How I Stayed at a $1,000/Night Luxury Hotel in Napa for Free

Ever wonder how people on Youtube, Instagram and TikTok are staying in these luxury hotels for free?

You don't need to be an influencer to stay at these fancy hotels! Nor do you need to dig deep into your wallet!

It’s simpler than you think — With credit card points and hotel points.

Me and my friend were looking for an overdue weekend getaway from work. Since we are based in NorCal, Napa seems like a good place for a weekend. Who doesn’t love good food and good wine?

While most of the hotels near the Napa wineries were pretty expensive in the St. Helena area, since there are not many hotels in the area and rates during the weekend are a bit higher. I began to search hotels in Napa that I could pay with points instead of cash. I heard good things about the new Hyatt property in the Napa area, the Alila Napa Valley. The property looked great, and I certainly did not want to pay the going rate of $1,000 with taxes per night for it!

The hotel itself looks amazing, the property does feel small once we arrived at the hotel. Doesn't seem like they had a lot of rooms, maybe that's why they are charging so much for a night.

Some rooms on the property have direct view of the vineyards at Beringer Vineyards. It's truly a spectacular view of a vineyard, if you are a wine lover, you will love this view!

Note: This is an adult only resort

Upon looking at the award calendar, I was able to snag a Saturday night stay for 35,000 Hyatt points, which I earned from signing up a Chase Sapphire Preferred. It’s currently offering 60,000 points sign on bonus, with a $4,000 spend requirement within the first 3 months of account opening. Then I transferred my Chase Ultimate Reward Points to Hyatt points to book the hotel.

Note that, Hyatt official website does not offer award calendar availability, it only lists out the price it would charge if it's available. It does not show you if it's actually available to book with points or not. So by using the link above, it provides an easy way for you to see what's available throughout the year and how much points you will need.

Note: I would highly recommend using the alert feature on the site, as the award availability are first come first serve.

Paying 35,000 credit cards points for a one night stay at the Alila Napa Valley was a great experience for me. I will definitely stay here again with points next time!

Alila Napa Valley location is pretty hard to beat, it's close to most of the popular wineries. If you are planning to go to Beringer Vineyards already, I would highly recommend staying here. It's literally right next door.

and if you have Hyatt Globalist status, you will also get free breakfast and room upgrade (based on availability), late checkout, and more.

I am already starting to look at how to further extend my free travel adventure with credit card points at luxury hotels that Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt has to offer for my next vacation!

The good thing about travel hacking with these 3 major chain hotels in mind is that, they are usually plenty of hotels offerings in the area that I am trying to go. Places like, Hawaii, Cancun, Paris, etc. They all have at least a few options that I can choose between Hyatt, Marriott or Hilton. Now I can stay at these luxury hotels without digging deep into my wallet.