The Very Best Hotel Reward Tool?

Published: 8/14/23|August 14th, 2023

For the majority of my journeys, I have actually been a hostel man through and through. And, while I still remain in hostels when I take a trip, given that I run a service from the roadway, I frequently require a bit more personal privacy and peaceful than what a hostel can offer.

However hotels can get costly and I’m still an inexpensive backpacker at heart. I dislike investing cash on a space I am just going to remain in for a couple of hours a day. To conserve cash on hotels, I began travel hacking By utilizing points and hotel-branded charge card to secure free stays, I have actually conserved thousands and countless dollars in lodgings throughout the years.

Nevertheless, it can be a little a discomfort to discover hotel award schedule. Each hotel has its own calendar of award nights (nights that you can schedule utilizing points), and it can be lengthy to scan these virtual calendars to discover the very best offer.

That’s where Awayz is available in.

This tool searches throughout hotel programs to assist you discover the very best location to utilize to your hard-earned points on your next hotel stay.

Previously, there’s been absolutely nothing this detailed for discovering hotel award nights, so I’m extremely delighted that it lastly exists. Out of the other (couple of) hotel award tools out there, it’s the most easy to use, searches throughout the most hotel programs, and has the very best functions and filters.

In this evaluation, I’ll reveal you what the website is everything about and how to utilize it to discover totally free hotel remains for your next journey!

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What is Awayz?

Awayz is a tool particularly for reserving hotels utilizing points. If you recognize with the points-and-miles reserving tool Point.me, it resembles that, however for hotels rather of flights (if you’re not knowledgeable about point.me, have a look at my evaluation to get more information).

Like other reservation tools, you put simply in your area and dates, and out pop a lots of choices for hotels that you can schedule with points. It likewise reveals you a side-by-side contrast of the variety of points required, along with the money cost, and offers its suggestion relating to which is the much better offer. This is an extremely useful function if you do not wish to hang out and energy crunching the numbers yourself.

Presently, Awayz supports Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, and Accor, with Wyndham and Option to be included quickly. Having the ability to browse throughout numerous hotel chains is another excellent function, particularly if you’re attempting to utilize a transferable currency, like Amex Subscription Benefits or Chase Ultimate Benefits, which can be moved and utilized at numerous hotel chains.

Here are a few of the highlights that Awayz uses:

• Schedule notifies
• A 12-month award schedule calendar
• A map function
• A money vs. points contrast
• The capability to input your existing points programs to customize the outcomes
• Free-night award schedule is highlighted

How Awayz Functions

To utilize Awayz, all you need to do is put in your preferred information (area, dates, and so on). It then raises all the readily available hotels you might schedule with points. You can then filter your outcomes till you discover a hotel that works finest for you.

Awayz runs on a membership design. There is a totally free trial, however, so you can attempt it out prior to registering. With the totally free trial, you’ll get 5 searches and 5 hotel schedule notifies, in addition to access to all of Awayz’s functions, with the exception of hotel offer notifies.

The Journey Pass ($ 4.99) is truly the much better alternative if you wish to attempt Awayz to its complete capacity, as it offers you the capability to do 50 searches in 72 hours (the 5 searches on the totally free trial will be preceded you understand it), in addition to 10 schedule notifies.

If you take a trip and look for hotels routinely, you’ll desire the premium membership ($ 8.33/ month when paid each year, or $11.99 when paid monthly). This tier offers you 250 regular monthly searches, 10 schedule notifies, and hotel offer notifies (the just tier that offers this).

You can see the complete breakdown of the distinction in between strategies here:

If you register for a yearly strategy utilizing the code nomadicmatt, you’ll get $10 off the yearly Premium strategy

Establishing Your Awayz Wallet

Prior to you begin browsing, you’ll wish to establish the wallet and awards area. Here, you can include your hotel commitment programs, charge card, and the variety of points you have in each.
This is very important for a couple of factors.

Initially, you can then filter by your readily available points when browsing. There’s no sense in raising hotels that you can’t schedule!

2nd, Awayz will think about benefits like totally free nights (a perk on the majority of the finest hotel charge card), bank transfer perk promos (e.g, get 30% more points when moving Subscription Benefits to Hilton Formality), or currencies where you can utilize points as money (such as Chase Ultimate Benefits).

Awayz presently supports the following:

• Hotel programs: Hilton Formality, IHG One Benefits, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, Accor Live Endless
• Transferrable currencies: American Express Subscription Benefits, Chase Ultimate Benefits, Bilt Benefits, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou points, and Elevation Reserve points

You do not need to include any recognizing info when including your programs. This is a favorable for those worried about security, however an unfavorable for those who desire the ease of automated syncing of their point balances.

Rather, you’ll need to include your existing balances yourself, as you can see in this example:

You can browse hotels without including this information however including this info in makes it a lot much easier to see what your choices lack thinking.

