In the case of airline award redemptions, there are many instruments, similar to ExpertFlyer, AwardLogic, and FlightConnections, that may assist you seek for availability and evaluate costs. Nonetheless, in the case of looking for lodge award stays, there haven’t been fairly as many choices.

For frequent travellers, one device to assist optimize lodge stays is Awayz by Odynn, or Awayz for brief. With this product, you possibly can simply evaluate the price of lodge stays in money and factors throughout numerous applications, which makes it simple to optimize your keep.

(Within the close to future, Awayz will probably be launching a Canadian model; nevertheless, the beneath information represents the present US model. We’ve included details about the Canadian model in acceptable sections, and for those who’d prefer to be notified when the Canadian model launches, you possibly can add your title to a waitlist and be notified of when it’s prepared). 

What Is Awayz?

Merely put, Awayz is a lodge looking device that means that you can simply evaluate the price of lodge stays in factors and money. At present, you possibly can evaluate and distinction Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott lodges on the platform.

By utilizing Awayz, you possibly can simply evaluate the worth in factors versus money that can assist you determine which is greatest in your upcoming keep.

Whether or not it’s best to redeem factors or pay with money for an upcoming keep can depend upon numerous elements; nevertheless, simply evaluating the totally different costs is the primary place to start out when making that call.

What’s extra, Awayz has a bevy of different options that may assist to streamline the journey planning course of.

In your account, you possibly can manually enter your individual factors balances from transferable factors applications and lodge loyalty applications. So long as these numbers are correct, they’ll assist tailor the search outcomes to your specific scenario. 

Awayz additionally means that you can arrange personalized alerts for when award availability opens up at a particular lodge.

This may be notably priceless for hard-to-book lodges, similar to Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. Whereas it’s top-of-the-line makes use of of a Hilton Free Evening Reward, it’s additionally one in every of Hilton’s hardest lodges to e book with Free Evening Rewards, and Awayz may help you rating a coveted award keep.

With Awayz, you possibly can view all upcoming award availability in a 12-month window with out having to painstakingly search date-by-date. If there’s presently no award availability for a particular night time, you possibly can arrange an alert that can ship a notification if that adjustments.

Lastly, Awayz has a map function, which helps you to simply view all the lodges from Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG for any given metropolis on one map.

That is actually useful to simply evaluate particular places of lodges from totally different manufacturers, with out having to juggle a number of home windows with totally different lodge reserving platforms.

Awayz Pricing

Awayz has three tiers of membership: Free, Journey Cross, and Premium.

Awayz’s free membership permits for 5 month-to-month searches and one award availability alert. Because the title suggests, this membership doesn’t price something in any respect.

A one-time Journey Cross membership might be bought for $4.99 (USD) per move, and permits for as much as 50 searches in a interval of 72 hours.

The Premium tier is an ongoing membership which permits for 150 month-to-month searches, as much as 5 award availability alerts, and entry to a weekly lodge offers roundup that’s despatched out to members.

A Premium membership sometimes prices $11.99 (USD) per thirty days, or $99.99 (USD) yearly; nevertheless, there’s presently a proposal out there till July 5, 2023 at 11:59pm Pacific Time.

By signing up via our affiliate hyperlink, new customers can get a Premium annual subscription for $49.99 (USD) for yr one, after which an ongoing $89.99 (USD) annual fee thereafter. You’ll additionally obtain a 72-hour move to take a look at the Premium tier.

As soon as the Canadian model launches, the pricing construction will probably be as follows, with the identical inclusions because the US model:

• Journey Cross: $5.99 (CAD)
• Premium: $14.99 (CAD) month-to-month or $129.99 (CAD) yearly

The Awayz free membership is an effective way to check out the product, or to do a fast search to make sure you’ve made the correct selection on an upcoming lodge keep.

A free membership provides you entry to most of Awayz’s options, together with as much as 5 lodge searches per thirty days and one award availability alert. 

You’ll be capable to seek for particular person lodges, evaluate money versus award pricing, and think about award availability in a 12-month calendar view; nevertheless, you gained’t obtain the weekly lodge offers alert roundup, and also you’re restricted to 5 searches per thirty days.

Buying a Journey Cross membership might simply make sense when you’ve got lots of lodge stays arising, and want to evaluate the prices in money versus factors to optimize your keep.

For a bigger journey, a one-time Journey Cross is nice for evaluating your whole choices. A Journey Cross additional means that you can embody free night time certificates in your search, and in addition shows Fourth and Fifth Evening Free availability when relevant.

Take into account that with the Journey Cross, you gained’t be capable to arrange lodge deal alerts, and also you’re restricted to 50 searches inside 72 hours of buying the Journey Cross.

