Who Wins in the Battle of the Hotel Loyalty Programs?

I am wedded to Hotels.com

Many of you may realise that I am a big fan of hotels.com. Ever since my extended trip around Asia, where the luxury of my usual hotel chains was out of the question, and I discovered the flexibility to book any hotel I want and still earn rewards, I have been hooked.

I like the one night free in ten that I earn, redeemable against virtually any hotel, from luxury hotels to budget hostels, and I like the excellent customer service I receive on the odd occasion there is an issue with my booking (like the hotel advertised as a hotel and spa but yet it didn’t actually have a spa!).

Should we be getting a divorce?

There is however a downside and that is that you often sacrifice hotel rewards from your chosen hotel chain in favour of a credit towards one free night when booking with hotels.com.

Having just spent a night in a Holiday Inn, this leads me to question just how much a free hotel night is really worth. Is it better to continue to use hotels.com or to book directly with a preferred hotel chain? To get an idea, I am going to compare hotels.com against a few key chains in the UK to determine who wins in the battle of the hotel loyalty programs.

Other things to consider

Now of course, this does overlook the fact that many smaller towns simply do not offer the larger hotel chains and in that situation, it is a no brainer to use hotels.com.

If however, you are likely to be booking a Hilton, Marriott or Holiday Inn, then today’s post aims to determine the most lucrative way to make your booking.

Comparing Hotels.com

There is always a danger with this type of comparison, as much depends on offers available at the time you book, last-minute hotel discounts and other concessions so to keep this as objective as possible, I am going to price all options based on a double room for two without breakfast on the 1^st July.

The comparison aims to identify how much you would pay for ten nights with each hotel chain using a selection of hotels throughout the UK and compares this to the price quoted by hotels.com for the same hotel. It then shows how many rewards you would earn from the respective hotel chain program but beware all three chains quote the earnings rate in dollars so I have used an exchange rate of 1.4495 as per XE Currency Converter.

The rewards earning rate is based on 10 points per $1 spent for each chain and the points earned do not take into account any in hotel spending but I will come back to that!

Marriott Rewards v Hotels.com Bookings

Cost comparison	Hotels.com Price	Marriott Price	Hotels.com Rewards earned	Marriott Rewards earned	Marriott Points Required
Bristol Marriott	£89	£85	One-night credit	1232	30,000
Manchester Victoria and Albert Marriott	£98	£93	One-night credit	1348	35,000
Marriott St Pierre, Chepstow	£87	£83	One-night credit	1203	25,000
York Marriott	£139	£132	One-night credit	1913	35,000
Leeds Marriott	£74	£70	One-night credit	1015	30,000
Glasgow Marriott	£103	£98	One-night credit	1421	30,000
Delahey Marriott, Edinburgh	£119	£113	One-night credit	1638	35,000
London Meditation Autograph	£405	£436	One-night credit	6320	50,000
St Pancras Renaissance	£249	£237	One-night credit	3435	45,000
Heathrow Windsor Marriott	£71	£67	One-night credit	971	30,000
Total	£1434	£1414	One free night equivalent to £143.30	20,496

Booking directly with Marriott does result in slightly lower prices in this example saving you £20 over the cost you would have paid had you booked with hotels.com. However, hotels.com reward you with one voucher equivalent to the average of your ten nights (worth £143.30 in this case) once you have completed your ten stays.

As you can see, this would be sufficient to pay for a free room in the majority of the hotels shown above whilst the reward points earned would be insufficient to book a free night in any hotel.

