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| Tips for booking during mega events |
| by Brian Kelly |
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Hi everyone,
Summer starts now, and this year that means big events like America’s 250th anniversary and the FIFA World Cup will be taking place in the U.S. As expected during a peak event, prices can skyrocket.
Like the Olympics this past February, cash rates at 5-star hotels spiked in Milan — some by more than 87%. According to data from Costar, luxury hotel rooms in Milan during the Olympics cost well over €1,500 (over $1,700) per night. I saw these rates firsthand when I went to book the Park Hyatt Milan, one of my preferred hotels in the Italian city, during my trip to see the Olympics, but I wasn’t about to pay it.
In the end, I didn’t pay thousands or even hundreds of dollars for my stay at the Park Hyatt Milan during the Olympic Games. In fact, I didn’t even pay a dollar (well, not counting room service).
Instead, I used 40,000 Hyatt points per night for my luxury stay at the Park Hyatt Milan during the winter Olympics.
Having points and miles can really come in handy when cash prices are high during peak moments like major sporting events, coveted concerts, or important conventions. But you may not find award availability when booking in advance, which can lead to overpaying.
With the big events on the horizon and summer concert season starting, it’s more helpful than ever to keep that cash in your wallet (or use it to splurge on better seats) and figure out how to stay for less when traveling for these events. These are my top tips for booking hotel rooms during major events.
Keep checking availability
Hotels often release award availability closer to an event if room blocks don’t fill up. This is what happened in my case — the Park Hyatt Milan didn’t have award availability until they did. Set calendar alerts weekly or even daily to check award availability as your trip approaches.
For instance, in Philadelphia in July, The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia and W Philadelphia both still have rooms available on points, so you can celebrate the Fourth of July and see a World Cup match. Plus, when you book with Marriott Bonvoy points and stay for four nights, you get the fifth night free.
Book a refundable backup option
Have a backup plan if your preferred hotel doesn’t end up having award availability. Book something refundable (in cash or points) that you can easily cancel if your preferred option becomes available.
Use tools to help
Some of my favorite tools for finding hotel room award availability are rooms.aero and MaxMyPoint. These tech options can help by finding award availability the moment it becomes available, even if you’re not checking regularly.
With rooms.aero, you have access to several hotel points programs and can set alerts to notify you when a specific hotel has availability.
Using MaxMyPoint, you can use the map feature to search for various hotels in a specific destination, and you can also sign up to receive email alerts with availability.
Splurge on official ticket packages
It’s getting more difficult than ever to score tickets for popular concerts and events. Chase offered FIFA World Cup tickets, but they sold out in seconds. And I know I’m not the only one who’s spent hours in a virtual line waiting to snap up official concert tickets for top acts.
If you’re traveling for a once-in-a-lifetime event such as the FIFA World Cup, splurging on an official ticket package may make sense, especially if you’ve managed to book hotels and flights with points.
I personally like to use my points for flights and hotels and pay cash for tickets, but if you are sitting on a bunch of points and want the experience, you can use points and miles for hospitality packages.
American Airlines Vacations has multiple package options with miles, Marriott Bonvoy and Visa have a partnership sweepstakes you can enter and Qatar Airways has packages you can bid on using your Avios.
I experienced one of the hospitality packages at the Olympics — the VIP packages aren’t cheap, but if you saved cash by using points and miles for flights and hotels and want to splurge, they are amazing. Think best views, lounges with open bars, catered food, specialty merch shops and celebrity sightings. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I’m the official Philadelphia Hospitality Captain for FIFA World Cup 2026, and hospitality packages are still available in Philadelphia for the June and July game dates.
As a Philly native, I’m excited to attend the Philly FIFA games … if you need a summer trip, no need to go abroad this year, there’s plenty happening at home.
Hope to see you there!
BK
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| Photo Credit: HYATT. |
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