I second the earlier comment about joining all hotel programs. It doesn't cost anything, you'll earn points (and/or airline miles), and even the non-elite levels sometimes earn valuable bonuses. For example, I stay at Wyndham Hotels two or three times a year. Joining the "Wyndham By Request" program gives me free Internet, free local and long distance phone calls, and a welcome basked of fruit and a bottle of wine when I arrive. Just for signing up I save a minimum of $10/day for the Internet access.

I echo the "join 'em all!" posts. No brainer: grab all three of the major-program credit cards with the best sign-up bonuses you can find, even if you just toss one or two of them in a drawer.

After that, I'd definitely take a closer look at both HHonors and Starwood.

The advantage of Starwood is twofold:

(1) The program isn't so structured around the big awards that you feel terrible about spending your hard-earned points on modest-value weekend stays. Yes, most of the road warriors here shoot for the 5-night stays at higher-end properties, but when you run the numbers (even against what you'd pay via a wholesaler), a Cat 2 weekend stay for 3,000 points per night is a reasonable ROI for your Starpoints.

(2) Even someone who isn't a huge credit card spender can quickly accumulate enough points to yield a few free nights in the lower-level properties. Lower-level doesn't mean crappy - there are some good Cat 2 Westins and Sheratons out there, and the Four Points aren't all bad either. SPG Amex comes with a good enough sign-up bonus, a low enough annual fee, and a "quasi-elite" status (good to help ensure you get your room preferences, mainly).

The upside to HHonors is better rural coverage and simply more properties, particularly in the mid-scale levels in a lot of cities. HH Amex is free, includes sign-up bonuses, and includes low-elite status as long as you hold the card. So at least join and have it as a backup in case Starwood doesn't have what you need.

Marriott is my current preferred chain, but it's definitely more geared towards the business traveler with rewards focus on the major awards. I have 180,000 points in my account right now, and I know I have another 55,000 to go before I get to the first award I'd consider redeeming. And the credit card isn't very good as a primary spend card, regardless of whether you are a big-volume CC user or not. Getting to 235k would be too long of a slow grind if I weren't actually doing revenue stays on a frequent basis - I'd be at HHonors or Starwood otherwise.

And of course, with any stay, I'd always compare back to the going Priceline rates. You're paying extra for the right to earn hotel points and some level of better treatment at the hotels. Sometimes that number is a little, sometimes it's a lot. Even though I hardly ever use Priceline, I always like to know what the number is. Through promotions and certificates (e.g., Marriott Premium Pounds), I can usually get my rate *close* to Priceline level, but in the end I always find that I'm paying *something* to play the game. Only you can decide if it's worth it.

There are also some "stay 2 nights get a third free" which will probaly earn you points and will bring down the price to something near priceline.

One should not forget that to take into calculation. :)

My travel patterns are fairly similar to the OP, so perhaps it'll be helpful to share what I've experienced.

I have joined hotel programs at one time or other, but ultimately I've found these to be the least productive. I do travel a little bit for business, but it's fairly far between, only a night or two here and there. I do one off bookings, sometimes local hotels rather than chains, even Priceline bids occasionally for the biz travel. For leisure travel, it's more of the same, except with even more emphasis on Priceline bids. What the Priceline bidding allows in my case is to stay at a higher quality hotel for a price associated with those low-rent brands. The more times you stay in a major metro area, the more Priceline can help you as long as you are NOT married to one particular brand of hotel. So you may want to check out the Travel Bidding forum here on FT and familiarize yourself with bidding strategies.

Still, it can be helpful to join hotel programs. I joined Wyndham ByRequest because it has extra benefits, though you no longer get those benefits on a Priceline stay. I sometimes stay at Wyndham on a normal booking, though, where it comes in handy. I don't earn Wyndham points, though. I get airline miles from United. I have a Marriott Rewards card too, which netted me a few more United miles recently. (See a pattern here?) I once had the Starwood, but that's gone from not having any stays. In fact, I can remember only one Starwood stay in many years. I earned several thousand Hilton points only to have those disappear because I didn't stay enough. My account with them isn't active anymore. I never joined Hyatt even with several recent stays, although they've all been Priceline so no real benefit. So join them if you like. But I really think with your travel patterns you'd do better and have more variety to be more flexible with hotels.

Here's the thing, though: you said you're not as interested in airline miles. Why the heck not??! Airline miles are way more forgiving than hotel points for the infrequent traveler in most cases, they can be renewed with a little activity once every three years, and it's easier (IMHO) to concentrate on one program. I've banked 135k United miles with really infrequent travel (generally only a couple of round-trips a year, though a few have been to Europe or the west coast), and that's after taking out 50k for a Europe award once 10 years ago and 25k for an ill-considered domestic award for a friend one time. That's over 200k, earned mostly by not flying (credit cards, telephone, etc.) Plus I had 60k on Delta that I turned into an Asia award about a dozen years ago. It's not a lot in the grand scheme of folks around here, but it's all earned without really trying, no mileage runs, no out of the way maneuvers, just taking advantage of the ways I can earn miles for all the stuff I already do.

