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Collecting Avios is fun, especially when you have your eye on a reward, such as a free flight or an amazing upgrade to Club World or First. Surprisingly, many Avios collectors do not realize you can collect Avios with hotel bookings. In fact, you can earn Avios with each hotel booking in several ways and across hotel chains all over the world!
Avios can be collected with hotel bookings. Options include hotel stays through BA Hotel Bookings which rewards customers with 15 Avios for every £1 spent. Other options include collecting Avios with every Hotels.com, Bookings.com, and IHG booking through the BA Executive account.
It’s possible to collect up to 30,000 or more Avios every year, or up to 100,000 Avios or more for business travelers, just by staying in the same hotels, you do now. 30,000 Avios is enough for a return flight to Rome, whereas 100,000 Avios is enough for a return Premium Economy flight to New York!
In this guide, I will show you how to collect Avios with hotel bookings, how to earn the highest amount of Avios per stay, and which hotels you can collect Avios points with (there are thousands!).
Collecting Avios with Hotel Bookings
Collecting Avios with hotel bookings is really easy. First, you must be logged on to your BA Executive Club account. This is so BA will know it is you who has booked the hotel room and applied the Avios to your account. There are two distinct and separate ways to collect Avios with hotel bookings.
Both methods are very different, both methods will earn you different Avios amounts, and both methods can provide different rewards. Let’s start with British Airways’ own hotel booking system.
Earn Avios with Avios Hotels
Earn up to 15 Avios per £1 spent This method of booking hotel rooms and collecting Avios is quite hidden. It’s not very well known to many Avios holders, yet you can collect the most amount of Avios per £1 spent using this method – up to 15 Avios per £1! This means for a £150 hotel booking you would collect 2,250 Avios.
A 5-night stay at a hotel with an average nightly rate of £125 would see your Avios account increase by 9,375.
For frequent business travelers who stay 2 nights per week in a hotel, at an average cost of £100 a night, it means after one year you could have collected an additional 156,000 Avios! You can see how Avios can easily build up, not only for business travelers but also those traveling for leisure too.
How to collect Avios with Avios Hotels
Here is a complete step-by-step guide showing exactly how to how to earn Avios with a BA Hotel booking:
#1 Log in to your BA Executive Account
#2 Choose ‘Collect Avios’ from within the Discover menu
#3 Select the Hotels & Accommodation option
#4 Scroll down until you find Avios Hotels
#5 Click on ‘Book Now’
#6 Search from thousands of hotels worldwide!
For every booking you make through Avios Hotels, whilst logged on to your BA Executive Club account, you will collect the maximum 15 Avios per £1 spent.
Earn Avios with Hotels.com
Earn up to 4 Avios per £1 spent* (*this can increase to 12 Avios per £1 spent during promotional periods, or you can choose to only collect 3 Avios per £1 spent and still collect Hotels .com reward nights). Although in comparison to Avios Hotels, the number of Avios collected here looks to be low, there are a couple of benefits worth mentioning.
Often Hotels .com run promotions through British Airways and several times a year you can earn up to 12 Avios per £1 spent.
The advantage of Hotels .com vs Avios Hotels is the free cancellation period. Hotels .com offer free cancellation up until the date of check-in, whereas some Avios Hotels bookings are non-cancellable, or cancellation should happen up to 7 days prior to check-in. Another distinct advantage of a Hotels .com booking means you can still earn Reward Night Stamps if you are a Hotels .com Rewards member.
Suggested Reading: Gold Rewards on Hotels.com: The Complete Guide
If you choose to collect reward stamps as well as Avios you will only earn 3 Avios for every £1 spent, but reward stamps, as well as Avios, is a really good way to boost both reward programs at the same time!
How to Collect Avios with Hotels.com
Here’s a complete step-by-step guide on earning Avios with a Hotels.com booking.
#1 Log in to your BA Executive Account
#2 Choose ‘Collect Avios’ from within the Discover menu
#3 From the Avios Menu you need to choose ‘Shopping’
#4 Click the ‘Browse the British Airways Avios eStore link
#5 Search for Hotels.com in the Search Bar
#6 Under the Hotels.com Logo click ‘Shop Now’
You’ll be taken to the Hotels.com website to search for your hotel and make a booking. You can check to make sure the link has worked as expected through the browser tabs. The Shop Now button will have opened Hotels.com onto a different tab. If you click on the British Airways tab you should see a blue confirmation window:
Earn Avios with Booking.com
If perhaps you are a Genius, or Genius Level 2 member at Booking.com you may prefer to book hotels through this marketplace instead. Due to the reduced commission hotels pay Booking.com compared to Hotels.com, you can often find a slightly large number of small B&B hotels and independent Guest Houses.
How to earn Avios with Booking.com
#1 Log in to your BA Executive Account
#2 Choose ‘Collect Avios’ from within the Discover menu
#3 From the Avios Menu you need to choose ‘Shopping’
#4 Click the ‘Browse the British Airways Avios eStore link
#5 Search for Bookings.com in the Search Bar
#6 Under the Bookings.com Logo click ‘Shop Now’
How to Collect Avios with Other Hotels
We’ve seen both methods of finding hotel marketplaces and market chains through the BA Executive Club. The Hotels & Accommodation option has only some of the hotels that you can earn Avios with, these currently include:
- Accor
- Airbnb
- Hyatt Hotels
- IHG Hotels
- Kaligo
- Marriott International
- Vrbo
As we have also seen, the BA Shopping Portal also has a range of different hotels where Avios can be earned per booking or for every £1 spent. These currently include the following hotels:
The steps involved are exactly the same as we have seen so far with Avios Hotels, Hotels .com, and Booking .com.
Which Hotels Offer the Most Avios?
Avios earnings are often based per marketplace rather than hotel unless the booking is direct through a large international chain hotel through the Hotels & Accommodation section. The best way to check you get the best price is to search both Hotels.com and Bookings.com for the hotel you wish to book. If they are both available and at a similar price, then check who is offering the most Avios per £1 at the time of booking.
Then use the link through the BA Executive Club to make your purchase to earn your Avios. Always of course check the same hotel price through Avios Hotels. Avios earnings are always greater through Avios Hotels, although cancellation restrictions may be stricter.
Collecting Avios with Hotel Bookings – The Insider’s Notes
- The maximum amount of Avios you can earn is 15 Avios for every £1 spent through Avios Hotels
- There are literally thousands and thousands of hotels to earn Avios through, but all bookings must be made through the BA Executive Club account links
- It’s possible to collect Hotels.com Reward Stamps as well as 3 Avios per £1 spent – again through the BA Executive Club link