Maximize Hotel Points with Free 5th Night Perks

For frequent travelers who accumulate hotel loyalty points, exchanging your rewards for a long, expensive trip can be cathartic—or you may have trouble parting with the points you’ve been hoarding so carefully. One way to get extra enjoyment out of these redemptions is to take advantage of the 5th Night Free Perk, a perk that gives you a free night for stays of four nights or longer. Not only will you enjoy an extended holiday just for points (excluding applicable taxes and fees), but you’ll also take comfort in the fact that you’ve saved thousands of points on your fifth night.

Two of the largest hotel loyalty programs, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy, offer this perk, making it easy to get great deals on vacations around the world. Here’s how you can take advantage of these savings.

What is the 5th night free?

The Fifth Night Free Award is a promotion offered by several hotel loyalty programs that provides members with a reduced rate on longer stays. When a member book a stay of five nights or more using points, they can get the fifth night for free. While these rewards only apply to longer trips, they can be a great way to increase your Reward Points.

Which hotel programs offer bonuses for 5 nights free of charge?

Among the major hotel loyalty programs, two of the largest hotel chains in the world offer free fifth nights – Marriott and Hilton. Recommendations and restrictions for the fifth night of each program are listed below:

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy’s 5th night free perk called “Stay 5, Pay 4” is available to all members of the hotel’s loyalty program, and there are no blackout dates or usage restrictions. Because this benefit is so easy to use, the biggest limitation to a Marriott premium is room availability. You will need to find a standard room available at your chosen hotel for the duration of your stay, and Marriott is infamous for having limited standard rooms in popular locations during peak hours.

However, as long as you can find a room, a fifth free night at a Marriott hotel can be incredibly lucrative. Because a standard room award can be worth up to 85,000 points, you can save hundreds of dollars on longer hotel stays. Also, while you will have to pay with points for the first four nights to get the fifth night free, you can pay for any additional nights in cash. So if you’re scheduled to stay for seven nights, you can pay four of them with points, one for the fifth night for free, and two with cash. This means you won’t have to accumulate as many rewards before maximizing this advantage.

Hilton Honors

Slightly stricter than the Marriott Bonvoy award, the complimentary fifth night of Hilton Honors is exclusive to Elite Members, meaning anyone with Silver, Gold or Diamond Elite status. Luckily, earning Hilton Honors Silver status is easy. You can earn Silver status by accumulating three hotel stays, seven hotel nights, or accumulating 17,500 Base Hilton Honors Points in a calendar year. You can also automatically upgrade to Elite status with any Hilton credit card, including the Hilton Honors American Express card with no annual fee.

Unfortunately, you can’t stack other Hilton Honors promotions with a free fifth night, so you’ll always need to pay at least four nights in points to get this benefit.

How to get the 5th night for free

For Marriott and Hilton Rewards with 5 nights free, the discount is automatically applied to qualifying bookings. This means that you just need to book your stay for five nights or more, as usual on the hotel’s website.

For Hilton Honors, you’ll receive a free fifth night’s discount equal to the average night’s cost in points. At Marriott, you’ll get a discount on the lowest nightly rate.

Tips for maximizing rewards for 5 nights for free

Use these tips to get the most out of this benefit:

• Earn points for more expensive stays as you get a better discount on your fifth night for free.
• Since the right to the fifth free night is not limited, you can use it as many times as you want during the year.
• Before attempting to book a 5th night stay for free, please make sure the property you have chosen has a standard room available. The benefit does not apply to stays in superior rooms.
• If you don’t have enough points to cover four nights and get your fifth night free, try earning extra points at Hilton Honors Dining and Marriott Bonvoy Eat Around Town. These dining portals give you reward points when you use linked credit or debit cards at partner restaurants and are a great way to top up your points balance.

4 nights free

While Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy are the only two major hotel loyalty programs to offer a fifth night free, some credit cards have a comparable perk. For example, an IHG® Rewards Premier credit card entitles you to a fourth night. IHG Rewards Club Premier cardholders get a fourth night free every time they use IHG Rewards Points to book a stay of four or more nights. The IHG Fourth Night Benefit is exclusive to IHG credit card holders and is not offered as an elite status benefit. Like Marriott and Hilton benefits, the IHG Bonus Night for stays of four or more nights can be redeemed multiple times a year.

bottom line

If you’re a fan of Marriott or Hilton hotels, taking advantage of a free fifth night can be a great way to increase your points. When used strategically, you can save hundreds of dollars on longer hotel stays.

Emily Sherman is a senior editor at CreditCards.com, specializing in news and product recommendations. She is also a founding member of To Her Credit, a two-week series of women’s financial advice for women. When she’s not writing about credit cards, she’s spending her points and miles planning her next big vacation.