I earn and redeem points all the time. There's no downside to enrolling in the various hotel programs. As for credit cards, I have several for hotels. You have to take a look at the annual fee and decide if the award night is of greater value. Whenever I use points or use a credit card hotel certificate, I am treated comparably to an award stay. The one small difference is with Hyatt where I cannot use a suite upgrade on a credit card cert stay, though I can on a points stay. That's likely a non issue for you if you are just beginning to think about hotel loyalty programs.