When writing about hotel elite status, hotel promotions, etc., you might sometimes see us referring to a mattress run. If you’ve ever wondered what a mattress run is, here’s an explanation, reasons why it can make sense, and some tips when doing them.
What is a mattress run?
A mattress run is when somebody books a hotel stay when they don’t actually need to stay there, but where that stay can have some side benefits.
Why do people book mattress runs?
There are three main reasons why someone might want to book a mattress run: elite status, milestone rewards/choice benefits, and/or bonus points/free night certificates.
Mattress running for elite status
Historically, the chief reason people have booked mattress runs has been to earn elite status.
For example, Globalist status in the World of Hyatt loyalty program is very highly regarded as it provides free breakfast, lounge access, suite upgrades, free parking on award stays, and more. As a result, some people deem it worthwhile towards the end of the year to book at least a few nights in a Hyatt hotel that they don’t need if it means that they’ll reach 60 elite night credits for the year (60 elite nights being the threshold for Globalist status).
Similarly, people sometimes mattress run for Marriott elite status. While Platinum and Titanium in the Marriott Bonvoy program aren’t as rewarding as Hyatt Globalist, they can still be very beneficial to have. Marriott Platinum status gets you free breakfast (perhaps), lounge access, and a Choice benefit (if you earn the status via elite nights). Titanium status gets you another Choice benefit, United Silver status, and more.
Speaking of which…
Mattress running for milestone rewards or choice benefits
Over the last five years or so, an increasing number of hotel loyalty programs (and airline loyalty programs for that matter) have added milestone rewards features to their programs to incentivize engagement. Rather than only earning elite status at specific thresholds, you’ll earn additional benefits at interim thresholds.
Even if you’re not going to earn high or top tier status with a hotel chain, these milestone rewards might be worth a mattress run due to how valuable they can be. For example, the 40 night Milestone Rewards level with World of Hyatt gives you a Guest of Honor award, as well as your choice of one of the following:
- 5,000 bonus points
- Suite Upgrade Award
- $150 FIND Experience Credit
- 2 American Airlines Main Cabin Extra seat coupons
Let’s say you have 37 elite night credits towards the end of the year, so you need three more nights to hit that 40 night Milestone Reward. If you can book a three night mattress run for a total of ~15,000 points (or perhaps even less), that could prove to be a very good investment.
The resulting Guest of Honor award provides Globalist status benefits for one stay of up to seven nights. If that gets you free breakfast, lounge access, a suite upgrade, free parking on an award booking, etc. for a week-long stay, the value you’ll get will far outweigh the value of the ~15,000 points you redeemed to earn that reward. Not to mention the fact that you’d then get to pick an additional reward like a Suite Upgrade Award which, depending on the property, might also get you lounge access and free breakfast (although that’s not always the case).
A similar case could be made even at lower Milestone Rewards thresholds. For example, with IHG’s Milestone Rewards, staying only 20 nights can get you a confirmable suite upgrade. While an IHG confirmable suite upgrade isn’t as good as a Hyatt one—it’s only valid for one stay of up to five nights and it can only be confirmed within 14 days of your stay—if you’re just short of that 20 night threshold and know you’ll be staying somewhere that you’ll be able to maximize the suite upgrade, a mattress run could be in order.
Although Marriott Bonvoy doesn’t offer milestone rewards, they do have a somewhat similar Choice Benefits feature. At the 50 night level, you can select a benefit like five Nightly Upgrade Awards which can be redeemed for upgrades to premium room types or suites. At the 75 night level, you can pick another five Nightly Upgrade Awards, a 40K free night certificate, or one of a number of other benefits.
Those 50 and 75 night thresholds are also the respective thresholds for Platinum and Titanium status which can make them even more worthwhile of a mattress run.
Mattress running for bonus points or free night certificates
The third main reason someone might want to book a mattress run is due to the promise of bonus points (more common) or free night certificates (less common).
For example, late last year we needed to book two rooms at a roadside Days Inn—a Wyndham Rewards brand—in the UK. Despite only needing a room for one night, we booked both rooms for two nights each.
The reason for that was due to two promotions Wyndham was running concurrently at the time. One awarded 50X points per dollar spent for Diamond members, while the other awarded 7,500 bonus points when staying two nights, as well as an additional 7,500 bonus points if you were a Wyndham credit or debit cardholder.
The second night cost ~$64 per room. In return, we earned ~20,000 points per room, about 19,000 points per room more than we would’ve earned for a one night stay. The Wyndham Rewards program has three fixed-redemption tiers for free night awards of 7,500, 15,000, or 30,000 points per night. That means the $64 investment got us more than enough points for a free night—or even two free nights—at thousands of Wyndham properties worldwide that’d cost far more than $64 in the future. That’s like buying Wyndham points for ~0.34 cents per point which is less than half the price that Wyndham points are priced at even when on sale.
Something that’s less common—but still worth keeping an eye out for—is the ability to sometimes earn free night certificates via hotel promotions. For example, Marriott occasionally targets some Bonvoy members with a promotion awarding a free night certificate after staying one or two nights. If you can book a cheap cash stay somewhere (these types of free night certificate promotions are rarely—if ever—valid on award stays), that cost could be lower than the equivalent value of the free night certificate.
Mattress running tips & ideas
There are a number of ways to make mattress runs more successful, more rewarding, cheaper, etc. Here are some suggestions for how to do that.
