07/05/2026
🏨 Let's talk hotels!
When people think about points and miles, they usually think about flights. But lodging can be just as expensive—sometimes even more.
For our recent trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo, we found a mix of creative ways to keep our lodging costs low.
🌴 The Ritz-Carlton Club, St. Thomas
A two-bedroom, three-bath beachfront condo for 7 nights would have cost around $10,000 if we had booked directly through the Ritz-Carlton.
Instead, we:
✔️ Booked through RedWeek, a timeshare resale marketplace, bringing the cost down to $4,300.
✔️ Used $1,800 in bank bonuses we had earned from opening checking and savings accounts.
✔️ Cashed out 100,000 points for $1,000. While cashing out points isn't usually the highest-value redemption, it was the right choice for this trip.
Our final out-of-pocket cost?
✨ $1,500 total—or just $187 per night for a spacious condo right on the beach with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and an amazing pool.
🍁 Toronto, Niagara Falls & Buffalo
For the rest of the trip, we switched to Hyatt hotels and booked entirely with points:
🏨 Niagara Falls – 46,000 Hyatt points (about a $700 value)
🏨 Hyatt Place Toronto – 36,000 Hyatt points for two rooms for two nights (about a $1,000 value)
🏨 Hyatt Place Buffalo – 18,000 Hyatt points for two rooms for one night (about a $400 value)
Every Hyatt stay was booked by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards® points from my favorite travel card—the Chase Sapphire Preferred®.
✨ One welcome bonus on that card is currently enough to cover all of these Hyatt stays.
The big picture?
For 6 people over 11 nights, we spent just $1,500 out of pocket on lodging.
Was everything free? Nope.
But by combining points, bank bonuses, transfer partners, and a little planning, we saved thousands of dollars and stayed in places that would have otherwise been out of our budget.
That's one of my favorite things about learning points and miles—it isn't about luxury for luxury's sake. It's about making experiences possible that might not otherwise fit your budget.
