10xTravel Team: Our Favorite Award Stays

Something we’re asked daily in the 10xTravel Insider’s Facebook group is what hotel to book in Hawaii, Paris, the Maldives, and the list only grows from there.

It’s tough to tell people what they should book, though. The points you have and your personal preferences play a huge role in hotel choices. While we can’t tell you there’s a perfect hotel that everyone should want to book, we thought it would be fun to share our favorite award stays.

While some of these stays are pure luxury, I think you’ll find that an over the top luxury hotel is not enough to make a hotel stay amazing. In fact, sometimes a mid-range or high-end stay is just what you need for a memorable experience.

Now, let’s get into it!

Bryce Conway

The best award stay I have yet to experience happened almost completely by luck at the Renaissance Koh Samui.

My wife and I were on the last leg of a 2-week trip to Thailand and were booked to stay 7 nights at the Renaissance before flying home to the states. The days leading up to this stay were jam-packed with adventurous activities so we were looking forward to a few days of relaxation on the beach.

I booked our award stay by taking advantage of one of the Marriott Hotel + Air Packages (pre-merger). We used 310,000 Marriott Rewards points for 7 nights at a Category 7 property and earned 100,000 bonus Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

The 310,000 Marriott points were earned thanks to the 140,000-point signup bonus on the Ritz Carlton card at the time. My wife and I each opened one and combined the points with 30,000 Marriott points that I had earned from some paid stays.

This 7-night stay would have cost 245,000 Marriott points if booked directly, so paying an additional 65,000 Marriott points for a package that offered 7 nights and 100,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points was a no-brainer.

Those 100,000 Southwest points got me over 90% of the way to earning the Southwest Companion Pass, which is widely considered to be worth more than $1,200+ of free travel.

Anyway, back to the hotel booking.

The hotel + air package only provides a standard room so I wasn’t expecting anything more than a basic hotel room in the main building on the property.

The Renaissance Koh Samui had other ideas, though.

We were upgraded at check-in to a 1,200 square foot panoramic ocean suite on the top floor of the hotel. The suite had two private balconies, a private outdoor whirlpool and some of the best views in all of Southeast Asia.

To this day, I have no idea why they gave us the upgrade. I only had Gold Elite status with Marriott — not exactly top-tier Platinum, was not celebrating any particular occasion, hadn’t contacted the hotel with any requests prior to arriving and the hotel was nearly full the entire week.

We even made friends with another American couple who were upgraded to a mid-sized suite because they were on their honeymoon. Which made for an interesting week of vague, quick-to-change-the-subject discussions about our own accommodations.

The upgrade seemed to have just fallen from the perfectly blue Southeast Asian sky.

Julie Szpira

I realize that I sound like a Hyatt evangelist, as most of my hotel recommendations are at Hyatt properties. My favorite award stay does not deviate from this pattern.

Hyatt offers a variety of different types of hotels ranging from limited service lodging at Hyatt Place to luxury stays at Park Hyatt. Personally, I feel most comfortable at mid-range Hyatt Regency hotels.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t turn down a stay at the Park Hyatt, but when I have to part with my points, I usually choose to stay at a Hyatt Regency!

In April 2018, I spent 4 nights in a Regency Executive Suite at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam, which has been my favorite award stay thus far.

I decided to celebrate my birthday in Europe and, after a tiny bit of begging, I convinced two friends to join me. When you say, “I’ll cover the hotel,” it’s pretty easy to persuade people to hang out with you.

Besides, visiting Europe in April is amazing. The spring break travelers are back in school, but summer travelers haven’t swamped the cities yet. Furthermore, the weather is great for sightseeing.

The Hyatt Regency Amsterdam is a Category 4 hotel which means award stays require 15,000 World of Hyatt points per night. I had previously enjoyed excellent stays at Andaz Amsterdam (Category 6, 25,000 points per night) and Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport (Category 3, 12,000 points per night), but I was looking forward to staying at a new hotel.

I used a combination of free night certificates, points and cash for my 4-night stay. I used two Category 1-4 free night certificates — one from my Hyatt credit card anniversary and one earned from spending 30 nights at Hyatt hotels in 2017.  For the other two nights, I booked a Points+Cash award.

Since I transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards for most of my Hyatt stays, I like points+cash awards as they allow me to stretch my points a little further when the cash co-pay is reasonable.

When I made my reservation, the room required 7,500 points plus a 78€ (~$100) cash co-pay. When using Points+Cash, you also have to pay taxes on the cash portion of the stay, which amounted to 4.42€. My total for the Points+Cash portion of the trip required 15,000 points plus a 164.84€ co-pay. The co-pay was billed in Euros, and after currency conversion, the total billed to my credit card was $204.39.

I used $204.39 instead of transferring an extra 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt for my stay. I essentially purchased Hyatt points at a rate of 1.36 cents each. Since I can easily get 1.5 cents per point (or more!) in value from Chase Ultimate Rewards points, I was okay with paying a portion of my stay in cash.

