How I booked a 4 star hotel for free in Budapest.

If you’ve been following my recent travels on Instagram and Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been racking up the air miles lately in a bid to complete my 30 countries before 30 challenge. In the last seven weeks I’ve been to Cyprus, Mexico and Jordan, so now have just two countries left to visit before I hit the mega 30 milestone.

Unfortunately this sudden surge in travel has meant that my bank balance has taken a bit of a battering. And with my unemployed status (following my rapid return to Reading) and no wages coming in, I’ve had to use all my savings to fund my final few trips. Because of this, it was touch and go whether I’d actually complete my challenge. However, I’m happy to report that flights to those two remaining countries have now been booked. Hooray.

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On Wednesday 21 June I’ll be flying out to the German capital, Berlin, where I’ll stay for a few days. From there I’ll head on to Budapest, making Hungary my 30th country (well before the deadline of Saturday 8 July, when I’ll turn 30). I’ll then fly back to the UK on Thursday 29 June, meaning I have a few days to relax before starting my new job in London the following week. Double hooray.

What’s not “hooray” however, is the cost of all this travel. Which would soon mount up if I wasn’t being super careful…

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I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I used to work at MoneySavingExpert, one of the UK’s biggest consumer websites. Therefore money-saving runs in my blood, and over the years I’ve learnt lots of ways to keep travel costs (as well as other household bills and expenses) as low as possible. I constantly look for deals, price glitches and loopholes so I can get cheap flights, cheap package holidays and cheap hotels. I even look for the cheapest airport parking and research where to get the cheapest travel money before I head off.

With all my money-saving prowess in force, so far these last two countries have cost me £102 in flights and £48 in airport parking. I’ve yet to book my accommodation in Berlin (if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below), but my 4-night stay in a hotel in Budapest has cost me absolutely nothing.

That’s right, I’ve not paid a penny to stay at the Soho Boutique Hotel – saving me a whopping £607 according to Booking.com.

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How did I manage to book a stay at this 4 star hotel in the centre of Budapest, with excellent transport links and a complimentary buffet breakfast?

Well, it all goes back to my MoneySavingExpert days, where I worked with this money-saving fanatic, Jenny. Jenny was amazing, an inspiration to me. She would save money on everything, rarely paying full price for anything. You name it, Jenny had a coupon, a discount code, a sale or a deal for it.

One day back in 2011, when she started talking about TopCashback and how great it was for saving money on things, I thought I’d look into it more. If you’re not familiar with cashback websites, essentially they use affiliate links to track sales online, and when a purchase with a retailer is confirmed, you earn back a percentage of the money spent. It doesn’t always work (sometimes there are tracking issues, for example), so the cashback is never 100% guaranteed, but it is a potential way of getting money off products and services that you would buy online anyway.

I was apprehensive at first; I didn’t like the idea of a third-party tracking what I was buying over the internet (not that I was buying anything dodgy, more that I didn’t want them knowing details about car insurance and the like). But I joined anyway, and after chats with Natasha (the PR lady and TopCashback guru), I found quick and easy ways to start building up my cash balance.

In my first year as a member on the site I made over £100 cashback. But rather than withdrawing my cash into my bank account, Jenny had a better idea…

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Heeding Jenny’s expert advice, instead of withdrawing my balance I converted my cashback into Tesco Clubcard points (a shopping reward scheme in the UK). By doing it this way I actually got a “bonus”, so got more points than I would have done if I’d just taken the cash. It didn’t stop there though.

I then began to build up my Clubcard points balance. Again, hanging on every word Jenny said, I waited for Tesco Clubcard points exchange events to change my points into Avios air miles with British Airways. This made them worth 4x what they would have been as standard Clubcard points.

Those Avois points could then be used to pay for flights, hotels, package holidays and days out. It sounds complicated, I know. Here’s an illustrative example to show how it worked:

  • Spend £100 on ASOS online via TopCashback, earning 10% cashback = £10
  • Withdraw £10 cashback as Tesco Clubcard points (back then TopCashback offered a point for every penny converted into Clubcard points), and given a 5% bonus = 1,050 Clubcard points
  • With Tesco Clubcard, every point is worth a penny, so 1,050 points is £10.50 of vouchers. Back then £2.50 worth of vouchers would get you 600 Avios points. But…
  • Use the vouchers in the Clubcard exchange event (happened twice a year) to get 4x what they were originally worth. So £2.50 of vouchers becomes 2,400 Avois points, and therefore £10 of vouchers becomes 9,600 Avois points.

