

However, if used for maximum value, a free certificate can quickly become your favorite reserve method. Strive to use a free night award:

• When reserves a hotel that is at the top limit of the certificate (for the maximum value)

End

What must be removed from this discussion is that, depending on their circumstances, there is no mistaken way to book a hotel. However, some methods will be more profitable or a better value than others. But sometimes, obtaining the best value of your points or miles simply implies using them for the trip you want on the dates you need. Consider all your reserve options and use the best vehicle for each unique situation. Here is a future full of many hotel awards!