How to use Rooms and Points is something every points traveler should understand if they want to stop wasting hours searching for decent hotel redemptions.
If you’ve ever spent an hour toggling between Hyatt.com, Marriott.com, and Hilton.com trying to find a single hotel with decent award availability — only to land on a mediocre property at an inflated point cost — you’ve already identified the exact problem Rooms and Points was built to solve.
Rooms and Points aggregates hotel award availability across all five major loyalty programs — World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, and Wyndham Rewards — in a single search interface. It shows you CPP value for every result, so you’re not just finding availability, you’re finding the best availability for your points.
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to use Rooms and Points, from your first search to booking an award night — including the specific filters and tactics that surface deals most travelers miss entirely.
What Rooms and Points Actually Does (and Why It’s Different)
Before the walkthrough, it helps to understand the core mechanic. Hotel loyalty programs each operate their own separate booking system. There’s no shared inventory database — Hyatt doesn’t know what Marriott has available, and vice versa. That’s why searching for award hotels has traditionally required logging into each program separately, running the same search five times, and manually comparing results across five different interfaces with five different point currencies.
Rooms and Points connects directly to award inventory across programs simultaneously. When you search a destination and date range, you’re seeing live availability from every connected program in one unified results view — with the CPP value already calculated for each property, so you can sort by value rather than sorting by hand.
The result: a search that used to take 45–90 minutes across multiple sites now takes under 5 minutes in one place.
Step 1: Enter Your Destination and Travel Dates
Go to roomsandpoints.com and start with the destination search bar. You can search by:
- City or region (e.g., “Tokyo,” “Maldives,” “French Riviera”)
- Specific neighborhood or area within a city
- Country or island group for broader searches
Pro tip: Search destination-first, not property-first. The most common mistake award travelers make is starting with a specific hotel in mind. If you search “Park Hyatt Tokyo” directly and it shows no availability, you stop — and miss the Andaz Tokyo at 17,000 Hyatt points/night that has plenty of open award nights on your exact dates.
Enter your check-in and check-out dates. For maximum results, try a ±3 day flexibility window if your schedule allows — the calendar view (more on that below) will show you visually where award space is concentrated across your target period.
Step 2: Set Your Program and Points Filters
Once initial results load, use the filter panel to narrow by what matters to your specific situation:
Filter by Loyalty Program
If you hold points in specific programs, filter to only those. For example, if you have 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards that you’re planning to transfer to Hyatt, filter to World of Hyatt only — you don’t need to see IHG or Wyndham results cluttering your view.
If you’re undecided on which program to use and want to compare value across your balances, leave all programs active and sort by CPP value. This is where Rooms and Points earns its keep: seeing a Hyatt property at 3.2¢ CPP directly alongside a Marriott property at 0.8¢ CPP on the same dates at the same destination makes the decision obvious in a way that five separate searches never could.
Filter by Points Budget
Set a maximum points-per-night ceiling that matches your available balance. If you have 40,000 Hyatt points and want to stretch them across two nights, filter for properties at 20,000 points/night or under. This eliminates aspirational properties you can’t currently book and surfaces realistic options immediately.
Filter by Hotel Tier / Star Rating
Not every trip calls for a Category 7 resort. Rooms and Points lets you filter by hotel tier so you can find the best-value property within your preferred experience level — whether that’s a mid-range Hyatt Place on a business trip or a full-service resort for a milestone anniversary.
Step 3: Read the Results — What Each Card Tells You
Each property card in your search results displays five key data points:
| Field | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Hotel name & brand | Property name and loyalty program it belongs to |
| Points/night | Award cost at standard rate for your dates |
| Cash rate | Publicly available nightly cash rate for the same dates |
| CPP value | Cents per point — cash rate ÷ points × 100 |
| Availability indicator | Whether standard award space is confirmed open |
The CPP column is the one that matters most. A 3.0¢ CPP result is worth more than twice as much as a 1.4¢ CPP result — meaning if you use the lower-CPP option, you’re effectively leaving half the value of your points on the table.