Lastly, the highest-tier Premium membership requires you to pay an ongoing month-to-month payment, or an annual membership payment. It’s greatest for anybody who spends lots of time planning journeys, and who desires to chop down on looking throughout a number of web sites every time.

A Premium membership is smart for those who journey often, because it means that you can make as much as 150 searches per thirty days, which must be lots. It additionally provides you entry to all the things a Journey Cross does, and unlocks the power to create as much as 5 lodge award availability alerts at a time, which might be very helpful for aspirational properties.

Premium customers may even obtain a weekly roundup of the most effective lodge offers that may be booked with factors, which isn’t out there to customers in some other tier.

Awayz Pockets and Awards Characteristic

Earlier than you start your lodge searches, Awayz has a function known as Pockets and Awards that you simply’ll need to change into acquainted with. That is the place you possibly can add your personalized portfolio of bank cards below “My Pockets”, in addition to financial institution applications and lodge loyalty applications that you’ve entry to below “My Awards”.

Underneath “My Pockets”, you possibly can add all the bank cards you might have. You don’t need to put in any bank card numbers or different data in right here, however reasonably simply choose the bank cards which might be in your pockets.

It’s vital to maintain this checklist up to date, since totally different perks which might be particular to some bank cards are then considered in your award searches. This contains any out there switch bonus promotions, or for when you possibly can redeem your factors for money as a substitute of transferring them out, when relevant.

For every transferable factors forex listed below the Banks part, in addition to Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt, and Marriott Bonvoy applications below the Resorts part, you possibly can additional enter your account balances to assist tailor what’s doable along with your factors as soon as you start looking for lodges.

Within the US model of Awayz, eligible financial institution applications embody:

It’s value noting that the FAQ part on the Awayz web site states that Accor, Selection, and Wyndham lodges will probably be added within the close to future.  

As soon as the Canadian model of Awayz launches in late July 2023, you’ll be capable to enter balances from the next financial institution and lodge applications:

With the balances of every factors program inputted into the Pockets and Awards part, you’ll then be prepared to start out looking for the most effective lodge redemption.

Awayz Resort Search Options

Awayz comes with numerous options that can help in looking for lodge stays that may be booked with money or factors.

Resort Search Filters

Awayz’s lodge search perform operates similarly to many reserving platforms. The fundamental search means that you can choose your location and dates, and for now, the search is mounted to 2 friends staying in a single room (though the power to vary these will probably be added sooner or later).

As well as, you possibly can select to restrict your search to only one lodge chain, or any mixture of Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott lodges.

Within the Superior search choices, you possibly can additional choose which free night time certificates you might have at your disposal, if any. Out there choices embody IHG Free Evening Awards, Hilton Free Evening Rewards, Hyatt Free Evening Awards, and Marriott Free Evening Awards.

If you choose the free night time certificates filter, you’ll solely be proven lodges with a value in factors that’s equal to or lower than the worth contained with every certificates.

For looking with Hilton or Hyatt free night time certificates, this may actually be useful; nevertheless, when you’ve got a Marriott or IHG certificates, understand that you could possibly prime it up with factors to remain at lodges that price extra.

For instance, it’s doable to prime up Marriott Free Evening Awards with as much as 15,000 factors. Subsequently, it’s greatest to both choose a higher-value Marriott certificates than what you might have out there, or just seek for all Marriott lodges and crunch the numbers manually.

Lastly, the search perform additionally means that you can select from “Use My Awards”, or choose from “Transferable Award Packages”.

With these two capabilities, you possibly can choose which particular lodge rewards applications you’d like to think about, in addition to which financial institution rewards program you’d like to make use of.

Relying on which financial institution rewards you select, you’ll solely be proven lodges which you’ll e book with factors transferred from that financial institution.

For instance, Bilt Rewards can switch to IHG One Rewards and World of Hyatt, American Specific US MR can switch to Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy, and Chase Final Rewards can switch to IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt.

Within the close to future, you’ll even have the choice to pick out Capital One Miles and Citi ThankYou from this checklist. 

When you’ve entered your required location, dates, and different search preferences, you’ll get an inventory of lodges that shows the variety of factors required, the fee in money, and what number of factors are wanted for those who switch from one other financial institution program.

For every lodge, the “Finest Worth” is displayed within the search outcomes, too. This worth is calculated by Awayz’s proprietary mannequin, which pits its valuation of factors towards the money fee. 

After you choose a lodge, you’ll see extra particulars offered about your particular keep. 

On this display screen, you’ll as soon as once more see a suggestion of which fee methodology presents the most effective worth for a keep, in addition to some other choices which might be out there to you for reserving.  

That is additionally the place the place it’s doable to see a calendar of award availability, or to set an award availability alert. 

Awayz Award Availability Calendars

The Awayz award availability calendar reveals the worth in money and factors side-by-side for one month at a time. The calendar additional signifies the most affordable value in money and factors for that month, as indicated by a shiny inexperienced banner.

