Is it worth joining Point A Hotels ‘A List’ programme?

This is our review of Point A Hotels and the ‘A-List’ loyalty programme.

Head for Points tends to focus on the main global hotel brands  – Hilton, Marriott etc – and their respective loyalty schemes.  We like to look at smaller UK chains from time to time, and today I want to look at Point A Hotels.

The Point A Hotels website is here if you want to find out more.  It has recently had a lot of publicity for its new £900 monthly membership option which gets you 21 room nights per four week period.

Where are Point A Hotels?

Point A Hotels is a small chain of ten low-cost properties.  Seven are in London (Shoreditch, Kensington Olympia, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Canary Wharf, Westminster and Paddington) plus one each in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin (opens October).

The Shoreditch hotel – click here – gives you a good example of how the chain operates.  The two photos in this article are of Shoreditch.  The model is simple:

Hotels are based in city centre locations, close to key attractions

Rooms are small but very well equipped – Hypnos beds, power showers, 40 inch smart TV, hairdryers, mood lighting, safe, air conditioning

Rooms are not cleaned during your stay

Continental breakfast is available for £9

‘Grab and go’ snacks are available in the lobby 

There is no full restaurant

This has historically allowed Point A to offer rooms from £50 per night off-peak, which is exceptional value for London.

What is the Point A Hotels ‘A-List’?

A-List is NOT a traditional hotel loyalty programme.  You don’t earn any points and you can’t earn a free room for doing lots of stays.

A-List looks a bit like YOTEL’s ‘Club@YOTEL’ scheme.  We wrote about Club@YOTEL here.

This is what you get from A-List:

• 10% off your bookings
• Faster bookings
• Access to flexible rates
• Exclusive offers and deals

To be honest, the real value here is in the 10% discount and – if you need it – the ability to book a room which can be cancelled without penalty.  I never put much value on ‘exclusive offers and deals’, although sometimes you can get lucky and find something that works for you.

Let’s be frank.  Points A Hotels ‘A-List’ doesn’t offer you much, but it is silly to turn down a 10% discount if you can get one.

You can sign up for A-List here.

How do the paid membership plans work?

There are also two paid plans – one at £99 per year and one at £900 per month.

The £99 one is easy to explain.  Your discount increases from 10% to 20%, and breakfast is included for free.  Early check-in or late check-out is also offered subject to availability.  If you are staying more than 6-7 nights per year, you should easily make a profit on your £99.  Details are here.

The £900 per month plan is more complex.  You pay your £900 and you get 21 room nights per 28-day period.  The aim is to attract people wanting a room to work from, as well as sleep in.  Your 21 room nights come with free breakfast, you get free tea and coffee and you get a ‘reserved workspace’ somewhere in the hotel.

This could work for some people, especially if you currently pay for a property in London but only use it Monday to Friday.  There is no minimum commitment – you can roll over your membership from month to month as you choose.  You can stick with the same hotel or mix and match for your 21 nights.

Full details of ‘A-List Explorer’, as it is called, are here.

Conclusion

Points A Hotels has a good reputation for offering low cost hotels with good quality amenities in core UK city centre locations.

You won’t get much by signing up for A-List – no free nights, no hotel points, no airline miles – but if you can get a few pounds off your room then it makes sense to join.

You can find out more on the Point A website here.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).