Get a Fourth or Fifth Night Free on Hotel Award Bookings

Redeeming points for hotel stays is a great way to save on travel, but one benefit people often forget or never knew existed, is the ability to score a free night just by extending your stay.

And no, this isn’t a flash promo or seasonal trick. It’s a built-in perk that hotel loyalty programs like Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, and Aeroplan HotelSavers quietly offer to members who know how to play the game.

If you’re booking with points, these programs will reward you with the fourth or fifth night free benefits. No codes, no call-ins, no post-stay rebates. The discount just kicks in automatically if you meet the criteria.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how each program handles the benefit, how to maximize it, and a few examples showing just how much value you can squeeze out of it—especially at luxury resorts or during peak travel periods.

Free Night Benefits by Hotel Programs In a Nutshell

Marriott Bonvoy: Fifth Night Free (Stay for 5, Pay for 4)

Marriott Bonvoy’s version is the easiest to understand: book five consecutive nights using points and pay for only four.

To qualify, your booking must be made using points only for all five nights. Cash + Points, free night certificates, and certain promotional offers won’t count.

However, if the hotel offers a Redemption with Cash Upgrade or Redemption with Points Upgrade, you can still take advantage of this perk while booking upgraded rooms like suites—the catch is that only the base redemption amount gets waived, not the upgrade surcharge.

Let’s take a quick look at an example.

Consider booking a five night stay at The Westin Resort & Spa, Ubud, Bali.

For a standard room (1 King, Garden View), the nightly costs are:

• June 1: 37,000 points
• June 2: 37,000 points
• June 3: 38,000 points
• June 4: 39,000 points
• June 5: 40,000 points

With the fifth night free, Marriott waives the lowest-priced base night (June 1, 37,000 points), bringing the total down to 154,000 points.

One thing to pay attention during this step is that if you have a Free Night Certificate in your account, Marriott may automatically apply it during the booking process.

If this happens, your reservation will only include four nights on points—and you’ll miss out on the fifth night free. Be sure to deselect it if you’re aiming for the full benefit.

If you do want to use a Free Night Certificate, you’ll need to book a total of six nights. Book five nights on points to trigger the free night, then apply your certificate to stay a sixth night.

Want to push it further? If you’re booking 10 nights on points, you’ll get two free nights. At 15 nights, it’s three. It keeps stacking in increments of five.

This perk also extends to suite bookings, as long as the hotel offers a “Redemption with Points Upgrade” or “Redemption with Cash Upgrade.”

Let’s say you upgrade to a 1 King Suite using the “Redemption with Points Upgrade.” Each night adds 9,600 points on top of the base rate:

• June 1: 46,600 points (37,000 + 9,600)
• June 2: 46,600 points (37,000 + 9,600)
• June 3: 47,600 points (38,000 + 9,600)
• June 4: 48,600 points (39,000 + 9,600)
• June 5: 49,600 points (40,000 + 9,600)

With fifth night free, only the base redemption for the cheapest night (June 1: 37,000 pts) is waived—not the upgrade fee.

So instead of paying 239,000 points, you’ll pay 202,000 points. (239,000 – 37,000 = 202,000)

Same rule applies for Redemption with Cash upgrade. You’ll get the base redemption for the cheapest night waived, but you’ll have to pay additional cash required to upgrade for all five nights.

Lastly, if you want to combine a Free Night Certificate with this benefit, remember: you must book five consecutive nights on points first, then add your certificate as a sixth night.

Hilton Honors: Fifth Night Free for Elite Members

Hilton Honors offers excellent value for longer award stays through its fifth night free benefit. When booking entirely with points, you’ll receive every fifth night at no additional cost—available on stays of up to 20 consecutive nights.

This perk, however, is only available to Hilton Honors members with elite status (Silver or higher).

Fortunately, achieving elite status with Hilton is relatively accessible. Silver status requires just four eligible stays or 10 eligible nights per year, and can also be earned instantly by holding a no-fee U.S. Hilton credit card – a great first U.S. credit card if you haven’t yet expanded your portfolio.

In Canada, you can automatically enjoy Gold status by holding an American Express Platinum Card (enrolment required).

The fifth night free benefit applies only to standard room rewards and cannot be combined with Points + Cash bookings or premium room redemptions. Hilton also uses dynamic pricing, and just like Marriott, the system will waive the base points for every fifth night—automatically applied at checkout.

Let’s walk through an example.

Say you’re planning a five-night stay at Conrad Bangkok, a popular upscale property in the Thai capital.

 

A standard room at this hotel costs 40,000 Hilton Honors points per night. Under normal circumstances, a five-night stay would total 200,000 points.

However, thanks to the fifth night free benefit, you’ll only need to redeem 160,000 points for the same five-night stay.

You can use this benefit as often as you like, so long as each redemption includes at least five consecutive nights at the standard rate. Just make sure to watch out for rooms labeled “Premium Room Reward,” as those are not eligible for the discount.

This simple perk allows you to save a substantial number of points by extending your stay by just one night. It’s an easy way to unlock extra value with minimal effort.

If you’re a little short on points, Hilton often runs promotions allowing members to top up their balances by purchasing points—sometimes at a rate as low as 0.5 cents per point.

These typically occur every few months and can be a great way to bridge a small gap.

In situations where buying a small number of points allows you to unlock the fifth night free, the math often works out in your favour.

