Last week I took a trip on points to Florida, my flights were $150, my car rental was $100 for three days including a full tank of gas, and my hotels were almost free (15$).

I could have spent zero on hotels but wanted a specific IHG hotel and did not quite have enough points to book it. Then I remembered that you can buy hotel points- it is a bit expensive but worth it when you are just short a few points. The number of points I needed cost me only fifteen dollars and this got me enough points to book the hotel I wanted for free.

By the way the holiday inn express in Florida City is a nice hotel to stop at if you are needing a stop on the way to the keys. Here is a link to the hotel.  

IHG (formerly priority club) has a new contest which is on from now until the end of 2013. If you stay at holiday inns or related hotels this could be a good way for you to pick up a lot of extra points- up to 86,000 if you get all the goals done. The full details of the contents are on their website here. 

I used to be a huge proponent of Marriot Rewards but last year I decided to make a change and try out Priority Club hotelshttp://www.priorityclub.com.

The availability of hotels from this group is just as good as Marriot, at least in the cities that I am visiting.

Here is a tip if you are going to be staying at these hotels.

Register yourself as a Priority Club member. It costs nothing so you have nothing to lose. Go to the priorityclub.com website, go to the word offers, and you will get a drop down menu. The last item on this menu is my offer status- click on this. It will ask you to login if you are not already.

The next page will be a list of offers you qualify for- typically by staying some number of nights you will get X thousand additional points.

Here is the tip: Sign up for all of the offers. Then forget about it. And try to stay at Priority Club hotels.

I wouldn’t change any of my travel patterns to get extra hotel points but this way you are covered if you do happen to stay.