My Ranking of the Best Hotel Rewards Programs
Ariana Arghandewal May 10, 2018
NEW YORK - JULY 4: People walk past Hilton hotel at 6th Avenue on July 4, 2013 in New York. Hilton is the 38th largest private company in the United States according to Forbes.
I’ve never been much of a status chaser when it came to airline elite status. I collect points and miles and redeem those for a better experience. Hotel rewards programs are different. It’s still possible to earn status and get well rewarded for your loyalty. So which hotel rewards programs do I consider the best? Below are my picks, based on the ability to earn free nights and quality of hotel portfolio:
- IHG Rewards Club
It’s not the $500 – $12,000 worth of spend you have to do to earn a free night that ranks IHG Rewards Club last. It’s actually a pretty rewarding program and I always appreciate their Accelerate promos. What bugs me is that there aren’t enough aspirational hotels I’d want to save points for. A lot of their Intercontinental properties are outdated and their trendier hotels (i.e. Indigo) are few and far in between. I’m going to give IHG a couple of years to redeem/renovate themselves, but in the meantime it’s ranking last on my list.
- Marriott Rewards
The only reason I’m ranking Marriott Rewards this high is because the new award chart hasn’t kicked in yet. So earning a free night is still “just” $600 – $9,000 away. Plus, SPG’s 1:3 transfer ratio makes Marriott Rewards a good program to invest in (indirectly) at the moment.
- Wyndham Rewards
Here’s what’s great about Wyndham Rewards: All award redemptions are 15,000 points per night. No category restrictions. Since you earn 10 points per $1 spent or 1,000 points per night, a free night is just 15 stays or $1,500 away. But would I actually stay at a Wyndham hotel? It doesn’t fit my travel needs, which is why I’m ranking it #4.
- Hyatt
Hyatt used to be my favorite hotel rewards program and it still has a lot going for it. But elite status is pretty much off the table and I’ve had it with their boring promotions. That being said, Hyatt does have very nice hotels worldwide that I tend to prefer over other chains. More importantly, earning free nights is very easy thanks to their transfer partnership with Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Radisson Rewards
I get it, Radisson Rewards sucks. They’ve consistently butchered their credit card’s free night benefits and their stateside hotels suck. But Radisson Rewards has one of the most rewarding hotel programs out there. In fact, it takes just $750 – $3,500 worth of paid stays to earn a free night at a category 1 – 7 Radisson Rewards hotel. Before you start in on the less-than-desirable hotels in the Radisson portfolio, check out my Best Club Carlson Hotel Redemption series. The program has tons of amazing properties outside of the U.S. that are worth saving up for.
- Starwood Preferred Guest
It takes just $1,000 – $17,000 to earn a free night with Starwood. But that’s not why I’m ranking it second. Starwood has generous elite benefits and top-tier status can be earned via $75,000 worth of spend on the Ritz Carlton card. More importantly, you can transfer SPG points 1:3 to Marriott and get top-tier free night awards at an insanely good rate.
- Hilton Honors
People love to crap on Hilton. Following the announcement of the new Marriott award chart, its looking pretty good in comparison, isn’t it? Here’s the deal: Hilton makes mid-tier status meaningful and top-tier status easily accessible. Yes, there are those of us who can easily generate $40,000 worth of spending (in a matter of days, if not months). Being able to spend your way to top-tier Diamond status or even just “settle” for Gold and get valuable benefits is nothing to scoff at.
Most importantly, Hilton Honors makes it easy to earn free nights. Both via credit card spending and paid stays. In fact, non-elite members will have to spend just $500 – $9,500 on paid stays in order to earn a free night at a Category 1 – 10 hotel. More of a manufactured spender? Then you’ll spend just $1,667 – $32,000 on non-bonus category spending in order to earn a free night. And speaking of bonus categories, factoring those in makes earning free Hilton nights even easier.
Another reason I’m ranking Hilton at the top is that even as a Gold elite member, I’ve consistently received a room upgrade. Every single time I’ve stayed at a Hilton property. Without fail. Upgrades ranged from club rooms with nice views to the Penthouse Suite at the Conrad Bali. Hilton is an awesome rewards program all around and now that so many other programs are devaluing, I have a whole new appreciation for Hilton Honors.
Do you agree or disagree with my picks? What are your rankings of the best hotel rewards programs?
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Ritz-Carlton card is no longer taking new applications.
I agree that the Hilton program upgrades better than most, however the value per point can be very low when you look at the booking room rate. Marriott does not allow any changes to a room booked with points and restricts the rooms available. However I often find the best value for points bookings with Marriott/ SPG vs room rate.
I don’t disagree but I could still get into Hilton without so much as $35,000 for my stay so why the #big
Has any non USA resident been able to obtain the Hilton credit card ?
First, did you rank WyndhamRewards as #5 or as #4? You say #5 in the header, but in the middle of the paragraph you say #4. Second, what's the point of doing this chart 2.5 months before SPG ends as such??? It's a chart for the just 2.5 months, because on Aug 1 SPG and Marriott will be the same thing, but you have them wide apart on the chart. So for any planning beyond 2.5 months, this chart makes no sense to me because of this. Meanwhile, your comment about $40000 of spend for Hilton seems kind of silly. Amex now has cards that give you either Silver, Gold, or Diamond instantly, so why both doing high spend on them? In fact, if you do the right kind of spend (just hundreds of dollars, not tens of thousands), the Aspire card that gives Diamond status can have a "net negative" annual fee (since it has a $450 annual fee, but for that it gives you a free weekend night, plus $250 credit on airline incidentals which may include e-gift cards if done on the right airline and in the right amounts, plus $250 credit on stays at Hilton properties in their official resort list. Depending on how much you value the free weekend night, you may only need to do one of those to get the "effective" annual fee below $0.