Love to travel? How about hotels? And how about FREE hotel nights?

Here’s how I get free hotel stays!

First, here’s what I recommend:

Use a credit card for points to use toward hotel stays! I suggest signing up for my favorite credit card: the Wyndham Rewards Earner Card, and you can get up to 6 FREE nights just for spending $1000 or more in the first 90 days!

Keep reading for more about my free hotel stays…

How I get FREE Hotel Stays

1.By being a travel blogger or influencer

You may already know I’m a travel blogger. I belong to a travel network and blog about many destinations, particularly around the midwest. I’ve written about Bismarck, Kansas, Duluth and many more. And in order to write about these places, I’m invited to destinations in exchange for coverage. Sometimes I’m invited as part of a group, and sometimes I’m invited to just visit with my family. I always provide honest reviews, but I’ve rarely had a negative experience.

Though I am doing something to get these hotel stays, you could consider these free hotel stays. I don’t pay for them, but I do earn them by writing about them, using my own photos and videos, which I of course enjoy.

These opportunities of course are only available to legit travel writers and influencers, and you can definitely become one yourself. It often takes time to get established though (I’ve been blogging for 15 years!), and you typically need to write about your own self-paid travels first. But it can be amazing to be hosted by a destination and share great finds with your followers.

To go this route, you need to establish yourself as an influencer, build your audience, create some content, network, and then you’ll find opportunities.

2. By using free hotel rewards programs

I signed up for the Wyndham Rewards program years ago. It’s FREE, and you can earn points from your stays. 

The more you stay at the hotels, the more you can earn free and discounted hotel nights in the future. There are often other ways to earn points as well, like for signing up for deals through their affiliates.

Most major hotel chains offer these free rewards programs and they’re free to sign up for. Check out your favorite hotel for what they offer.

3. By using a hotel rewards credit card

You can earn free hotel stays just by using a hotel rewards credit card.

I use the Wyndham Rewards credit card.

Why a Wyndham Rewards credit card?

I LOVE hotels. Growing up, my family traveled a lot and my favorite part of traveling wasn’t so much the attractions, the dining, the exploring – I loved all that, but I especially loved the hotels we stayed at.

I even cleaned hotel rooms for a couple of years as a teenager, largely so I could get free hotel nights for my family.

Over the years, I’ve fallen in love with all kinds of hotels, including AmericInn hotels. I stayed in one in Proctor near Duluth, which I wrote about here. It was so amazing. It had a neat northwoods cabin look, and a fabulous free breakfast. The amenities were great too, including a warm pool.

I also enjoyed our stay at the AmericInn in Stillwater, which was just as nice.

Right after that visit, I realized I was hooked on Wyndham hotels like the AmericInn. So I signed up for a Wyndham Rewards credit card, and have earned at least 6 free nights since. And I haven’t paid a PENNY in interest or fees. I’ve paid off my balance in full every month, yet I’ve earned THOUSANDS of points just using my card like usual. 

I’ve used my free points now to get FREE hotel nights during a trip with my kids to Chicago, and then I used some points for 2 free rooms at an AmericInn near us for my daughter’s birthday with her friends (above). I’m well on my way already to more free rooms just using my credit card like I always have.

Want free nights?

SIGN UP NOW using my referral link and you’ll get up to 6 FREE nights just by using it for at least $1000 in purchases in the first 90 days. It’s SUPER easy.

You should never pay anything for these free hotel stays.

Just note that it’s ESSENTIAL that you pay off your balance in full every month, otherwise you’ll be paying interest and fees that cancel out the free nights. 

There are 2 options – one with NO Annual fee, and one with a $75 annual fee. Both are good – and the one with no annual fee will get you up to 6 free nights within 90 days. The other one will earn you up to 10 free nights within 90 days.

You need between 7500 and 30,000 points for a free night, depending on the hotel. They include:

• Days Inn
• Wingate
• Microtel
• AmericInn (my favorite)
• LaQuinta Inn
• Ramada
• AND MORE

What’s also cool is that when you sign up for a card like this, there are promotions throughout the year that can help you earn even MORE points. For example, if you make reservations for at least 2 nights in a row during a time period, you can get a bonus 5000 points. Or if you stay at least 3 nights, you can earn maybe 10,000 bonus points. So you can earn tons of points for free nights year-round with minimal effort!

When you sign up, I’ll earn extra points which I’ll use for my honeymoon this year! (Don’t worry – I won’t know if you signed up – only that I got points!)

SIGN UP NOW!

Other ways of getting free hotel stays

Work at a hotel

As I mentioned above, I worked in a hotel as a teen, which gave me 2 free nights a year at any hotel in the chain.

Join an airline’s frequent flyer program

Did you know you can use miles to get free hotel nights?

What other ways of getting FREE hotel stays do you know of?