The question comes up from time to time, but let’s address it straight up: can you gift free nights to someone else or is it not allowed?

Have you wondered whether it’s possible to gift free nights to others? You’re not alone. Each hotel loyalty program has its own set of rules for using your benefits on someone else. Let’s dig into the terms for each and determine whether it’s possible and what’s allowed.

Quick summary by hotel chain

What does it mean to us on booking for others with our points?

• Directly booking for others with your points–just as it sounds, is it possible to make a reservation in someone else’s name? Can it be done online or does it require someone else to assist with the reservation? Some programs make this easy while others don’t allow it at all, and still others leave it ambiguous.
  
• Transferring your points to another member–can you book for someone else by first giving them your points? Again, this is a mixed bag across different programs, but if a program allows it, this is perhaps the easiest approach. Your friends and family could then manage the reservation on their own without needing you in the middle.
  
• Booking more than 1 room with points–perhaps your desire is just to have another family join you or you need another room for the kids. Being able to book multiple rooms with points is helpful. However, the expectation is that you’ll be the one present to check in.

The official rules by hotel chain and what works in practice

Accor Live Limitless

You cannot use your points to book for someone else with the Accor Live Limitless (ALL) program if you have no intention of staying:

The ALL loyalty card is strictly personal and non-transferable. It can only be used by the member whose first and last names appear on the card. Transferring, selling, or loaning the ALL card, even to a family member, is prohibited.

On top of that, there is no points sharing in the program as a backdoor method to give your points to someone else and have them book a room. However, the program terms permit you to book two rooms under your name and both are bookable with points. Thus, we would say it’s possible to book a points rate for others as long as you occupy one of the rooms.

Related:

• Accor Points: A Fixed But High Value

Choice Privileges

The Choice Privileges official rules state that you can book rooms for others as long as they are a family member:

A Member may redeem a Reward Night for immediate family members (spouse, partner, children, parents, in-laws, brothers, and sisters) only. Immediate family members can use the Reward Night even if the Member is not occupying the room.

When booking a Reward Night for someone other than yourself, be sure to ask the reservation agent to include the name of the guest in the notes field of the reservation. When booking a reward night through your online profile, be sure to include the name of the guest who will be staying in the room in the “Special Request” field.

There is no points sharing in the program as a backdoor method to give your points to someone else for them to book their own room. That said, you can book up to 9 rooms with points, so you can book for plenty of people as long as you occupy one of the rooms.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value Choice Privileges Points

Hilton Honors

The official terms of the Hilton Honors program don’t directly say if you can book for others or not. You could call and perhaps get an agent to book a room with your points for someone else, but it’s hit or miss.

Instead, the easiest method is to just join the free Hilton points pooling program:

Hilton Honors Members can transfer Hilton Honors Points to another Hilton Honors Member through Points Pooling or 1-to-1 transfer in increments of 1,000 Points and up to 500,000 Points. Each Hilton Honors Member is limited to sending no more than 500,000 Points and receiving 2,000,000 points via Points Pooling or Transfers combined per calendar year. Each Hilton Honors Member is limited to making six transfers to other member accounts and six Hilton Points Pooling transactions per calendar year.

As with Choice Privileges, you can book up to 9 rooms with points, giving you plenty of freedom to invite others as long as you occupy one of the rooms.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value a Hilton Point
• The Value of a Hilton Elite Night

I Prefer Hotel Rewards

Sadly, I Prefer is very restrictive when it comes to booking free nights for others:

Can I book a Reward Night for a friend or family member?

A Reward Nights booking is valid only for use by the Member from whose account the redemption is processed and is not transferable.

The program allows you to transfer Rewards Certificates to others, but that’s essentially turning your points into a voucher. You would only get 0.2 cents per point in that scenario, so it’s not a great use of points at all.

You can thankfully freely transfer points between I Prefer members by submitting a request on their website. That thankfully means that booking for others is possible but it will require moving points first. But, points earned as a “bonus” from I Prefer Hotel Rewards are not eligible to transfer. They don’t clarify what that means.

On top of that, there are reports that you can book up to 3 rooms with points under your name.

Related:

• I Prefer Hotel Rewards: Why You Might Prefer Them Too

IHG One Rewards

The official IHG One Rewards FAQ states that you can indeed book for others by adding their name to the guest field:

Can I use my IHG One Rewards points to book a reservation for someone other than myself?

Yes, you can book a Reward Night for someone else by making a booking via IHG’s website or the IHG One Rewards App and then adding an additional name to the reservation.

Our recommendation would also to note in the comments that the intention is to gift the stay to someone else. Should you receive any pre-arrival communications from the hotel, I would also reinforce it there as well to help it go as smoothly as possible.

Those same FAQs also say that you can transfer points to others but it will cost you $5 per 1,000 points. That means a stay costing 50,000 points would cost you $250. Not exactly what you want for a “free” night booked with points.

Lastly, with IHG One Rewards, you can only book one rewards room at a time. However, you can duplicate the reservation after booking.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value IHG Points
• The Value of an IHG Elite Night

LHW Leaders Club

Just like Hilton, there’s nothing that clearly states if you can book for others and not also be present. You can’t book directly for others on their site, aside from potentially adding a name in the comments. You might have success calling in to book, but this can be hit or miss.

LHW Leaders Club does not permit transferring points from one member to another. But on the plus side, you can use your points to book as many rooms as you’d like provided you have the points to do so.