For instance, within the beneath calendar, we will see that the bottom price for the month at this specific lodge is 24,000 factors on July 2. Likewise, the bottom price in money is $175 (USD) on July 9.

If you happen to’re versatile with dates, the calendar perform makes it simple to see the most affordable dates in factors and money one month at a time. Any dates that don’t have any award availability by any means, or which might be bought out utterly, are additionally simple to see, as “N/A” is displayed the place the prices are often listed.

One other nice use of the calendar perform is seeing consecutive days with decrease award pricing. That is notably true when trying to redeem Hilton Free Evening Rewards at aspirational properties, such because the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

For instance, the beneath screenshot reveals availability for the month of November 2023.

On most dates, you’d have to spend over 1,000,000 Hilton Honors factors for a redemption, which isn’t perfect. Nonetheless, observe that there are two nights in a row on the finish of the month with award availability at 150,000 factors per night time.

If you happen to occurred to have two Hilton Free Evening Rewards out there in your account, you’d then be capable to snag two consecutive nights along with your certificates, and discovering these dates would’ve solely taken a couple of moments.

Award Availability Alerts

If there isn’t any award availability on a given date, you may as well select to set an alert when you’ve got a Free or Premium membership. You’ll obtain an e mail if there’s a change in award availability, and also you’ll even be notified upon your subsequent login to Awayz. 

For instance, let’s suppose that you simply’re trying to keep on the Park Hyatt Sydney on an upcoming journey to Australia. The calendar function reveals that there’s no availability for December 30–31, which is once you’d like to remain on the lodge.

On this case, you’d merely choose “Availability Alert” from the Journey Overview web page, after which the alert is created robotically for you.

To view your saved alerts, head to the “Preferences” part on the prime of the display screen, after which scroll right down to see which of them you presently have set.

Right here, you may as well change the parameters for the dates, or take away any alerts that you simply not want to have. It’s additionally clearly displayed whether or not or not there’s award availability for the dates, and if there’s, you possibly can click on on “Test it out” to move to the up to date Journey Overview web page.

If you happen to aren’t in a position to get your perfect lodge immediately, then take into account reserving a refundable backup possibility and set award availability alerts. If one is available in, you possibly can affirm the reserving straight at your most well-liked lodge’s web site, after which cancel the unique reserving and the alert to make room for an additional.

Map Characteristic

It’s also possible to view a map that reveals the place lodges are positioned in any given metropolis, which is conveniently color coordinated to match Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, or Marriott. There’s additionally a legend on the map that means that you can choose or deselect totally different lodge chains.

When you click on on a particular lodge, the main points will present within the outcomes display screen, after which you possibly can click on via to the Journey Overview web page as per normal.

The map function is especially helpful for those who’d prefer to be in a specific a part of a metropolis. After navigating to the world, you’ll see the choices that exist, and might then slim down on the prices by scrolling via the outcomes bar and utilizing the search filters. 

Having Awayz as one other lodge award reserving device at your disposal may be very welcome, as instruments for looking lodge awards is an space which has undoubtedly been missing in comparison with airline search instruments.

A great level of comparability for Awayz is MaxMyPoint, which is one other lodge award looking device.

First off, Awayz helps you to seek for Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG properties, whereas with MaxMyPoint, you possibly can’t seek for IHG lodges. Having extra choices out there for looking is at all times the most effective, and it will be nice to see much more lodge chains added sooner or later.

What’s extra, Awayz additionally means that you can tailor your searches with extra particular standards, similar to together with free night time certificates and transferable financial institution rewards within the outcomes. 

Alternatively, MaxMyPoint helps you to do extra with lodge alerts, together with being notified if lodges change costs, which is especially priceless for applications with dynamic pricing. It will be good to see the same function added to Awayz sooner or later.

It’s value noting that Awayz presently helps most main cities, and is including smaller cities on an ongoing foundation.

Conclusion

It’s thrilling to see extra lodge award reserving instruments made out there to assist plan and optimize journey.

With Awayz, the power to view and simply evaluate the costs for all the main lodge chains will most undoubtedly be a time saver for frequent travellers with factors unfold throughout quite a lot of lodge and financial institution rewards applications.

What’s extra, with the ability to view all the availability for the subsequent 12 months may help streamline journey planning, and scheduling alerts for dates when lodges aren’t out there for award bookings is a superb trick to have up your sleeve.

Precisely which subscription is greatest for you depends upon how a lot time you presently spend looking for award lodges by yourself.

That being mentioned, with free memberships permitting 5 free searches per thirty days and one award availability alert, in addition to affordable pricing for the opposite tiers, remember to preserve Awayz in your radar when planning your subsequent lodge keep.