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Just a quick heads-up that until 11am tomorrow (14th July 2017), TopCashback is offering a massive 20% cashback on any booking you make with Hotels.com:
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to stack the 20% cashback with Hotels.com’s own Rewards Nights loyalty programme, so to make sure you get the higher cashback rate, DON’T sign into your hotels.com account!
Good deal?
If you want to collect Rewards Nights, the cashback rate is just 7%. Given that Rewards Nights provides an effective rebate of ~9%, you would be getting ~16% back in total, as opposed to 20% if you just stick to the cashback.
I would also argue that the option to convert cashback to Avios with a 5% bonus (or to cash out for various giftcards etc with a 10% bonus) also makes it more attractive.
20% back on any hotel booking simply for clicking through from a cashback site is an excellent offer. More advanced ‘travel hackers’ like to get substantially more back from their stays in Hotel Points etc, but if you’re looking for something simple, quick and that offers a vast range of hotel options, this offer is tough to beat.
Bonus!
Don’t forget that you can currently get £2.50 bonus cashback too (when you spend £10+ with any retailer)
Bottom line
A nice quick and simple way to make a decent saving on any upcoming hotel stays you might still need to book. Just remember that the 20% offer ends at 11am tomorrow.
The fact that you can get a bonus £2.50 by clicking here first, makes it even sweeter!
Hi Joe,
I am struck by the comment “More advanced ‘travel hackers’ like to get substantially more back from their stays in Hotel Points etc,”. Without asking you too reveal all, would you routinely receive upwards of than 30/40% cashback/points equivalent on hotel bookings? Any guidence at all how to begin to work towards this?
Thanks!
Hi Eoin,
Yep – personally, I like to get at least 50% as an average (often more). Fortunately, a lot of it isn’t rocket science really but being flexible definitely helps a lot.
I’m lucky because the vast majority of my stays are discretionary (in terms of destination, accommodation and when I travel), also I’m perfectly happy staying at a Holiday Inn Express etc to rack up Points if it makes sense (as long as the location is good). It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of my stays are short, which also helps.
The key really is to simply be aware of all the various promotions (discounts, bonus points, Best Rate Guarantees, status matches, etc), remember to stack cashback etc on top, and to try to pick the optimal option for each particular stay (within the context of all your future stays and promotion deadlines). Thinking flexibly, not being too much in hock to status etc, and being prepared to push things a bit occasionally all helps too.
So, for example, I almost always end up completing at least one IHG Accelerate promo each quarter (you’re only supposed to have one account of course, but there’s nothing to stop close family members booking a stay for you on their account if they have a better promo – just make sure you’re noted as an additional guest and send the hotel a quick email letting them know who is actually staying).
Then, what I want to do is make sure that I’m staying with IHG to hit the Accelerate targets on stays where IHG is the cheapest/best option rather than on stays when I could be completing a promo with another chain when that other chain has the best/cheapest option.
At the moment, I’m mostly focusing on IHG and Club Carlson (Free Friday promo). Given that IHG has much broader global coverage, I take my Club Carlson stays whenever I can, so long as the price/quality is roughly comparable.
I’m also happy to hotel hop and to mattress run, if I judge the benefits to be worth it.
At a very advanced level it can get a bit like 3d chess with juggling stuff around, but if you’re just looking to get a solid saving/rebate, keeping up to date with what’s on offer and being quite well organised is sufficient.
Ultimately, just be very clear in your own mind about what you want from each particular stay (sometimes you don’t need the ‘best’ value – location, luxury/relaxation can obviously be more important than saving a few quid. You’ve got to factor the context. If I’m travelling by myself and have time, I actually quite like hotel hopping to see different parts of a new city etc. If it’s supposed to be a relaxing/romantic break, that might not be such a good idea…). Finally, be completely mercenary in terms of choosing the best option for your circumstances, but also don’t become obsessed with theoretical valuations and frightened to splurge (Points or cash) occasionally if you can afford it – it’s all about ‘travelling better’ in the end, not merely cheaper.
Hope some of that helps!
Eoin – I’m just about to publish a post giving away some of these very secrets (not that, in fact, they’re “secrets” at all – there’s nothing Joe, Craig, Tom or I do that we don’t tell you all about on this site!). Watch this space!
I just booked a couple of nights and deliberately completed the purchase without logging in to my Welcome Rewards account. Annoyingly, the cashback has posted at the standard 7% rate instead of 20%
It won’t now let me link this booking to my Hotels.com account, which means I might miss out on the Welcome Rewards nights too. The CS line tried to manually link them but wasn’t able to so they’ve escalated it to the Welcome Rewards team for manual credit.
Grrr.