PointsCalendar: A Lightweight, Powerful, and FREE Hotel Award Availability Tool

A few weeks ago, I wrote a triad of pieces covering some of my favorite tools I used for award travel. (Parts 1, 2, and 3 are here). I recently came across another suite of tools to help you find hotel availability, set alerts for award nights and price changes, and plan mattress runs - PointsCalendar. Let's dive into it!

PointsCalendars Offerings

PointsCalendar.com is a suite of search tools housed on several websites: pointscalendar.com, hotel-points.com, hotelmattressrun.com, and ratedrop.com. For simplicity, I'll refer to the suite of tools as "PointsCalendar." PointsCalendar currently supports three hotel chains: Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott. You'll be gated to one of the domains listed above, depending on your search type.

Points Calendar 

Points Calendar is the most basic search, requiring you to identify a specific hotel of interest. Searching a particular property's award availability will deliver a calendar result of the cash and points rates available for booking. 

I searched for one of my favorite properties in Japan - Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto, a Luxury Collection Hotel & Spa.

I was impressed with how quickly the results populated. 

The results come quickly because they're cached—about 48 hours old. PointsCalendar updates its calendars every couple of days, though any alerts (which require creating an account) you set will be checked a few times daily. This isn't too much to scoff at, but you'll want to verify availability on the website of the hotel chain that the property you're searching belongs to.

Quick Search vs. Full Search

If you're unsure which property you'd like to stay at but have the general destination or city in mind, you want to run either a 'Quick Search' or a 'Full Search.' 'Quick Search' and 'Full Search' are essentially the same, with the difference being that 'Full Search' pulls from real-time results. The small tool-tip icons next to each option confirm this.

The search parameters require you to put in a city (or region) and a date range. You can also adjust the number and type of guests (e.g., 1 adult, 2 children) and a point value (more on that in a minute).

To test this, I ran both a 'Quick Search' and a 'Full Search' for Hyatt properties in Panama City, Panama. 

The search returns a list of Hyatt hotels in Panama City. Within each result, you'll find the cash rate per night, the points rate per night, and a determination of which of those two rates (cash vs. points) is the 'Best Deal.'

'Best Value' is determined by taking the cash value of the points in cents - cents per point - and comparing it to the point value you set as part of the search parameters earlier. If the cents per point is greater than the point value you set, that will be the Best Deal. I'm sure all the points and miles enthusiasts fixated on maximizing the value of each redemption will enjoy seeing it as a built-in feature of award search.

For Those Chasing Status - Mattress Run Searches

PointsCalendar also provides a quick and easy way to visualize the cost of a mattress run, whether you're contemplating a speed run to status or weighing your options in participating in a double elite nights promotion.

The gallery below reflects the results of a mattress run search I ran for 6 Hyatts nights in Oklahoma City. 

You can expand the results to show a list of the cash and point rates by night, which will give you quick insights into whether a mattress run is worth your time or money. 

How Accurate is It?

Very! As mentioned, the 'Full Search' results are pulled from real-time availability. Here again are the results of the search I ran for the Panama City, Pa. 

When I clicked 'View Deal' on the Hotel La Compañía result, I was directed to Hyatt's website, where I found that the rates, both in cash and points, matched those shown on PointsCalendar exactly.  

This functionality is remarkable in and of itself but outstanding for a free tool. It's worth mentioning that many of my favorite tools are seats.aero, points.yeah, and maxmypoint, all offer similar functionality (and even map-based award exploration). However, their platforms have become increasingly paywalled, meaning that you can conduct useful basic searches, but you'll need a paid membership for more robust search options that can better help you decide on accommodations. The fact that PointsCalendar is offering all of this for free right now is quite compelling.

Conclusion

I don't see PointsCalendar's name come up often when I read about discussions of the best award search tools, but it's a platform that rivals all the best hotel award search tools I've tried. With a few different search options, a reader-friendly UI, and accurate results—all free—it can help take your points and miles game to the next level. I'll be making a point to use PointsCalendar more often to find precious award availability at popular properties in the future.