Rooms and Points calculates CPP automatically for every result, so you’re always comparing apples to apples — not trying to mentally convert 17,000 Hyatt points vs. 42,000 Marriott points into equivalent dollar values.
Sort the results by CPP (highest first) to immediately surface the best-value redemptions at your destination on your dates. The top result is the best deal available across all programs for that search — no spreadsheet, no manual math required.
Step 4: Use the Calendar View for Date Flexibility
If you have even a few days of flexibility in your travel dates, the calendar view is the single most powerful feature in the tool.
Switch from list view to calendar view on any property. You’ll see a month-long grid showing:
- Award availability by date — green dates have open award inventory, grey dates don’t
- Point cost variation — dates show standard vs. off-peak pricing where applicable (particularly useful for Hyatt, which uses off-peak rates that can be 20–25% lower than standard)
- CPP variation by date — because cash rates fluctuate daily, CPP values shift across the calendar even when point costs stay flat
Practical scenario: You’re searching the Andaz Maui at Wailea for a late June trip. Saturdays show 17,000 points/night with no availability. But the calendar shows Tuesday–Thursday of the same week has open award space at the same point cost — and because midweek cash rates are $680/night vs. $890 on weekends, the CPP on those midweek dates is actually higher (4.0¢ vs. 3.2¢). You get better value and get the booking.
Without a calendar view, you’d have clicked away assuming the property was unavailable.
Step 5: Compare Cross-Program Results for the Same Destinatio
This is the use case that demonstrates Rooms and Points’ full value proposition most clearly.
Say you’re planning a trip to Tokyo and hold points in both Chase Ultimate Rewards (transferable to Hyatt at 1:1) and Marriott Bonvoy. Here’s what a real cross-program search might surface:
| Property | Program | Points/Night | Cash Rate | CPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills | World of Hyatt | 17,000 | $680 | 4.0¢ |
| Park Hyatt Tokyo | World of Hyatt | 30,000 | $820 | 2.7¢ |
| The Tokyo EDITION Toranomon | Marriott Bonvoy | 50,000 | $650 | 1.3¢ |
| Marriott Tokyo | Marriott Bonvoy | 35,000 | $390 | 1.1¢ |
| Conrad Tokyo (Hilton) | Hilton Honors | 80,000 | $580 | 0.7¢ |
Sorted by CPP, the answer is immediate: the Andaz Tokyo at 4.0¢ per Hyatt point is the best redemption in Tokyo on these dates — better than the Park Hyatt (which carries the brand prestige but lower CPP), and nearly 6x the value of the Conrad Tokyo on Hilton points.
If you were only searching Marriott Bonvoy, you’d never see the Hyatt options. If you were only searching Hilton, you’d book 80,000 points for a stay worth $580 — a 0.7¢ CPP that wastes most of the potential value in your points balance.
💡 Search hotel award availability across all programs at Rooms and Points — see CPP-ranked results for every major loyalty program in one search.
Step 6: Confirm Availability and Book Through the Program
Once you’ve identified your target property and dates, Rooms and Points links you directly to the booking page on the loyalty program’s own website or app. This is where the award is actually booked — Rooms and Points shows you the opportunity; you complete the transaction through the program directly.
Before you click through to book, confirm two things:
- You have enough points in your account — or that you can transfer them before the award space disappears. Chase and Bilt transfers to Hyatt are typically instant. Amex to Hilton is also fast. Don’t assume points will be available the same moment you transfer them if you’re cutting it close.
- The award rate matches what you saw — occasionally, rates shown in aggregated results can be slightly stale if availability changed in the last few minutes. If the point cost looks different on the program site, refresh and recheck. It’s rare but worth verifying before committing.
Once confirmed, complete the booking on the program site, apply any relevant suite upgrade awards or elite benefits, and you’re done.
