How We Use Hotel Credit Cards

As of writing this, we own 6 hotel credit cards that we’ve accumulated over the past few years in our travel rewards journey. This post is going to explain our thought process for how and why we chose the hotel cards we currently have. I hope this can provide insight into choosing cards, and then using and redeeming hotel points. NOTE We do NOT carry a balance on our credit cards, and do not go out of our way of our normal spend to meet any welcome offer requirements when we open a new credit card.

What Hotel Credit Cards Do We Currently Own?

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card ($95 annual fee) (VISA) (Chase)
The World of Hyatt Credit Card  ($95 annual fee) (VISA) (Chase)
x2 IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card ($99 annual fee) (Mastercard) (Chase)
x2 IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee) (Mastercard) (Chase)
 
We pay $586 each year in annual fees to hold those 6 hotel credit cards. The reason we haven’t closed/downgraded any of these cards is because we are earning more value from the card than we are paying in annual fees. We earn a free night certificate (each hotel is different for the value of their free night certificate) at the anniversary year for each of the above cards. In other words we earn the free night after a year of holding the card. Upon opening the card, we are able to put our normal spend on these cards to meet the welcome offer, and in turn use the points from the welcome offer to redeem for hotel nights. This was big for us during our first year especially when we were on a budget of $45,000 for the year. Being able to redeem for free nights helped us put that money we would have spent on lodging elsewhere!

When to Sign Up For A Hotel Credit Card?

I will typically sign up for new cards during an elevated welcome offer, which is when the welcome offer is higher than what is normally offered. I have read that if you happen to sign up for a credit card right before they release an elevated welcome offer, you can try calling customer service to ask if they will honor the elevated welcome offer.

Using Hotel Credit Card Points

To earn the most value from your credit card points it’s important to understand the value of your points. Not all points are equal. 1 point from World of Hyatt is more valuable than 1 point for IHG One Rewards. Instead of looking at your points as something you’ve gotten for “free”, treat them as if it was its own currency. Here is a website that has an average value of the different hotel rewards program point value.
 
When I’m ready to redeem with points, I will look at the points cost of the stay, and the cash price of the stay. I’ll divide the cash price by the points it was listed at, and compare that number to the average estimated point value. Typically, only if the value exceeds the average points value will I book with points. Another thing to note is that finding availability for your points isn’t as easy as just booking normally due to award night availability. Here are a few websites that help with finding award availability that make it much more efficient versus manually checking one date range per property at a time. Those websites are:
–       Rooms.aero
–       Awayz
–       Maxmypoints
–       Staywithpoints

Other Benefits of Hotel Credit Cards

While the anniversary free night and welcome offer are nice benefits to using a hotel credit card, they typically have other benefits as well. The big one is upgraded status with the hotel’s loyalty program. When you have status with a hotel you earn perks such as late check-out, early check-in, upgrades if available, etc. Every hotel has different benefits at different levels of membership. Another benefit is earning extra points when using the card at the respective portfolio of hotels. If you find yourself frequenting one brand of hotels, it could make sense to look into getting their credit card to maximize your spending with them.

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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.