Save with HHonors Points!

It does pay to be loyal to one chain or another.  Mike and I often stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester, NH, because we go to a lot of Fisher Cats games.  And we’ll likely be staying there a LOT more next year, because we are getting season tickets.

So I decided to sign up for the HHonors Rewards Program.  Why not, we stay at this place enough, why not earn some points to use for free future stays?

It’s a cool program, you can also choose to earn airline miles, as well as room stay points.  Or, if you are like me and don’t fly, you can earn HHonors Points and HHonors Points, earning 150% points in lieu of airline miles.  Not too shabby.

A cool thing they do is offer Point-Stretcher periods…these are only in selected hotels at selected times, but if it happens to be where and when you want to travel, you can make out very well.  You can get a free room for 40% less points than normal.  This worked out very well for us – we are planning to go to Manchester, NH in November for the New Hampshire Brewers Festival.  Naturally, we have to stay at a hotel nearby, as we don’t want to be driving all the way home drunk!  Rather than staying at the Radisson, where the beer fest is taking place, I checked and saw  that the weekend of the beer fest was a Point-Stretcher period at the Hilton Garden Inn.  So I booked with them…the room will be free, and they also have a free shuttle van that will take us to the Radisson and back, we stayed there for last year’s fest and used it.  Even so, it’s still a reasonable walk.

The points can be earned and spent at the entire Hilton Family of hotels.  When we visited Mystic Seaport, and I had a choice of hotels, I chose the Hampton Inn in Mystic, because I could earn some HHonors points for staying there.  Sadly, they are not a Point-Stretcher hotel, but the Hampton Inn in Sturbridge is.  And they have Point-Stretcher periods every weekend in December, right when Old Sturbridge Village has their Christmas programs.  Yay!  Another free hotel stay!  Yeah, we’ve been normally staying at the Super 8, which is closer to the Village and also walking distance to the Piccadilly Pub.  Nothing wrong with it, but who am I to turn down FREE?  I did sign up for the Wyndham Rewards thingy through Super 8, but we don’t stay at any of their properties enough to ever maintain membership or qualify for any freebies.  So why bother?

The Hilton properties are nice – the Hampton Inns are a small step down from the Hilton Garden Inns, mostly in that most rooms do not have refrigerators.  But we have a portable mini-fridge, so that is not a problem.  Still, they have a lot of amenties, such as cable TV, free internet, free breakfast, and a well stocked bathroom.  No acne treatment gel, if you need that, as I do, you gotta bring your own. But they have shampoos, conditioners, nice soaps, lotions, and more.

I’m so glad I signed up for this!  We’ll be enjoying many freebies now!