HotelSavers – a new travel redemption offering from Air Canada’s Aeroplan officially launched today. The program has partnered with 11 hotel chains featuring a total of 39 global hotel brands to offer Aeroplan members up 30% more value per point for hotel stays.
HotelSavers can be found at aircanada.com/hotelsavers
What is HotelSavers?
You might be wondering what is HotelSavers as Aeroplan already lets members redeem points for hotel stays. Think of HotelSavers as an extension of the current Aeroplan hotel booking options but with more value per point at participating hotels. Aeroplan is taking a traditional approach with HotelSavers as they are offered as a rewards gird with 8 categories of hotels ranging from economy to luxury, starting at 10,000 points per night including taxes. You know, kind of like the traditional hotel reward charts that most hotel programs have moved away from in favour of dynamic pricing.
The HotelSavers Points Grid
| HotelSavers category | Points per night* |
| 1 | 10,000 – 15,000 |
| 2 | 15,000 – 22,500 |
| 3 | 20,000 – 30,000 |
| 4 | 25,000 – 40,000 |
| 5 | 35,000 – 50,000 |
| 6 | 45,000 – 70,000 |
| 7 | 55,000 – 80,000 |
| 8 | 75,000 – 105,000 |
These are estimated number of points per night for a standard room for each HotelSavers category
Some category examples from around the world:
HotelSavers facts
- HotelSavers redemptions always include taxes. Some properties do charge resort fees, and if applicable, those fees would be collected at the hotel
- All HotelSavers properties offer an option to book a refundable rate. Some HotelSavers properties also offer non-refundable options for even fewer points
- We will continue to offer the ability to redeem Aeroplan points with non-HotelSavers hotels, and at the same values they are offered today
- YMMV as it relates to earning elite night credits and elite benefits with our hotel partners. Suffice to say, this is something Aeroplan is working on
- There are more properties and brands to come, so stay tuned!
Participating hotel brands
- Luxury – Fairmont, Shangri-La, InterContinental, SLH Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Taj, Kimpton Hotels, Sofitel, Six Senses, Regent, Faena, SLS
- Premium – Le Germain Hotels, Omni Hotels, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Swissôtel, Hotel Indigo, Pullman, MGallery, voco, Escad Hotels, 21C Museum Hotels, Hualuxe, Even Hotels
- Midscale & Economy – Coast hotels, Novotel, alt hotels, Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Atwell Suite, avid, Mama Shelter, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, ibis and ibis styles
Sample Redemption Rates
Here are handful of sample redemption values as provided by Aeroplan
- Inter-Continental Bora Bora Resort (Category 8) – 71,000 pts/night
- Fairmont Mayakoba Resort, Playa Del Carmen (Category 7) – 60,000 pts/night
- Shangri-La Toronto (Category 6) – 45,000 pts/night
- Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort (Category 6) – 43,000 pts/night
- Taj Exotica Hotel and Spa, Goa (Category 5) – 39,000 pts/night
- Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile (Category 5) – 36,000 pts/night
- Le Germain Charlevoix Hotel & Spa, Baie-Saint-Paul (Category 4) – 33,000 pts/night
- Claris Hotel and Spa (SLH), Barcelona (Category 3) – 24,000 pts/night
- Lorenzo Hotel (Preferred Hotels & Resorts), Dallas (Category 2) – 12,000 pts/night
Actual Redemption Rates & Values
These are some of the actual redemption rates I found when searching on HotelSavers.
Here is a one night stay at the Le Germain Hotel Calgary:
It is 20,000 Aeroplan points including taxes and fees. The same room from Le Germain themselves goes for $257.10. This redemption provides a 1.29 cents per point value. Not great but not overly bad either.
Here is a one night at the InterContinental Bora Bora Le Moana Resort:
75,000 Aeroplan points including taxes and fees. The same room from IHG themselves goes for $818 This redemption provides a 1.09 cents per point value. Personally I would have a tough time redeeming my points at only 1.09 cents in value. That being said, for those of you sitting on more points than you know what to do with them can save you some cash by redeeming for hotel stays like this one.
Finally here is The Pierre, A Taj Hotel in New York City. This is a category 8 hotel that prices higher than the grid system shown above.
Here you have 146,950 Aeroplan points required for a US$1524 stay. That works out to 1.04 US cents per points or about 1.4 cents in C$.
It appears the per point values will run between the 1 to 1.5 cents range based on my searches but I did only conduct three. Let me know if you have any luck finding hotels that provide even better value than what is shown here.
Also, while Aeroplan does have the published grid system for each category, those are only estimates. For example, most of the hotels in New York City priced well above what is shown in the grid.
Flexible Payment options
If you don’t have enough points for a stay you can select the Points + Cash option to split your payment 50/50 Points + Cash.
Wrapping it up
Many frequent flyer programs allow you to use points for hotel stays, just as Aeroplan has done for years. Typically though the value of redeeming for hotels wasn’t worth it compared to what you could get for your points when redeeming for flights. However with HotelSavers the program Aeroplan is narrowing the gap in that value when you compare redeeming points for economy class flights.