Related:

• LHW Leaders Club Points: Very High Value, Difficult to Obtain

Marriott Bonvoy

Yes, officially Marriott Bonvoy allows you to book stays for others with points:

Gifting an Award Reservation is a specific process that requires you, the Member (the Gifter), to contact Marriott Bonvoy Customer Support to ensure the reservation is correctly handled.

Keep in mind these rules governing booking for others:

• Free night award certificates are not eligible for transfer to others
• There is a limit of gifting a maximum of 5 free nights to others in a calendar year
• Neither the gifter nor the receiver earns elite night credit for the stay
• There are no elite status benefits during the stay, even if the receiver has elite status of their own

That last bullet can be a bit of a “gotcha” for some. Thus, we’d prefer to transfer points where possible. With Marriott Bonvoy, you can transfer points for free, but this also has its own set of rules:

• Both the sender and receiver need to have accounts for at least 30 days with qualifying activity or 90 days without
• There is a hard limit of 100,000 points passing between two accounts, and up to 500,000 points from all accounts combined, per calendar year
• There is also a max of 2 transactions per month per account and 6 transactions per year

That means some stays are just not possible if you’re looking to hand someone else your points.

One last thing: you can book up to 9 rooms, but are limited to 3 under just your own name. Thus, for practical purposes, we’ll consider the limit to be a total of 3 rooms booked with points. Anything more than that and you’d be following the approach above for booking under someone else’s name.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value a Marriott Point
• The Value of a Marriott Bonvoy Elite Night

World of Hyatt

Hyatt is arguably the most flexible when it comes to booking for others. The program itself allows for free transfer of awards, including free night certificates and upgrades. On top of that, you can call up Hyatt Customer Service to just directly book awards for others. What are you limited to under this approach?

Instead of gifting my award, can I just book an award stay on behalf of someone else?

Yes, for some awards, you can book award stays on behalf of someone else. Free Night Awards, certain Room Upgrade Awards, Points + Cash Awards, and Guest of Honor Awards are eligible to be booked in the name of another person.

What makes Hyatt even better is that you can gift someone else elite status to pair up with award nights. Just have someone with at least 40 elite nights transfer over a Guest of Honor award to take advantage. While other programs explicitly don’t allow sharing of elite status, we appreciate that Hyatt is so open with this feature.

Points transfers are also currently free and just require filling out a form to have Customer Service process it. This point transfer process will be updated in 2026. We’ll have to wait and see what it looks like in the future.

You can book multiple rooms with points, but you’ll need to do this one room at a time. That said, if the one making the booking has elite status, unless you’re also applying Guest of Honor awards on the other rooms, only the room with the elite member will have status if you do it this way.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value a Hyatt Point
• The Value of a Hyatt Elite Night

Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham is similarly straightforward when it comes to booking for others. Their FAQ states it is indeed possible:

Can I book a hotel reservation for someone else?

Yes, you can book a hotel reservation for someone else; however, the hotel will need to update the reservation upon check-in with the actual guests’ names and information.

In practice, all you need to do is fill in the other member’s details into the Guest Information section after selecting the hotel. No need to worry about calling up anyone or transferring something online. Pretty easy!

On the downside, you’re unable to transfer points at all to another member. And while the system limits you to booking just a single room at a time with points, you can just repeat the process as much as you need.

Related:

• Case in Point: The Way I Value Wyndham Rewards Points

What to watch out for (risks)

There are a couple of major things to look out for in this process. But before we talk about what those are, let’s first point out why hotel programs might be hesitant with booking awards for others:

• Selling points/nights are against the rules of all programs. Making points transfers and free nights transferrable makes it harder to control this type of fraud.
• If someone hacks into a loyalty account, the hacker could easily book a hotel in their own name or in someone else’s name.
• Benefitting from elite status is generally only meant for the elite member. Using your points to book someone else’s room isn’t meant to be a loophole to also extending benefits.
• Only the elite member should be the one earning elite night/stay credit. Having someone else earn it for you is a violation of the terms.

So, with that out of the way, you’ll want to avoid looking like you’re trying to unfairly benefit beyond the terms of the loyalty program. If the loyalty program suspects that you’re violating the terms, you might get banned from the program and from future stays.

How might you reduce the likelihood of appearing to sell points/hotel nights and not abuse elite status privileges? This isn’t a complete list and isn’t intended to be one. But a few thoughts come to mind:

• Don’t transfer points to someone you don’t actually know. Responding to random people online could open you up to that person’s reputation. If they do something against the terms, you might look complicit by association.
• Try to limit the number of people you transfer nights/points. There’s no hard and fast rule, but if you’re out there transferring to many people, especially if they don’t have the same last name, it could look suspicious to those auditing the program.
• Don’t try to add the other person to the comments line of the reservation if the program has other methods to book. Take the time to book the stay in someone else’s name properly. If you try to add someone to the comments line and have the hotel check them in first, it might look like you’re just trying to give your elite benefits. Some hotels don’t extend any elite benefits until you show up. Others might not let the other guest check in at all. Do it the right way, not the lazy way.
• The more (written) communication, the better. Some hotels will reach out proactively before the stay. If you’re trying to book for someone else, make it painfully clear to the front desk pre-arrival. It’s best to also get it in writing so you have a basis to push back on in the event there are any problems. Adding transparency is never a bad thing.

Are you going to gift free nights to someone else?

Suggested reading:

• Did You Know: Free Cash Back on Hotel Stays
• Don’t Wait on the Airline! Book Your Own Hotel When Travel Goes Sideways
• How Rewarding is a Night at Each Hotel Loyalty Program?
• How to Emulate Hotel Elite Status
• Quick Hit: Overriding The Hotel Thermostat In Your Room