Hotel Reward Programs: That Free Hotel Stay Gets Less Free

There was a good article in the New York Times this week explaining how the major hotel chains are increasing the points required for a free room stay by as much as 40%!!

Basically it is showing how several of the major hotel chains are increasing the number of points required to redeem for a hotel room across their locations. So for people saving their hotel points for a vacation- it may end up taking them a lot longer than they expected.

The article specifically mentions that Starwood, Hyatt, and Hiltons hotels are doing this. It does not mention Marriott. Way to go Marriott!

This has already happened in the airline industry- it cost me 80,000 Aeroplan miles to get from Canada to Scotland earlier this year when it used to be a lot less.

I don’t understand how large companies think that this is a good practice as the biggest collectors of hotel points are usually the hotel chains’ best and most frequent guests. Everybody understands an increase, but not a huge one as seems to be the case.

My tip for today is to count the points you have and use as soon as needed, because if you wait- your next chance to use them may cost you more.

read more | digg story