Things You'll Need:
- Enough points accumulated to start redeeming
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Step 1
There are many different hotel chains that offer rewards programs to help you earn free stays at one of their hotels. The key is to find the one best rewards program that works for you, so you can get your free hotel stay as soon as possible.
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Step 2
Country Inn and Suites rooms are cozy and many have a refrigerator and microwave.First, discover what some of the different rewards programs are. One is the Starwood Preferred Guest program, which includes the hotel brands, Sheraton and W. This is a good program if you like staying at nicer properties such as the W hotels.
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Step 3
Two other great rewards programs are Choice Privileges and Goldpoints Plus. Choice Privileges includes hotels such as Econolodge, Comfort Inn, Clarion Hotels and Quality Inns. Goldpoints Plus is associated with Carlson Hotels Worldwide, such as Country Inn and Suites, Park Inn, Regent Hotels and Resorts, and Radisson.
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Step 4
To decide which one or ones to join, go to each one of the websites (listed in the resources) and browse the hotels. If there are certain locations you always travel to, make sure your destinations have hotels in that rewards program. Or, if there are places you know you plan to visit in the next couple of years, check to see that there are hotels in these locations.
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Step 5
The next part of the decision is how you earn points. If one of them allows you to get a credit card and earn points faster, and this is something you would like to do, this might be the rewards program for you. Or, maybe you get double points for staying at Choice hotels in the winter, and you know you travel a lot in December and January.
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Step 6
Another decision is how fast you earn a free hotel stay. It might take 10 stays to earn a free night at a W or Sheraton, part of Starpoints, whereas you can get a free night with three stays at an Econolodge, part of the Choice Privileges program.
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Step 7
Do you have any other considerations? One would be if you are a member of Triple A or some other group that gets you a discount on hotel rooms. Do the hotels of that rewards program give you discounts with your Triple A card? For instance, generally Econolodge doesn't give a discount for Triple A, but it does give one for AARP.
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Step 1
Understand the following steps pertain to the Goldpoints Plus rewards program. Of course, it logically follows that to earn points towards a free hotel stay, you accumulate points by staying at hotels in the program, that's a given. But, there are many other ways to get points, and ways to get free stays faster that many don't know about.
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Step 2
The first thing to do is to either join online or to register online. This gets you set up in the online program. You may also get bonus points for joining online. There are many benefits to this. One, you will have your email address in the system, and will be sent special point earning offers right to your email address.
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Step 3
Another benefit for joining online is that you can look through the site and find out offers that you would never know existed to earn points for a free hotel stay. For instance, from October of 2007 to March of 2008, the Goldpoints Plus program gave out 5,000 bonus points for staying five total nights at any of the hotels in the program. That's not bad, considering you can get a free hotel stay with as little as 15,000 points.
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Step 4
Keep in mind that you will often get bonus points for booking stays online. You earn 500 extra points with Goldpoints Plus currently for booking online.
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Step 5
A second great way to earn points is to apply for a rewards program credit card. Just by applying for and being approved for the Goldpoints Plus card, you get 30,000 points, which can get you two free hotel stays right off the bat.
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Step 6
Search through the website of the program to find special deals and promotions. Sometimes, there may be certain hotels featured that give you more points per dollar spent, or certain locations may have a special. There may even be a package deal, where you earn more points for flying and staying at the hotel and booking through the rewards program.
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Step 7
There may be endless other ways to earn points, you just need to find out about them. Visit the website often, ask each hotel when you arrive for your stay, and call the program to check on new and exciting ways to earn points.
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Step 8
Reach Elite level status. If you stay often enough during a certain period of time, many hotel rewards programs bump you to Elite status. Generally, this means you'll earn more points each time you stay at a hotel, towards your free hotel stay.
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Step 1
Once you have earned your points, you'll want to redeem them wisely. Many people may not know that certain hotels will cost you less points to get a free night. If you stay at a Radisson in Fresno, California it will cost you less points than if you stay at the Country Inn and Suites in Fresno (15,000 points versus 25,000).
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Step 2
If you have enough points for more than one night, it generally benefits you to stay consecutive nights in one hotel. For example, whereas it costs 15,000 points to stay for one night, it only costs 28,500 points to stay for two nights in a row.
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Step 3
Redeem your points for a stay during off peak times. With Goldpoints Plus, for example, if you stay on a holiday it will cost you more points for each night than if you go during a lull period.
