How to Stay at Hotels for Free
Recently, Kim and I decided to take a break from working and take time to travel. If you don’t MAKE time to go places, you’ll never find the time to go.
Making the time is only one aspect of extended travel. Coming up with the money to travel for an extended period is another story. Luckily, by strategically using credit card perks and reward points, making your travel funds go further is easier than ever!
Typically I try to break vacations down into three categories: transportation, housing, and activities. For this post I’m going to focus on the housing aspect of our trip and how to stay at hotels for free.
Previously, I posted about planning the flight/transportation portion of our 2.5 month trip, you can see the planning that went into that here.
Also check out our updated itinerary here.
Our mega trip has several components, starting with traveling to Michigan.
Two weeks in Michigan
We flew using points on Southwest and using our Companion Pass. The flights were free, having to only pay for the taxes.
For housing, we’ll be staying at my family’s house and cabin in Northern Michigan.
Deck view of my family’s cabin in Northern Michigan
If you can take advantage of housing options from friends and relatives that are free, take them!
Ill be posting about Northern Michigan (an amazing place) soon!
DTW-SEA
From Michigan we fly to Seattle on Southwest (again utilizing points and the Companion Pass). We spend one night in Seattle before flying to Hawaii.
Spring Hill Suites Seattle Airport
For the night in Seattle, we are staying at the SpringHill Suites using the annual free night certificate from the Marriott Rewards Card through Chase Bank. This card gives you a free night at a category 1-4 Marriott hotel once a year. In addition there is a large sign up bonus after completing minimum spending (when I signed up it was 80,000 pts, I used those points previously to stay at the JW Marriott Hotel in San Francisco for free!). I have Gold Status at Marriott, SPG and Hilton hotels from opening the American Express Platinum Card. For this hotel, with gold status, we’ll get free breakfast and potential room upgrades!
SEA-KOA
From Seattle, we leave in the morning and fly to Kona international airport on the big island of Hawaii. We’re flying on Alaska Airways using Avios from the British Airways Visa Signature Card. After searching multiple options, I found a great deal on the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo.
Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo, HI
Hilton offers a special promotion when booking with points to get a free night. After you book 4 nights with all points, the fifth night is free! Hawaii hotels can be very expensive so utilizing points is key for keeping travel costs down. In addition, Hilton allows you to transfer points between accounts with no cost or penalty. This is great for pooling points to use on longer stays, nicer hotels or both! Kim and I were able to pool points gained from our Hilton Honors Citi Cards (this card is no longer available. However, the Hilton Honors Surpass card from American Express offers 75,000 points as a sign on bonus) to book 5 nights using the 5th night free promotion for a total of 135,000 pts. Some other perks I found from this hotel are a daily free round of golf on their 9 hole course as well as complimentary breakfast, helping us save on food costs. There is also free parking, something you should always check for as daily parking fees can add up quickly. UPDATE: because of my good status with Hilton from my platinum Amex card, we were upgraded for all 5 nights to an ocean view room with lanai (balcony)!
Driving to Hilo
Now, Hilo is on the other side of the big island from Kona so we will be renting a car and driving across the island.
Kona to Hilo
Having a car is important on the big island to get around to the parks, hiking and lots of outdoor activities and scenery. We were able to find a rental car for the 6 days for a total of $293 while still being able to drop the car off in Hilo. I could have used some remaining Chase Ultimate Rewards points instead of cash, however I wanted to keep some points in store for other options where I felt I could get the most value out of my points.
Click here to see all of our adventures around the Big Island.
HIL-HNL
After the 5 nights at the Grand Naniloa in Hilo, we take an island hopper flight to Honolulu and stay one night in Waikiki at the Holliday Inn Express.
Holiday Inn Express in Waikiki
Again, we were able to book the hotel using points (35,000) from the point bonus gained (currently 60,000 points) from opening the IHG Rewards Club Select Card. In addition, this card also gives you a free night certificate on each year anniversary of having the card.
HNL-ANK, Cruising to Vancouver
After staying a night in Waikiki, we fly out from Honolulu to Anchorage AK (on British Airways using points again from the British Airways Visa Signature Card). Using www.vacationstogo.com, we were able to track cruise prices and book a week long Alaskan cruise for $650 a person on the Star Princess.
