How to Get Hotel Points Without Staying at Hotels

There are plenty of ways to earn frequent hotel points without actually staying in hotels. One of the great advantages of frequent hotel points is that you don't need to have enough points for every single night of your vacation. You can redeem points for only a couple of nights and pay for the rest, drastically lowering your cost. Try doing that when redeeming frequent flyer miles!

Instructions

1. Earn points by engaging in other activities at a hotel such as eating in a restaurant, getting a massage or playing a round of golf. These activities usually earn points just the same as paying for a hotel room.

2. Sign up for a credit card that earns frequent hotel points. There are a variety of credits cards on the market that accumulate frequent guest points, either for a specific hotel or for any hotel using a "points per dollar" grid. On credit cards that earn points for a specific hotel only, you typically earn one point per dollar spent on general merchandise and three to five points per dollar spent on nights paid for at that hotel chain. On credit cards that earn points toward any hotel, you generally only earn one point per dollar spent, but you have much wider redemption choices.

3. Watch for points specials put on by your preferred hotel chain. Many chains have bonus periods, during which you accrue bonus points by staying a certain amount of nights. Sometimes you can also obtain points for refinancing a home, joining a movie rental club, subscribing to long distance service or eating out at certain restaurants.

4. Shop through your preferred hotel's website. Many hotels have teamed up with online merchants to offer frequent guest points for shopping at these merchants. If you are going to spend money online anyway, why not patronize a preferred merchant using your frequent hotel guest number? Stores offer anywhere from one to 25 hotel points or more per dollar spent at their websites.

5. Reserve a rental car using your hotel frequent guest number. Most major car rental companies will allow you to earn frequent hotel points provided you give your number at the time of booking.

6. Purchase extra points. If you are only short a few hundred points from getting that free night's stay, most frequent guests programs will allow you to purchase the needed points for a nominal per point cost. The overall cost will be drastically reduced.

Tips & Warnings

• Find out about your preferred hotel chain's partners. For example, hotel points earned in the Marriott Rewards Program can be redeemed at Ritz Carlton hotels.