This hotel costs over $600 a night. We paid $0.

Travel hacking allows us to travel more while spending less on our trips. Using points and miles also allows us to consider places that would normally be out of budget for us if we were paying cash (credit card). But, when you can stay for free, those trips become infinitely more attainable.

While we don’t have a set amount that we’re willing to pay for hotel nights, it’s safe to say that $600 a night is not an amount we’re comfortable paying. When you’re staying three nights and that total creeps over $1,800 before taxes and fees, it becomes even less attainable.

Thanks to travel hacking, however, we were able to stay for free at the newly-opened JW Marriott Madrid hotel in the center of the city that can cost patrons upwards of $600 a night.

Where we stayed

In early 2023, we decided to go to Portugal and Spain over Thanksgiving. Knowing Madrid would be our last stop, we decided to splurge a bit on the hotel. The JW Marriott Madrid opened in 2023 and is in a prime location in Madrid. Our room looked over the Plaza de Canalejas and was a quick walk from the Puerta del Sol. Madrid does have a robust public transit system, but we walked nearly everywhere thanks to the great location of the hotel.

How we stayed for free

Once we decided on the hotel, we looked at our available points. If you didn’t know, Marriott is our preferred hotel chain. You may be able to get better redemptions from a points perspective with Hyatt, but we like Marriott for the reasons outlined in our previous post.

As part of the sign up bonus for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, we received three free night certificates worth up to 35,000 points per night. Per Marriott’s guidelines, you can add up to 15,000 points to each of these certificates for a value of 50,000 points per night. When we were booking the JW Marriott Madrid, each night was 40,000 points.

In total, we used three free night certificates plus 15,000 Marriott points to cover our stay. The nights we stayed cost just over $600 a night, meaning we stayed for free instead of paying over $1,800 for those three nights.

Because we booked our stay before the hotel was officially open, we got a great deal on our redemption. The amount of points per night has gone up at the JW Marriott Madrid. Right now, staying October 2 through October 5 would cost 247,000 for the stay – over 100,000 points more than we used.

Thanks to our Platinum status with Marriott, we also got free breakfast at the hotel, which we took advantage of every morning. That also helped keep our costs for the trip low.

Summary

We never would book a hotel that costs over $600 a night. It’s simply not in our budget. But through travel hacking, you can use points to stay for free at some truly exceptional places. It’s all about what works best for you and your personal travel goals.