good_boy_1234

There are many hotels credit cards in the market with all kind of sign up bonuses but the redemption value differs considerably. Some gives you over 70K bonus but need more than 30K per room plus fees, while some you can get rooms for as low as 5K points inclusive. What do you guys recommend for someone who wants to establish a history with a hotel chain? Also, any particular cards that provide you a breakfast/wifi for free?

sdsearch

The redemption rate varies considerably within each hotel program, and the way it varies from one location to another varies a lot from one program to the next. For example, Hilton is somewhat related to cash price but with a hotel-specific cap for each hotel, and some hotels have a much lower cap than others for some unknown reason. Meanwhile, at Marriott the redemption rate has little or nothing to do with the cash rate, and only has to do with how popular that hotel is for points redemptions. And thus expensive hotels in parts of the world where very few people redeem points can need very few points in the Marriott program, while conversely low-priced hotels where redemption are popular in other seasons may have very high redemptions at Marriott. So it all depends very specifically where you're going to go, and also whether you want just a "good" property or only an "aspirational" one.

Meanwhile, those 5K points hotels tend to be scattered far and wide in the programs that I'm familiar with that have them.

The only cards that I can think of that give you breakfast for free are the ones for Hilton: The Surpass which gives you Gold status for $95 AF but with few offsets, and the Aspire which gives you Diamond status for $450 AF but with several kinds of offsets which may or may not lower the "effective" AF below $95 or even below $0 for you.

All other hotel cards that I'm familiar with give you too low a status to get free breakfast (except at those brands that give complimentary breakfast to everyone who stays there).

However, most hotel programs give you free wifi as long as you sign up as a member of the hotel program and book your hotel stay through the hotel program website or app. So you don't need a card for free wifi at most hotel programs. (However, the Hilton cards mentioned above may give you free "premium" wifi at some hotels.)

GUWonder

The Hyatt 40k+ point “sign-up-bonus” card can be pretty good for 3-8 nights.

good_boy_1234

Thanks guys but you need to spend $6000 to get 50K points in Hyatt. Where you only need $3000 for 120K in Radisson. I know the point value is not the same. But here is thing, you can spend more nights at Radisson compared to Hyatt although the quality of rooms are way less than Hyatt. But at the end who cares if all you want is to get free nights?!

EmailKid

I'm with you, but there are many who will not agree. Something about getting what you pay for ..... or not pay for, but many will part with more points for superior accomodation

eponymous_coward

Radisson's availability in major markets isn't as good, and their point value's inflated. One I occasionally stay at is $100 a night before tax (it's one of the less expensive hotels in this market, and it's... fine for what I want to do, if not fancy)... or 38,000 in points. So on a 120,000 point sign up bonus you'd get a whopping three nights at a 2.5 star Country Inn and Suites hotel that would run you $350ish all in. Keep in mind that $3000 spend is $60 on a 2% cashback card, so really that sign up bonus is getting you ~$300 in value at that hotel.

38,000 points per night is almost as many points as Hyatt's top category (Cat 8- 40k). Those are some 1k a night hotels for Hyatt.

WrightHI

Don’t ignore plain old cash back. If you’re looking for a few nights here and there at inexpensive hotels, being brand-agnostic gives you more choices, and cash is more flexible than any brand’s points. Hotel points offer some valuable opportunities, but are less versatile and flexible. If your credit card spend is pretty limited, cash first is not a bad strategy.

bigshooter

Chase Sapphire Reserve gives 1.5 cents per point towards travel booked through their portal. If you aren't making paid stays in hotels much and not doing a ton of MS this might be your best bet.

Mike B

Before worrying about points redemptions, I would figure out where you want to stay, and what class of hotel (Motel 6 vs Four Seasons) you want to stay at, then focus on hotel chains that fit your aspirations. It will be much easier than sifting through all the hotel chains around!

For instance, I do nature-oriented stuff in mostly rural locations, mostly in the US. But I do some international and domestic travel to major destinations, and often like to stay at a nice (but not outlandishly so) hotel when I go to the big city. So I focus my efforts on staying at IHG or Hilton hotels. There are Holiday Inn Expresses in lots of small towns, and Hampton Inns at many rural locations by the freeway. When I go to the big city, the Conrad or Intercontinental is happy to see me and accept the points I earned at the country hotels. It helps that both of those chains have useful credit cards. This works for me, it is unlikely to be your dream setup. You will need to decide what could work for you.

incidentally, if free breakfast interests you, in addition to the Hilton cards, you might consider the AMEX Platinum. It gives Gold Status for free breakfast at Hiltons. Not a cheap card, you’ll have to decide if the benefits are worth it.

good_boy_1234

What are the hotel credit cards that offer annual free night? Free weekend? Other annual perks than counting award nights ? Cards with additional free night if you stay 3 or 4 nights?

yugi

Hilton Aspire or Surpass for Hilton, additional night on Surpass for $15k spend.
Chase Hyatt for Hyatt. $15k for additional free night
Radisson is a no brainier too. You get 40k points annually for $75 AF, also you can spend $10k for additional free night up to 3 nights.

good_boy_1234

Thank you. Was thinking more about this and the Hyatt card doesn't seem a great option. The annual night is limited to categories 1-4 which are just OK. To me, Chase UR transfer to Hyatt makes more sense more than renewing it for $95

yugi

Free night is still a free night, which Surpass doesn't have.
Hyatt card is second only to Hilton Aspire, but with recent clawbacks of Amex airline credits, Aspire might become not as desirable as before.
IHG card is also not bad.
There is also Ritz card, which is pretty good, you can get it by getting Chase Marriott card, and converting it to Ritz after a year.

yugi

$3k spend on Radisson card is another 15k points, which is approximately the same as $60.

sdsearch

3 Chase cards: Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt. All capped in some way these days (the IHG card was uncapped until about a year ago). With Marriott you can get one from the personal card and another one from the business card. (There is no business version of the IHG or Hyatt cards.)

There is also at least one Amex Marriott card that does.

Amex offers the annual free weekend night (uncappped) on the Hilton Aspire card.

These are the cards that offer it just for having the card and paying the annual fee.