Best hotel program for credit card spending?
 

I've spent the last couple weeks here on Flyertalk searching for the best hotel programs where I can earn points not by staying at hotels but by spending on credit cards. I'm still a bit confused because of the different point requirements each program have for stays and the different points amounts for each dollar spent.

So my question is, What are the top hotel programs for earning hotel stays quickest by credit card spending and are there other ways to earn hotel points besides stays and credit card spending? I'd appreciate it if someone can direct me to a thread that discusses this if there is one. Thanks.

Well there are a few good options here...

Hilton Surpass AMEX... $40k annual spend and you earn Diamond membership, which is their highest tier. To the best of my knowledge, Hilton is the only hotel program you can earn TOP tier status solely through spend. Of course, you need lots of Hilton points to redeem for free nights.

SPG AMEX... because you can do cash & points redemption for hotel nights, plus transfers to so many airline partners. $30k spend gets you to their middle tier.

I also personally like Choice Hotels (really motels) as a back up card. no annual fee, and they have hotels literally everywhere, and I earn 5 points/dollar so I can rack up free nights very quickly.

Agree with above poster. HHonors AMEX Surpass is great if you are a 40K+ spender.

You will have top elite Diamond status for when you decide to redeem points for hotel stays. HHonors is quite competitive for high-end extended stay rewards for VIP elite members.

Lucky has a good article on this subject here:

http://travelsort.com/blog/which-hot...rd-is-the-best

The Points Guy also talks about it:

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/07/sund...-card-is-best/

Thanks. I'm not really concerned with status. I will use them for my vacations in the US and abroad so I guess I'm looking for something a little better than motels. I'm leaning to wards AMEX SPG because of the high value of each point.

If you are using hotel points for vacations then you should be concerned with status. Status correlates to complimentary upgrades.

No need to pay for the Presidential Suite when you can pay for the standard full suite and then get upgraded to the Presidential Suite.

Agree. Also with Hilton Gold or above status, you will get free breakfast.

For the best value per dollar credit spend, my vote is for American Express Starwood and use cash and point award.

escog, I'll check out those other threads. Thanks.

The problem with me obtaining status is that I won't be spending 40k a year on any one credit card. I'm thinking that for me the best idea is to get all the card bonuses, Hyatt, Marriott, SPG etc. Use the nights and then churn the cards if I can for more.

What confuses me is that the SPG has a high value per point but you only earn one per dollar spent and HHonors is low value per point but you can earn 3 per dollar spent. And then you have to factor in how many points per room per night and the quality of the hotel.

That's the approach which I take. I can get many more points from credit card sign-on bonuses than from spending on credit cards.

Be careful, since Chase doesn't allow you to churn their cards and you can usually get the sign on bonus only once. The Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club are all issued by Chase.

If you're looking to get the most amount of rooms for your credit card spending (and don't care if it is a big suite or a standard room) you are better off with the SPG card or the Hyatt card. If status, and the consequent upgrades, are important to you, then go with the Hilton card.

Hang on here. For hotel redemptions, points in different programs have wildly different valuations.

If you are looking at this from an economic perspective, the best valuations would be point cost compared to the best $ purchase price you would accept.

If you are not interested in a giant suite but rather "a little better than motels", would you consider priceline?

Let's take a hypothetical situation. Say you're staying in a place like Chicago where priceline offers 4* hotels for around $110 after taxes/fees most of the year. Here are some hypothetical valuations:

• Hilton Chicago, 50000 points redemption, 0.22 cents/point
• Starwood Westin River North, 12000 points redemption, 0.92 cents/point
• Marriott Magnificent Mile, 30000 points, 0.37 cents/point

Then, factor in how much spend it would take to earn those point levels from the respective credit cards. Even if we assume you earn at the higher rate in bonus categories:

• HHonors AMEX, 6 points/$ spent - you would need 50000/6 = $8333.33 of spend to earn the $110 room, effectively a credit card rebate of 1.3%
  
• Starwood AMEX, 1 point/$ spent - you would need $12000 of spend, a rebate of 0.9%
  
• Marriott Visa, 2 points/$ spent - you would need 30000/2 = $15000 of spend, a rebate of 0.7%

Those returns are terrible. You would be better off earning on a 2% cashback credit card and buying your rooms outright using priceline.

If elite status is out of the equation, there are only a few times hotel point-earning cards make sense, such as for signup bonuses, if you use the card to pay for room costs for business travel, or if your spend is so high you can redeem for a discounted long-stay package (something like a Marriott Hotel+Air travel package).

i think it only makes sense to accrue hotel points for those high-end places where the dollar value will go up faster than the point value. also, spg gives you flexibility by being able to transfer to airline miles with a bonus.

I think you are right. I follow your blog and have read your take on churning Chase cards. I'll get them all for the bonuses and keep the SPG to use for cash and points, which looks doable. Plus, I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere that the Hyatt card comes with an annual free night now.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I'm a bit thick sometimes and your reply clears it up for me. Up until now I've used Travelocity for hotel rooms. I'll check out Priceline next time I'm looking for a hotel unless of coarse I can use the bonuses.

I already have a gas cc and and 2 airline cc's. I could definitely throw a rebate cc into the mix. Thanks again.

OK, so SPG and Hyatt would be the ones to keep. I have plenty of airline miles, especially AA miles. I was looking into moving some into a hotel program but it looks like poor value to do it. Thanks for the reply.