Award tools

Points, cents-per-point and the certificate that covers the night — per night, per hotel.

Award rates from 8 of 11 chains' own booking systems, no account needed: the points for every room, the cash rate for the same stay, cpp computed after tax, and which free-night certificate covers it with what top-up. Native award calendars where the chain has one, a sweet-spot table across the store.

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Worked example

56,000 Marriott points for a $570 night: 1.02 cents a point, a 50k certificate plus 6,000.

One POST /award on Residence Inn by Marriott Chicago Downtown/Loop (CHIRL) for 2026-11-10, 1 credit live, and the seven-night calendar around it.

Lowest points: 56,000
Cash, same stay (member): $479 · $569.54 after tax
Cents per point: 1.02
Certificates: marriott_50k +6,000marriott_85k alone

A 50k certificate + 6,000 points, or a 85k certificate alone covers this night. 3 award rates were on sale; the cheapest is the Studio at 56,000 points with $16.08 in taxes and fees.

Night	Cash	Points
2026-11-10	$479	56,000
2026-11-11	$450	56,000
2026-11-12	$266	52,000
2026-11-13	$227	49,000
2026-11-14	$227	52,000
2026-11-15	$266	47,000
2026-11-16	$577	56,000

Seven nights from POST /calendar on the same hotel, 0.7 credits; the cheapest award night in the window is 2026-11-15 at 47,000 points. Shopped 2026-10-11 09:28Z.

curl -s https://api.directrate.dev/v1/award \
  -H "x-api-key: $DIRECTRATE_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"chain":"marriott","hotel_code":"CHIRL","checkin":"2026-11-10","los":1,"occupancy":{"adults":2}}'

{
  "chain": "marriott",
  "hotel": {
    "code": "CHIRL",
    "currency": "USD",
    "name": "Residence Inn by Marriott Chicago Downtown/Loop",
    "brand": "Residence Inn"
  },
  "checkin": "2026-11-10",
  "los": 1,
  "status": "available",
  "award_rates": [
    {
      "room_name": "Superior",
      "rate_name": "Redemption with Points Upgrade",
      "award_type": "standard",
      "points_per_night": 60000,
      "points_total": 60000,
      "cash_copay": null,
      "taxes_fees": 3.78,
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    {
      "room_name": "1 Bedroom Suite",
      "rate_name": "Redemption with Points Upgrade",
      "award_type": "standard",
      "points_per_night": 62000,
      "points_total": 62000,
      "cash_copay": null,
      "taxes_fees": 5.67,
      "currency": "USD"
  … 39 more lines
}

shopped 2026-10-11 09:28Z, live · cpp = cents per point against the after-tax cash rate for the same stay

curl -s https://api.directrate.dev/v1/calendar \
  -H "x-api-key: $DIRECTRATE_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"chain":"marriott","hotel_code":"CHIRL","start":"2026-11-10","days":7,"los":1,"occupancy":{"adults":2}}'

7 nights through Marriott's native calendar, 0.1 credit a night

{
  "chain": "marriott",
  "hotel": {
    "code": "CHIRL",
    "currency": "USD",
    "name": "Residence Inn by Marriott Chicago Downtown/Loop",
    "brand": "Residence Inn"
  },
  "start": "2026-11-10",
  "days": 7,
  "los": 1,
  "currency": "USD",
  "nights": [
    {
      "date": "2026-11-10",
      "status": "available",
      "min_los": null,
      "lowest": {
        "member": 479
      },
      "lowest_points": 56000,
      "source": "live"
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-11-11",
      "status": "available",
      "min_los": null,
      "lowest": {
        "member": 450
  … 58 more lines
}

lowest cash and lowest points per night; the member rate is what Marriott's calendar quotes

What you'd call

4 endpoints, one key.

POST/v1/award: One hotel and stay: every award rate the chain sells, points per night, any cash copay, cpp against the after-tax cash rate for the same stay, and which free-night certificate covers it with what top-up.
POST/v1/calendar: Points and the lowest cash per night over a window — the award calendar, 0.1 credit a night where the chain has a native one (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Choice, Hyatt).
POST/v1/award/search: Flexible dates: a place × up to 62 checkin nights × the chains you name, hotels ranked by cheapest night or best cpp, optionally only nights a certificate would cover.
GET/v1/award/value: The sweet-spot table: hotels ranked by the best cents-per-point their copay-free nights reach over the next 60 nights, read from the store, 0.025 credit a hotel.

Every endpoint is in the API reference; the request bodies are the Zod schemas the gateway validates with.

A month in credits

A redemption tool with a thousand lookups a month.

Weights are the ones the gateway bills with; a result served from a recent cache is a quarter of the live price, and errors cost nothing.

What	Calls	Credits each	Credits
/award on a hotel and date, on demand1 credit on 6 of the 8 award chains; Radisson 3, Best Western 5	1,000	1	1,000
30-night award calendar on 50 hotels, monthlynights through a native calendar, 0.1 each	1,500	0.1	150
/award/value table, weeklyfloor 1 credit per call at today's coverage	4	1	4
Hotel-code lookups	10	1	10
A month			1,164

Fits the Starter plan (3,000 credits, $29/month). All plans and weights.

Award lookups per month, by plan

Free · 250 credits: 250
Starter · 3,000 credits: 3,000
Growth · 15,000 credits: 15,000
Scale · 75,000 credits: 75,000

One award lookup = 1 credits live, as costed above.

FAQ

Award tools: questions before the first call

Does it return award / points pricing without a loyalty account?

Yes, on 8 of the 11 chains, with points_per_night, any cash_copay, cpp — cents per point — computed per night against the after-tax cash rate for the same stay, and the free-night certificates that would cover the night on Marriott, Hilton and IHG. No account credentials are used; the points are what the chain quotes an anonymous visitor. Wyndham and Meliá gate points behind a login at the source, so their points column comes back empty rather than estimated.

Can I track an award price over time?

Yes. Award pricing at Marriott, Hilton and IHG is dynamic — the points cost of the same room moves by the night and by the day you ask — so /calendar shows a window at once and a scheduled /award call builds the history. POST /watch sends a signed webhook when lowest points drop to a threshold or a night opens up, refreshed on your schedule.

How are free-night certificates matched?

From the programs' published terms: Marriott's 35k/40k/50k/85k awards with up to 15,000 points of top-up, Hilton's free night on any standard reward night, IHG's 40k anniversary night with unlimited top-up. certs lists the covering certificates cheapest first with the top-up each needs. Hyatt certificates are by category, which the chain's pricing does not state, so none is guessed.

Start with 250 credits a month. No card, no call.

Every response states its own price in X-Credits-Charged; the playground runs any of these calls with no code.

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