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Hotel points value, at a glance.
PointLens is a Chrome extension that shows how much value you get from hotel points while you browse hotel websites. Compare cash and award rates directly in search results, room listings, and maps—without keeping a calculator or a second set of tabs open.
Download the latest release · Report a bug · Development guide
A small badge sits next to the hotel's price:
| Browsing with cash | Browsing with points | Compact map marker |
|---|---|---|
1.00¢/pt · 30,000 pts |
1.00¢/pt · $300.00 |
1.00¢/pt |
Illustrative example: a $300 night available for 30,000 points, with no award cash charges.
Open the ⓘ details to see the available cash, points, base rate, fees, and totals behind the comparison. Colors reflect your own value thresholds for each hotel program.
| Hotel website | Loyalty program |
|---|---|
| Hilton | Hilton Honors |
| IHG | IHG One Rewards |
| Marriott | Marriott Bonvoy |
| Hyatt | World of Hyatt |
| Wyndham | Wyndham Rewards |
| Choice Hotels | Choice Privileges |
| Best Western | Best Western Rewards |
| Sonesta | Sonesta Travel Pass |
Coverage includes supported search, room/rate, and map views. Individual page layouts and available pricing data vary by site.
- Cash and points together. See points alongside cash prices, or the cash comparison when browsing award rates.
- Map comparisons. Scan compact CPP labels and open hotel previews for more detail. Best Western pins show value before selection; Sonesta labels stay fitted to their boxes through map updates.
- Room-aware matching. Compare matching rooms and rate options where available. Hotel-level comparisons can use the lowest available alternative; details identify fallback comparisons. Room-specific availability rules vary by brand, and unavailable awards are shown explicitly.
- Useful price breakdowns. Inspect available base rates, taxes, fees, stay totals, and award cash charges. Missing data stays unknown; estimated charges are labeled.
- Your definition of good value. Set good and poor CPP thresholds and choose before-tax or after-tax comparisons separately for each program.
- Update reminders. A notice at the bottom of the popup links to the newest GitHub release page when a newer version is available. Checks run at most once a day when you open the popup; updates are installed manually.
- Light, dark, or system appearance. Choose the extension popup theme you prefer.
- Accessible details. Open comparison tooltips with a mouse, keyboard, or click.
- Limited extra requests. Reuse pricing already loaded by hotel websites. Where a companion lookup is needed, caching, request budgets, and cooldowns help avoid duplicate requests and respect rate limits. Sonesta adds no extra pricing requests.
- Download the
point-lens-…-chrome.zipasset from the latest release. - Extract it into a folder you will keep on your computer.
- Open
chrome://extensionsand turn on Developer mode. - Click Load unpacked and select the extracted folder containing
manifest.json. - Pin PointLens from Chrome's Extensions menu, then refresh any open hotel pages.
Search a supported hotel website as usual. Open the PointLens popup to adjust that program's settings or choose another program.
To update, extract the new release into the same extension folder, click
Reload in chrome://extensions, and refresh your hotel pages.
Cents per point = (comparable cash price − cash charges on the award) ÷ points × 100.
PointLens uses matching stay lengths and the selected tax basis. For example, a $300 cash rate versus 30,000 points is 1.00¢/pt. If the award also requires $50 in cash charges, the value is approximately 0.83¢/pt.
Foreign-currency comparisons use exchange rates to express CPP in US cents. A higher CPP means more cash saved per point in that comparison; it does not account for every difference in cancellation terms, included extras, or rewards you might earn on a paid stay. Check the hotel's final booking terms and total.
PointLens reads supported hotel pages and their pricing responses, and stores
preferences and cached data in browser storage. Its current manifest requests
HTTPS site access, plus scripting, webRequest, tabs, and storage for the
page integrations and popup. Currency conversion makes requests to
open.er-api.com and caches successful rates for 24 hours. Update checks request
public release metadata from api.github.com without credentials and cache
the result locally.
Hotel websites change frequently. A missing badge can mean pricing is still loading, an award is unavailable, a request failed, or a page layout needs an adapter update. Sonesta award taxes and fees currently remain estimates; signed-in award checkout has not yet been verified.
The extension uses TypeScript, React, and Plasmo, targeting Chrome Manifest V3.
Each hotel adapter lives in pointlens/hotels/<brand>/ with its own settings
and popup component. See the development guide for build
commands, fixture-based tests, and site-specific implementation notes.
For a bug report, include the hotel website, affected view, stay dates, cash or points mode, extension version, and expected behavior. A screenshot with personal details removed is helpful. Please avoid posting cookies, credentials, or booking confirmations in issues.
PointLens is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the hotel brands listed above. Brand names and logos belong to their respective owners.