At the time of my stay, I was a Globalist — Hyatt’s top-tier elite status. One of the Globalist benefits is space-available upgrades at the time of check-in — this is how I got the Regency Executive Suite.

The room had a king bed, and the hotel provided a rollaway bed so my friends and I could all sleep comfortably.

Note: Since I was traveling as a group of 3, I originally booked two award rooms. Standard room occupancy is for 2 adults and European hotel occupancy rules are strict. I always assume an upgrade will not happen, so I planned accordingly.

The general cancellation policy for award reservations at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam requires 48 hours notice. As a Globalist benefit, my cancellation policy only required 24 hours notice. For night 1, I was going to use the Hotel Tonight app to book a room in the area if I did not receive an upgrade. I reserved a second room at Hyatt for nights 2-4, knowing it could cancel it upon check-in if I received an upgrade. Fortunately, I received an upgrade and I was able to easily cancel my second room reservation.

Okay, onto the good stuff!

The suite was amazing. It was large, open and modern. As three 30-something women, we really appreciated the walk-in closet to stash our luggage.

As a Globalist, I was granted access to the Regency Club Lounge. Hyatt Regency Club lounges traditionally offer non-alcoholic beverages throughout the day, breakfast in the morning and a cocktail hour featuring drinks and appetizers in the evening.

The Regency Club in Amsterdam is quite nice. There is plentiful seating, tasteful decor, and the evening snack options are perfect for a pre-dinner appetizer. The evening drink options include wine, beer, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages like coffee, soda and juice.

At the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam, breakfast is not offered in the Regency Club. Instead, guests with Regency Club access eat in the main restaurant, Mama Makan. The breakfast options offered in the restaurant were excellent!

Our Regency Club access entitled us to the buffet, as well as the option to order one ala carte dish. The buffet included a wide selection of hot and cold dishes and every kind of pastry known to mankind.  With the exception of the waffle, the ala carte dishes were egg based, including Eggs Benedict and a “make-your-own” omelette choice.

Between the evening Regency Club offering and the breakfast option, I would definitely recommend using an Explorist Club Access award at this property. However, an award night including club access would require 21,000 points per night — 6,000 points more than a standard award.  With so many options within walking distance of the hotel for breakfast and pre-dinner drinks, I don’t think I would use points to upgrade.

From a convenience perspective, the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam is well-located in the Canal Ring on the east side of the city. This is about a mile from Dam Square, the tourist city center. As Amsterdam is a very walkable city, we pretty much went everywhere on foot with only a couple exceptions — I demanded we take the tram from the Van Gogh Museum back to the hotel and one taxi ride home after a late night out.

All in all, the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam is a great hotel, the trip was great, my friend collection is top notch and I love Amsterdam.

Caroline Lupini

Not to be unoriginal, but my best award stay ever was also courtesy of Marriott’s old Hotel + Air packages.

I redeemed 270,000 Marriott points for 120,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points (which earned me the Southwest Companion Pass at the time) AND a 7-night stay at a Category 1-5 Marriott property.

The JW Marriott Phu Quoc Resort and Spa in Vietnam was one of the most talked about Category 5 properties at the time and, with a nightly rate of around $300, it made for a fantastic redemption! I spent seven nights there in December 2017 for my birthday and had the absolute best time.

But, probably the craziest part of the trip is that they made me not one, but two cakes! The first cake made quite a bit of sense – it was my birthday after all! However, the second cake was a little funny.

I came down with food poisoning from eating at the night market — I’m a super adventurous eater and always get myself into trouble! When the hotel found out that I was sick, they made me a get well cake!

I wasn’t interested in eating a bite of it, but it’s the thought that counts.

From hammocks on a beautiful beach to a face mask making class, this hotel really had it all. It’s not only my favorite points redemption, but one of my top three hotels stays of all time!

John Tunningley

Previously, the old Chase Hyatt Card offered a sign-up bonus of 2 free nights at any Hyatt property. With a trip to Hawaii booked, I redeemed both certificates at the Andaz Maui about a year after it opened. It has been one of my favorite travel experiences to date.

From the moment I walked in the door, I felt like I was in a different universe and completely relaxed.

With the laie as soon as I exited the car and water on both sides as I walked over a bridge towards the lobby, I knew I had made a great choice. There was a giant Christmas tree planted in the sand in the middle of the lobby and all I remember thinking was it would be great to stay there through Christmas — I got there a few days after Thanksgiving.

Not only was the service impeccable, but they also accidentally gave me the letter meant for Diamond (now Globalist) members even though I was only Platinum.

The letter stated breakfast was free each morning, so I thoroughly enjoyed one of the best breakfast buffets in the world free of charge. Of course, they realized this when I went to check out but were gracious enough to comp the $50/person buffet due to their mix up.

