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Enjoy room upgrade, breakfast, $25 credit and more with Visa Luxury Hotel Collection
As a frequent traveller I’m sure you have heard of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Impresario and Hyatt Prive etc. They are all dedicated VIP hotel booking programs which provide special channels for you to book high-end hotels with additional benefits.
However, these programs are not open to everyone – Amex FHR requires you to have an Amex Platinum or Centurion card, and for the others you must book via a qualified travel agent which is a bit of a hassle. Also such hotels aren’t usually cheap.
There is actually an alternative provided by Visa, which is much more widely accessible. The program is called Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, and you could try it out here.
You can expect the following benefits when booking via VLHC:
- Free breakfast daily
- $25 in hotel credit per stay
- Free wi-fi
- Room upgrade subject to availability
- 3pm late checkout subject to availability
They are not as good as FHR, since the credit is only $25 (v.s. $100), and late checkout is not guaranteed. VLHC also offers Best Rate Guarantee which is currently suspended – the rate usually is just the Best Flexible Rate though so I doubt you’ll need it.
First of all, as long as you have a Visa card you should be able to book, unlike Amex FHR. Although VLHC is supposed to be reserved for Visa premium cardholders, I tried my pleb Barclays debit card and it worked.
Secondly, VLHC covers many hotels that are relatively cheaper. Have a look at some hotels in London:
- The May Fair / £217
- The Stratford Hotel / £135
- Andaz London Liverpool Street / £199
- Conrad London St James / £225
You don’t typically see London FHR hotels going for under £300. You should always check all portals though as the hotel may offer significantly lower rate for booking direct (albeit without breakfast and $25 credit).
The main sweet spots are in Asia. Some Conrad / InterContinental / Hyatt hotels in China can be had for sub-£100, and if you head to Indonesia and Thailand, even under £50. These hotels are way too cheap to be placed in FHR, Impresario, LuxLife or Prive, thus booking a one-night stay with VLHC represents true value especially if you don’t have elite status with the hotel chain.
Similar to FHR, VLHC also runs complimentary-night offers. Some the current offers include:
- Shangri-la the Shard, London / Complimentary 4th night
- Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona / Complimentary 3rd night
- Park Hyatt, New York / Complimentary 3rd night
- Shangri-la, Singapore / Complimentary 3rd night
Compared to FHR, VLHC doesn’t provide as substantial benefits if you already hold elite status with the hotel chain. However, if you don’t have the elite status, have no access to FHR or are travelling in Asia, it can still provide you with some good value.
IHG launches free night voucher promotion for UK and US new members
IHG has just launched a ludicrous offer for new members residing in the UK and US.
You can access and register here.
- New member only (or signed up within the last 30 days)
- Register by July 31
- Make two qualifying stays by September 6
- A free night voucher is awarded (up to 40,000 points value), which is valid for 120 days
The two stays must be paid (i.e. not award stays), and can be done at any brand except Mr & Mrs Smith.
It is genuinely a very good offer, and if you have a frequent travel companion who isn’t an IHG member yet you should consider signing them up for the next stay. Don’t forget that IHG is also running a free night voucher offer for its Ambassador program as well. If you sign up to both, purchase the Ambassador membership and stay twice (including an InterContinental/Regent/Kimpton stay) then you’ll get two free night vouchers!
NEW: You can now prepay Amex FHR bookings
Amex has recently added a new feature to its travel services quietly: you can now prepay your FHR bookings. You will see both options appear when attempting to make an FHR reservation:
Historically Amex doesn’t charge you at all and you just pay at hotel checkout. So what’s point of prepaying for the stay? There can be two possible reasons:
- The payment is taken by Amex Travel, which means if you hold an Amex Gold card at the same time, paying with it earns you triple membership rewards points
- It will also trigger any Amex Travel cashback offers your card may have
A friend of mine has just booked an FHR hotel and prepaid, and he received an email instantly confirming that the current Amex Travel £50 off £200 offer has been triggered.
One thing I’m a bit sceptical is, are such bookings still treated as direct and earn points etc with the hotel’s loyalty program? Hopefully the answer is yes, but we will find out. If you are booking an independent hotel however, it doesn’t make any difference.