In this example, with a single purchase of £100 on ASOS, doing it Jenny’s way, I’d collect enough points for a one-way flight from London to Paris with British Airways (minus taxes, as these still have to be paid).

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Fast-forward six years to today, and I’ve earned over £600 of cashback, simply from going via TopCashback every time I shop online. I’ve earned cashback from hotel bookings, insurance policies, food shops – I’ve even earned cashback from signing up for a free trial to a dating website.

By converting at least two-thirds of this cashback into Avios points (as well as collecting air miles the traditional way by actually flying with British Airways), by the beginning of 2017 I had a balance of over 42,000 points – enough to get me return flights to LA.

I used some of these to pay for tickets to the Guinness Storehouse when my (now ex) boyfriend and I went to Dublin for the weekend in February. But other than that, I’ve never spent any, hanging onto them for a special occasion. That is until now.

In light of Hungary being my 30th country in my mission to visit 30 countries before I’m 30, I’ve gone all out and used 35,000 points to pay for my stay at the super swanky Soho Boutique Hotel, saving me a mammoth £607 on accommodation costs. And if the pictures in this post (all taken from Booking.com) are anything to go by, I think it’ll be a stay worth every point.

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Unfortunately the “TopCashback to Tesco Clubcard” points route is no longer available (perhaps the bods in charge wised up to what Jenny and I were doing?), but there are still plenty of other ways you can save and earn money using TopCashback.

If you’d like to find out more and join the scheme, please use this referral link: www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/beccajtalbot. This will earn you a £5 Debenhams gift card, and me £10 cashback (which I can put towards further travelling).

Have you ever used air miles or reward schemes to pay for your travel? If you’ve got any tips or tricks on how to get great discounts on hotels, flights and other travel related costs, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

109 thoughts on “How I booked a 4 star hotel for free in Budapest.”

  1. I have seen and am signed up to a cashback site and they are really good. I also have a clubcard and it has been great in helping get a bargain in the past. I have never got a free trip though so well done on working the system to the best advantage, although boo that they are no longer allowing this x

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    1. Yeah, it’s a shame – but my friend who works at TopCashback said that the company are always reviewing their options for withdrawing cash, so fingers crossed it comes back! x

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  3. Oh wow! I use topcashback for my shopping but didn’t know you could convert it into club card vouchers! thats amazing! might do something like this when we go to our next holiday!
    and I absolutely love your challenge!

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    1. Thanks Sarah! I’m so glad I didn’t use my cashback to buy a holiday for me and my ex – spending it on this, my final country in my 30 before 30 challenge, feels so much more meaningful x

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  6. First off, congratulations that you will be completing the 30 countries before 30 challenge. I turned 30 in May so sadly, I won’t be able to do that. Maybe a new challenge of 50 before 50 could be created?
    That is awesome that you were able to save all those points so you can have a free hotel stay. I might have to check out topcashback. Enjoy your last few trips!

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    1. Thanks so much Jessica 😊 50 before 50 sounds like a great challenge to me! I’m contemplating what I should do for my next travel-related challenge, any suggestions?

      And thank you – I definitely recommend using TopCashback, once you get into the mindset of always going there first before buying anything online, the pounds soon build up! X

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  9. WOw what a brilliant way to save money on travel expenses and accommodation. Well done you! That hotel looks absolutely stunning 🙂

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  11. What a wonderful idea! We have a cash back credit card I’ve never thought about doing something like this. I can’t wait to check out the offer through the link you provided. Thanks so much for sharing this with your readers!

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    1. Thanks Alison – as stated at the bottom of the post, TopCashback is no longer offering Tesco Clubcard points in exchange for cashback. However a good source of TopCashback knowledge (my friend Natasha, who works for them) said that they are always reviewing the methods of cashback withdrawal, so hopefully it will come back soon x

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  13. I think it’s fantastic that you were able to pull together all the points and credit savings you’d accumulated to make this stay a free one. I look forward to your trip and report. Kudos!

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  14. wow, I so need to up my game on cashback sites. All my shopping these days is done on line and I know I am missing out so need to really pull my finger out! … hope you are all packed and ready to go! Have a super time

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    1. Once you’ve been going through cashbacks a wee while, and you get into the habit of it, it becomes second nature I think 🙂 leaving for Stansted at 2.30am tonight, haven’t even packed yet – need to get a wriggle on! x

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  15. Wow, this looks like it will be great! I really need to do more with cashback, I almost never do. Even with my avios, I have some ridiculous amount as I wanted to earn enough to get me a free trip to Hawaii – I now have enough for that but now I’m not sure whether to keep saving it!