They also had a ton of free activities at the resort and I enjoyed a couple of days spent between lounging at the beach, snorkeling, stand up paddleboarding, swimming in their pools and eating a ton of absolutely delicious food. They also had free GoPro rentals so it was amazing to be able to document all of the activities they offered.

While I was lucky to get free breakfast, this property checked every other box for what a great resort should be and I can’t wait to go back.

Travis Cormier

Thanks to points and miles, I’ve had some great hotel stays. I know what you’re thinking… he’s going to say the Park Hyatt Maldives. As amazing as the Park Hyatt Maldives is, I don’t think it is my favorite award stay. The circumstances around a stay can have just as big of an impact as where you’re staying.

That’s why my favorite award stay was at the Ritz Carlton Dallas.

My wife and I stayed at the Ritz Carlton Dallas in October 2017. The three months leading up to our stay had been crazy. My wife had moved to Dallas for a job, I was looking for a job in Dallas, I still had to live in Houston then Hurricane Harvey hit the weekend I had to move out of our Houston apartment which left me living out of cheap hotels for a few months.

Now, October 2017 marked three years since my wife and I started dating so we wanted to do something special. We decided a staycation in Dallas was just the thing and, after living in a Days Inn for the past 3 weeks, I was hoping for some pampering.

We used Marriott points to book a stay at The Ritz Carlton Dallas, which lived up to the luxury associated with the Ritz name and more. Despite booking a standard room, I was upgraded to a Deluxe Suite which took things to another level.

Additionally, when we arrived we just missed free margaritas, but the front desk staff sent some to our rooms and had chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. Talk about going above and beyond!

After weeks of stress, the small gestures from the Ritz Carlton staff went a long way. Although not the most luxurious room I’ve ever seen, the consideration of the staff set a great tone when I really needed it.

Spencer Howard

Admittedly, I’m usually focused on booking fun award flights in business and first class but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a great hotel redemption. I’ve been fortunate to stay at some great properties include the Park Hyatt Sydney, InterContinental Hong Kong, and Grand Hyatt Melbourne.

However, if I had to pick one favorite stay, I’d probably go with the InterContinental Sydney.

Last December, I booked a crazy business class cash fare on All Nippon Airways (ANA) from Vancouver (YVR) to Sydney (SYD). With a sub-$700 business class flight in hand, my attention turned to booking a hotel for my stint in Sydney before heading off to visit a good friend in Brisbane.

I’d stayed at the Park Hyatt Sydney previously and had planned on trying the new Hyatt Regency property but award space was not available — what I get for waiting so long to book hotels.

With my first choice out the window, I decided to look at the InterContinental Sydney as it has one of the best views of the Sydney Harbour from its club lounge. At 60,000 IHG Rewards points per night, it’s not cheapest redemption — if you still have an unrestricted IHG free night certificate, you can use that for a night.

Now, I wanted to enjoy the club lounge known as Club InterContinental but you don’t get access when booking awards or for having elite status. In an unusual move for me, I actually booked a club room through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. It came out to less than 29,000 Ultimate Rewards points per night — the Park Hyatt Sydney is 30,000 Hyatt points per night.

While I know getting 1.5 cents per point through the Chase travel portal isn’t extracting maximum value, it allowed me to have the exact experience I wanted. I was able to work from the lounge and enjoy happy hours with amazing views from the lounge.

After exploring Sydney with my buddy Rohit who I met on my ANA flights — yes, this is how I make friends, we enjoyed the lounge happy hour before checking out the nightlife in Sydney. I was super impressed by the proactive lounge staff who checked on guests throughout the two hours.

What I found particularly interesting is that they would take drink orders and see if guests wanted to any of the hot food options. I thought this was an amazing touch.

In the vast majority of lounges I’ve visited — yes, I’m spoiled, this does not happen. You pour your own drinks and the hot food options are set out with the rest rather than prepared when you order. Honestly, this is more than enough which is why the InterContinental Sydney blew me away.

From the great food (and drinks) to the proactive club staff to the stunning harbour views, everything about this experience was worth the Ultimate Rewards points. Now, I just need to find a time to go back to Sydney!

Bottom Line

With so many hotel options out there, finding the “right” hotel for your stay can be overwhelming. As you can probably tell from our favorite hotel award stays, the experience can be shaped by so many things.

Whether it’s over the top luxury like a Ritz-Carlton, amazing views to enjoy while you relax each evening or a hotel perfectly located to explore a city, it’s going to come down to what you want out of your stay.

In a sense, there are no wrong answers. As long as you do a little research before you book, you’ll often be able to tailor your stay to the experience you want. Of course, amazing hotel staff always make stays just that little bit more enjoyable so keep an eye out for rave reviews.

We’d love to hear about your favorite award stays. Tell us all about them in the comments!