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IHG, Bonvoy, and Hilton have special offers that remove one night's fee when you redeem points for stays of 4 or 5 nights or more.
While the basic outlines of the special offers are the same, there are important differences in terms of who is eligible to receive them.
In today's post, we've outlined the similarities and differences between these special offers.
Table of Contents
1. What is the Extended Stay Benefit for Points Stays?
First, I think we need to clear up the basic concept of what an extended stay on points is.
The key words are "points stays" and "consecutive nights".
1) Points stays
First, this benefit is available for You can only get it if you book using points. We'll mention that there are exceptions when we discuss Hilton later, but as a rule, only bookings using 1001 TP3T points are eligible. This means that cash stays, cash+points stays, combinations, etc. are not eligible.
2) consecutive nights
Also, this offer only applies to consecutive stays of 4 or 5 nights in a row at the same hotel without switching hotels in between.
Two nights at the Chosun Hotel in Seoul, three nights at the Plaza Hotel next door, and it doesn't add up.
2. important differences
While IHG, Bonvoy, and Hilton all offer the same benefits for points stays + consecutive nights, there are important differences in the details.
We'll tabulate these differences first, then summarize the characteristics of each chain.
| IHG | Bonvoy | Hilton | |
| Eligibility requirements | New-IHG Card, BizCard members | All members | Elite members |
| Benefits | Stay 4 nights, get 1 night free | Stay 5 nights, get 1 night free | Stay 5 nights, get 1 night free |
| Free nights | 4th night free, regardless of deductions | The lowest deductible day of the 5 days is free | A day's free by averaging your deductions |
| Restrictions | Up to 20 days per booking | ||
| Whether accommodation vouchers are included | No | No | The rule is no, but there are examples of success |
| Upper category room availability | No | No | No |
3. IHG, 4th night free
1) Only available to members of certain affiliate cards
While Bonvoy and Hilton require a 5-night stay to take advantage of the consecutive nights benefit, IHG only requires a 4-night stayso it's very versatile.
However, in the case of IHG, there is an important constraint: only cardmembers with certain partner cards can take advantage of this benefit.
For IHG, Chase is issuing an affiliate card.
The so-called old IHG cards, which are no longer available, do not have this feature.
Currently available for publication
- New-IHG Card
- IHG Traveler card with no annual fee but no annual night award
- And the IHG Business Card
Only three of these cards have this feature.
| IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | |
|---|---|
| Basic features | 170,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months |
| Key benefits | Anniversary Free Night certificate (worth up to 40,000 points hotel redemption) upon card renewal starting one year after card issuance (i.e., starting in year 2) |
| For a stay that requires more than 40,000 points, you redeem additional points on top of the Anniversary Free Night certificate. | |
| Redeem Three Nights, Get Fourth Reward Night Free | |
| Earn up to $50 back in credit each year when you enroll your card with United TravelBank. | |
| Platinum status just for having the card (few actual benefits, no breakfast) | |
| Annual fee | Annual fee is $99 |
| Caveats | If you already have another IHG personal card, you will not be approved for the card |
| Learn More | You can apply on the partner sites linked on the English page |
| IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card | |
|---|---|
| Basic features | 140,000 points for 3 months and $4,000 in spending. |
| Key benefits | Anniversary Free Night certificate (worth up to 40,000 points hotel redemption) upon card renewal starting one year after card issuance (i.e., starting in year 2) |
| Stays at hotels costing more than 40,000 points can be booked with additional points added to the nightly stay | |
| Redeem Three Nights, Get Fourth Reward Night Free | |
| Earn up to $50 back in credit each year when you enroll your card with United TravelBank. | |
| Earn 5 points per dollar on travel, gas stations, and restaurants. 3 points per dollar on everything else (but IHG points themselves are worth about half a cent, so it's not always a good card to use). | |
| Platinum status just for having the card (few actual benefits, no breakfast) | |
| Annual fee | Annual fee is $99 |
| For more info | English card information page |
2) 4th night free regardless of point value
In the case of IHG's 4th night free, the 4th night literally counts as a free night.
This wouldn't matter if the points deduction was the same for every night of your stay, but IHG currently has a variable deduction system, which means that the points deduction varies depending on the day of the week you stay.
That's why Day 4 can be beneficial or detrimental depending on what day of the week it is.
Here's an example.
In mid-July of this year Voco Hotel in Garosu-gil, SeoulLet's say you plan a 4-night points stay at a hotel.
