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🏨 My favorite hotel points trick

Plus, I'm giving away more of my Hyatt awards to you!

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 12 seconds

🇪🇸 Thanks to a new digital nomad program, remote workers have a chance to move to Spain’s Ambroz Valley with up to €15,000 in grants. Located in Extremadura, the valley is just a few hours from Madrid and Portugal. Pretty cool, huh? Read more about it here.

Good morning from the foothills of Wuzhi Mountain in central Hainan!

I am having a great time here in China, but I’ve got some good treats for you today, so let’s jump in:

🏨 Buy IHG points with a 100% bonus

IHG is back with one of their best deals - buying points with a 100% bonus (as little as 0.5 cents per point).

I know, I know, IHG comes out with a sale like this a few times every year, and I always tell you about how it’s a great deal.

But I want to hone in on a specific aspect of this deal that I maybe don’t give enough attention to: combining this 100% points bonus with the hotel’s co-branded credit card.

A screenshot of the landing page for IHG's points sale

More specifically, this card allows you to get every fourth night free when using points.

So, when you buy points like this and effectively pay cash for hotels, this perk increases the value of your purchase by 33%.

In other words, when you have that card and buy IHG points with a 100% bonus, you can almost GUARANTEE that you will save money.

Sometimes, you’ll even save a LOT of money.

For example, next week, I’ll be heading to Hong Kong, where hotel rates are through the roof.

Even this Holiday Inn costs almost $200 per night. 🤮

A screenshot of a search in Hong Kong showing a Holiday Inn for $194 per night

I’m in Hong Kong for four nights, and this four-night stay would run me a cool $776… not great for a Holiday Inn…

But if we run an award search for a 4-night stay here, we see that we can book the same hotel on the same nights for just 16,500 points per night, or a total of 66,000 IHG points, IF we have the co-branded card offering every fourth night free.

A screenshot showing the same hotel as before, but with a points cost of 16,500 per night

With the current points sale, we can simply buy 66,000 IHG points for $330, which is less than HALF the cost of paying cash for the same hotel on the same nights.

An example of a purchase of 66,000 IHG points for $330

That’s why I think that regardless of what the welcome offer is, having this co-branded card and buying points when IHG has sales like this is one of the best hotel tricks in the business.

I love using miles and points, but I also have a cash budget to put toward hotels.

Spending that budget on IHG points to use this perk and save money on normal hotel rates is something I am doing ALL the time.

So here’s the bottom line:

Wherever your travels take you, there will be an IHG hotel there.

I highly recommend you take a look at this epic combination to see if it applies to any of your upcoming trips.

This current sale is only around until October 5th, so don’t miss out!

And now, a quick word from today’s sponsor:

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Plus, Daily Drop readers can take 55% off an Incogni plan today by using the code DAILYDROP55.

Please support our sponsors!

🎁 I’m giving away more Hyatt awards (round 3)

Every few months, I give away my World of Hyatt Guest of Honor awards to Daily Drop readers like you.

A screenshot from my Hyatt account showing the page to gift a Guest of Honor award

I was pleased to see that the people who I gave the awards to used them (except for one of you 🤨) and had some really awesome experiences.

Given how many nights I spend at Hyatt, I’ve been continuing to rack up more of these awards from Milestone Rewards and would like to continue giving them to you.

A screenshot from my Hyatt account showing the rewards I earned from reaching 60 and 70 nights this year

To be clear, I also benefit from this…

As a reminder, when you gift a Guest of Honor award to someone, YOU (the gift-er) will get one elite night credit when THEY (the gift-ee) use said award.

Email from Hyatt explaining that a DD reader used my Guest of Honor Award

Thanks again, Lauren 😊

All you need to do is fill out this quick poll and tell me a little more about why you’d like a Guest of Honor award:

Would you like a free Hyatt Guest of Honor Award?

Tell me about your trip and when/where it's happening

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

😅 Travel meme

If you’ve “forgotten” how to read your work emails while traveling, I hope you still know how to read your favorite travel newsletter at least 😉

There are a couple of Daily Drop team members who looooove the UK, and it’s no surprise that one of them is Megan 😅

This week, she’s providing us with a redemption spotlight to the UK where she covers best redemption spots for flights and hotels, all things taxes and fees, and a few other interesting tidbits!

Daily Drop Podcast

Check it out here, or follow along on YouTube.

That’s all for today, folks!

In my opinion, this IHG deal is one of the best ways to combine a simple credit card perk with cash to purchase steeply discounted hotels anywhere in the world.

But what do you think about it?

Have you ever purchased IHG points?

Tell me more!

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

See y’all tomorrow,

Mike Dodge
Head Writer, Daily Drop

18.8983° N, 109.7042° E