How to Stack Points and Miles with Hotels.com
As a budget travel hacker, I consider Hotels.com as one of the easiest brands to earn more points and miles on your hotel purchase. With multiple ways to stack points and miles with Hotels.com, it’s worth doing even if you are new to travel hacking.
Hotels.com is a great choice for hotel free agents, people wanting to earn more on their hotel stays, or those simply interested in the perks that come with Hotels.com stays. I’ve been using Hotels.com for over 5 years, and I’ve never been disappointed with their options worldwide.
Here’s exactly how you can earn more points and miles on your Hotels.com bookings with the Hotels.com stack:
First, What Is Stacking?
Stacking is a travel hacking technique used to maximize your earnings (like points and miles or rewards) and/or decrease your spending by intentionally combining offers. This can be in the form of shopping portals, direct card cash-back offers, promotional codes, product discounts, or other offers that bring your cost down and increase your points and miles earnings.
More simply, stacking is like double-dipping (or triple-dipping!) on offers for perks and rewards. A simple example is utilizing a shopping portal when shopping online to double-dip: earning rewards on your credit card and earning rewards through the online shopping portal.
Hotels.com Rewards Basics
The Hotels.com Rewards program is simple but that’s not a bad thing! For every night you book through Hotels.com you earn a stamp. When you accumulate ten stamps you receive an offer for a free night.
The value of the free night is the average of the costs of your paid nights. So, if the average of your ten stays comes out to $180/night (not including taxes or fees), your free reward night will have a value of $180. Easy peasy!
If you want to cash in your free night at a more expensive per-night hotel, you can! The value of your reward night ($180 in our example) will be credited toward the purchase and you simply pay the difference.
Hotels.com Rewards stamps do expire if your account is inactive for more than a year. If you use Hotels.com at least once a year, your stamps won’t expire. It’s easy to use Hotels.com at least once a year, especially when using this travel hack stack for unique boutique hotels on our travels.
Why Stack With Hotels.com?
Hotels.com has a multi-tier stack that is easy to implement, even for people new to travel hacking. It’s simple, doesn’t require a lot of work or time, and offers a big return on the investment in earning points, miles, and rewards.
Travel Hack Stack: Get a Hotels.com Account
First, if you don’t have a Hotel.com account, sign up! It’s fast and free. Then simply log in to search for hotels wherever you’re traveling.
You can enter your travel details like dates, destination, and how many people are traveling, and Hotels.com will show you the best options for your unique trip. After each stay, your nights accumulate towards your free reward night.
Travel Hack Stack Step 1: Purchase A Hotels.com Gift Card
Use your highest earning points card to purchase a Hotels.com gift card at a grocery or office supply store. This could be:
- The American Express Gold Card for 4x points at grocery stores.
- A Chase Ink Cash Card for 5x points at office supply stores.
- The Citi Premier Card for 3x points at gas stations and grocery stores.
Budget Travel Tip: I use Travel Freely to manage all of my travel card offers. It shows all the best card offers so I always know I’m getting the most rewards possible.
Example
I could take my American Express Gold Card to my local grocery store to purchase a $500 Hotels.com gift card that I need for an upcoming travel purchase.
I now have spent $500 and earned:
- 2,000 American Express points
Travel Hack Stack Step 2: Use your gift card in a shopping portal to gain points and miles
Now you have your Hotels.com gift card, log into a shopping portal to double-dip and earn more points and miles on your purchase. You can find shopping portals at Cashback Monitor.
I like to earn with Rakuten or the American Airlines eShopping portals but you can choose any site listed that you like to earn points with.
Example
I could take my $500 gift card and go through the American Airlines shopping portal to earn 2 miles per dollar spent with their shopping portal.
I now have spent $500 and earned:
- 2,000 American Express points
- 1,000 American Airlines miles
Travel Hack Stack Step 3: Earn With The Hotels.com Reward Program
Hotels.com has a pretty robust rewards program that includes steep discounts on room rates. Use your Hotels.com gift card and book at Hotels.com (through your shopping portal) and take advantage of your savings.
I now have spent $500 and earned:
- 2,000 American Express points
- 1,000 American Airlines miles
- Stamps based on your spend with Hotels.com towards a free night
With just a few easy steps you’ve gotten a good deal on a room for your trip, gained thousands of miles and points, and are on your way to a credit for a free night! That is what budget travel hacking is all about!
Bonus Budget Travel Tips: How To Stack More Points and Miles
The simple three-part stack can be taken to more advanced levels with these budget travel tips:
- Check your credit card offers for Hotels.com offers. These can come up from time to time, mostly on Chase and Citi merchant offers. You can use a portion of your Hotels.com purchase to max out this benefit. So let’s say your hotel total is $600. If you have a “Spend $300 and earn $50 back” you could spend $300 with your best-earning travel card for $50 back and then spend the remaining $300 with the gift card strategy above.
- Check SimplyMiles for offers. From time to time you’ll find targeted offers on SimplyMiles for Hotels.com. You’ll need to use a Mastercard to access these offers, but they can stack with the shopping portal as long as the criteria of both are met.
Final Thoughts On The Stack Travel Hack
Stacking points and miles with Hotels.com is a great way to earn points and miles through easy-to-implement stacking techniques. Use the three-step strategy to increase your earnings on your hotel stays.
The Hotels.com stack is one of my go-to techniques when it comes to traveling on a budget. Now that you know how you can earn more points and miles on your Hotels.com bookings with the Hotels.com stack, I’d love to share more budget travel hacks like this with you when you join my budget travel newsletter!
Explore on.
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