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    1. I think once you’ve got into the habit of always going via the cashback site before you buy online, it becomes second nature, so the cashback just mounts up! Will it did in my case anyway 😊 I think Avios are great, but when you use them for flights you still have to pay for the airport taxes etc, which in some cases can be the biggest part of the cost. So for example, though I had enough points for return flights to the US with British Airways, I would still have had to pay £150 per flight in taxes. Norwegian Air do some budget flights to the US for £149.90 each way, and that includes the taxes. Admittedly the Norwegian Air flights don’t include free meals or checked in luggage, but other than that the service is the same – and if you always carry on like me, it’s a no brainer. So I kept saving my Avios for something special… then I realised that you can use them for things other than flights, and those didn’t occur the taxes and extra charges 😉 so hello free hotel stay in Budapest! 🇭🇺✨👍🏻 x

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  17. First of all, what an incredible challenge you set yourself – I love it. I’m so pleased you’re about to reach your goal, it’s definitely well deserved. I’ll be honest, I had always been apprehensive of cashback websites because I thought they sounded too goof to be true and like you, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I felt with my shopping feeling like it was being ;tracked’. This has completely changed my mind though and I’ll definitely sign up! Thank you!

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    1. Ahhh thanks for such a kind comment 🙂 I am really pleased that I’ll be able to say I have completed my challenge. I’ve heard so many good things about Budapest since telling my friends that I am going there! Yes I know exactly what you mean about cashback sites – it does feel a bit Big Brother-ish in some ways, but when I look at the benefits, these for outweigh my concerns 🙂 let me know if you sign up and start earning cashback! Good luck! X

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    1. Hehe! A holiday is great, it’s even better when it’s free (or discounted!). If you do a lot of shopping online anyway, then cashback sites like TopCashback are a no brainer really x

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  20. Wow, I don’t care how complicated it is if I get to stay in a hotel for free that is always a winner! Well done for booking the last two countries, looking forward to seeing more of your travels x x

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  21. Incredible!! I’m always doing cashback sites and searching for voucher codes etc. so this would be no skin off my nose to try! Just need to get my first ever passport to start off ha! x

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  22. My gosh – what an insightful post. I use Top Cashback occasionally but will definitely use it religiously now. Right now I’m just dreaming about what all the ASOS orders I’ve placed in the last few months could’ve gotten me had I used this method 😦 thanks for the insight Becca

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    1. Glad the post has helped! As soon as you get into the habit of going to TopCashback first, it’ll become second nature and the pounds (and points) will soon mount up x

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  25. Hahha that’s brilliant, who doesn’t love freebies? I haven’t registered for any such cashback schemes as yet, except the usual schemes on credit cards. Will do it now. Thanks for sharing !

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  37. I have never heard of Top cashback but I love to save and find cheap ways to budget and this sounds great. I do budget holidays and although we have not travelled in ages, we are going to Paris if i’m well enough and I found the best deals and flights and am so excited.

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  38. wow that is amazing how you managed to do this, I definitely need to look into cashback sites as I have never used one yet spend so much money online x

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  39. I have to admit I got a little lost with the maths of it all but what an amazing scheme. I terrible for getting good deals I do try and find discounts but I don’t do enough x

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  40. I had never heard about TopCashback before! I’ve been wondering how to be able to save money while traveling, especially for hotels (sometimes you just DON’T want to go to a hostel – need some space and privacy once in a while), because they are always so expensive! Will definitely be looking into other money – saving – related websites!

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  45. Cashback site are really great especially during holidays when people do most of there shopping online. I always get back between 60-100 dollars per year which is awesome.

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  50. You’re so savvy with cash back saving! I’m actually rather lucky and can sometimes use my dads hotel points as he travels a lot for business, but they’re mostly holiday inn’s. I do also like recommending people try the couch surfing website for free places to stay as it’s not always as “student back packer” as it seems!

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  54. Wow. I wish I had your money saving prowess and Jenny for a friend:) You certainly deserved that wonderful stay at Soho for all your great money management schemes. I love to travel too I should definitely come up with a challenge to steer myself too.

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