phiota

Without giving consideration for anything else which of the hotel credit cards would you keep and pay the annual fee just to get the annual bonus in points or hotel room stay?

Hyatt
SPG
IHG
Marriott
Carlson
Fairmont
Hilton
Ritz Carlton
any others...

jhuck

If I can pick two I'd say club carlson and IHG. I look at club carlson as two free nights cat.5 (if you have additional 4k points)for the cost of the 75$ fee and IHG is one free night at any property for the 49$ fee. Close call to me. If I had to pick one, I think carlson because of 5pts per dollar spend makes it worth using for daily spending also. Just my 2 cents

samfelix

For annual renewal purposes ONLY: IHG by far. $49 gets you a free nite at ANY hotel. Period.

blitzen

Club Carlson 40k if you have 10k then you can stay two nights in the Radisson Paris for two nights
Btw is the card churnable?

drminn

I keep paying the Hyatt renewal fee - $75 gets me one night at a hotel I stay at three to four times a year that normally charges $129 - 199, depending on the date.

flyerhog

For me SPG for sure. Those starwood points are quite usefully transferring into any airline programs and for hotel redemption. extra 5k points if you transfer 20k at a time.

glynot

Don't think the SPG has an annual renewal bonus?

bigbuy

+1 Used the free night in Paris last year. Lowest rate for that night was $726.

phiota

I'm fine with suggestions of more then one hotel credit card program to keep or not to keep after 1st year. I currently have IHG (Keep) & Hyatt (not sure) . I had before Marriott (closed). Looking to signup with Carlson (keep) & Fairmont (might close). I'm mostly traveling for personal trips so am less concerned with the other features/benefits of each hotel credit card then the annual rewards.

Some of these hotel cards free room might be worth more then the annual fee there is the possibility of not staying there otherwise (be forced to give it up so force you to stay there) and opportunity cost of maybe not having other credit cards instead.

mnscout

I keep IHG and Fairmont, and I will keep CC biz, when the renewal date comes. Fairmont not for the bonus but great perks that help a lot even if you stay at Fairmont even once a year.

binnycode

I would keep IHG. One free night any IHG property plus Platinum Elite Status. Win.

PaulMSN

Yes, it's a pretty good deal. I wish Plat would get you breakfast, though.

ANC RED-EYE

IHG and Club Carlson are both keepers.

IHG as outlined above - $49 at any property is a no brainer.

Club Carlson - 40K is pretty great as well.

Remember that both of these cards keep paying you all year long as well:

-IHG 10% back on point redemptions can really add up. Also gives you plat status.
-Club Carlson the last night free on rewards bookings is effectively doubling your points if you can manage to redeem for all 2 night stays. Also gives you gold status.

I chose to ditch SPG (no bonus), and Marriott (too high of an annual fee to justify the bonus IMO). No experience with the other cards.

FT2013

Sounds like not many fans of the non-churnable Hyatt card. Why is that? I'll have that decision to make this fall.

factory81

You forgot 3 other big benefits. VISA (not amex), and no foreign transaction fees. And if the STARS ALIGN (because they have not for me yet) - you may find a PointBreaks 5k/nt hotel that is an extreme value for you.

But I also think the Chase Priority Club card is the best deal for $49/yr.

I keep looking at trying to add a third hotel card - beside the SPG card (which...I don't really think is that good? Maybe I don't know how to use it...my "upgrades" with it are certainly nothing worth talking about). I can't come up with a third card. There is the Marriott card, Hyatt, Hilton, and Carlson cards out there.

All of them come with higher annual fees. And they have restrictions on their properties you can redeem at with , which just sucks the life out of them really. Some of them have such few properties that even work for me that I am literally just signing up it seems for the sign-on bonus - and the hopes of being able to make the free night work out for me.

The hotel game kind of sucks right now. Aspirational properties are 50-70k/nt unless you go with SPG.

Marriott card has a benefit where you get free UA Silver status if you stay like 50/nts+~ with them. That is kind of a weird benefit - if you fly infrequently enough to not obtain status on UA, maybe? Marriott free night has to be used at a cat 1-5 and must be used within 6 months of it being issued. The 70k + 1 cat1 night sign-on bonus is kind of appealing I guess. Cat 1 hotels start at 7500 points.

Hilton is full on ridiculous. My last employer was a big fan of Delta/Hilton. I think they love to hate themselves or something. I am not impressed by any Hilton card - or the HHonors program at all.

Hyatt card is meh value. Free cat 1-4 for $75 annual fee. Do you even see any cat 3-4 hotels in places you would stay at?

That leaves you with Club Carlson. It has pretty extensive/unique benefits that make it more appealing than Marriott/Hyatt/Hilton for sure. 40k/yr bonus (so this could be multiple free nights maybe?). When you redeem for 2 or more award nights, the last night is free. 85k sign on bonus. Only $75 annual fee. Visa card on top of that.