Is it worth using Avios for hotel room bookings?

The article asks whether it is worth using Avios for hotel room bookings.

Is it worth using Avios for hotel bookings?

The article looks at whether it is worth using your Avios to book a hotel room.

I generally try to stay away from the eternal question of ‘What is an Avios worth?’. At the end of the day, it is a 100% personal decision.

It is a decision based on numerous factors - where you fly, what cabin, whether you normally use an American Express 2-4-1 Companion Voucher or Barclaycard upgrade voucher and (the one rarely considered) what class you would pay for if Avios flights were not available.

Click here for my best effort at answering the ‘What is an Avios worth?’ question.

Is it worth using Avios for hotel bookings?

What you can do, though, is put a floor on the valuation of an Avios. One way of doing this is to look at what they are worth if you redeem for hotel bookings since this is an easy way to cash out your Avios.

(Redeeming Avios for Nectar points is the ultimate ‘cashing out’ route since this effectively turns them into cash you can spend at Sainsbury’s or Argos. The transfer rate is 1:1 so 1 Avios gets you 1 Nectar point which is worth exactly 0.5p.)

You can book a hotel with Avios via this page at avios.com.

As an experiment, I randomly picked four hotels in four cities for Saturday 17th October 2026.

This is what I found, pricing up a four star hotel for two adults. I took the tenth listed hotel to avoid any bias from hotels which had paid to be at the top.

• Hamburg - Holiday Inn Hamburg City Nord - 22,425 Avios or £112
• London - Strand Palace Hotel - 74,800 Avios or £374
• New York - New Yorker by LOTTE Hotels - 81,075 Avios or £405
• Singapore - Four Points by Sheraton Riverview - 36,000 Avios or £180

10 seconds with a calculator shows that these give you a value per Avios of 0.50p.

(With New York, I adjusted the cash rate to exclude the resort fee which is payable at the hotel whether you book for cash or points.)

It is not quite that simple, of course.

Is the underlying price charged by Avios Hotels competitive?

No, to put it simply.

I turned to the official hotel websites to check, choosing the ‘member rate’ where available given that the loyalty schemes are all free to join:

• Hamburg - avios.com cash price £112, ihg.com £101
• London - avios.com cash price £374, hotel’s own site £355
• New York - avios.com cash price £405, hotel’s own site £366
• Singapore - avios.com cash price £180, marriott.com £171

As you can see, in every example above you would make substantial savings by booking direct.

The actual ‘pence per point’ value you receive will be lower than the (usually) 0.50p implied by avios.com. The actual figure will be closer to 0.45p.

You don’t get status benefits or hotel points either

You won’t receive elite status benefits or hotel points if you book a hotel via avios.com.

This is not necessarily an issue - you may want a particular hotel at a brand where you have you have no status and don’t collect their points - but you need to factor it in.

To be fair, I should note that the cash prices quoted on avios.com let you earn Avios back. The standard rate is 10 Avios per £1 spent. This will outweigh the loss of hotel loyalty points.

Is 0.5p per Avios a good deal if booking a hotel?

No.

My ‘What is an Avios worth?’ article (click here) shows how 1p is easily achievable.

Even if you were happy spending your Avios for 0.5p each (and we don’t recommend that) there are better ways of doing it.

Convert your Avios into Nectar points at 0.5p each and use them at Sainsbury’s or Argos.

Pay cash for your hotel, either by booking direct (usually for less, as the examples above show) or use the Avios portal, pay cash and pick up a chunk of Avios points back.

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