Check-in
One of the most common questions people have about mattress runs is whether or not you have to physically check in to the hotel, or if you can check-in online or in the hotel chain’s app and have that count.
The answer to that question is always…it depends. For the most part though, it’s safest to assume that you’ll need to physically check in at the hotel. There are occasionally hotels where checking in remotely does work, but there is a risk that you check in online but the hotel marks you as a no-show. That means you’d be out of pocket for the points or cash, plus you wouldn’t earn the elite nights or bonus points you were expecting.
If the property you’re planning on booking for a mattress run is located near you, showing up at the front desk to check in might be inconvenient, but not a deal breaker. However, people often want to book a mattress run at a hotel that’s not near them due to the cheaper cost in points or cash.
Talk to the manager ahead of time
A potential workaround for the issue above is to contact the hotel and speak to the manager ahead of time. It’s best to not provide your name initially in case they take a dim view of your activity and subsequently keep an eye out for any stay that you do book. However, if you explain that you want to pay them (whether that’s with cash or points) and not use their facilities, not eat their free breakfast, not require housekeeping, etc., the manager might be more than amenable to that and be happy to check you in remotely.
Negotiate the price
On a similar note, if you’re considering booking a cheap mattress run with cash, it could be worth discussing that with the manager or sales manager of a hotel.
Again, if you explain that you want to earn elite night credits but don’t need to stay at their property, they might be willing to work with you to offer a cheaper-than-normal room rate in return for not actually staying with them.
Use the Do Not Disturb sign
Assuming you do physically check in, be sure to hang the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door if your stay is for two or more nights. If, after a night or two, housekeeping comes into your room and sees an untouched room, there’s a risk that you’ll get checked out early and miss out on some essential elite night credits. Hanging the sign should help prevent that.
Some people choose to mess up the bed a little, throw a towel on the floor, etc., to make it looks like the room has been used.
Check award/pricing calendars
If it’s approaching the last couple of months of the year and you know your elite status qualification plans will fall just short and thus you want to book cheap award stays, you might be able to utilize dynamic award pricing to your advantage.
Most hotel chains nowadays use dynamic award pricing where the number of points you need to redeem for a free night stay fluctuates from night to night. If you have flexibility with when you can check in for a mattress run, you could pick nights that cost, say, 3,000 points per night rather than 9,000 points per night (the high and low points for category 1 Hyatt award pricing in the near future).
Utilize 4th or 5th night free features
If you have an IHG One Rewards Premier, Traveler, or Premier Business credit card, you get every 4th night free on award stays. Hilton offers every 5th night free on award stays for those who have Silver status or higher, while Marriott has a ‘Stay 5 nights, pay for 4’ feature that deducts the cost of the cheapest award night for every five nights you stay. If you need to book more than just one or two nights for a mattress run, taking advantage of these features can reduce how many points you need to redeem for the stay.
The same tool can be used on regular award stays even when you don’t have a specific intention to mattress run. For example, there have been a couple of times where we’ve only needed to stay at an IHG property for three nights, but we’ve booked four nights anyway since the fourth night was free. In addition to this being a free and easy way to earn additional elite night credits, there can be other side benefits. For example, having a fourth night tacked on to the end of your stay means you don’t need to check out at the standard checkout time. This is therefore a de facto way of getting a late checkout without needing to have it be part of an elite status benefit and/or subject to availability.
Status match/challenge to eliminate or reduce requirements
Some hotel loyalty programs have a status match feature whereby if you have elite status with a different hotel program, you can match from that status to (somewhat) equivalent status in this different program. That could eliminate the need to mattress run at all.
Other times, hotel programs offer status challenges whereby you need to complete some amount of stay activity to gain or maintain high status. Those are usually reduced requirements, but it might make a mattress run more worthwhile seeing as you don’t need to stay as many nights as normal.
Fast-track with credit card elite nights or instant status
For those looking to earn Hyatt Globalist status but who’ll fall short on the number of elite night credits required, you could apply for the Chase World of Hyatt credit card if you don’t already have it. If you’re approved, you’ll receive five elite night credits every calendar year, plus you can earn two elite night credits for every $5,000 you spend on the card. Note that while the Chase World of Hyatt Business credit card provides the opportunity to earn five elite night credits for every $10,000 you spend on the card each calendar year, it doesn’t come with five nights by default each year unlike the personal card.
Rather than mattress running your way to Platinum status in the Marriott Bonvoy program, you could get the Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® card as that comes with Marriott Bonvoy® Platinum elite status. It also comes with 25 elite night credits per year which can help you get much closer to Titanium status. Alternatively, several other personal and business Marriott credit cards award 15 elite night credits each year and you can earn those on one personal card and one business card for a total of 30 elite nights per year (or 40 if the personal card is the Brilliant card). That could be a much easier—and cheaper—way of attaining higher Marriott status than undergoing a mattress run.
If you’re interested in top tier Diamond status with Hilton, rather than mattress running your way to Diamond status, you could simply get the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card as that comes with Hilton Honors™ Diamond status for as long as you hold the card. Alternatively, you could spend $40,000 on a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® card in a calendar year to earn Diamond status.
Enjoy a staycation
If you’ll be booking a mattress run at a nearby hotel, why not take advantage of the booking to turn it into a mini staycation. Even if you don’t stay there overnight, you (and your family if applicable) could enjoy using the hotel’s swimming pool and other facilities.
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Never again. Hyatt broke me.