Step 7: Set Availability Alerts for High-Demand Properties
If your target property shows no award availability on your dates, don’t give up — and don’t manually check every day for weeks.
Use Rooms and Points’ availability alert feature to monitor specific properties and dates. When award space opens — whether from a cancellation, a new inventory release, or the 30-day window when many programs add last-minute award rooms — you’ll be notified immediately rather than discovering it days later after someone else has already booked.
This feature is particularly valuable for:
- World of Hyatt Category 6–7 resorts (Park Hyatt Maldives, Alila Ventana Big Sur, Andaz Maui) where standard award space is limited and opens unpredictably
- Peak travel dates (holiday periods, major events) where initial availability is near-zero but cancellations are common 4–6 weeks out
- IHG Points Break properties, where monthly promotions sell out within hours of announcement and an alert is the only reliable way to act fast enough
Setting an alert takes under 30 seconds. Monitoring manually takes 15 minutes a day for weeks. The math is clear.
Pro Tips for Getting the Most Out of Rooms and Points
Search the region, not just the city. For destinations with multiple properties across a metro area (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo), searching the broader region surfaces properties in neighborhoods or suburbs you might not have considered — often with better CPP than the flagship urban core properties.
Run a CPP-sorted search before every booking, even cash bookings. Sometimes a destination you planned to pay cash for has a standout award redemption at 3¢+ CPP that makes points the obvious choice. Seeing the comparison takes 60 seconds and can save hundreds of dollars in a single trip.
Use the tool to validate transfer decisions. Before transferring 60,000 Chase points to Hyatt for a specific trip, run the search to confirm the award space exists and the CPP is worth it. Transfers from Chase and Bilt to Hyatt are irreversible — confirming first is just due diligence.
Check multiple travel windows if you’re flexible. Running the same destination search for three different two-week windows (early vs. mid vs. late in your target month) often reveals a window with substantially better availability and CPP than the others. Award availability isn’t uniform across a month — it clusters and thins in patterns tied to cash demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rooms and Points free to use?
Yes — you can search hotel award availability and compare CPP values across all major programs at no cost. Additional features like availability alerts and expanded search history are available with a paid plan.
Does Rooms and Points book the hotel for me?
No — Rooms and Points finds and surfaces the best available award redemptions, then links you to the loyalty program’s own website to complete the booking. The reservation is made directly through Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, IHG, or Wyndham — which means your elite status benefits, points posting, and cancellation policies all work exactly as they would if you’d booked through the program directly.
Which hotel loyalty programs does Rooms and Points support?
Rooms and Points currently covers the five major US hotel loyalty programs: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, and Wyndham Rewards. Together, these programs cover the vast majority of award-bookable hotels globally, including virtually all luxury and aspirational properties.
How accurate is the CPP calculation in Rooms and Points?
CPP is calculated using live award rates from each program’s inventory combined with current publicly available cash rates for the same dates. It’s accurate for the moment of your search. Cash rates do fluctuate, so for a precise final calculation before booking, verify the current cash rate at checkout and confirm the award cost on the program site.
Can I search for points hotel availability more than 12 months in advance?
Award booking windows vary by program — Hyatt opens 13 months out, Marriott varies by elite status, and others have their own windows. Rooms and Points searches within each program’s active booking window, so availability shown is always bookable now, not theoretical future inventory.
The Bottom Line
The difference between a mediocre award redemption and an exceptional one usually isn’t the size of your points balance — it’s the quality of your search. Travelers who consistently find 3¢+ CPP redemptions aren’t spending more time searching. They’re searching smarter: across programs, sorted by value, with date flexibility built in.
Rooms and Points collapses what used to be a multi-program, multi-tab, multi-hour process into a single search that shows you the best available award deal at your destination — ranked by CPP, with availability confirmed, across every major loyalty program at once.
Start your first search at Rooms and Points — enter your destination, set your dates, and find your best award redemption in under five minutes.
