How I earn thousands of Amex points on hotel stays

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I boosted my Amex Membership Rewards balance by nearly 50,000 additional points over the past six months.

And no, this didn’t come from spending on my Amex Platinum or Green cards, or from booking travel through Amex Travel — it came from booking hotels.

When booking hotels in cash, I usually reserve directly with the hotel so I can earn hotel points and have my elite status recognized. But I also maximize my point earnings by double-dipping and earning thousands of Amex points on each stay by taking one tiny extra step during the booking process.

Here’s how.

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I tend to book a lot of IHG hotels, and because I live in Spain, I stay at brands like Barceló and H10, too. I’m also a fan of Hyatt, Hilton, Accor, Wyndham, and Marriott.

Although I book each of these hotels directly, I do one thing before going to the hotel’s website: I click through from Rakuten.

But let me back up a bit.

Rakuten is a shopping portal that offers cash back for clicking through to retailers and paying for goods online. You can earn cash back from Rakuten, but you can also connect either your Amex Membership Rewards account to get Amex Membership Rewards points or connect your Bilt Rewards account and get Bilt points.

I connected my Amex account, so every time I book a hotel (or shop anywhere) I start by heading to Rakuten.

Lately, the site has had some high bonuses for IHG hotels. I recently got 15x Amex points on an IHG stay in Mexico. The stay cost $2,150, and I also hold the IHG One Rewards Premier card, so I earned:

• 26 IHG One Rewards points per $1 spent
• 15 Amex Membership Rewards points per $1 spent

In total, I earned 55,900 IHG One Rewards points and 32,250 Amex Membership Rewards points on a single hotel stay.

These additional Amex points — enough for me to book a round-trip economy award on Iberia between Chicago (ORD) and Madrid (MAD) — were icing on the cake, thanks to my double-dip.

I’ve also recently earned Amex points on stays booked via Wyndham, Marriott, and Hotels.com.

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Follow these steps to start double-dipping on hotel bookings and earn Amex Membership Rewards points.

Start by creating a Rakuten account if you don’t have one already. If you sign up directly through this link, you’ll get $50 after completing a qualifying purchase.

You can earn cash back, but I find it much more valuable to connect my Rakuten account to my Amex account to earn Amex Membership Rewards points. Or, connect to Bilt to earn Bilt points if you prefer.

I’m notified via email every time a higher bonus hits by adding my top hotels and businesses to my favorite stores list. Click the small heart next to your top vendors to get notifications.

I also get points for clicking through to book VRBO stays and Viator tours. OTAs like Hotels.com, Expedia, and Booking.com are all on Rakuten. And, I even click through to airlines when I buy flights. For example, at the time of writing, Etihad is offering 6x.

You can also shop in-store with Rakuten, but you have to click the offer first and use the credit card linked to your account.

You can get some great deals during holiday shopping and special sale events (like back-to-school or Mother’s Day sales). It’s worth visiting the site every time you shop online or plan to shop in-store to check out offers.

Note that you may not get all your points right away. You’ll usually have to complete the hotel stay before getting the points in your Rakuten account.

Rakuten transfers points to Amex every three months. This is a great strategy for building your Amex points balance, but it may not be the best way to earn points quickly for a last-minute award redemption. Still, it’s an easy way to earn lots of extra points on purchases you’d already be making.

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