You can also redeem Hilton’s free night certificates for separate stays, but they can’t be combined with the fifth night free benefit.

If you want to use one alongside a longer points stay, it’s best to apply the certificate as a sixth night, following your five-night redemption.

IHG One Rewards: Fourth Night Free (U.S. Cardholders Only)

IHG One Rewards stands out by offering a fourth night free—a full night earlier than what Marriott and Hilton provide. However, there’s one key requirement: this benefit is exclusively available to holders of select U.S.-issued IHG co-branded credit cards.

Simply having IHG elite status or being a loyalty member isn’t enough. You’ll need to hold one of the following:

• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card

For Canadians, this can feel a little unfair—especially if you’ve earned status or stay with IHG frequently.

Still, it’s a smart tactic by IHG to encourage card signups and long-term cardholder retention, especially since the benefit offers real savings.

Once you’ve got an eligible card linked to your IHG account, the fourth night free benefit will automatically apply when you book four or more consecutive nights using points.

The stay must be at the standard room reward rate, and the benefit doesn’t apply to Points + Cash redemptions or when using free night certificates.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Suppose you’re booking a four-night stay at the InterContinental Bangkok with the following nightly rates:

• June 1: 32,000 points
• June 2: 33,000 points
• June 3: 38,000 points
• June 4: 41,000 points

Without the fourth-night-free perk, this booking would cost a total of 144,000 points.

But with an eligible IHG credit card, the true fourth night (June 4) is waived.

That’s a savings of 41,000 points, bringing the total down to 103,000 points—or an average of 25,750 points per night.

That’s nearly a 29% discount over booking the same stay without the card.

This benefit can be used as many times as you’d like and scales with longer redemptions—for example, you’ll get two nights free on an eight-night stay, three nights on twelve, and so on.

While you can’t combine this benefit with a free night certificate in the same reservation, you can still make use of both by splitting your stay.

Book four nights using points to trigger the fourth-night-free benefit, then create a separate booking with your certificate—either before or after your points stay.

Just keep in mind that you may need to ask the hotel to merge the reservations at check-in. While not guaranteed, most hotels will accommodate this request to avoid a room change.

If your travel dates are flexible, you can also try rearranging your booking to have the most expensive night fall on the fourth night, since that’s the one that gets waived.

Aeroplan HotelSavers: Fourth Night Free on Portal Bookings

This perk tends to fly under the radar.

In late 2023, Aeroplan introduced a Fourth Night Free feature for hotel bookings made with points—bringing it in line with similar perks offered by major hotel loyalty programs.

Originally launched as a limited-time offer, Aeroplan has since extended the benefit through to December 31, 2025.

The perk is available exclusively to Aeroplan co-branded credit cardholders, and it applies to all hotel redemptions made with Aeroplan points, including discounted HotelSavers properties.

To qualify, the stay must consist of at least four consecutive nights at the same hotel, booked as a single reservation through the Air Canada website or app while logged into an Aeroplan account linked to an eligible credit card.

Let’s look at an example.

A four-night stay at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Brampton costs 54,000 Aeroplan points with the Fourth Night Free applied—an average of 13,500 points per night.

The same stay would cost $791 CAD in cash, giving you a redemption value of around 1.46 cents per point.

While this may look like a decent deal at first glance, keep in mind that Aeroplan points usually deliver much better value when redeemed for flights, especially in premium cabins.

Booking a one-way business class ticket on SWISS from Toronto to Zurich costs 70,000 Aeroplan points plus about $105 CAD in taxes and fees.

The same flight, booked with cash, might cost around $3,500 CAD. After subtracting taxes and fees, that gives you a value of 4.85 cents per point—more than 3× what you’d get on the hotel stay.

So, while the Fourth Night Free is a solid perk—especially for casual travellers or those sitting on a large Aeroplan balance—flights remain the most powerful way to maximize your Aeroplan points.

How to Maximize the Free Night Benefit

While a free night on points sounds like a great deal (and it often is), there are a few simple strategies that can help you squeeze even more value out of this perk.

For Marriott Bonvoy, keep in mind that the program waives the lowest-priced night from your booking.

So if one night is significantly cheaper than the rest, that’s the one you’ll get for free—not ideal if you’re trying to maximize your points.

To get the best return, try to avoid having a “throwaway” night with a drastically lower rate, or shift your dates so that pricing is more balanced.

On the flip side, IHG One Rewards waives the actual fourth night—regardless of its cost. That means you’ll want to try and stack your most expensive night as the fourth night in your stay. If your dates are flexible, this small shift could save you thousands of points.

And here’s a universal tip: even if you were originally planning to stay four nights (Marriott or Hilton) or three nights (IHG), consider adding an extra night just to trigger the free night benefit.

You’ll often only pay a small number of extra points, and in return, you’ll get an extra elite qualifying night—which brings you one step closer to unlocking your next elite status level.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a seasoned points enthusiast or just starting out, getting a free hotel night simply by booking a few extra nights is one of the easiest wins in the loyalty world.

Programs like Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, and Aeroplan HotelSavers all offer a version of the fourth or fifth night free—unlocking real value when booked strategically.

While the savings vary by program, they all share one thing in common: you’ll stretch your points further and get closer to elite status with every qualifying stay.

Just make sure you’re booking under the right conditions and using an eligible credit card if needed.