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If you want to supercharge your points balance, it’s a good idea to stay with the hotel chain offering the most lucrative promotion. These are the main chain-wide promotions available in March 2021.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott’s promotion will run until April 27, 2021. Registration is required before April 13th (click here).

The promotion is pretty simple. Members can earn:

• Double base points (i.e. an additional 10 points per US dollar spent pre-tax)
• Double elite night credit

The most important fine print is:

1. 1. Stays must be 2+ nights in length
   2. Only PAID stays will qualify (stays combining award nights + a paid night are supposed to qualify if booked as a single reservation, but at the moment they are not)
      

Worth It?

The double point element provides an additional 7-8% of rebate on your pre-tax spend. But the main attraction is the double elite night credit, which can help you quickly earn or renew your Platinum or Titanium status.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt’s promotion will run until June 15, 2021. Registration is required before May 15th (click here).

Members can earn:

• 2,000 bonus points every second night (nights do NOT need to be consecutive)
• After ten nights, a free night certificate valid for 180 days at any Category 1-4 hotel (Cat. 4 = 15,000 points)

Worth It?

The effective 1,000 bonus points per night works out to a rebate of $15+. This is great for cheap stays (and even better for award stays, since they attract the bonus as well), but clearly not fantastic for expensive stays.

In normal times, the free night certificate would be quite valuable, but ongoing travel restrictions make it harder to extract maximum value.

Hilton Honors

Hilton’s promotion will run until May 2, 2021. Registration is required (click here).

Members can earn:

• 2,000 bonus points per stay
• After every five nights, 5,000 additional bonus points

Worth It?

2,000 bonus points per stay works out to $8-10. If you make it to exactly 5, 10, 15, etc. nights you’d earn an additional $4-5 per night.  This isn’t very good! But if you only ever stay one night at a time at cheaper hotels (or when using points on award stays), then this promotion is ok.

IHG Rewards

IHG’s promotion will run until March 31, 2021. Registration is required (click here).

Members can earn 2,000 bonus points after every second night (these are Elite Qualifying Points)

The most important fine print is:

1. Stays can be of any length (despite the confusing reference to 2+ night stays)
   
2. Only PAID stays costing more then $30 per night will qualify
   

Worth It?

The effective 1,000 bonus points per night works out to a rebate of $5. This is awful!  However, since these points count for elite status, you will receive additional value from using them to (re)qualify for IHG elite status.

Radisson Rewards

Radisson’s promotion will run until April 30, 2021. Registration is required (click here).

The promotion is pretty simple. Members can earn double base points (i.e. an additional 20 points per US dollar spent pre-tax)

Worth It?

The double point element provides an additional 7-8% of rebate on your pre-tax spend. It does feel, however, that Radisson has stopped making much of an effort in recent years, and this promotion is no exception…

Bottom line

I suspect (and certainly hope!) that we will see more generous promotions once travel begins to resume more widely.

Which hotel programme do you think is offering the best promotion?