Winner: Hotels.com

Hilton HHonors v Hotels.com

Cost comparison	Hotels.com Price	Hilton Price	Hotels.com Rewards earned	Hilton Rewards earned	Hilton Points Required
Hilton Bath City	£170	£170	One-night credit	2464	50,000
Doubletree Milton Keynes	£99	£99	One-night credit	1435	30,000
Waldorf London	£189	£189	One-night credit	2740	60,000
Doubletree by Hilton, Manchester Piccadilly	£76	£75	One-night credit	1087	30,000
Hilton Tower Bridge	£157	£157	One-night credit	2276	70,000
Hilton Glasgow	£106	£106	One-night credit	1536	50,000
Hilton York	£151	£151	One-night credit	2189	50,000
Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh	£278	£269	One-night credit	3899	70,000
Hampton Inn Sheffield	£74	£73	One-night credit	1058	10,000
Hilton Deansgate, Manchester	£127	£126	One-night credit	1826	40,000
Total	£1427	£1,415	One free night equivalent to £142.70	20,510

For Hilton, again booking with Hotels.com results in a slightly higher charge with you paying an extra £12 this time for your ten nights. This time you earn a voucher for £142.70 which would be sufficient to redeem for a free night in four of the above hotels on those same dates. On the other hand, with Hilton, you have only earned sufficient rewards to be able to redeem for the Hampton Inn Sheffield (and what a great city it is to visit too!)

Remember also that if your hotels.com voucher isn’t sufficient to cover the entire cost; you can use it as part payment towards a more expensive hotel.

Winner: Hotels.com

IHG (including Holiday Inn and Intercontinental) v Hotels.com

Cost comparison	Hotels.com Price	IHG Price	Hotels.com Rewards earned	IHG Rewards earned	IHG Points Required
Crowne Plaza, London City	£226	£203.40	One-night credit	2948	50,000
Holiday Inn Express London Victoria	£135	£121.50	One-night credit	1761	40,000
Holiday Inn Birmingham	£68	£57	One-night credit	826	15,000
Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre	£71	£63.90	One-night credit	926	20,000
Crowns Plaza Manchester Airport	£104	£93.60	One-night credit	1357	25,000
Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland	£95	£69.30	One-night credit	1005	15,000
Bath Holiday Inn Express	£130	£117	One-night credit	1696	30,000
Hotel Indigo York	£144	£129.60	One-night credit	1879	40,000
Holiday Inn Edinburgh	£119	£107.10	One-night credit	1552	35,000
Holiday inn Oxford	£126	£113.40	One-night credit	1644	30,000
Total	£1,218	£1,076	One free night equivalent to £121.80	15,594

Wow now these results did come as a surprise to me! Booking directly with hotels.com with this chain costs £142 extra than if you were to book directly with the Intercontinental Group. You have however earned a voucher equivalent to £121.80 which would be sufficient to cover the cost of a free night in five of the above hotels on these dates.

Your rewards balance from IHG is sufficient to cover a free hotel night in one of two hotels shown above so this is a little harder to call but once again the crown goes to hotels.com as you can redeem your voucher for a higher grade hotel with them than if you were booking directly with Holiday Inn.

In Hotel spending

In the interests of transparency, there is one crucial difference to be aware of. Hotels.com offers no credit for any spending in any of the hotels whereas spend in a hotel chain booked directly through the loyalty program qualifies for hotel rewards on any such spend.

This comparison would be incomplete without taking this into account so assuming a spend of £50 a night in the hotel (based on two sharing a room) and the same exchange rate, this would generate an addition 7,250 reward points into Hilton, Marriott or IHG.

This means that for Marriott, you would now have sufficient points to be able to book a free night in one hotel (highlighted in turquoise, just in case you wondered why that text was highlighted!!). There would be no change for your redemption options with Hilton but with IHG you would now have three hotels to select from (highlighted).

So what’s the verdict on this marriage?

Well based on these figures, it looks as though my love for hotels.com will continue to endure. The ability to be able to redeem against a number of chains and also the better value rewards really is attractive.
I may however think twice about booking hotels in the IHG chain through hotels.com due to the higher price charged.

Which is your favourite hotel reward program?

How about you? Which do you prefer to use or do you have a better option? Feel free to share in the comments below.

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