What is a Cash + Points Hotel Booking?

Every hotel program has its own rules and redemption options, and some programs offer the ability to redeem cash and points toward a reservation at the same time. This can be tremendously useful if you are short on points, but want to book an award stay or want to stretch your points further.

But depending on the program, combining cash and points toward bookings may or may not be a great deal. Here’s what you need to know about points and cash bookings and the programs that offer this option.

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors offers Points & Money redemptions that are available at any time, with no blackout dates. The Points & Money rates are connected to the cash rate of the stay and are available in 1,000 point increments starting at 5,000 Hilton Honors points.

For example, the Canopy by Hilton Chicago Central Loop cost $327.58 including tax on a sample date in May 2024, and a standard room reward night booking is available for 65,000 Hilton Honors points, resulting in a value of 0.50 cents per Hilton Honors point for this redemption.

If you don’t have enough points to pay for the room entirely with Hilton Honors points, or you’d prefer not to, you can use the “Pay with Points & Money” option to customize your booking.

With a minimum of 5,000 Hilton Honors points and in increments of 1,000 points, it’s possible to adjust the number of points used on a stay. In this case, we’re able to save $50.57 ($327.58 – $277.01), by spending 10,000 points. This results in a very slightly higher valuation of 0.51 cents per point redeemed ($50.57/10,000), but the difference is negligible.

IHG One Rewards

IHG One Rewards utilizes a variation of Points + Cash awards. The amount of points needed to book the hotel can be reduced by a cash copay where you are essentially purchasing the additional points required for your redemption. This means that if you cancel an IHG Points + Cash booking, your cash copay will not be refunded, rather, the points you bought will be returned to your account.

The price for the cash copay varies by hotel and by redemption, but typically a few different copay options will be presented. The co-pays are not listed in a traditional award chart, and must be checked for individual hotels at the time of booking.

At the Holiday Inn Express Denver Downtown on a date in July 2024, the following booking options are available, resulting in point value as shown below. The cash price for this one-night stay is $260.77. Spoiler alert: You’ll typically see the same value for your points regardless of how many you redeem.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Rewards offers two types of Cash + Point redemptions:

• Cash + Points Rate: A fixed combination of Cash and Points per night (subject to availability)
• Customized Cash + Points Bookings: A multi-night stay where you can mix and match which nights are paid with points and which nights are paid with cash

For the fixed rate Cash + Points option, throughout the year, different hotels will participate to allow Marriott Rewards members to book using a Cash + Points rate. This option is only valid at some hotels, and only valid during certain dates. Participation varies by hotel, and the number of participating hotels was 109 at time of writing, though not every hotel had availability. The chances of your plans lining up with a hotel that offers this option and has availability at the time you want to travel isn’t great.

The other booking option offered by Marriott Rewards is “Customize Cash + Points.” This is where you can pay some nights of your stay with points, and other nights with cash.

For example, in October at the Courtyard Miami Downtown/Brickell Area, rates are around $400 per night plus taxes and around 33,000 points per night. If you didn’t have enough points to pay for both nights, you could elect to pay for one night with points and the other with cash. Note that, in this case, you’ll get over 1.2 cents per Marriott Bonvoy point in value.

You won’t save points using this method vs. making separate reservations for the points and cash parts of your stay. The main perk of using the Customize Cash + Points feature would be that your cash reservation and your points reservation would be assigned a single reservation number.

Keep in mind that if you want to book five consecutive nights to take advantage of the 5th night free option Marriott Rewards provides for points reservations, using a cash rate for one of the 5 nights would make you lose your 5th night free.

World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt offers Points + Cash rates based on the hotel category, and you can even redeem Points + Cash to book standard and premium suites. The Points + Cash rate works out to 50% of the points required for a free night plus 50–70% of the standard rate cash price for the chosen room type. Miraval Resorts has its own Points + Cash pricing.

Since the cash rate is 50–70% of the Standard Rate of the room, you won’t get a better deal by redeeming Points + Cash with Hyatt compared to booking an award with a full-points rate—and you may even get lower value from your Hyatt points. However, it will allow you to stretch your points further.

On a sample date in September 2024, the Hyatt Centric Levent Istanbul cost $253.87 (238.18 EUR) including tax or 12,000 World of Hyatt points, resulting in a value of 2.12 cents per point ($253.87/12,000). The Cash + Points rate is 6,000 World of Hyatt points + $140.27 (131.60 EUR) including tax, resulting in a savings of $122.27 in exchange for 6,000 points. This makes these points worth 2.04 cents per point ($253.87-$122.27/6,000)—slightly less value than you’ll get for the full-points redemption.

Final Thoughts

Using points along with a cash copay can be a great way to stretch your points and still save yourself a ton of money on vacations, but how good of a deal it is depends on the program.

While booking a Points + Cash rate may not be the best option in every situation, it’s definitely something to consider when making travel plans.

When I’m booking hotels, I make sure to check the points rate, the cash rate, and the Points + Cash rate, so I can calculate the best use of points and minimize out-of-pocket costs.