Greetings Community Southwest:
I just wanted share as a community tip of some behind-the-scenes of how I, SoCalFlyer97 shop for hotels on Southwest Hotels to maximize the value of the awarded Rapid Rewards points through the Points Plus Properties program.
Booking all of my stays for my Five One Night Trips at Five Hotels in October followed this method.
It's great to see generous points pop up in the search results from time to time. Below is a random search for a one-night stay at a hotel near Disneyland:
As soon as I learn that I need to spend the night somewhere, I launch the following search portals on my desktop computer to begin the shopping process:
- Southwest Hotels - Points Plus Property Shopping
- Rocket Miles - Second Portal for Rapid Rewards Property Shopping
- Trivago - To search all major Booking Portals simultaneously for lowest market price in the area with free cancelation
- Hotel's Direct Reservation Page - To validate if booking direct or through their loyalty program has the better value.
I first search SW Hotels to see what kind of Rapid Rewards deals are abroad. Currently, there is a general consensus that each Rapid Reward point is valued at approximately $0.015 per point, a key factor. Other requirements for me are free cancellation support and safe/decent location.
So let's suppose I need to stay overnight in Riverside CA on a Saturday in November for an event near the local university in the La Sierra area, several miles southwest of the downtown area. I do my search:
Right away, for my needs, I find that a Hampton Inn which would be the closest hotel to the La Sierra area had a $139 room with 900 Points (~$13.50 point value). I make a note of it and given that this is a Hilton Hotel with loads of amenities and free hot breakfast--for that rate on a Saturday night, this is a great candidate.
Then, I check Rocket Miles to see if a similar or better deal is posted for the same hotel or general location. Rocket Miles is a great source to shop for hotels too. For example, here's what deals popped up for random search for Vegas hotels:
For the case of Riverside, the Hampton Inn location didn't pop up on Rocket Miles and the only hotel within reasonable distance of the La Sierra destination with a Rapid Rewards points bonus was an independent motel posted for $120 with 1,000 points. Southwest Hotels also matched this.
However, the motel wasn't in the best place of town and posted very low guest ratings. To be fair, the room pictures showed that they were recently renovated but I felt the Hampton Inn held the better overall value, even though the cost was $20 higher. Hilton's free hot breakfast alone pays for that!
Finally, I do a check on Trivago to confirm the selected Points Plus Property candidate is not excessively marked up compared to the rest of the hotel market. At this point, I verify the price difference between the non-refundable rates versus the free cancellation rates. I always elect for free cancellation. In the case of Hampton Inn, the base room rate was the same price of $139 across the board, non-refundable:
Trivago allows me to toggle "Free Cancellation". Once I did that, the starting rate for all the booking portals came out to be $161, a $22 increase (pretty high in my opinion).
Next, I check the option of booking direct. Hilton's Semi-Flex option (cancel free up to 5 days prior) was $160 regular and $157 for Hilton Honors loyalty program members...a few dollars better.
Now, I go back to Southwest Hotels and follow up on their quote of $139 which was also not refundable. Now, if Southwest Hotels also quoted me something in the $160's for free cancelation, I may have gone back to square one and checked for another hotel all over again. However, Southwest Hotels had a $149 option for the Hampton Inn with 900 Rapid Reward Points with free cancelation up to 72 hours, only a $10 mark-up for free cancelation benefit.
A $10 difference in price to have the free cancellation benefit would be fair for my needs. In fact, the $149 option turned out to be the best overall value between all the booking portals. Deduct the $13.50 value of the points and the room cost plus tax would be $135.50 for a stay at a prime Hilton location on a Saturday night in Riverside.
Should have this been my need, call this one Sold.
That's how SoCalFlyer97 shops. The end result could be a mix of no-frills motels, to the best of the chains, to the most unique independent inns all around. Yes, this takes some good amount of time to research. But in the end, the deals are worth it.
Got any unique tricks to shop for great hotels for a great price? Post them here.