The Star Princess
We could have booked on Holland America for $599 however we decided we liked the itinerary and the ship more with Princess and decided to go that route. After taxes of $180 a person, the total for the cruise came to $820 each. This is by far our biggest expense on our entire trip, but as the cruise encompasses, transportation, housing, food and activities, we felt it was worth it for what we wanted to do and see.
Before getting on the ship, we need to stay one night in Anchorage. Using the IHG free night certificate from the IHG Rewards Select Card I mentioned previously, we were again able to avoid having to pay for the hotel! We’ll be staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Anchorage.
Holiday Inn Express in Anchorage, AK
We’ll be on the Alaskan cruise for a week, leaving from Anchorage and arriving in Vancouver BC. From Vancouver we take the train to Seattle and stay one night at the Holiday Inn Express, booked using IHG points (35,000).
Holiday Inn Express Seattle
Seattle hotels can be very expensive! We were thankful to have enough points to book this as well!
SEA-LAS
Las Vegas Strip
From Seattle we fly to Las Vegas on Southwest with the Companion Pass and points. In Vegas, we are planning to stay with relatives for a night and then off to South Florida to stay with Kim’s family. From there we will head to Cuba and Belize! Check out our itinerary below and stay tuned for further posts on those trips!
Travel path recap (total time 2.5 months!):
Dallas to Michigan flight (two week stay, staying with family: Free)
Detroit to Seattle flight (one night stay, staying at SpringHill Suites by Marriott with annual free night from Marriott Rewards Visa: Free)
Seattle to Kona HI flight (5 nights in Hilo, HI. Staying at Grand Naniloa Hotel for 135,000 Hilton Honors pts from Citi Hilton Honors MasterCard initial bonuses: Free)
Hilo, HI to Honolulu, HI flight (one night stay. Staying at Holiday Inn Express for 35,000 pts from IHG Select Rewards card initial bonus: Free)
Honolulu to Anchorage, AK flight (one night stay. Staying at Holiday Inn Express with annual free night from IHG Select Rewards card: Free)
Cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver (7 nights. Price of cruise: $1,640 for two after taxes)
Train from Vancouver to Seattle.
Staying in Seattle (one night stay. Staying at Holiday Inn Express for 35,000 pts from IHG Select Rewards card initial bonus and point transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards account: Free)
Seattle to Las Vegas flight (two night stay. Staying with family: Free)
Las Vegas to Ft Lauderdale flight (two night stay. Staying with family: Free)
Ft Lauderdale to Havanna, Cuba flight (8 night stay. Airbnb’s are the way to go in Cuba, see our tips and tricks here!)
Havanna to Ft Lauderdale flight (one week stay. Staying with family: Free)
Ft Lauderdale to Belize City, Belize flight (4 night stay. Read this post for how we stayed for free and everything we did!)
Belize City, Belize to Ft Lauderdale flight (5 night stay. Staying with family: Free)
Ft Lauderdale to Detroit flight (2 week stay. Staying with family: Free)
Detroit to Dallas flight (finally home!)
Check out a total cost and itinerary breakdown here.
Credit Cards utilized for benefits and points for hotel stays:
Marriott Rewards Card: Free night certificate
IHG Rewards Select Card: 70,000 points and free night certificate, platinum status from points
Hilton Honors Cards (Kim and I pooled points) comparable card here: 135,000 points
American Express Platinum Card: Gold Status at Marriott, Gold Status at Hilton
See all of our favorite travel rewards cards here!
Final thoughts:
When planing a large trip like this it is extremely helpful to list out the different destinations where you’ll be staying as well as the points and free night certificates you have available at different hotel chains. From there, I recommend checking options at all the hotel chains in each of the different cities to see which hotels cost more points. For example, I was able to use my free IHG certificate at the Anchorage Holiday Inn Express which would have cost 40,000 points otherwise. The Waikiki Holiday Inn Express and Seattle Holiday Inn Express both cost 35,000 points each. Had I used the free night certificate in Hawaii or Seattle, the total amount of points needed to book the other two hotels would have been 5,000 points more! Staying organized and checking all options helps immensely with planning. Organization helps your points and freebies go as far as they can!
Do you have any suggestions for what we should to do in any of the places we’re going? Let us know!