I did a search and found that Korea has the most expensive hotel rates on Saturdays, so the point deductions are much higher on Saturdays.
For mid-July
- Wednesday, 7/12, 2.3k points
- 7/13, Thursday, 2.2k points
- 7/14, Friday, 2.4k points
- 7/15, Saturday, 3.1k points
- On Sunday, 7/16, it comes out to 2.1k points.
In this case, if you make a reservation with a check-in on Wednesday, 7/12 and check-out on Sunday, 7/16 so that Saturday is the fourth night, the total points required for the four nights is 69,000 points.
However, if you check in a day later on Thursday, 7/13, and check out on Monday, 7/17, Sunday, 7/16, will be your fourth night and your total required points will be 77,000.
If you have a fixed number of nights, you may not have a choice, but if you can move your nights back and forth, choosing the fourth day for the highest redemption value will maximize the value of your points.
3) No accommodation vouchers included
New IHG Card and IHG Business Card members will receive one night valid for up to 40,000 points upon card renewal each year starting in the second year.
It would be great to mix this night with points to get the 4th night free, but unfortunately, the 4th night free offer is only available when booking with full points.
4. Bonvoy, Stay for 5 nights and get one night free (Stay for 5, Pay for 4)
1) Any Bonvoy member can use the
For Mariette Bonboy, no special qualifications, Get a free night with a 5-night stay for all Bonvoy membersin the response.
Compared to IHG and Hilton, I have to say that's a good thing.
2) Choose the night with the lowest point deduction out of the 5 nights for free
In the case of IHG, as mentioned earlier, the fourth night is always free regardless of the value of the redemption (4 nights for a 4-night stay, 4 nights and 8 nights for an 8-night stay).
However, in the case of Bonvoy, we're taking the approach of automatically subtracting the day with the lowest deductible from the five days of your stay.
For example, you're staying at the Joseon Hotel in Seoul in mid-July.
When I search for 5 nights from 7/12-7/17, I see that the first night with the lowest price is counted as a free night.
What if it's 10 nights?
It's 1 night every 5 nights, so if I stay 10 nights in a row, I should have 2 free nights.
I thought it was going to take a day off each of the five days, but then I realized that it coolly counts the first two nights as free nights.
Terms and conditionsand it says right there that they will subtract the cheapest two days of the entire stay ;);
"If you make a Stay with multiple uses of the benefit (10, 15, 20 Nights) we will consider the entire length of Stay when determining the Free Nights. For example, if you book a 10-Night Redemption Stay, we would deduct the two lowest Nights of the entire 10 Nights, no matter when they occur.”
3) No accommodation vouchers included
In the case of Bonvoy, Amex and Chase are issuing separate affiliate cards.
For personal cards, the Chase Boundless Card and Amex Brilliant Card automatically give you one annual stay each year starting in the second year with no spending requirement.
It would be nice to be able to mix these stays with Bonvoy points to get the 5th night free, but unfortunately the 5th night free is only available when booking with full points, and the rooms are only standard rooms, so it's important to keep that in mind.
5. Hilton, Fifth night free (Fifth night free)
1) Elite only
In the case of Hilton, only elite members can get the 5th night free, not regular members.
However, it's so easy to get Hilton elite status with a high-end card like the Amex Flat Card, not to mention an affiliate card, that I don't think the rule itself is a big deal.
Even with the regular Amex Hilton card, which has no real annual fee, the Silver status just comes with it.
2) Average the deductions and get a day free
Hilton is promoting a buy five nights, get the fifth night free, but they don't literally waive the penalty for the fifth night.
For example, this July Garden Inn, Yangjae, Seoulfor example.
If you search for the deduction by day, for a 7/15 night stay, the base room would be 60,000 points per day.
But if you search for 7/11-7/16 with 7/15 as the 5th day, you'll see that instead of missing 60,000 points for 7/15, the ambiguous deduction is missing from the day calculation.
If we look at the calendar earlier, we see that 41,000 + 41,000 + 41,000 + 55,000 + 60,000 = 238,000, which is a total of 238,000. Since the final payment is 196,000, we're missing 42,000. If we divide 238,000 by 5, we should get 47,600, but the math is a little weird, right?
I'm not sure why the calculation works this way, but if I search the calendar with 5-night increments, 7/11-7/16 works out to 49,000 points per day. This makes me think that Hilton's math is averaging 4.9k per day for a 5 night stay and subtracting 4.9k for the 5th night.
