LHW Leaders Club Points vs. Cash Calculator

Cash Currency

Select the currency used by the hotel — for example, if you are staying at a hotel in Tokyo, select Japanese Yen (JPY). The currency will be converted to USD for the points calculation. The actual exchange rate used by LHW may differ slightly from the rate used here, resulting in a small difference in estimated points.

Total Cash (excl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost excluding taxes and fees, as shown on the hotel booking confirmation or invoice. Leaders Club points are earned on eligible room rates only — taxes and fees are excluded. Note: you must book through LHW channels (lhw.com, the LHW app, or the LHW call centre) to earn points. Bookings made through third-party sites such as online travel agencies, Virtuoso, or Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts typically do not earn Leaders Club points.

Total Cash (incl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost including taxes and fees. This field is used for the return-on-spend calculation and for estimating credit card points earned on the total charge.

Points Required

Enter the number of Leaders Club points needed to book your stay as an award night. You can find this on lhw.com by searching for your hotel and dates and selecting the points rate. LHW uses dynamic pricing for awards — costs vary by property, room type, and demand. Leave this blank if you only want to calculate points earned on a cash stay.

Taxes & Fees

Unlike chains such as Hilton and Hyatt, LHW does not include taxes and fees in a Leaders Club award redemption — the points cover the room rate only, and you pay the applicable taxes, service charges, and any resort fee in cash. Enter the amount for the entire stay as quoted at booking. It is added to the award cost in the comparison. Your cash total in the “incl. Tax” field above should already include these charges, since they are part of the total cost of a paid stay.

Buy Points

Use this when you would buy points to cover the award — either because your balance is short, or because a points sale is cheaper than paying the cash rate. Enter the price you would pay per point, in cents. If a sale is running, use the sale price. Purchase prices are always in US cents, like the point value below, because points are sold in dollars regardless of the currency your hotel quotes.

The second field is how many points you already hold. It starts filled with the full award, meaning you have enough and are buying nothing — so the comparison you get by default is the ordinary one, points against cash, with no purchase in it. Edit it down to the balance you actually have and the calculator buys only the shortfall. Enter 0 to cost buying the whole award, which is what you want when weighing up a sale purely to book one stay. Clear the field and it goes back to tracking the award total.

Points that come out of your existing balance are costed at their redemption value (the Point Value field below), because spending them means giving up that value. Points you have to buy are costed at what you actually pay in cash.

Purchase rules: Points are sold in blocks of 1,000 — the calculator rounds your purchase up to the next whole block and credits any leftover points back at their redemption value. No tax or processing charge is added on top of the purchase price. Purchases are capped at 75,000 points per calendar year. If a stay needs more than that, the calculator flags it and costs the excess against your existing balance.

The award card then shows a break-even price: the price per point at which buying the points and booking the award costs exactly the same as paying cash. Below that price, buying wins; above it, pay cash. When the award can never beat cash whatever the points cost, the card says so instead.

Two things the calculator cannot check for you: purchased points generally do not count toward elite status or tier qualification, and in some programs they cannot be transferred to partners. Read the terms of the sale before buying.

Status

Select your Leaders Club tier. All members earn a base rate of 1 point per $1 spent on eligible room rates.
Club — Entry level upon joining (free to join); no bonus on base points.
Sterling — Earned after spending $5,000 or more on room rates in a calendar year. Adds a 5% bonus on top of base points.

Offers

Active Leaders Club promotions will be listed here when available. Select the Custom Offer option to enter a new or targeted offer. You can choose from a fixed amount of bonus points per stay, per night, or a multiplier of the total base points.

Nights

This field only appears when needed to calculate points from an offer that is based on nights stayed.

Credit Card

Leaders Club is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Rewards. If you pay for your stay with an eligible Citi card, you can transfer the ThankYou Points earned on the hotel charge to Leaders Club at a 5:1 ratio (1,000 ThankYou Points = 200 Leaders Club points). The effective Leaders Club earning rates are:
Citi Strata Premier — Earns 3× ThankYou Points on travel, equivalent to 0.6 Leaders Club points per $1 spent.
Citi Strata Elite — Earns 1.5× ThankYou Points on all purchases, equivalent to 0.3 Leaders Club points per $1 spent.
These are calculated on the total spend including taxes and fees. Select No Credit Card if you are not transferring ThankYou Points. Occasional transfer bonuses (e.g. 25% extra) are not factored in — add any bonus points to the Extra Points field.

Extra Points

Use this field for any additional points not covered by the other fields — for example, a Citi ThankYou transfer bonus or a targeted offer.

Point Value

The assumed value of one Leaders Club point in US cents, used to convert your earned points into an estimated cash equivalent. The default of 8¢ per point reflects a reasonable redemption value. LHW uses dynamic pricing for award stays, so the actual value per point varies depending on the property, dates, and demand.

Comparison Results

After clicking Compare, two cards show the effective cost of each option. Cash shows your out-of-pocket cost minus the value of points you would earn. Points converts the points spent to a dollar value using your chosen point valuation. The option with the lowest net cost is marked “Best value.” A higher point value favors cash stays (your points are worth more kept), while a lower point value favors using points. LHW does not offer a Points + Cash hybrid option.

Not Included in the Calculator

Booking channel: Leaders Club points are only earned when booking through LHW’s own channels (lhw.com, the LHW app, or the call centre). The calculator assumes an eligible booking — if you booked through a third party, you may not earn any points.

Sterling status benefits: Beyond the 5% points bonus, Sterling members receive benefits such as room upgrades, early check-in, and late check-out. These non-points benefits are not reflected in the calculator.