Why You Should Bill EVERYTHING To Your Hotel Room!
We all travel a lot but I think there is a mistake many of us still make. That mistake is that some of us don’t bill everything to your hotel room. Drinks, food, snacks, newspapers, massages, hair braiding and everything else you can think of. Put it all on that check out folio! There is one main reason for doing it – the points of course! You are leaving points on the table when you pay for things as they happen. We at Miles to Memories don’t let people leave easy points behind!
Why You Should Bill Everything To Your Hotel Room
Hotels are one of the best, if not the best, ways to rack up tons of points. There are promos, and boosters, elite bonuses and credit card payouts that add up to a ton of fricking points! And did you know that latte at the hotel Starbucks could be earning all of these bonus points? That is stacking on top of stacking on top of stacking!
You may be thinking but I get 3X with my Chase Sapphire Reserve on dining or travel so what does it matter? Or my American Express Gold Card gets 4X at restaurants so why wouldn’t I use that at Starbucks instead of getting 3X with the CSR at check out?
The answer is because you could be earning hotel points on those purchases as well. When you bill those charges back to your room they are paid upon checkout. Those purchases are now treated as hotel charges. You get the points you would normally earn for a paid hotel night on everything you spent. That could be over 30 points per dollar at Hilton with promos etc. Even at a $0.004 a piece per Hilton Honors point valuation that is 12% back on your spending at 30X per dollar.
The numbers look even better if it is at the gift shop or a massage etc. that wouldn’t normally earn a bonus on your credit card spend like restaurants would.
Don’t Forget About Co-Branded Hotel Cards Too!
The fun doesn’t end there either. Hotel co-branded cards like the American Express Aspire card of the Chase World of Hyatt card will give you a better return on your spend than with a transferable currency card.
Would you rather have 3X Ultimate Rewards (UR) with the Chase Sapphire Reserve on your purchase or 4X Hyatt points with your World of Hyatt card? Hyatt is Chase’s most valuable transfer partner so that extra point per dollar is golden. That is like getting another 1.5%-1.8% back on that latte purchase just from using the hotel credit card at check out instead of paying for it at Starbucks.
By pushing those purchases to your hotel folio you can max out the best spending category for your hotel branded cards.
Final Thoughts
As you can see if you have been paying for those drinks at the hotel pool you are leaving a lot of value behind. You could have gotten 12X Hilton Honors points with the Aspire for using the card to pay for it at checkout instead. Plus an additional 30X+ earning on your Hilton account for billing it to your room. That is better than the 7X you would get for the restaurant purchase with the card directly.
This can be done with any hotel brand with a loyalty program. Especially if you have their co-branded card. But even if you don’t the travel category is a great bonus option on many cards and by billing that massage back to your room it is now considered travel!
Don’t leave the points behind bill everything to your hotel room on your next stay!
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I disputed the charge with AMEX last night under the “I don’t know about this charge” category. I figure this will at least, as you said force the hotel to come up with some sort of receipt since they basically laughed me off when I called to question them about a $10 charge. I do appreciate AMEX notification when charges hit otherwise it would be easy to miss small random charges as this. This was a newly open Moxy hotel in NYC which was great stay and best included breakfast I have ever experienced but I assume they are still working through billing issues which is why they randomly charged my card without notification or receipt 2.5 weeks after checkout, something I have never experienced any hotel doing.
This is an older thread, but I could not find anything newer dealing with the topic. I stayed at a Marriot brand a few weeks ago in NYC that had a mandatory $30 destination fee (basically they charge you $30 and apply it as a room credit you must use within the hotel). I used this credit within the hotel bar & snack items. I knew I went over the $30 slightly but was unsure how much over. Upon check out they applied the credits and zeroed out my bill, I mentioned I believe I went over the credit by a few dollars, and they said don’t worry it’s taken care of. Then 2.5 weeks later I get a charge for $9.85, I checked the hotel bill on my app and this extra charge does not show. I call the hotel and ask what this charge is for and why am I billed 2.5 weeks after check-out. They said the manager found I had some extra charges on the room and they charged it. Ok then I asked can this be applied back to my final bill so I can view it on the app (in other words, receive points), they said no it’s too late. then I asked can you at least provide a receipt so I can see what these charges are for? then I got the run around saying they will put a request in to send me a receipt blah blah blah… but of course I never got anything. I just filed a dispute hoping to force the hotel to produce a receipt. I don’t really care so much about the $10 but it’s just the principal of how the hotel can randomly charge me 2.5 weeks later without any type of documentation. What if it was $25, $50 etc.. has anyone had a similar experience?
Sorry to hear about that. Never heard of that happening. Could always do a charge back on your credit card and say there was never a bill produced. That will get them to do something 😉
This approach is generally true but program dependent. Bonvoy only gives points on the room. But if you pay with a Bonvoy CC then the total is used for those points earning.
Incorrect – I have stayed plenty of times using all-points, but restaurant/resort charges otherwise receive full points + elite bonus points
I haven’t noticed any of the major brands not giving points for these things rdover1 but I don’t stay at Marriott all that often.
I got a beautiful piece of jewelry from the Na Hoku shop in the mall area partially pd for with the $250 Hilton credit at the Grand Wailea. Resorts like that are gold mines for using credits on top of bonus hotel points. Probably 10 different shops for buying most anything.
Always ask if any store in the vicinity will charge back to the hotel, I am sometimes surprised when they both do, & don’t!
($500 of free merch at Miraval was nice, too, using 2 diff Hyatt cards!)
Always nice to double dip!
There’s also always the possibility that when billing to the room they may not charge you correctly or at all like Starwood used to all the time. Free stuff is good
The flip side are charges NOT made that are sometimes harder to dispute/remove than a single charge disputed with a credit card company.
That is true Christopher…SPG used to let things fall through the cracks all the time lol