Edmonton’s Best Hotels Promotion: Earn Up to $225 On Your Next Stay!

Traveling is good. Getting rewarded for traveling and saving money is even better.

This is the simple concept behind Edmonton’s Best Hotels, a program run for the benefit of travelers in the heart of Oil Country designed to keep hotels full and encourage tourism to the city of Edmonton.

Today, let’s look into the ways you can maximize Edmonton’s Best Hotels promotion to jump-start your hotel status while paying the lowest nightly rates that you can manage.

What is Edmonton’s Best Hotels Promotion?

Edmonton’s Best Hotels is a promotion run with the support of the local tourism association and the city’s Chamber of Commerce to encourage travelers to stay in Edmonton for up to three nights.

As a city that can be infamous for getting to -40 degrees in the winter, it’s important for hospitality businesses to remain financially viable during the slower season, and so Edmonton’s Best Hotels promotion exists to help promote tourism.

An excellent feature of this program is that bookings are made directly with hotels on your behalf, and not being routed through a service like an online travel agency. 

This means that if you book at a property associated with a rewards program, such as Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, then you can be eligible to earn elite qualifying nights (EQNs) on your stay! This can be very lucrative for earning elite status fast, such as Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status, when promotions such as “Stay one night, get two EQNs” start in the slow (and in Edmonton, cold) first quarter of the year.

Before booking, do note you cannot use Edmonton’s Best Hotels to make same-day bookings as bookings must be made at least 24 hours in advance. If you are interested in making multiple bookings, there are no limitations except that there must be at least three days between bookings to be eligible for rewards.

Also, remember that you can’t use discounts such as corporate codes – no double dipping on gift cards and huge savings! The one exception is that CAA memberships can be used to receive a discount which we’ll get into later.

Edmonton’s Best Hotels has been around for a few years, and the current iteration of the promotion has an end date of December 31, 2025.

What Rewards Are Offered By Edmonton’s Best Hotels?

Every stay booked via Edmonton’s Best Hotels comes with one of three types of gift cards as your incentive to stay: a prepaid Mastercard, a gas gift card, or an Ultimate Dining gift card.

This Ultimate Dining gift card can only be used at a specific set of bars and restaurants, such as Swiss Chalet and Original Joe’s, even though some of the included brands (such as Elephant & Castle) don’t even operate franchises in Edmonton.

Rewards are allocated based on the number of nights you choose to stay in the city. Edmonton’s Best Hotels want you to stay all three of your maximum potential nights, so the longer you stay, the better your rewards get.

If you choose to book only one night, you can receive a $50 prepaid Mastercard, $50 gas card, or $50 ultimate dining card.

Book two nights, and you can receive one of the following bundles:

• $150 prepaid Mastercard or
• $75 prepaid Mastercard and a $75 gas card or
• $75 gas card and $75 Ultimate Dining card

Book three nights, and you get the best option of them all:

• $225 prepaid Mastercard or
• A three-way split of a $75 prepaid Mastercard, $75 Ultimate Dining Card, and $75 gas card

It’s pretty easy to determine that the $225 prepaid Mastercard is the ideal choice as it can be used anywhere online where Mastercard is accepted, including for paying utility bills and more. However, we do need to talk about when you’ll receive the card…

How Are Rewards Distributed?

Since Edmonton’s Best Hotels is a promotional program run independently from the included hotels, it will issue its rewards separately. This means that you will receive the reward that you chose when booking from the Edmonton’s Best Hotels team, and not from the hotel you are staying at.

This means that within 48 hours after check-in, you’ll be emailed a code that can be redeemed for your chosen reward. If you don’t receive your code within 48 hours after check-in, you can email Edmonton’s Best Hotels team at [email protected] and they will be happy to assist.

How to Make an Edmonton’s Best Hotels Booking

To make a reservation, visit the Edmonton’s Best Hotels website and click “Book Now”.

