Like hardly any other event, Formula 1 races have significantly increased hotel prices in the cities in which they take place. It is not uncommon for you to have to pay five to ten times the regular price to stay there on the relevant dates.
However, as with other major events, some hotels forget to adjust their accommodation prices or availability of points a year in advance, or there are cheap tour operator fares that have not yet been deactivated. You should take advantage of that. This is particularly drastic for the last Formula 1 race of the coming season in Abu Dhabi on the last weekend in November.
Below we present some examples of regularly paid hotels and point bookings. The price mentioned always refers to the cost per room per night including taxes and fees for 2 people when booking four nights (Thursday 26 to Monday 30 November 2020). When booking with points, it pays off that many hotel chains are currently selling points with high bonuses.
Regularly paid hotels
For the regular paid hotels, the Anantara offers excellent value for money. The St. Regis is ideal for even more luxury, and there are also very good rates at Le Royal Meridien, Sheraton and Radisson Blu from just EUR 129 including breakfast. On their own website, the hotels already cost at least twice, sometimes even more.
Anantara Eastern Mangroves (booking via Anantara.com)
- Standard room: EUR 162
- Standard room with breakfast: EUR 185
- Room with lounge access: EUR 256
St. Regis Abu Dhabi (booking via JAHN Reisen)
- Standard room with breakfast: EUR 277
- Grand Deluxe Suite with breakfast: EUR 375
Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi (booking via Hotels.com)
- Standard room: EUR 125
- Standard room with breakfast: EUR 155
- Room with lounge access: EUR 192
Sheraton Abu Dhabi (booking via DERTOUR)
- Standard room with breakfast: EUR 129
- Standard room with half board: EUR 160
- Room with lounge access: EUR 171
Radisson Blu Abu Dhabi Corniche (booking via trivago.de -> Loveholidays)
- Standard room with breakfast: EUR 172
- Sea view room with breakfast: EUR 188
- Room with lounge access: EUR 210
Rewards nights
In some cases, hotels have increased their regular rates significantly, but there are still availabilities for booking points. This is particularly useful if you have points with a hotel chain anyway, otherwise you can often buy these points cheaply.
Wyndham Rewards
The best value in Abu Dhabi is the Wyndham chain. You can book all hotels for just 7,500 points per night, even if you would normally have to spend EUR 300 for the room.
Wyndham currently sells points with a 40% bonus. So you can buy 1,400 points for USD 13, an overnight stay with 7,500 points therefore only costs the equivalent of EUR 63, while the regular prices in the two Ramada hotels including taxes and fees are up to EUR 300. This is a savings of up to 80%:
IHG Rewards Club
All IHG hotels in Abu Dhabi can currently still be booked with points if you stay for several nights. The night from Saturday to Sunday is still available in three of the six hotels. The price range ranges from 25,000 points for Holiday Inn to 35,000 points for the InterContinental.
IHG sells points with a 100% bonus until 30 December. So you can buy 2,000 points for USD 10. This corresponds to an overnight price of the equivalent of EUR 112, EUR 135 or EUR 158 for 25,000, 30,000 or 35,000 points. For example, you can also spend the night directly on Yas Island, where the race also takes place:
World of Hyatt
Hyatt has three first class homes in Abu Dhabi. The Park Hyatt on the beach of Saadiyat Island is the top, but the Grand Hyatt opposite the Emirates Palace and the Andaz, which is located in the most crooked building in the world, are very good hotels with top ratings as well.
Hyatt will continue to sell points with a 40% bonus until the end of the year. So you can buy 1,400 points for USD 24. This corresponds to the equivalent of around EUR 15.50 per 1,000 points purchased, which results in accommodation prices of EUR 124, EUR 233 and EUR 388 for the following hotels. Since taxes and fees are added to the regularly listed prices, but not when booking with points, you can save up to 70% here:
Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott currently has 12 hotels in Abu Dhabi, most of which can be booked for 15,000 to 40,000 points per night. Only St. Regis Saadiyat Island costs you 57,500 points per night. Unfortunately, Marriott Bonvoy is currently not selling points with a voucher or discounts, so Marriott Hotels are particularly useful for you if you already have Marriott Bonvoy points.
Let’s take a look at Aloft Abu Dhabi. The regular rates are AED 1,447 plus taxes and fees per night, which is the equivalent of more than EUR 400. At the same time, you can also redeem 15,000 points per night. You could buy these yourself without a discount or bonus for EUR 169.
Book suitable flights
This is one of the few cases in which it makes sense to book the hotel first and then take care of the flights later. Since flight offers are rarely activated more than ten months before the flight date, you should take care of your arrival from February. At the time, there will also be a lot of availability, as experience from the past few years shows.
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