IHG UK midnight checkout promotion
IHG is running an interesting yet unusual promotion in the UK, which could be useful if you need extended late checkout for a stay in the next couple of weeks.
You can see the offer here. Simply make a note when you book on IHG’s website or in the app, and the hotel will accommodate your late checkout request, for as late as 11:59pm!
There are a few catches though:
- Stay between May 17 and June 2, which is a pretty short window
- Only valid on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday checkout
- Standard room stays only
- Subject to availability
Still a good promotion anyway if you happen to need it and are happy with one of the participating hotels (listed on the offer page).
Given most hotels’ occupancy rate must still be fairly low in the next weeks (at least on weekdays), I assume that they would try the best to fulfil your request, even if you are staying in a non-standard room.
IHG Q2 promotion, earn up to triple points
It’s been a while since IHG’s first-quarter global promotion ended, and the next one is finally revealed.
You can sign up to the offer here.
- Valid for stays from May 15 to August 16
- Double points on your second stay
- Triple points on your third stay onwards
- The maximum bonus points is capped at 100K during the promotion period
Award stays don’t count for the sake of earning bonus. If your first stay is booked on points, then the following paid stay won’t trigger double points as I understand it.
Similar to Hilton’s promotion, the offer is not too bad if you have paid stays in line for the next months especially if the bill is going to be big. It’s useless if you only intend to redeem points though, unfortunately.
Keep the staircase conditions in mind and make sure you plan your stays wisely – if you have an expensive stay coming up, stay at least twice beforehand to maximise the bonus points.
Stay twice with IHG and earn a free night voucher (targeted)
IHG appears to be back on the track to rolling out targeted offers as we are seeing more and more of them recently. @hypnos has just shared a new ludicrous offer and you could see if you are eligible.
The link to register for the offer is here, but I suspect that for most of us it will just return an error message suggesting that it’s not available to us.
If you get lucky, you need to stay twice by July 29 at any IHG hotel to win a free night voucher, and I believe they must be paid stays. It is a very good offer really, although not many people can really benefit.
Triple Your Points in Hilton’s Q2 Promotion (and Current Status Challenges)
Hilton has launched a new promotion for Q2, which will start immediately after the current promotion expires.
You can sign up here. From May 3 to September 6, every stay of two nights earns double points, or triple when it’s of at least three nights. Note that it is based on the checkout date – if your stay starts prior to May 3, but ends after, it will be eligible for this promotion; otherwise the current promotion applies.
For Diamond members, it means that you earn 40 points per $ spent (excluding taxes and fees), which is a decent return; and now you can even earn points on up to four rooms booked under your name. Unfortunately with the ongoing devaluation since the introduction of dynamic pricing, Hilton points aren’t worth much nowadays.
A reminder of current status match or challenge opportunities (read more here):
Status Challenge If you hold elite status with another hotel program, you could enrol in this challenge where you kick start with Gold status immediately. Stay 5 nights within 90 days to keep the Gold, or 9 nights to elevate to Diamond.
MVP Gold Complete 4 stays after registration to get Gold status. This challenge is meant for athletes and those affiliated with sport organisations, although there doesn’t seem to be any enforced checks.
Corporate Travellers If you work for a large corporation, get Silver status right away, and then stay 8 / 16 nights within 90 days to upgrade to Gold or Diamond. Work email address is needed for verification – replace dell in the URL with your company’s name to see if you are eligible.
15% Dining Discount at GHA Hotels Worldwide
It’s nowadays very common for hotel programs to offer dining discount to its loyal customers, most notably in Asia Pacific. For example, Accor has a (paid) Plus scheme that offers up to 50% off dining discount, whereas Marriott Bonvoy members enjoy up to 30% off when dining at its hotels in China as well as earn points.
GHA Discovery appears to be the next one who joins the party. Through September 30, all GHA members get a flat 15% off discount when dining at participating hotels, and no stay is required. A member can be accompanied by up to three guests, and you only need to show your digital membership card when settling the bill.
Unfortunately there isn’t any UK hotel on the list at the moment, yet you can find Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Montenegro in the Europe section.
Personally I don’t tend to eat at hotels when I’m on vacation, but it’s just something you may want to keep in mind in case you visit any GHA hotels in the next few months.