Free Accommodation for Travellers? This Is Our Secret

Is free accommodation for travellers a myth? Or is there a way to see the world and stay in cool places for FREE?

The truth?

You can absolutely figure out how to get free accommodation when you travel.

You just need to know a little secret.

Come closer, we’ll (not-creepily) whisper it in your ear (hope you’ve cleaned it recently!).

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please read our Disclaimer.

Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

How to get free accommodation for travellers

There are different ways how to find free accommodation for travellers.

In this post though, we wanna share our story of staying for free in a 4* hotel in the High Tatras in Slovakia.

And no, it wasn’t a sponsored trip for influencers. Speaking of, do you follow us on Instagram? We share all our unhinged travel stories and sh💩tshows there.

So, how did we manage to get a hotel, in the Slovak mountains, during the peak season (August) for FREE?

The big secret?

Air miles!

Let us explain.

Using air miles to get free accommodation for travellers

First of all, you need to know how to collect air miles. If you fly with airlines that offer loyalty programmes (so not the likes of Ryanair or Wizz Air, sadly), and you are not earning miles, you are missing out on freebies! And you don’t wanna be missing out on free stuff, right?

How to collect air miles

Earning air miles is either a complex process, if you live in the USA, or a fairly simple one, if you live, say in Europe.

We are Europeans, so don’t have any experience with the madness that is points/air miles collecting in the USA – there are plenty of bloggers out there who can help you out with this, though, if this is your case.

If you don’t live in the US, you can collect miles in a very simple way. We wrote a whole guide for getting started with collecting miles as a non-American here, so make sure to read that first.

The problem with earning airline miles

The big issue when it comes to collecting air miles?

Unless you have the option of boosting your miles – for example through credit card sign-up bonuses, as is common in the USA, it will take you ages to earn enough air miles to be able to get free accommodation.

There are some ways to speed the process up – we talk about that in this post.

But, as always, we’ll be honest with you here – we were only able to collect enough air miles because of a 💩 situation.

Aha, that’s a new one, right?

We usually talk about how everything is going poorly for us, because Bad Luck Of The Year Winners. (Btw, if you wanna have a laugh, we frequently share these FML moments on our Instagram, so give us a follow.)

Wanna know how we did it?

Using air miles to get free accommodation for travellers – our story

Once upon a time, we were backpacking full-time around Southeast Asia.

But since we are completely nuts, we decided to fly over to the USA for a week to see 2 gigs.

Yes, it was crazy.

Yes, it was crazy expensive (it cost us 7+ weeks of travelling around Asia).

Yes, it was totally worth it and we don’t regret it. But that’s a different story.

A true travel story

The story about free accommodation for travellers goes like this:

On the way back to Asia from America, our first transfer was in Chicago.

It was a tight one and we barely made the plane.

Little did we know that not all of us made it.

The last thing you want to see when you fly

After a very long journey, and another transfer in Tokyo, we finally landed in Singapore.

And then it happened.

We got off the plane, walked into the airport and spotted our names on a big sign in front of us.

Now, let us tell you, it’s the last thing you want to see, especially after a long journey.

We instantly got stressed out – is there a problem with immigration?? Are we in trouble? Did we bring chewing gum into Singapore and they found out?? 😅

Turns out none of that. 

Just our backpacks didn’t make the Chicago connection.

What happened then was a mess of chasing airlines, trying to track down our backpacks and figuring out how to survive in the boiling hot Asia in our outfits from Colorado in November we were wearing (fun, fun and even more fun!).

We did do something very important though, that got us the free accommodation – 3 years later!

Remember to do this

The one thing we did that people often don’t do?

We asked for compensation.

American Airlines lost our luggage.

It caused us a lot of hassle.

We thought it was only fair that they compensated us for it.

What did they do?

Not much. 

They gave us air miles.

But guess what?

It was enough to get free accommodation 3 years later.

We know that this is not a replicable strategy.

But there is a lesson you can learn from it.

🧠 Always fight for your cause (if it’s justified and worth it, meaning the effort you put into it doesn’t outweigh the potential benefit).

The one thing to know about earning air miles

Many airline loyalty programmes put an expiry date on their miles.

Meaning if you don’t use them or top them up by flying more with them, you lose them.

Make sure you don’t waste your freebies like this! Read our guide to learn more tips and hacks for earning airline miles.

We hadn’t flown with American Airlines since our crazy trip, and we discovered our air miles were about to expire.

So what did we do?

We checked how to use them on the American Airlines website.

As non-American residents, our options were limited, but then we discovered air miles can be used to get free accommodation for travellers!

We always go on a trip for our birthdays, and Mirka’s was coming up.

But since her birthday is in August, we really needed to find a way to save money – travelling Europe is crazy expensive at that time. 😬

Air miles to the rescue!

What did we use the air miles for?

Since we had air miles on two accounts that we couldn’t combine without having to pay a lot (no thank you, we are all about saving money), we had to split up our reservations.

We booked:

• 2 nights in a 3* family-run guesthouse using one account
• 1 night in a 4* hotel using the other account

And to make it a more relaxing holiday, we decided to pay for an extra night in the 4* hotel, meaning we got a 5-day holiday for the cost of 1 night! What a bargain, right?

The thing is, we could have stretched the air miles even further. Here is how.

How to make your air miles go further

There is a lot of info out there about how much air miles are worth.

Calculators.

Tips and hacks.

If all of that sounds overwhelming and you can’t be bothered looking into it though, just use some common sense tips.

Here’s, for instance, how we could have stretched our air miles further:

• We could have used the air miles earlier, when we got them in 2022. Prices are constantly going up and so back then, we could have got more for the same amount of points.
• We could have used our points/air miles to go abroad, instead of staying in Slovakia – despite prices of many things in Slovakia being low, other things are overpriced, including accommodation in the mountains. We could have found a cheaper hotel elsewhere in Europe.
• We could have redeemed them for a stay during a low season, rather than in the middle of August, when prices are much much higher.
• We could have skipped the 1 night in the 4* hotel and instead got 2 extra nights in the 3* one for the same amount of miles (or even more nights, if we’d gone with a lower rated place).

You don’t have to spend a week trying to figure out how to hack using your air miles. Just use common sense and be smart about it. 

Free accommodation for travellers: other options

If having your luggage lost (and found) for air miles isn’t your vibe (what a weirdo you are! 😆) you might wanna consider these options for getting free accommodation:

• Volunteering – it’s kinda like free travel. Sure, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and do some work, but in exchange you score free accommodation and meals (if you play your cards right). We break it all down in our volunteering guide – from where to find volunteering opportunities, to the red flags that scream “run!” when picking a host (yep, we learned that the hard way with one that was not-so-magical, ehm ehm).
• Free travel for students – if you happen to be a student (lucky you!) make sure to check out this post on how you can travel for free. 

Have you ever managed to score free accommodation? And will you tell us your secret? If you don’t want to share it publicly, you can always DM us on our Instagram. We promise not to tell. 😉