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There may come a time when you want to book a hotel for someone else. Maybe you're helping a friend or family member who can't otherwise afford it. Or maybe you're gifting them an award night as a birthday or anniversary present. Whatever the reason, it's important to familiarize yourself with each hotel program's rules for gifting award stays.
Here's a breakdown of the rules of gifting an award hotel stay by brand.
Page Contents
How to Give a Hotel Stay as a Gift
Best Western
Best Western makes it easy to gift an award stay to immediate family members, which Best Western counts as a “spouse, partner, children, parents, in-laws, siblings” per the terms and conditions. It's important to note that awards issued as a gift in someone else's name can't be transferred to someone else's name later.
Related: Current Best Western Promotions
Choice Privileges
Choice Privileges allows you to book an award stay for immediate family members. According to the terms, this includes your spouse, partner, children, parents, in-laws, and siblings. The Choice Privileges member is not required to be present for the stay.
You have two options for booking this stay, and both are quite easy. First, call Choice Hotels customer service to make a reservation. During the call, inform the agent that you are booking the award stay for someone else and would like to have their name listed in the registration notes.
Secondly, you can make the reservation online and include the person's name in the “special request” field.
Related: Complete Guide to Choice Privileges Loyalty Program
Hilton Honors
Hilton's terms say an award redemption “may be issued to the Hilton Honors Member, or to any other person, as directed by the Member. Once issued, the Reward is not transferable and may be used only by the individual named on the Reward. If a person other than the individual named on the Reward documentation attempts to redeem the Reward, the Reward will be deemed void and accommodations and/or transportation will be denied.”
You can accomplish this in two ways.
First, book the room yourself and add the person's name to the reservation. It's important to make the reservation for two people. Then, as you go through the checkout process, add their name as the second person. This will allow them to be able to check into the room without you present. You can call the hotel ahead of time to confirm that the second name on the reservation will be the person checking in.
Second, you can pool Hilton Honors points, allowing the other person to make an award redemption and avoid any possible issues at check-in.
Related: Your Comprehensive Guide to the Hilton Honors Program
IHG One Rewards
IHG allows you to gift an award redemption to anyone, so long as you list their name on the reservation for check-in. To do this, you can either call IHG customer service or the hotel directly. The person checking in must be at least 18 years old, and you cannot gift award stays in the greater China region.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About IHG One Rewards
Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott allows you to book an award stay for another member up to five times per calendar year. According to Marriott, you can gift all award redemption types except Free Night Awards.
To make this booking, you will need to call Marriott's customer support line. You will need to have your member number handy. Once on the phone, give the agent your name and member number, along with the name of the person who will be staying on the reservation.
Alternatively, you can make the reservation online. In this case, however, you still need to call customer support and have the person's name added to the reservation. All gifted reservations must be done through customer service, not the specific hotel.
There are a few things you should be aware of when booking an award stay for a friend or family member:
- Neither person will receive elite night credit, qualifying nights, or qualifying stays.
- Neither person will receive points for the stay.
- The recipient will not receive any elite benefits as part of their gifted stay.
Related: Everything About the Marriott Bonvoy Rewards Program
World of Hyatt
Earlier this year, Hyatt revamped its World of Hyatt program, making it easier to gift award stays. Previously, only members with Globalist elite status could gift an award stay through Hyatt's Guest of Honor bookings.
Now, any Hyatt member who stays 40 nights in one year earns one Guest of Honor award, which can be gifted to any other Hyatt member. Members earn two additional Guest of Honor awards after staying 60 nights, one additional Guest of Honor award for every 10 nights stayed between 70 and 100 nights, and one for every 10 nights stayed between 110 and 150 nights.
Additionally, Hyatt has made it much easier to gift Guest of Honor (and other) awards. I don't currently have any Guest of Honor awards available, but as you can see with the awards in my account, it's very easy to gift any of your available awards directly from your Hyatt account. Click the three dots next to the award, then select “Gift Your Award.” Then, enter the recipient's name and Hyatt number.
What sets Hyatt Guest of Honor bookings apart from other programs' gifted award stays is that the person receiving the stay receives Globalist benefits — including free breakfast, club lounge access, room upgrades (when available), late check-out (when available), waived resort fees, and more.
Furthermore, there are two additional ways to gift an award stay with World of Hyatt for members who haven't earned any Guest of Honor stays.
First, the terms state that you can gift “Free Night Awards, certain Room Upgrade Awards, and Points + Cash Awards” but not “Club Lounge Access Awards…Complimentary Suite Upgrade Awards…and non-stay awards (such as Dining, Spa and More Awards).” If you would like to gift a stay to someone else, the reservation must be in their name (done through customer service), and they must show a photo ID at check-in. This person won't receive any elite status perks during their stay, and neither of you will earn elite nights from the stay.
Second, you can combine points, making it easy for you to send them the required points for an award stay, which they can then make from their own account. This is beneficial if they have any status perks or want to receive credit for their stay.
Programs Where You Can't Gift an Award Stay
Accor Live Limitless
You cannot gift award stays with Accor Live Limitless (ALL) because the terms (caution: PDF link) state that “Members must be present at the hotel for the duration of the stay.”
Related: Ultimate Guide to the Accor Live Limitless Loyalty Program
Wyndham Rewards
According to Wyndham, “Members may not transfer, sell, barter or otherwise conduct any distribution of any reward or other item received in exchange for the redemption of Wyndham Rewards points (including, without limitation, any and all types of Go Free and Go Fast awards).” Thus, you can't gift awards and also can't pool points with other members to help them redeem an award from their own account.
Related: Introduction to Wyndham Rewards Loyalty Program
Final Thoughts
Whether you earn free hotel nights through hotel stays or hotel credit cards, they're an incredible perk to have. Even better, the ability to gift an award stay to someone can be a great benefit. Thankfully, most of the big hotel brands make this possible for everyone.
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