Your guide to earning and spending points at Qantas Hotels

While hotel-operated loyalty programs have their advantages, how can you earn and maximise your points when staying at properties that don’t have a rewards scheme?

Booking those stays through Qantas Hotels is one such way to keep your points flowing in, with rewards starting at 3 Qantas Points per $1 spent at hotels and resorts around the world.

If you're a Qantas Points Club or Points Club Plus member, or have a business enrolled in the Qantas Business Rewards program, you can earn points at an even higher rate to unlock your next flight or upgrade even faster.

Here’s what you need to know about Qantas Hotels, and how to supercharge your points balance while on the road.

Earning Qantas Points at Qantas Hotels and Airbnb

Whether you’re travelling across Australia or planning a journey abroad (as border restrictions permit), all Qantas Frequent Flyer members can earn 3 Qantas Points per $1 spent on hotel bookings made via the Qantas website.

This earning rate applies to traditional hotels and hotels, while you can also book Airbnb via Qantas Hotels to earn 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent, plus 500 bonus Qantas Points on your first Airbnb booking.

As transactions via Qantas Hotels are all processed in Australian dollars, the number of Qantas Points you’ll earn from a booking is clear and up-front.

Your Qantas Points will land in your account after check-out, often within a month.

However, do be aware that by booking through Qantas Hotels (and earning Qantas Points, as above), you generally won’t earn any loyalty points in a hotel’s own rewards program – so if you book a stay with Hilton, you shouldn’t expect a serve of Hilton Honors points.

As well, many hotel chains don’t offer elite status benefits on third-party hotel bookings – including via Qantas – so if you’re accustomed to perks such as free daily breakfast, hotel room upgrades or hotel lounge access courtesy of your status, booking direct with the hotel chain may be a better option for your circumstances.

Qantas Points Club rewards bonus at Qantas Hotels

On top of the standard earning rate of 3 Qantas Points per $1 spent, Qantas Points Club and Qantas Points Club Plus members can pocket even more points, being one of the benefits of membership in these clubs.

Standard Qantas Points Club membership provides a 25% bonus on points earned at Qantas Hotels – that’s an extra 0.75 Qantas Points per $1 spent, or 3.75 Qantas Points per $1 spent in total.

For those on Points Club’s highest tier, Points Club Plus, the bonus is even better with a 50% boost, delivering an extra 1.5 Qantas Points per $1 spent – 4.5 Qantas Points per $1 spent overall.

Bonus points for Points Club members are awarded in a separate transaction to your frequent flyer account, so keep an eye out for both ‘Qantas Hotels’ and ‘Points Club’ in your Qantas Frequent Flyer transaction history:

As long as you’ve linked your eligible Qantas Frequent Flyer number to your Qantas Hotels booking, you’ll earn both sets of points automatically, if eligible.

However, Points Club bonuses don’t apply to Airbnb bookings: only to traditional hotel and motel bookings.

Bonus points on selected Qantas Hotels bookings

From time to time, you may be able to earn a higher number of Qantas Points at selected hotels, or on certain rates.

Keep your eyes peeled for bonus offers such as below – where a $279 room rate at Quest Canberra earns the standard 837 Qantas Points, while a $298 room rate at the Park Hyatt in the same city provides a significantly higher reward of 1,788 Qantas Points:

Of course, if you’re a Points Club or Points Club Plus member, the bonus points you can earn will also increase, being 25% or 50% more than the advertised number.

On that same $298 room, a Points Club member would earn 25% more points than the advertised reward of 1,788 Qantas Points, pushing that even further to 2,235 Qantas Points – in this case, equal to 7.5 Qantas Points per $1 spent.

Earn Qantas Points for your business via Qantas Hotels

If you own a business that’s enrolled in Qantas Business Rewards, you can earn Qantas Points for that business at the same time as earning Qantas Points for the traveller.

Qantas Business Rewards members earn a standard 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent via Qantas Hotels – and again, that’s on top of the Qantas Points offered to the traveller. If you’re both the traveller and the business owner, you’re in for quite a reward.

Using that previous example, the $298 room rate would unlock 298 Qantas Points for a business, as well as the 2,235 Qantas Points for the traveller, for an all-out reward of 2,533 Qantas Points.

Just note, the points a business earns from Qantas Hotels won’t necessarily appear in the company’s account at the same time as they arrive in a traveller’s personal Qantas Frequent Flyer account – so give Qantas Business Rewards a little more time to process your points before sending off a missing points claim.

Maximise your Qantas Points by using the right credit card

While many accommodation providers and hotel chains levy a credit card surcharge if paying the hotel directly, Qantas Hotels accepts credit cards surcharge-free for all pre-payments: giving you another chance to earn rewards, without paying anything extra.

Visa, Mastercard and American Express are accepted – and by using a credit card that provides frequent flyer points or other reward points, you can double-dip: earning points once via Qantas Hotels, and again via your credit card.

In fact, the savviest spenders could quadruple-dip on points via Qantas Hotels: earning the standard number of points offered, plus the bonus for Points Club or Points Club Plus (if eligible), plus points via Qantas Business Rewards (for business owners), and then finally via a points-earning credit card.

Read more: Best Qantas Frequent Flyer credit card sign-up offers

Spending Qantas Points at Qantas Hotels

If you’ve piled up a nice stash of Qantas Points, one of the many ways you can spend them is on hotel bookings via Qantas Hotels.

Qantas Hotels offers two types of bookings: Classic Hotel Rewards, and ‘Points + Pay’.

Similar to using Qantas Points to book a Qantas flight, Classic Hotel Rewards provide a fixed-rate opportunity to spend Qantas Points where a hotel has chosen to make such a reward available.

Points + Pay, on the other hand, allows you to spend your Qantas Points on any hotel booking via Qantas Hotels, in lieu of paying cash for the room rate.

Classic Hotel Rewards vs Points + Pay

The booking conditions for Classic Hotel Rewards and Points + Pay can differ, so it pays to compare both options before diving in.

Using that same hotel example on the same night, options available to Qantas Frequent Flyer members included a Classic Hotel Reward at 32,000 points all-inclusive, or a Points + Pay option also of around 32,000 points, plus $57.28 in cash.

While the Classic Hotel Reward might be tempting to avoid an out-of-pocket charge, the Points + Pay option has a couple of advantages here, as highlighted above: firstly, the ability to earn Qantas Points on the booking, based on the full standard cash rate.

On top, there’s the Points Club or Points Club Plus bonus (if eligible) and Qantas Points in the Qantas Business Rewards program for business owners, which are again based on the full cash rate, even if most of the rate is being ‘paid for’ using points.

Qantas Classic Hotel Rewards, on the other hand, don’t earn Qantas Points of any kind.

As well, the Points + Pay rate offers flexibility with free cancellation, as opposed to the Qantas Classic Reward which, at least on this quoted reservation, cannot be changed or cancelled – making the booking somewhat of a gamble, in the era of domestic border closures.

While Points + Pay may be the more attractive option under this particular example, that’s not to say that Classic Hotel Rewards don’t ever make sense: check the rates for both when you book, to see which works best for you, and your travel plans.

Also read: Easy ways to earn Qantas Points if you're grounded

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.