On the next page, you’ll be invited to pick your rewards, so select the one that is best for your needs. We recommend always choosing the prepaid Mastercard no matter how many nights you are staying, as it is the closest option to a cash equivalent.

Now you’ll need to select your desired travel dates before the available hotel options and prices show up.

If you are interested in making a booking to solely earn nights towards hotel elite status, I find that the most economical choices are usually three night stays commencing on a Monday or a Tuesday and checking out before the weekend.

Next, you’ll be given a list of hotels to choose from. Feel free to use the drop-down menus to filter by location or preferred location (between West Edmonton, Downtown, or South Edmonton). You can also sort by price if you are interested in booking just to earn elite qualifying nights towards status.

Next, select your hotel and room type. I opted for the Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton South on Argyle Road because of how economically priced its rooms tend to be.

The lowest price I found was a room for CAA/AAA members discounted to $382 for 3 nights, or an effective cost of $157 after receiving the $225 gift card (for a cost of $52.33 per night). 

The rate does ask that a valid CAA ID card be presented, but fortunately, as an Albertan, I could use the $59/year Alberta Motor Association Community Membership to avail myself of this discount.

Once booked, that’s it! You’ll receive an email confirmation from Edmonton’s Best Hotels and you can get ready to go to your chosen lodgings.

Note that your hotel loyalty program membership number will not be attached to the booking at this point in time, meaning you will not currently earn any elite qualifying nights. Read on as to how you can fix that.

The Value of Edmonton’s Best Hotels for Miles & Points Enthusiasts

One of the best values for using Edmonton’s Best Hotels is for mattress running towards hotel elite status. This is the process of checking either yourself or a friend into a hotel with no need to stay there for every night booked for the purpose of racking up elite qualifying nights to earn or maintain status. This is even better because hotels in Edmonton are often more affordable than in other major Canadian cities.

Since Edmonton’s Best Hotels make the bookings on your behalf with each property listed on their site, they are not running an Online Travel Agency (OTA). This means that you’re not considered to be using a third-party travel agency, and as such are fully eligible for points and elite nights.

While these bookings may be eligible to earn towards and benefit from hotel loyalty program status, it doesn’t mean adding your loyalty number is done automatically. It’s your duty to ensure your membership number, be it on Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, or Best Western Rewards, is attached to the reservation.

You’ll need to either call the hotel, email them, or message them via the Marriott Bonvoy app to attach your loyalty number to the reservation. Alternatively, you could request the front desk agent to do so upon check-in, but I think it’s easier to get things squared away before you arrive. However neither myself nor various friends and family at Frugal Flyer have ever had major issues seeing our points and EQNs post.

This also means all your elite benefits count as well, so definitely expect free breakfast at eligible Marriott properties if you’re a Platinum Elite status member or above. The quality of the breakfast is not guaranteed to be platinum unless you end up staying at the JW Marriott Edmonton.

I personally have had great success with Edmonton’s Best Hotels since it launched in 2022. I used it in the first quarter of both 2023 and 2024 when Marriott launched its “Stay 1, earn 2 elite qualifying nights” promotion, and in both cases, I had no issues attaching my Marriott Bonvoy number to hotels or receiving my full benefits.

In fact, I’ve even heard of people checking in as second guests on their friends’ reservations and being offered full welcome benefits and amenities at check-in. Hospitality and respect for elite members aren’t gone here in Oil Country!

Conclusion

Edmonton’s Best Hotels offers a great way to visit this northern city on the Saskatchewan River at a hefty discount. Whether you want to gorge yourself on Harvey’s or enjoy a prepaid Mastercard for your trouble, this promotion offers excellent value to travelers of every budget.

Better yet, while Edmonton’s Best Hotels offers excellent rewards to every traveler, their program stacks even better for those of us who enjoy hotel chain status, especially with Marriott Bonvoy due to Edmonton’s high concentration of properties from their brands.

Whether you’re thinking of visiting for a hockey game or planning a mattress run, try using Edmonton’s Best Hotels for your next vacation to travel more effectively.