Gondola is a free hotel search and booking platform that easily lets you compare the cost of cash and award stays. This makes it easy to search award prices across multiple brands at once and decide whether to use cash or points for hotel stays.
On top of your credit card and hotel loyalty program rewards, Gondola offers its own rewards system, called Gondola Cash, which provides 3 to 7% back on future cash bookings based on your status.
Gondola has become my favorite hotel award search tool because it makes it easy to compare cash and award prices across brands and stack rewards when booking with cash.
However, there are some drawbacks, including no availability alerts, so you may not be notified if an award space becomes available. And to use price drop alerts, you either need to send confirmation emails to Gondola or give the platform access to your inbox or loyalty accounts. For some, this may raise data privacy concerns.
Gondola does not charge a membership fee. Create an account, and you get access to all of Gondola’s features, accessible on desktop or the iOS and Android apps.
Connects to your email to track price drops on hotel reservations
To use Gondola’s price drop alerts and point tracking features, you need to give it access to your email hotel reservations. There are a few different ways to do this. Once logged in, you can give Gondola access to your email account so it can automatically track reservations and scrape your email for your point balance with hotel loyalty programs.
Or, if you don’t want Gondola to access your email, click “Other Options,” then select “Forward Emails to Gondola” or “Manually Track Your Points.” I’m not okay with third parties accessing my email, and I recommend manually sending emails to Gondola and inputting your loyalty status and points balance for each program.
If you choose to send reservation confirmation emails to Gondola (as I do), you must first register that email address with Gondola and then forward your confirmation emails from that address. Once forwarded, it only takes a few minutes for the reservation to appear in your Gondola account.
One of my favorite features of Gondola is the “Explore” tool. This allows you to view the best value worldwide for both cash and points bookings for the next six months. Filters are robust, allowing you to choose between 10 credit card and hotel loyalty programs. “Vibes” including beach, ski, pet-friendly, romantic, luxury and family. Property rating from 1 to 5 stars; And the total points cost for all nights.
For example, below is a map view of the results for point deals on 4- or 5-star beach, luxury or romantic stays in the Caribbean for May 2026 using hotels accessible through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
Searches are fast and accurate
Searches on the gondola are fast, usually completing within about 10 10 seconds. I compared the prices displayed on Gondola for both points and cash stays, and each time the results matched the member rate for booking directly with the hotel.
Get the same prices as direct bookings
Gondola offers the same member and promotional rates as you would get by booking directly with the hotel. In addition, you will earn additional rewards in the form of Gondola Cash.
This is great for travel planning
Gondola is great for showing you a specific location or region based on your search criteria. Like a traditional online travel agency like Kayak or Expedia, you can filter by factors like pet-friendly, pool, free breakfast or room type. But the real differentiator is the Value Filter, which shows you the best prices for both cash and points bookings based on historical prices.
It helps you find the best value for money or points
The search results show a ton of valuable information for each hotel, including the typical price range for both cash and points, allowing you to easily tell if the price for your travel dates is a good value compared to historical prices. No other tool does this in a way that is so easy to digest.
Price drop alerts can save you money or points
For existing reservations, including those not booked by Gondola, the Platform will inform you if the price will be reduced after you have made the booking. If you have made a refundable reservation, then you can go back and rebook at a lower price and pocket the difference in either cash or points. In today’s world of dynamic award pricing, this can save you a lot of points.
Gondola offers its elite status program and rewards, called Gondola Cash, which can be redeemed for dollar-for-dollar toward future stays that do not expire. There are three levels and three different ways to qualify for the silver and gold levels:
Status level | Gondola Cash Earned | How to qualify |
|---|---|---|
Member | 3% back | Sign up for a Gondola account. |
silver | 5% back | |
to sleep | 7% back |
Each status is valid through the calendar year it is earned and the following year. When you check in your reservation is based on night and expense requirements.
Where the gondola falls short
There are no price or award availability alerts
Gondola’s biggest drawback is the lack of price and award availability alerts.
Without an existing reservation, you can’t set an alert for when the price falls below a certain threshold, which would be useful when you don’t want to pay, for example, $300 a night for a certain hotel or more than 50,000 points. Additionally, there is no alert for award space openings. For this you will need a tool like Rooms. Arrow or Poinsettia.
You may have data privacy concerns
Signing up for a Gondola account used to require access to the platform to your email, raising data privacy concerns. Although no longer required, connecting your email account is the most seamless way to use the platform. You can also manually send hotel reservations to Gondola to receive price drop alerts, or add reservation and loyalty program details to your account.
How to explore with Gondola
Searches are quick and easy with Gondola. To get started, go to the Gondola home page.
To start searching, enter your destination and travel details in the search bar. The results will include both a map and a list view of available features. Each property displays the cost of cash and points, as well as transferable credit card points compatible with the hotel’s program.
My favorite feature is the color-coded points redemption value: green is a better-than-average value, white is a normal value, and red is a below-average value. These values are based on aggregate point values for that particular hotel’s currency, making it easy to know if you’re getting a good deal for that stay. If no redemption value is shown, no award space is available for those dates.
The level of detail you’ll see for each property is unmatched by any other search tool and includes property details and photos, benefits based on your loyalty status, a historical view of both points and cash value, and your total earning potential for a stay. I love that there is so much information, but it’s presented in a way that makes it easy to scan.
As you scroll down, you’ll see the value in points and cash for each room type available.
Keep scrolling and you will see the “Warnings” section. This gives you a calendar view of pricing and availability at that hotel. The redemption value is shown alongside the historical value, and the “Updated” column indicates when the tool last saw a change in the points rate. Again, this is color coded, where each color indicates the value of your points. Green is good, orange is good and red is good.
Scroll even further and you’ll see policies and Google reviews for that particular property.
yes Gondola is my go-to hotel search tool for both cash and points stays. The streamlined interface is easy to navigate and quickly provides the information you need to make a decision. I appreciate how fast the searches are and the color-coded redemption values make the results easy to scan. No other tool shows you this level of property detail (especially for free). Seeing both the cash cost and the value of redeeming points in the search results turns multiple search and browser windows at once into a faster user experience to find the best value for their points.
