The Best Cities to Book Hotels on Points
How we rank cities for points value
The best city for points is the one where the cash rate is high and the award rate is not, so your points offset the most dollars. That favors big, expensive, year-round markets and peak-season resort destinations over cheap or seasonal towns. Below are the markets where a points night does the most work, each with its own guide, and you can see them ranked in the points value index. Find the live lowest-point option in any of them with rooms.aero.
The top markets
New York City is the single most valuable US market, with cash rates that rarely dip. Hawaii pairs sky-high resort rates with programs that waive resort fees on award nights. Abroad, London, Paris, and Tokyo stay expensive in every season, and Miami spikes hard in winter. Other strong markets with their own guides include San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, Orlando, Las Vegas, Rome, and Sydney, plus Boston, Seattle, San Diego, New Orleans, Nashville, Barcelona, Dubai, and Cancun. More US markets include Austin, Atlanta, and Denver, and more global destinations include Amsterdam, Singapore, the Maldives, Los Cabos, Toronto, Vienna, and Hong Kong, with further guides on Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin, Venice, Zurich, Vancouver, Kyoto, Bali, Doha, and the Canadian Rockies at Banff and Lake Louise, and a final wave covering Seoul, Bangkok, Phuket, Mexico City, Punta Cana, Aruba, Athens, Milan, Cape Town, and Prague. Each guide covers the chains with the strongest local footprint and the cards that reach them.
Earn first, then redeem
The catch is having the right points before the trip. A single welcome bonus on a hotel or transferable-points card often covers several award nights, so plan the earning a few months ahead. See how to book hotels on points for less for the programs and cards, and value any redemption honestly against the cash rate before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
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