Hotel Hustle: Got Points??

Or, more appropriately, Got enough points??

It is one thing to know what hotels cost and what value you’re getting for your points but knowing that you actually have enough points to book the room is even better, right? Thanks to integration with the three largest points-tracking platforms Hotel Hustle can now provide that level of detail in the search results. Say you’re doing a search for rooms in Hamburg in mid-April. By default this is the results you’ll get:



Click the “Enough Points?” filter option and, based on your known account balances the system will filter out the rooms where you do not have sufficient points to redeem and only show those where you do have sufficient points. In my case that leaves me with far fewer options (though the rate at the Le Meridien is pretty good):



How It Works


The key to the “Enough Points” function is tying your Hotel Hustle account to one of the three main awards balance tracking services available: Award Wallet, Traxo & TripIt (Pro). Each of the three systems allows for 3rd party integration where you agree to share some data (read-only) with Hotel Hustle in a secure way where I never see your password for those sites. Simply link up and from there Hotel Hustle will import account balances and keep track of things. You can also get a quick glance at account balances on the same page where you link your accounts.



You can link any or all three of the services; the system will automatically track the highest balance you have in each program from each partner. So, in my case shown here, if I try to book one night at a 10,000 points/night Hyatt then it will show as available but if I try to book two nights at that same hotel it would not as I do not have sufficient points for that booking. By default all hotels are always shown; you can toggle the setting in the filters box.

And, of course, if you no longer want Hotel Hustle to have access simply click on the “Delink” option and I’ll delete the stored information. You can also revoke access via the account settings page on either Traxo or TripIt.

One quirk right now in the system is that the Award Wallet link doesn’t update automatically. I’m working with their tech guys on a fix for that but, in the mean time, you can force it by clicking the icon and approving the request again.

So, not only can you compare the value you’re getting on your award bookings but now you can ensure that you actually have enough points to complete the transaction, too. Enjoy!

The post Hotel Hustle: Got Points?? appeared first on Wandering Aramean.

Continue reading...