Hotels for Mattress Running in San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area is known for its high cost of living, but it’s surprisingly one of the better places for mattress running. Mattress running basically means booking hotels that belong to a chain with the main purpose is to earn elite night credits to achieve higher status with said hotel chain.
Hotels are much cheaper in the Bay Area during weekends
Hotels in Bay Area tend to be much cheaper on the weekends due to the lack of business travel demand, and they’re much more apparent in Silicon Valley or South Bay. Many of them can be cheaper than $130 a night, or even less than $100 for the lower-tier properties whether you’re loyal to Marriott, Hilton, IHG, or Hyatt. In most cases, you can book last minute and still attain those low prices!
World of Hyatt Mattress Run in SF Bay Area
The best mattress run option for the Bay Area is the Wild Palms Hotel in Sunnyvale. It’s a Cat 1 hotel (soon to be in March 26, 2024). If done on weekends, you’d only need to shell out 3,500 Hyatt points a night. It’s not bad for the weekdays as well for just 5,000 points per night. The 2024 category adjustment for the Wild Palms is quite positive for those who need to mattress run some nights to reach Globalist status, which on paper, is the best hotel status out of the whole hotel loyalty schemes.
Cash price tends to float around $100 on weekends, so it’s much better to use points than cash, especially once the hotel moves from Cat 2 to Cat 1.
Marriott Bonvoy Mattress Run in SF Bay Area
For Marriott, it’s much better to use cash rather than points when mattress running on the weekends in the Bay Area. Look around options in East Bay to South Bay, and you’d find many of low $100’s per night, or even below that. Although, be aware of parking rates as they’re not included in the total bill on your online reservation.
Within the past couple of years, Marriott has consistently ran double elite night promotions in the first quarter of each year, so it’s worth mattress running during that period. But, you should only do so in accordance to how many more nights you plan to stay at Marriotts throughout the rest of the calendar year. The risk of mattress running this early in the year is that it could be a waste of money and time if your future trips within the year falls apart from whatever reason.
Remember to leverage AAA or Bonvoy Business rates for further potential discounts! Some hotels may even have bundled weekend specials that can be cheaper than either rates.
Some of the nicer options that may be nice for staycations that I’ve reviewed in the past are TETRA Hotel, Hotel Citrine, Hotel Nia, or Westin Palo Alto. Though if you’re looking for the cheapest possible, then you’d want to look for the Courtyards, Alofts, and sometimes even Marriotts and Sheratons in East Bay or South Bay.
Hilton Honors Mattress Run in SF Bay Area
It’s not worth mattress running for Hilton status due to them being easily attainable through Hilton credit cards from Amex like the Surpass/Business or Aspire for Hilton Gold or Diamond respectively.
IHG One Rewards Mattress Run in SF Bay Area
It can be a hard to make a case for mattress running IHG hotels as I feel that Diamond, IHG One Rewards‘ highest status, isn’t as good as even Hilton Diamond due to some of the benefits you’d typically see from higher status being fragmented into other things within the IHG program.
However, there may be some cases in mattress running to hit some of the key milestones like a confirmable suite upgrade voucher after staying 20 nights, or lounge access voucher after staying 40 nights. Though, I would maybe do them if I’m just 1-2 nights short.
There’s quite a good amount cheap Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza in East Bay and South Bay that would make for great mattress run options during the weekends from the IHG portfolio. Sometimes, the price might not increase that much on weekdays too at certain Holiday Inn Express hotels!
Conclusion
The SF Bay Area is surprisingly a good place for mattress running, at least for the US. But, they are only consistently good on weekends when demand for business travel shrink tremendously. Still, weigh the costs of your mattress runs with the benefits you’d gain. The Wild Palms Hotel would make mattress running for Hyatt Globalist a bit more economical due to the soon-to-be Cat 1 pricing starting in March 26, 2024.