Arya @CEOofBest

Most travelers click "non-refundable" for a 10% discount. Bad math. Two conditions only. 20% minimum savings, dates 100% locked. Below that, walk away. Stack with 10% cashback and you hit 28% off rack. Same room. blog.best.so/non-refundable…

All-inclusive resorts run one play. The base rate is a loss leader. Resort prices it assuming you'll spend 25-40% more on premium drinks and specialty restaurants. A $1,800 brochure ends up a $2,500 trip. blog.best.so/real-cost-all-…

Hotel programs are sitting on $11B in unredeemed points. CEOs swear no devaluations. Award nights quietly cost 12-18% more than last year. Points are a depreciating asset. Cashback isn't. blog.best.so/hotel-points-d…

Seville in August. 42C, locals flee, cathedral feels like a sauna. Late September. 28C, Plaza de Espana to yourself, hotels 30% cheaper. Same city. Different trip. blog.best.so/andalusia-shou…

The honest test. Pull your last 5 redemptions. Calculate the cents per point you got. Then check today's same booking in cash plus 5 to 10 percent cashback. Most travelers I've shown this to are quietly losing money on loyalty in 2026. Run your numbers.

If you're not living in hotels, the math has flipped. Stop chasing status. Stop manufacturing spend to hit a tier. Stop booking the chain that has your card. Book the property that fits the trip. Take cashback. Done. Without the volume to back it, loyalty is a tax.

In 2015, a savvy points strategy beat cash booking by a wide margin. In 2026, the gap has closed. Cashback on every booking, no status required, now beats most points strategies for the average traveler. The exception is people who travel 60+ nights a year for work.

The math compounds faster than people notice. A program devaluing 10% a year is silently demanding 10% more spend for the same reward. Five years in, your Platinum is buying you one free room every three years instead of every two. That's the real cost of loyalty.

I watched this same playbook in enterprise software for 20 years. Raise list price 9% every fall. Grandfather existing customers for a year. Quietly migrate them. Nobody called it a price hike. Loyalty programs do the consumer version every 12 to 18 months.

Hilton just devalued its points. Quietly. Marriott did it 90 days ago. Hyatt is next. Nobody calls it a devaluation. The award chart gets reorganized. A few hotels move up. Point value drops 8 to 15%. What most loyal customers miss is the trendline.

Across the channel from Corfu, $80/night gets you a beach hotel with the same water. Ksamil looks like the Maldives. Dhermi is the bohemian one. Albanian coast is what Greece was in 2010. blog.best.so/albanian-rivie…

Most travelers default to non-refundable rates to save 15%. The math is worse than it looks. Plans change roughly 30% of the time. Weight that cost in and flex rates almost always win. blog.best.so/non-refundable…

All-inclusive resorts win because the brain wants a flat fee. Run the real math. Meals you'd skip, drinks you'd pace, activities you'd never book. The deal usually costs 40% more than an independent trip with better food. blog.best.so/real-cost-all-…

Hilton just devalued points. Quietly. Marriott did it 90 days ago. Hyatt is next. Nobody calls it a devaluation. The award chart gets reorganized. Point value drops 8 to 15%. Cashback math beats points math in 2026. blog.best.so/hotel-points-d…

Seville, Cordoba, Granada in 5 days is the default play. Wrong. The cities aren't variations. Pick 2, give each 3 days. And shoulder season in Andalusia is October, not April. blog.best.so/andalusia-shou…

The strategy that works in 2026 is not choosing points or cashback. It's stacking both. Cashback on the booking. Points on the stay. A card sign-up when it fits. Total return on a booking runs 12-18% if you do all three. Stop treating loyalty as your primary savings strategy.

Three reasons devaluations keep coming through 2027. One. The $11B liability needs to shrink. Two. Co-brand cards flooded the system with bonus points the programs never planned for. Three. Dynamic pricing now ties redemptions to cash rates automatically. The trend is one-way.

What a hotel point is actually worth in 2026, per Points Guy May valuations. Hyatt 1.7 cents Wyndham 0.9 cents Marriott 0.7 cents Hilton 0.5 cents IHG 0.5 cents Earning 10 points per dollar at Hilton means 5% back. Sounds generous. Isn't.

Marriott went further. Dynamic award pricing now ties redemptions directly to cash rates. The sweet spot properties that used to hit 1.2-1.5 cents per point have disappeared. Most Marriott redemptions now settle around 0.5-0.7 cents. The "loyalty" tax is real.

Hilton launched Diamond Reserve in January. 80 nights, 40 stays, $18K in spend. CEO Chris Nassetta said no devaluations planned. Meanwhile, award nights at flagship Hiltons climbed 12-18% in points cost while cash rates rose 4%. A devaluation in everything but name.