Anyway, the important thing to note is that unlike IHG, it doesn't subtract one day on the fifth night, but averages over five days. I think that's all you need to remember.
3) Up to 20 nights in a single booking
Hilton Terms and Conditionsthere is no limit to the number of times you can use the 5th night free offer.
However, you can only stay up to 20 nights (4 nights free) in a single booking, so if you're planning a very long stay, you may want to keep this in mind and split your booking.
"Applies only to five consecutive nights within the same full Points Standard Room Reward stay at the same property, up to 20 nights, when confirmed at time of booking. No more than four free nights will be awarded per stay.”
4) There are cases where it is possible to include an overnight stay. Phone call required.
For Hilton, Amex has an affiliate card, and there are four cards: three personal cards and one business card.
The Aspire card, which has a higher annual fee, automatically earns one untiered night every year when you renew your card starting in the second year, while the Surpass and Business cards earn one night 8-12 weeks after you hit $15,000 in spending in a calendar year.
These nights were originally only valid on weekends, but during the pandemic, they were expanded to include overnight stays as long as a Standard Room Reward was available, regardless of the day of the week, so they've become quite popular with magicians in a time when hotel prices have skyrocketed.
Anyway, regarding today's topic, the stay 5 nights, get 1 night free offer, the terms and conditions say you can't combine points and free nights, but there are multiple examples on Flyertalk of people who were able to do so when they booked and stayed.
There are some English-speaking bloggers who say that it's not a good deal because the value of the voucher is not fixed, but I think there are some cases where it's helpful to look into this method, especially if you have a rotting voucher and need to use it somehow.
Let's wrap up today's post.
IHG's 4th night free, Bonvoy, and Hilton's 5th night free are great perks that increase the value of your hotel points.
I personally feel that 5 nights in one place is a bit long, so I use IHG's 4th night free offer the best, but if you need a longer stay in one place, Bonvoy and Hilton can also work well.
English 
Korean
32 Comments. Leave new
I applied for the IHG personal card last week, and was planning a 4 night/5 day stay soon, but thanks for the great article!! Thanks to you, I'll have to make the 4th night a Saturday! I heard it takes quite a while for the 4th night free to be automatically recognized, so I'm going to call IHG as soon as I get the card and apply for it... Then it will be processed as soon as possible, right?
This is an automated process, so I don't think calling will expedite it or make it happen, but it's worth a shot just in case.
How are you?
My friend lives in Seoul, and of course he doesn't have an IHG card.
Since IHG is currently selling points to anyone with the 80% status (up to 270,000 miles), can I open an IHG account today, buy points, and book an IHG hotel? Or is there some other variable I'm not aware of?
(I know I don't get a free night when I stay 3 nights because I don't have an IHG card).
I don't think there are any different variables because you're in Korea, but if you buy a large amount of points as soon as you open an account, it might be viewed suspiciously, so you might want to consider that.
Do you have both an old and new IHG card?
If so, how do you do churning? Originally, I was planning to keep the old card and repeat the churning with the new card, but as you know, now the old card holder cannot hold the new card at the same time, so... I've used up all my points and only have the annual stay from both cards, so what should I do?
I'm not sure if I should keep both cards as is or cancel both cards and repeat the churning process. I travel about 2 road trips a year in the US and a 2-3 week vacation in Korea every 3-4 years. Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm not churning it, I'm just holding it.
In the long run, I'd recommend going after the business card if you can.
Thanks for the great information today. I didn't know that Bonvoy also has an annual stay benefit. For reference, I also have the Hilton Honors American Express Card to get the 5th night free benefit. (silver status), I know how to buy IHG points from the last post, but is it best to buy Hilton points with the promotion and get 0.5 cents?
That's right. Hilton gives you Silver status just for accepting the basic card, so you're eligible for the 5th night free.
I think you'll have to do some math before you decide if buying points is worth it. Personally, I feel like the Hilton redemptions are a bit more expensive, and the 5-night threshold instead of 4 nights may make it harder to see the benefit of buying points.
I've never done a 4 night/5 day points stay before, so I've never had to use this great policy even though I have a new IHG card, but I just read this and am inspired to take a 4 night family trip this spring break. Thank you so much!
Great job! We hope you're having a great time.
First of all, thank you for this very informative post. In the table you've organized so well, it says all upper category room availability is unavailable, so even if I have IHG Daiya Ambassador or Hilton Daiya Status, does that mean I can't get a room upgrade after choosing a base room with the cheapest points?
