Best time to join hotel rewards programs?
 

I'm a member of a number of hotel rewards programs at the moment (IHG, Hilton, Starwood), which I joined when I realized that I would be staying at that property for business or leisure related travel - thus, most of my impetus for joining the rewards programs I have is, "I might as well get some points out of this trip I'll make anyway." Naturally, my mentality has rather changed since then and I think about travel different. With that said, I have heard that some hotels offer bonuses for signing up for their rewards program while staying at the property, or give sign-up bonuses just for signing up at certain times. Can other members mention/recommend any specific rewards programs that do this (or if I've got this totally wrong?) I'll be staying at a couple of hotel chains that are new for me soon (Marriott, Hyatt), and I"m wondering if I should sign up for membership now, or whether I should wait for some kind of 'offer' or 'bonus' to come along just for signing up for the program (hey, sometimes it happens!)

Not a direct answer to your question, but close: Starwood has bonuses for getting their affiliated American Express credit card. That applies even though you're already in their program. Having it also gives you a two-stay, five-night head start toward elite status.

If you know someone who has SPG AmEx, they often have an offer where they can get a bonus for referring you and you still get the bonus for signing up.

Marriott has a referral program where you can earn 2000 points upon your first stay and the person who refers you also gets 2000 points.

There's a thread on the Marriott page with referrals, feel free to PM me for my referral link (note I'm not a blogger), use someone else in that thread, or have a friend / spouse / other be the reference. Easy 2k points for both parties.

That sounds fantastic, thank you! I will make use of that once I have a definite stay at a Marriott planned (likely this spring).

Yep, I just got that credit card a month ago - the 25,000 mile bonus was just too good to pass up when I was going to spend three nights in a Westin hotel either way. Putting it all together, I've earned a ridiculous amount of Starpoints on this one trip.

Just make sure you know expiration dates for each hotel program, and keep track of that (if you're not staying in every program you belong to at least once a year).

The last thing you want to do is sign up for a new hotel program, then forget about a previous hotel program's expiration policy, and lose more points in the previous program than you earned in the new program.

I mention this because, for example, one of your current programs is Hilton, and they expire you after just one year of no activity.

You know, it's interesting; I think the only points I have with Hilton are from dining with them (I have no idea if those expire the same way as Hilton points earned other ways, but probably)...and another question, do points earned by dining with Hilton count as "activity"?

I do try to keep track of these all in my head so that I don't lose points by forgetting to use them, though I have an extra special place in my heart for miles that don't expire (Skymiles, how I love thee). My question though was more about bonuses that hotels might give for signing up for their program while staying at their hotel (I could've sworn Marriott was running a promotion like that, where you get extra points if you sign up for their program while you're staying there).

The above answers would be more complicated if elite status were an issue. Then there are suble rules that effect when to request a status match or challenge.

If they show as points in your HHonors account, they do count as "activity". The thing to watch out for with Hilton is their shorter-than-usual expiration, of just 12 months. Hilton has two no-annual-fee-ever credit cards, one from Citi and one from Amex. If it's not always easy for you to dine or stay with them at least once a year every year, you may want to get one of those cards. It'll give you tens of thousands of points as a signup bonus (if you do a modest amount of spend over the first few months), but beyond that, if you use the card for something at least once a year (or to be safer two times a year), you'll have activity in HHonors keeping your HHonors account alive and you'll have activity on your card keeping the bank from cancelling the card for inactivity. (Yes, banks do that too!)

Here's the FT thread for the Citi card (which I think has the bigger signup bonus right now):

But keep in mind that all points are not created equal. There is no universal standard for what a hotel "point" ought to be. Hilton points, in terms of what you can get for them either in hotel stays or conversion to airline miles, are worth about a third of Starwood points.

(That doesn't mean that HHonors is a worse program than SPG, any more than giving a conversion rate between two currencies means that the lower-valued unit is somehow "worse." It's just a fact that some people might not be aware of.)

Starwood is the outlier here. Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Club Carlson, Choice, and Best Western, they're all "calibrated" similarly at 10 points earned (at least many brands) per dollar spent on hotel stays (not counting any credit card or elite status), while SPG only earns 2 points per dollar. (Hyatt is the only other one that's similarly "calibrated".) So both earning and redemption at Starwood are completely differently "calibrated" than most other hotel programs.

But the OP already belongs to both Hilton and Starwood, so presumably knows the difference.

This is true, but for me it evens out because places like IHG, etc... require at least 20,000 points to book a night (minimum) in my experience, whereas Starwood requires 7,500 points to book a night (in the tier of hotel I usually stay at). So with Starwood I may be earning less per dollar, but I need less to book a night - which is especially good for everyday purchases. If both IHG and Starwood give me 2 points per dollar spent on anything but Starwood requires fewer overall points to book a night...well, I definitely prefer Starwood.

That's a really good idea - thank you! A no-annual-fee credit card that'll keep your points active + their huge bonus? Yes, please. I also think that if you use your e-rewards account to redeem for Hilton points, that also counts as activity (though their hilton rewards are currently "out of stock," whatever that means). I'll put this card on my list of cards to get, though I'm going for an IHG card first, since I have an upcoming IHG stay in November and it's a great way to combine their fall promotion with their card bonus.