sdsearch

It depends on the hotel program and the specific hotel. If you could stay in a cheaper room in a different hotel program neaby for lower cost, or in an indie hotel nearby for lower cost, and are staying in the higher-cost hotel program mostly to earn points in that program, aren't you paying an opportunity cost?

When a Travelodge is costing the same as Motel 6 and indie hotels nearby, then there may not be opportunity cost to earn Wyndham Rewards points on that stay. But if a Doubletree down the street charges double of what the Travelodge charges, you are paying an opportunity cost to stay at that Doubletree to earn Hilton Honors points. Now, there may other things you like about the Doubletree more than the Travelodge (the paid breakfast at that Doubletree may be better than the free breakfast at that Travelodge), but quantifying them is difficult.

So while what you say may be true for low-end points-earning hotels which charge not much more than what all other hotels (including low-cost indie hotels) in that area charge, it's not necessarily true for midlevel-to-high-end hotels. And many points-earning chains don't have low-end hotels in most places.

Dr Jabadski

Yes, if one is staying at a more expensive property ONLY to earn points, there is definitely an opportunity cost. If one would stay at a property regardless of all other factors, for example Doubletree Breckenridge (ski resort) where I stayed 20 years ago when it was in indie and have stayed 4-5 times more when it was a DT and I stay because it’s my preferred hotel based on location/price/benefits/etc., there is ZERO opportunity cost to earning Hilton Honors points. In fact, if one does not earn points in that situation one would be leaving money on the table.

Isn’t comparing Travelodge and DT like comparing apples and oranges ? This quote also implies that ANY choice to stay at a more expensive property down the street has an opportunity cost. Some would see it as “getting what you pay for”, voluntarily paying more for a better product and experience. I guess “opportunity cost” and “getting what you pay for” could be considered synonymous.

What I wrote is regardless of number of stars. If one is going to stay at a hotel (for any reasons), there is no opportunity cost to earning points. One exception could be booking a less expensive rate through a 3rd party site which is not eligible for earning points although those opportunities are few and far between and some hotel chains have “best price guarantees” which renders those exceptions moot.

sdsearch

While Travelodge was the extreme example, in the area I stay in most often, there is Best Western Plus which is usually significantly less expensive than the Doubletree, and yet my experience in both are about the same. In fact, I only stay at that Doubletree because I can avoid the high parking fee by parking a few blocks away in a nearby residential area (other than on Wednesday nights, because they clean those streets on early Thursday morning), while the parking is free at the Best Western Plus. Now, this Best Western Plus is a couple miles away from that Doubletree, but that's a not a terrible long distance.

And that brings up the point, if you choose hotel in one program that has a parking fee over another hotel in another program that doesn't have a parking fee (while also having a somewhat lower rate), aren't you paying an opportunity cost if you have to pay that parking fee?

My point is that a lot of people who aren't considering earning hotel points don't choose hotels the same way that people who do earn hotel points choose them. And people who do earn hotel points tend to choose based on which hotel programs they belong to. I belong to almost every hotel program (BW, Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Sonesta, Wyndham, and also Radisson Americas thought that one is going away soon), but most people belong to way fewer of them.

Dr Jabadski

This line of discussion started with “The cost of acquiring hotel points can be zero” and “I think there is always an opportunity cost, but I am happy to be wrong.” I never wrote “there’s NEVER a cost to acquire hotel points”. It’s correct that people choose hotels for all sorts of reasons, including loyalty programs and parking costs. That does not negate the fact that the cost of acquiring hotel points CAN be zero.

xooz

As OP only mentions "medium -tier" priced hotels, the opportunity cost for choosing a hotel credit card would be missing out on something like the Citi Double Cash card, with no annual fee and 2% cash back. For example, a Marriott Aloft Sarasota is $215 or 31K points. To accrue $215 at 2% cashback, I would need to charge about $11k on my card. So deciding whether it makes sense to go do a MR hotel card, I would need to have a feel for what my average point per dollar return would be and see if it makes sense for me, based on how much I charge and the mix of regular and bonus points. For this reason, I usually will pay cash for rooms at or less than $200 per night.