Upgrading a room has nothing to do with consecutive nights, because that's what room reservations are for.
FYI, I don't know about Hilton/IHG, but for Marriott, if you stay in a room that can be upgraded with points from the base room, the free night is only free for the price of the base room and you have to pay the points needed for the upgrade.
For example, if Marriott offers a larger room for an additional 30,000 points over the base room cost (50,000), you would pay 350,000 (80,000 * 4 nights + extra 30,000) for 5 nights with points, not 320,000 (80,000 * 4 nights).
You're leading by example ;;
Thank you so much for your reply. You're a model after all 2 ;;;
As @Sylph replied, you can get upgrades at the hotel's discretion regardless of whether or not you have an extended stay offer. However, it's worth remembering that it may be harder to get an upgrade on a consecutive stay than on a one or two night stay.
Thank you so much for your reply, Milemoa.
That makes sense.
hello,
I got it from the IHG link you posted a while back.
I haven't signed up for IHG yet, I just created the card first,
How does IHG membership become a link in this case?
Do I just sign up for ihg separately and then manually(?) link the card and the link? Or is the IHG membership automatically created when the card is issued (in which case, where do you verify the membership??)
There's so much I don't know.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
An IHG number is automatically generated when you create your card. You'll need to contact Chase for this.
Thanks for the great help as always. I just got the IHG card for my son's first Chase card and was encouraged by your wear links ^^.
Congratulations on the approval and thanks for using the link.
I booked 5 nights and 6 days with 5 Marriott 50,000 night vouchers. As you said, it deducted 5 nights instead of 4 nights without free nights. However, it did deduct the extra night for the extra deduction. For example, for 5 nights with a deduction rate of 57,000 56,000 55,000 52,000 57,000, it exempted the extra 2,000 deduction of 52,000 for 1 night. (52,000-50,000)=2,000
Can I ask you a question? If I booked a 5 night, 6 day stay at a Marriott hotel with 5 P2 tickets and my P1 is a Marriott flat (Amex Brilliant card benefit), will I get the flat benefit for this stay? We will be checking in and staying together. I couldn't find a thread on this so I'm asking.
1. it's good to see that you didn't subtract the extra deductions.
2. the flat offer seems to be at the discretion of the hotel, hopefully you can talk to them when you check in. Best of luck.
Thanks for always being so quick and informative, I'll let you know if there's a typo.
1. combine points
-Stay at the bar
Thanks for the comment. Thanks to you, we were able to fix the typo.
After reading your post, I made a quick fix and got a free night.
A night at the InterContinental Budapest in the summer is under 40,000 points, but when I booked a 4-night stay, I got a 3-night point deduction.
Rate Information per Stay for 1 Room
WEDNESDAY JUN 14 2023 - THURSDAY JUN 15 2023 44,000 Points
THURSDAY JUN 15 2023 - FRIDAY JUN 16 2023 39,000 Points
FRIDAY JUN 16 2023 - SATURDAY JUN 17 2023 36,000 Points
SATURDAY JUN 17 2023 - SUNDAY JUN 18 2023 0 Points
Estimated Total Price 119,000 Points
Thanks for the great information as always. Oops!!!
Oh, well done.
hello.
Does it look like a 3 night deduction from the time of booking? Or is it something you can see after booking?
When I search for 4 nights, it shows me the average deduction with the first 4 nights counted as 0. I see that on the pre-booking review screen because that's how the 4th night is calculated as free.
I'm planning to go to Orlando Disney and looking forward to the Signia Hilton, I booked it with 6 nights points, but there is no discount for 1 night, and when I inquired, I was told that it was applied as Premium room rate, not standard room, and the room type does not say exactly standard, delux, etc. so I thought it was a standard room because it is the cheapest room, but the difference of 2 dollars, 1 king bed room is a standard room and two queen bed is a premium room, so I'm wondering if I should change the hotel to Buena at all.
If it's not peak season and the hotel room is available, I suppose you could try asking to change from a 1 king bed to a 2 queen bed at check-in on the same day, but it's a bit of a risk and you'd have to find out more.
How long does it take to apply for a card online and receive a physical card?
I'm traveling to Vegas 4/12-16 and when I went to book on IHG's website, I saw this deal, also known as Last Chance.
I'd rather get this card and book a hotel.
I think it takes 1-2 weeks because it's an affiliate card, so if you apply now, it's a little tight, but not impossible, but I have to say it's at your own risk.