Quick Points: How to search for hotels when using free night award certificates

Many hotel loyalty programs have shifted to dynamic pricing, making it difficult to know how many points you'll need for each hotel night on your upcoming vacation.

Will your free night certificate be sufficient? Or will you be priced out, with hotels requiring more points than the value of your free night certificate?

Here's how to search for hotel stays with free night certificates by filtering for hotels that match the value of your free night award.

Hilton Honors

You can use Hilton free night awards any night of the week (an improvement over the previous weekend restriction) at nearly any Hilton property. (The list of exclusions is here.) While you must redeem these awards over the phone, you should still search for availability online first, verifying that the hotel you want has standard rooms available on the night you want.

Here's a search using Hilton Honors points in Honolulu.

Next to the points value, look for the words "standard room reward." You need standard room availability to use your Hilton free night reward. Once you've found a property you like, call Hilton at 800-446-6677.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy might be the most complex program on this list for using free night certificates. It issues free night certificates with multiple values.

When searching for a hotel in Seattle, the results are overwhelming. Below the numbers of rooms and guests, click on "All Filters."

From here, you can filter for hotels in certain point bands. Choose the band that aligns with your free night award's maximum value.

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If you're using a 35,000-point certificate, choose the 0-40,000 points option. Now, you'll have a more manageable list of hotels to consider.

Related: How to use a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificate

Remember that this will show hotels charging up to 40,000 points — a bit more than what your free night is worth. You can only choose hotels your free night award covers in full. Or, you can choose hotels that cost up to 15,000 points more than your free night's value — topping up the award with your Marriott points.

See these for some booking inspiration:

• 7 great uses of Marriott 35,000-point free night certificates
• 13 ways to redeem the Marriott 50K free night award
• 8 places to maximize an 85,000-point Marriott award night certificate

World of Hyatt

Start your search after logging into your World of Hyatt account. Click on "Awards" to see any free nights available in your account.

You can search for a location (but not specific dates) from here.

This search for San Francisco hotels provides numerous results. Clicking "Filters" in the top right allows you to select which categories of hotels you want to see. If you have a Category 1-4 free night (such as the annual award provided by the World of Hyatt Credit Card; see rates and fees), select only hotel Categories 1-4.

Now, you have a manageable list of which properties match the value of your free night award.

This doesn't show availability on particular dates — just which hotels might work. Five hotels match the Category 1-4 free night award, so you can check availability at whichever hotel you prefer.

Related: How to earn, use and make the most of your Hyatt free night certificates

Bottom line

You might see numerous results on your intended travel dates when searching for hotels. Unfortunately, not all of these hotels can be booked with your free night awards.

Understanding how to limit your search results to hotels that match the value of your free night certificate makes for a better booking experience. It provides realistic options and makes the decision process easier, ensuring you can always redeem those valuable certificates.