I'm sure you've heard the famous quote by Audrey Hepburn " Paris is always a good idea." It's an expensive place to travel to, so making it happen for some requires a lot of budgeting and saving. Since I am fashion and travel obsessed, I plan to visit France in the near future!
Today's article is a guest post is about how you can use hotel points to score a free stay. I am especially happy to share the blog of a very dear friend of mine. He is actually like my brother. I have known him and his siblings since I was 10 years old. I grew up as an only child in Vancouver BC. Let's just say Carey and his two brothers made sure I did not miss out on the "sibling experience", ha!
This past January Carey retired, and he and his wife Susan are traveling the world indefinitely. I am just a bit jello! Anyway if you get a chance , check out his blog Our Nomadic Experience. Here you will find fabulous tips on how to travel abroad on a budget. Carey definitely has it down to a science!
How I Got Five Free Nights in Paris
How would you like to stay five nights in Paris at four and five
star hotels for free like I did? It was quite easy, I used free hotel reward
nights and points I got for signing up for a couple of hotel sponsored credit
cards. I have made collecting lots of airline and hotel points a hobby and in
one year collected 1.3 million points. Look at my previous post http://ournomadicexperience.com/over-million-hotel-airline-points-year/ on
how I did this.
Two Nights Park Hyatt Vendôme
According to the Hyatt website, the Park Hyatt Vendôme is one of
the most luxurious 5 star hotels in Paris. I believe it! Situated steps away
from the Paris Opera, high end jewelers like Cartier, Tiffany’s, Piaget and the
flagship store of Galeries Lafayette (a high-end French Department Store). It is just a short walk from the Louvre and D’Orsay
museums. It is the perfect spot to enjoy Paris!
Park Hyatt Vendôme – our room is
second floor, second room from the right
Enjoying the view from our room
Picture of our room from Hyatt website
Although we do not spend a lot of money on fashion and jewelry,
it was fun to walk around and window-shop at all the high-end stores where you
can spend thousands of dollars for a dress and tens of thousands of dollars for
jewelry.
We did find one place that we loved and that was within our budget –
the Lindt Chocolate Shop! It was huge and they gave out a free sample when you
walked in the door. We did also make a skincare purchase at the Galeries
Lafayette – a high-end department store. This place is huge as well taking up
three buildings.
Cartier jewelers right across the street
Galeries Lafayette – the center of one of
the three buildings that make up this high fashion department store
OK, so we did a little shopping!
Lindt Chocolate Shop – Susan is in heaven
Now here is the great part, we paid nothing for our stay! I
signed up for a Hyatt Visa card that offers two free nights anywhere in the
world at any category hotel when you spend $1000 in the first three months of
opening the card. These system wide free nights are very rare and I make sure
to spend them wisely.
I could have used these free nights to stay at the Hyatt
Place in Birmingham, AL at a value of $90 per night. Instead, I used the points
at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme for a value of $1640 per night. Even though it
was a great location and a great hotel room, we would have never paid that much
for a hotel room (nor could we afford to!)
Three Nights at Holiday Inn Paris Opera
After our two nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome, we moved to the
Holiday Inn Paris Opera, about three quarters of a mile away. It was about as
close to the Opera and shopping as the Park Hyatt and just a little farther
away from the museums. The neighborhood was still very nice and very classical
Parisian, but not quite as high end of a neighborhood as the Park Hyatt.
Our upgraded queen bed
room with balcony (Photo from IHG website)
View off of our fourth-floor
balcony at the Holiday Inn Paris Opera
We used our Holiday Inn points for two of the nights and our
annual free night from having an IHG MasterCard, so again, it was free! When I
signed up for the IHG MasterCard I was awarded 70,000 points after meeting the
spending requirement. The IHG card also gives a free night on the anniversary
of card ownership worth up to 35,000 points. The Holiday Inn Paris Opera goes
for 35,000 points per night so we were all set just with the points we got in
bonuses for signing up for the credit card.
As an added surprise, we were
upgraded to a Queen Executive Suite for being a Platinum Elite Status member
(which you get from having the IHG MasterCard.) We happened to be in Paris
during the Eurocup soccer tournament, so hotel rates were at one of their
highest levels - $300 per night.
$4180 Worth of Hotel Rooms for “Free”
If we had paid market rates for our five nights in Paris, it
would have cost us $4180 USD. Instead, our stay cost us nothing except signing
up for a Hyatt VISA card and an IHG MasterCard and using those points wisely.
Most of our accommodations during our nomadic travels around the world are
longer term in modest Airbnbs and the like, but it is nice to spend some of our
points every occasionally and enjoy some low cost or free luxury hotel rooms
for a few nights.
This was am amazing post and I'm so grateful Carey allowed me to share it here!
How about you, have you had any free extended stays using hotel points ? I think I need to get busy and sign up for some of these cards! I do a fair amount of travel, and I think I'm missing out!
Thank you for taking time to stop by , I hope your day is wonderful!
Until next time,
XO VALERIE
This was am amazing post and I'm so grateful Carey allowed me to share it here!
How about you, have you had any free extended stays using hotel points ? I think I need to get busy and sign up for some of these cards! I do a fair amount of travel, and I think I'm missing out!
Thank you for taking time to stop by , I hope your day is wonderful!
Until next time,
XO VALERIE
Pin it for Later:
Thanks for posting on your blog. Glad you survived the "sibling experience" with my brothers and I growing up. Hopefully it didn't take too much therapy to get over all the teasing and stuff, ha ha! Love you a bunch!
ReplyDeleteHey Carey .glad to do it, hopefully it helped you get some traffic! Ha...you guys made it fun for sure! Take care...love to you and Susie, miss you guys!
DeleteWow – this points hacking is seriously impressive. I've never been great about being loyal to any hotel brand long enough to earn free nights, but this is sorta convincing me!
ReplyDeleteI know right..ha I need to get in the points hacking game!! I am the same as you, always stay at diff ones! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteVAlerie
It looks like I need to pay more attention to how I use my points. This was very enlightening !
ReplyDeleteAh yes me too!! Thanks for stopping by , have a great week and have fun with the students...he he!
DeleteSo smart. Good tips!
ReplyDeleteYes he is very smart....ha I need to figure out this point system! Thanks for coming by!
DeleteWow, you motivated me ! We are hoping to go to Paris in the spring so I love this and am going to be taking your lead. You stayed in some wonderful places.
ReplyDeleteWow Gracie...luck you! I am hoping to do Europe this spring or summer as well! Thank you for stopping here!
DeleteThis is AWESOME!! I've yet to go to Paris, but I'm bookmarking this for when I finally book my flight...your trip looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteComing Up Roses
Thank you Erica...Im glad you liked it, have a great day...I still need to get on your site and book a consulting time for my branding statement!
DeleteI've been getting better at collecting free flights for airplane miles but I actually don't use a credit card. That's my plan for 2017 and to see how I can get more travel rewards as I transition jobs. Thanks for being so transparent!
ReplyDeleteI m not so good at it, I never use the same airline or hotel..loyalty really does pay off..such good info here, have a great day!
DeleteAbsolutely amazing! My major credit card that I use is a Capital One Venture and I use it the most so I can round up the airline miles - I've gotten so many already, and I can't wait to stay places for free! Amazing!
ReplyDeleteI saw that card advertised, I need to apply for one! Have a Great day AD!!xo
DeleteWow - this is inspiring! Thank you for sharing how they did this! Great photos as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Marlynn, have a great day!
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