How to Browse and Reserve Hotels with Awayz

For our sample search, let’s state we wish to get some summertime sun by going to Miami for a vacation in January. By shooting off a fast search with simply your dates and area, you’ll get the following:

However given that this standard search raises more hotels than you’ll wish to learn, your next action is to filter the outcomes.

The readily available search filters are:

• Hotel brand names
• Transferable currencies and hotel commitment programs
• Free-night certificate schedule
• Your existing points (the numbers you input at the wallet and awards area)

You can likewise arrange by range from the center of the location in addition to by point or money worths.

Here’s what it appears like (grayed-out programs are ones you have not gone into point worths for):

When it raises the search engine result, Awayz utilizes its own algorithm to likewise highlight whether it believes utilizing points or money is a much better worth, which is extremely beneficial info as you weigh your choices.

When you have actually filtered and checked out the outcomes to discover a hotel that you have an interest in, choose it to get back at more information. You’ll see the very best worth, money cost, the cost if you utilize points as money, and buttons to see the whole award schedule calendar or to set an accessibility alert if your favored dates aren’t presently readily available.

In this case, the very best offer is utilizing Hyatt Benefits points, which you can move from Bilt or Chase (as shown in the bottom right-hand “Transfer Partner” box).

If you’re versatile with your dates and wish to see the whole award schedule calendar for this hotel, merely struck that black button and up it pops. It’ll highlight the dates you’re presently browsing, however you can likewise scroll through the whole 12-month calendar to see if there are much better offers out there. The most affordable rates (in both money and points) are highlighted in green, while the greatest rates are highlighted in red:

In this case, you can see that if you might move your vacation journey back by simply 2 weeks, you might conserve 9,000 points.

After all that digging, let’s state you have actually chosen that this is the hotel you wish to book. Struck “book now,” and you’ll be given the hotel’s site. You’re on your own from there, however even if you require to move points, it’s typically a really simple procedure.

Pros of Awayz

1. The capability to browse throughout lots of programs simultaneously
The most apparent pro of utilizing Awayz is the capability to bring up all hotels you might schedule with points for your preferred dates and area. Without this tool, you ‘d need to browse throughout all the programs in which you have points (or might have points if you moved them there). That includes logging into each site, discovering the award charts, considering any costs, and comparing throughout all programs. It’s not that tough, however it does take some time.

2. Points-to-cash contrast
This function is another significant advantage to utilizing Awayz. Once again, comparing money and point worths is a lengthy procedure, particularly when you’re brand-new to utilizing points for hotel stays. Awayz takes the uncertainty out of this procedure by utilizing its own algorithm (which is constantly upgraded with the current information) to figure out the very best worth.

3. User friendly user interface with useful filters
The site is extremely simple and simple to utilize, and the filters make fast work of assisting you discover hotels that work for your requirements. The capability to input awards programs and existing points assists you narrow your search down much more.

Cons of Awayz

1. It’s a paid tool
Awayz does have a restricted totally free trial, however if you wish to get the most out of this tool, you’ll need to pay: either $4.99 for a 72-hour Journey Pass, or $8.33/ 11.99 (yearly billing vs. regular monthly billing) for Premium.

Nevertheless, if you’re brand-new to take a trip hacking and have not rather remembered the ins and outs of each program, it’s a deal when you think about the prospective cost savings in not only cash however the time you ‘d invest attempting to find out and search throughout programs.

And, as a Nomadic Matt reader, you can get $10 off a yearly membership with the code nomadicmatt

2. It does not immediately sync with your commitment programs and currencies
This may be a professional to those who do not wish to provide external access to their accounts, however it likewise includes an additional action in the procedure. It’s likewise simple to forget to upgrade when you do utilize your points.

3. Not all brand names are supported (yet)
While Awayz supports lots of significant chains– Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Accor– it does not yet support them all. Wyndham and Option are not presently supported, though these ought to be included quickly. Nevertheless, if these are your favored brand names, you may not discover Awayz to be beneficial to you right now.

Who is Awayz for?

Awayz is particularly excellent for tourists that are more recent to redeeming points for award nights. Utilizing Awayz conserves you time (and cash) in the hotel award search and reservation procedure, which is particularly beneficial when you’re very first starting discovering how to secure free stays. The cash-to-points contrast function is particularly essential for this.

However even skilled travel hackers can get a great deal of worth out of the tool. If you have a great deal of points in various currencies, you understand how lengthy it is to browse throughout programs. Plus, the capability to set notifies can assist you discover evasive stays without needing to continuously keep tabs on the hotel.

Awayz is a welcome addition to the growing scene of award reservation tools. While there are a range of detailed tools for discovering award flights, up until now, absolutely nothing similar has actually existed for discovering hotel remains you can schedule with points. With a growing suite of filters and functions, in addition to side-by-side contrast of points vs. money rates, Awayz assists you conserve both money and time– crucial resources no matter what kind of tourist you are!

While it is a paid tool, there’s a totally free trial readily available, and even paid variations end up being worth it when they assist you discover a fantastic totally free stay.

And keep in mind to utilize code nomadicmatt to get $10 off!