Iberia launches Avios Hoteles: Is it worth using?

What Is Avios Hoteles?

Avios Hoteles is Iberia's answer to the question of how to earn Avios away from the aircraft cabin. Members choose from three ways to pay:

• Avios only, covering the full cost of a stay from an existing balance
• Cash only, which still earns Avios on the booking
• A hybrid option that applies part of a member's balance as a discount against the cash price.

Iberia says members can also access exclusive promotions and mobile-only rates through the platform. Car hire is available through Avis and Budget, with Iberia advertising earnings of up to 5 Avios per €1 spent on rentals.

The 300,000 properties available are drawn from a larger pool of up to 700,000 properties across 25,000 destinations, made possible by the long-term agreement IAG Loyalty signed with Expedia Group in March 2024.

Just to be clear, British Airways runs an equivalent portal for its own members on the same Expedia infrastructure, so booking Avios hotels through either British Airways' Avios Hotels or Iberia's Avios Hoteles means accessing the same underlying inventory and payment mechanics, just under separate branding.

How Do the Earn Rates Compare?

Members earn Avios on hotel stays at a rate of 10 points for every euro spent through Avios Hoteles, and 5 points per euro on car rentals. Not going to lie, that is a strong rate next to most branded hotel-chain partnerships within the Iberia Club ecosystem, which typically earn 1 to 5 points per euro.

However, the earn rate only applies when you pay entirely in cash. A stay paid for in part or in full with Avios doesn’t earn any additional points. British Airways' own Avios Hotels platform mirrors the structure at 10 Avios per pound sterling, so collectors who already know how to earn Avios on hotels through the British Airways version will find Iberia's version works the same way. What Avios Hoteles does is put a large Expedia-powered inventory behind one platform and attach a straightforward 10-Avios-per-euro rate to it.

"With Avios Hoteles, we continue evolving Iberia Club to offer our members a simpler and more flexible way to earn and use Avios, contributing to an increasingly complete travel experience," said Beatriz Guillén, Iberia's Chief Customer Officer. "Our goal is to continue incorporating new services that add value and allow Iberia Club to accompany our customers before, during, and after each journey."

There’s another wrinkle if you’re chasing Iberia status. Iberia currently awards 1 Elite Point for every 10 Avios earned through Avios Hoteles, so a qualifying hotel booking can move both balances at once.

Don’t Forget About Hotel Loyalty Points

Avios Hoteles is an Expedia-powered third-party booking platform. If you’re staying at a hotel chain where you also collect the chain’s own points or care about elite-night credit, booking through a third party can change what you receive.

For example, IHG says most rates booked through third-party websites are not eligible to earn IHG One Rewards points. Hilton goes further and says third-party website reservations don’t earn Hilton Honors Points, stay credits or night credits.

That doesn’t make Avios Hoteles a bad deal. It just means the calculation is slightly more nuanced than 10 Avios = good.

Factor in the hotel points, elite-night credit, and any status benefits you’d be giving up if you’re choosing between an Avios Hoteles rate and booking directly with a hotel where you have status.

What Happens If You Cancel?

Using points for a hotel can feel slightly more nerve-racking than putting it on a card, especially when the balance took months to build.

Avios says Avios used for an eligible hotel booking are refunded if you cancel, provided you’re within the cancellation deadline set by the hotel partner. The specific cancellation policy still matters, so check it before booking.

Where Does Avios Hoteles Fit Into Iberia's Bigger Plans?

Sometimes, it's easy to miss the forest for the trees and fail to see the bigger picture of where a brand is moving, but that’s not the case here. The launch follows Iberia's April 2025 shift from Iberia Plus to Iberia Club, which moved Elite Points onto a spend-based model and added a Platino Prime tier between Platino and Infinita.

Avios Hoteles is also positioned as part of Iberia's Flight Plan 2030, a €6 billion roadmap that includes growing the long-haul fleet from 45 to 70 aircraft by 2030 and building out Madrid as a leading European hub.

A hotel platform that both earns and burns Avios adds a revenue stream that doesn’t depend on selling seats, which matters for a currency that IAG ranked as the fourth most valuable airline loyalty programme in the world in 2026, with an estimated value of $10.35 billion.

Avios Hoteles makes sense against that backdrop. Iberia wants members earning and spending within Iberia Club before and after the flight as well as while they’re booking the seat. The more interesting outcome is that another substantial source of Avios has appeared for us.

Is Avios Hoteles the Best Way to Use Avios?

This is the important bit and requires a fair bit of subjectivity. From a starting point, earning 10 Avios per euro works out to a rebate of roughly 12% on hotel spend at a typical valuation of around 1.2 cents per Avios, well above the 3% to 6% most hotel loyalty schemes provide. That makes Avios Hoteles a great way to top up a balance on cash stays you were going to book anyway.

What’s not yet clear is whether the hotel rates shown on Avios Hoteles match, beat or exceed the price of booking the same room directly, so always compare the room price elsewhere and think about whether booking direct would earn valuable hotel points, elite credit or benefits. This is especially important if you hold status with a chain.

If the Avios Hoteles cash rate is competitive with the price you would otherwise pay, earning 10 Avios per euro is an easy way to give your balance a decent bump. A €1,000 hotel bill would mean 10,000 Avios before considering any points you might also earn from the card used to pay.

However, even at a strong earn rate, hotels are not the best use of your points once you have a healthy balance. Iberia reward flights and British Airways reward flights still return more value per Avios than any hotel redemption, since flight redemptions routinely beat the 1.2-cent midpoint against which hotel earnings are priced.

If you have 60,000 Avios sitting around and no interest in flying with them, using them for a hotel is certainly better than admiring the balance indefinitely. But those same Avios may have much more work left in them if Business Class reward flights are the goal.

Your Avios Are Not Locked to Iberia

You’ll receive all points you earn through Avios Hoteles in your Iberia Club account, but IAG Avios is a shared currency across British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, Qatar Airways and Finnair. If you booked a hotel with Iberia but prefer to redeem flights through British Airways, you can simply move your balance across using Combine My Avios, which is free, instant and unrestricted in amount between your own accounts. There’s no need to build separate balances in separate programmes.

Final Thoughts

Our favourite Avios Hoteles strategy is probably the least glamorous: use the hotel to earn Avios, then use the Avios to book yourself into a premium cabin.

Hotel bookings can be a great way to build a balance, especially when the cash rate is competitive, but spending a large chunk of Avios on a room can mean giving up the chance to get much more value from them later in Business Class.

So think of Avios Hoteles as another tool for building your stash, not necessarily the place to empty it. Earn on the hotel. Keep an eye on reward availability. Then wait for the redemption that makes those points feel properly well spent.

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