Nectar Hotels giving a very generous 1.1p per Nectar / Avios point!
Nectar Hotels is, as you may guess, a hotel booking site where you can earn or spend Nectar points.
It’s not something we talk about much because you only got around 0.5p per Nectar point when redeeming. You would be better off booking your hotel via another method – even for cash on Nectar Hotels, earning a pile of points back – and saving your Nectar points for something else.
Yesterday, however, a reader sent me this:
He booked Holiday Inn Newcastle-Jesmond and got an £86.01 room for 7,819 Nectar points. This is exactly 1.1p per Nectar point which is exceptional value.
All hotels seem to be giving 1.1p per Nectar point
I can’t show you similar screenshots because I only have 165 points in my Nectar account! However, the Nectar Hotels home page says ‘500 points = £5.50 off your booking’ so it seems to be an official deal and not a bug.
What I can do is show a screenshot of a hotel for cash and for points. Here is London Hilton on Park Lane for cash at £545:
…. or for 49,507 Nectar points:
…. so exactly 1.1p per Nectar point.
Nectar Hotels has never offered anything like 1.1p before and we have old articles to prove it! Has the scheme been massively improved without anyone knowing?
If you have a stash of Nectar points then this could be a way of using them, and in a far better way than Avios.
If you transfer Avios into Nectar at 1:1 you’re getting 1.1p per Avios. Similarly, it is a great use of American Express Membership Rewards points at this rate given 1:1 transfers.
I originally thought it was an error but, as the comments point out, the small print on the home page does say it is now £5.50 per 500 Nectar points.
My best guess is that, because most people only have small Nectar balances, Agoda (which runs the platform) is happy to take a small loss on what it assumes will be a modest points part-payment. After all, Nectar Hotels has been a dusty backwater for years and needs the volume. Are they in for a surprise ….
The only thing to remember is that hotels booked via Nectar do not qualify for status benefits, if you have status, because they are treated as third party bookings.
Thanks to Craig for flagging.