The free night/points provided with the $95 yearly fee cards changes the calculus a little, but if OP is not spending large or wanting to stay at more upscale properties, I would just opt for a 2% cash back card.

vogugua

I only really collect hotel points as part of credit card bonuses or as a free night with a $100 AF card. The free nights are definitely worth it - have often stayed in hotel that would have cost $300+.

Duke787

Absolutely worth it.

I've used some for high end redemptions (e.g., Park Hyatt Sydney, Conrad Bora Bora, etc.) and they can also be great for run of the mill hotels where you just need a room and/or a base of stay for a trip (e.g., Hilton Brussels Grand Place, airport hotels, hotels near sporting events).

For the former it helps to have status at that chain so you get a good room (or if it's a special event like a honeymoon -- as it was when we went to the Conrad -- reach out to see if you can pay a reasonable upgrade fee to secure a good room). If it's the latter, it usually doesn't matter that much what kind of room you get although having status helps because you usually get a better standard room and may have free access to a lounge and/or breakfast.

That said most of my hotel staying and earning is on OPM and then the redemptions are for personal travel so the opportunity cost is truly zero or even negative in my case -- not collecting hotel points while on OPM would just be money down the drain. I don't use my hotel CC except for the annual free night -- and the only time I would ever consider transferring my AMEX MR or Chase UR to a hotel is if I needed to top up for a special high-end redemption and didn't want to buy points or pay cash

sdsearch

Please avoid using abbreviations like this with are not in FlyerTalk glossary without explaining them and without asking for them to be added to the FlyerTalk glossary.

OPM is not in the FlyerTalk glossary, and when I look up "what is opm" on google it says Office of Personnel Management or Original Pilipino Music, which doesn't seem like it's necessarily what you meant here.

Perhaps you think it's very familiar in some other spheres, but for people don't use Social Media at all (and that's not just me, but a lot of my co-workers mentioned recently that they don't use any Social Media either), it doesn't seem familiar.

As it says when you click on Glossary at the bottom each FlyerTalk page:

Send glossary additions or corrections to [email protected]. Please include word and definition.

angetenar

OPM = other people's money. I think it's reasonably common on FlyerTalk but you're right that it should be added to the glossary.

bitterproffit

I find I get more value out of Hotel points with stays and credit card spend than I get out of airline miles. Airline miles are so much harder to redeem, and (besides the bonus points) are tough to accumulate on credit cards. I do both, but find that I get a lot more free rooms than I get free flights.

And if I am staying at a Hilton Garden and saving $140 a night with a low point redemption, I am not really concerned about upgrades. I can usually pick out my room.

That being said, I have had some really nice upgrades on point stays. Hilton Tokyo, Conrad Hong Kong, Hilton Edinburgh, etc.

pinniped

Business travel. Company or client says "use Marriotts, we have a corp discount." Whether the corp discount is actually any good or whether there are better/cheaper hotels nearby often doesn't matter - you're still expected to use the chosen brand.

In that case, the points are essentially "free" to the traveler. You may be able to decline them and accept a trivial number of airline miles instead, although to be honest I'm not even sure this is an option. It's been 20+ years since I've handed a physical airline card to a hotel front desk clerk to get miles instead of points.

But certainly, for personal travel or cases where the guest has a lot of choices, points and elite benefits are just part of the overall value proposition.

Cazz132

I've heard people buy hotel points for cheaper then redeem at a higher rate.

sdsearch

It depends on the hotel program and possibly the property as to whether this is possible.

And it also depends on whether you're buying hotel points at the normal rate, or during a promotion when the rate of points to money paid is temporarily improved, or during a special situation like a points+cash booking (where the cash actually just buys the remaining points needed in at least a couple hotel programs). By the way, I don't think that all hotel programs have such periodic point buying promotions.

pinniped

I've bought points as part of an IHG cash + points booking. A couple times in rare cases where the value per point was really high....such as an unusually-pricey rural hotel without a lot of competition nearby. An HIX near a national park entrance, for example.

GUWonder

I’ve done it with IHG and Choice a lot. Also done it with other hotel programs, but nowadays I’m doing it much more selectively than before and am more reluctant to carry big point balances.