Nearly free hotels through topcashback and cheapoair
I just want to share a tip that you can use to get free or very cheap hotels in certain countries.
The website topcashback.com lists cashback offers from various companies which are usually just 4% or something small. However, CheapOair has an offer of $16 cashback for hotels. In cheap countries such as Thailand or Vietnam this can be enough to cover the entire cost of a room for one night, or at least make it very cheap, depending on where you choose. You can book individual nights consecutively to make a longer stay. The cashback offer is listed here. The cashback amount is usually $15 but now $16 for some reason.
You need to have an account on topcashback first, then click their link to access CheapOair.com in order to get the cashback. You’ll book and pay the full price of the booking first and receive the $16 cashback around 4 weeks later on topcashback. You can withdraw to Amazon, Paypal or directly to your bank account via ACH.
I recently used this trick over two weeks and a few different hotels in Bangkok (H residence, nantra de comfort, and nantra sukhumvit 39) without any problems receiving the cashback.
A few caveats:
Not every country is available: for example, Indonesia and Malaysia were at one point but CheapOair no longer lists any hotels in those countries. You'll just have to check on the destinations you're interested in.
The website is tricky: They usually add a huge amount of fees to any booking of one night, and prices can vary based on the date, so you have to search around for a hotel and date that doesn't have the high fees. This is the hardest part of this trick, and causes it to sometimes require more time and patience.
The cashback doesn't come immediately and you take a risk booking a very long stay of single night bookings. (The longest I have done is five nights in a row, and two weeks among different hotels in the same city) It's possible they get pissed off and deny the cashback even though the T&C on topcashback.com says nothing to prohibit this.
I wouldn't count on being able to cancel any of these bookings, CheapOair is not known for great customer service, and I also don't know if you still get cashback if you don't end up staying at the hotel.
Here is one example of a place that would cost $0.80 after taking the cashback into account:
I've received a grand total of $315 of cashback using this trick:
I suggest combining this trick with opening a credit card that has a spending requirement to earn a bonus of either cashback or points redeemable for flights and/or hotels.
If you don't have a topcashback account, you could sign up with my referral link here, for which I would receive $10 bonus cashback.
I welcome anyone who finds hotels that are currently priced without the crazy high fees to share in the comments. I'd also like to see someone test the limits of just how many consecutive single night stays is possible. Could one stay an entire year in free hotels?