So unless you're planning to DRIVE to the south, southwest, west coast or Alaska, I can't figure out why you wouldn't want to earn airline miles. You'll earn much faster since it's two of you. Most of my travel and earning was solo, so anything I want to do with my UA miles involves covering two tickets assuming I want to take my girlfriend with me. ;) I think UA is best as long as you don't care about status. That's the way I've looked at it. AA is a little better for status because miles earned from methods other than flying count towards lifetime status. If my 200k miles was on AA, I'd be 1/5 the way to lifetime Gold. Instead, I only have about 50k or so flown miles counting towards my lifetime Premier Exec on UA. But the award redemption amounts are better with UA, seems to me (60k for economy Saver award can get you to Australia/NZ for less than anyone else). And you can earn UA miles (and redeem them for that matter) on US Airways too, useful when you're based in the northeast. This does have me mainly looking at UA/US when booking air travel, but in general this is not a problem. I took a Southwest flight in early January, but earning Southwest credits would be pointless for me because I still don't earn fast enough. Slowly accumulating UA miles has gotten me to the point where they're good for a long trip for two. (If I wait long enough, they'll be good in biz class, if there's a seat. ;))

I've added one new thing to the mix recently. All my biz travel (with rare exception) is by car, and beginning early last year it is now all by rental car. So I joined Hertz #1 Gold and started accumulating Hertz points towards free rental days. I've been very happy with that setup, and it's the one place I might make a low-level elite (10 rentals/year). This is mainly useful if you rent several times a year, though, which I'm now guaranteed to do.

I am a HHonors Silver and have never had any problems redeeming my awards. I believe that the majority of problems come when trying to redeem awards in very popular places (i.e. Hawaii) and/or peak travel seasons. I use my points for shorter vacation trips during the years and have never had an issue finding a hotel with available. Occasionally, the most desirable hotel is sold out but there is always an acceptable alternative nearby.

In addition, HHonors has a better selection of quality lower end properties than SPG.

If you have to pay the bill yourself and don't want to spend too much money, consider Sleep Inn/Comfort Inn/several others' Choice Privileges.

Econolodge/Rodeway Inn has a program that's easy but some people want a bit more luxury. This program offers $'s off (a better deal) or airline miles once you save up 6 or 10 stamps. They give you one free stamp and during the winter, sometimes there's a 2 stamp per day promotion.

Red Roof Inn's program is ok but the best prize, in my opinion, is a free stay. They don't capacity control it or, if they do, it's easy to get.

I don't like Travelodge/Days Inn program because quite a few stays aren't awarded points (depends on individual hotel's whim).

Programs like Starwood and Hilton are for people staying while others pay the bill. I belong to those and have quite a few Hilton points but I also save Econolodge stamps and Choice Privileges points.

First of all, I think you should join them all. I see the loyalty programs as unredeemed disounts. You have to be on top of their "rules" to get that discount at a later date. FT will help you keep up with the latest buzz.

Priceline/Hotwire are great for a better price. After all, would you rather get a Hyatt/Marriott for $65 and no points Vs spending $168-$249/night with points?

Starwood is a great program. But the Shraton 4 points is a tired product and not every where. I prefer New Hampton Inns to Sheraton 4 points. Hampton Inns are great in small places but the points awarded are miniscule for the Hhonors program.

For your non priceline/Hotwire stays, you may be better off with Choice Privileges. If you plan right, you can usually get 1 night off for every 2 nights. That is like getting 33% discount.

Go ahead and join them all. and try to "plan" your stays. For example, I stayed in a La Quinta recently so I could get to a certain point threshhold to "cash" the points.

IMHO, a person should be known for how many miles/points they have redeemed in the year.

Happy Travelling :)

That's not true. Few of my points in both programs have been paid for by a company or client. When I'm paying for a hotel, I look at the Hilton family first and usually choose Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden on the lower end. But I spend the points at high end properties like Hilton resorts in Hawaii or Hilton in London. I add a lot of points through credit cards and promos.

Like others have said, join all the programs. After a couple of years, you'll probably find you're gravitating to one or two chains, so then concentrate your earning there. Even though I have a membership in almost every hotel program, most of them have never been used or are dormant. I accumulate points in two programs (Hilton and Starwood) and have everything else set for miles when given a choice.

Only you can decide what kinds of hotels you want to stay in. I racked up a lot of points and free rooms in a different program, but bailed when its properties started going downhill. Also, my tastes in hotel rooms and amenities have changed through the years.

:confused: Those are the best two programs (of the biggies) - by far - for amassing a huge points balance without doing revenue stays in the chain's properties. (Starwood is superior on the credit card front; HHonors has some decent airmiles transfer-in rates plus a passable credit card.)

If you are Joe Sixpack that never travels for business, but wants an occasional free vacation stay, these are your programs.

I'm not familiar with the roadside motel loyalty programs. But they seem to be more simple - stay in our roadside motel X times, get a free night. While I certainly have stayed in my share of roadside motels throughout Big Ten Country, the problem with earning awards there is twofold: (1) I usually don't pick which motel I'm going to stay in until I'm on the highway, starting to get tired, calling the 800 number for my preferred chain, asking about the properties that are 20, 40, 60 miles ahead. So it's hard to rely on using awards at that point. (2) The "yield" is, by definition, a one-night stay worth maybe $50-60, which just isn't compelling enough as I'm slogging through those X paid stays, collecting stamps or whatnot. The nice thing about Starwood and HHonors is that your points are going to go to a nice, multi-night award, even if your occasional hotel stays are cheaper properties, augmented by modest credit card usage.

Pacific, one warning. If you hang around here for even a short time, you'll get addicted to the miles and points. You may even get sucked into mileage and mattress runs to get status!

The Choice program and Choice credit card may be a fit. Search the Southwest forum for a few threads on how to maximize your redemption for Southwest awards. Unfortunately the latter just suffered a major devaluation with the institution of unexpectedly (to me) tight capacity controls. But you still might find this your best FF value.

Also note that Hampton gives you Hilton points plus 0.5 Rapid Rewards (Southwest Airlines) credits, same as any other Hilton brand. This is an excellent value for the less expensive Hamptons.

Pacific mentioned that he had no kids. If that changes, the Priceline hotels start to look less desirable as you cannot guarantee you will get two beds in a room (unless Priceline has changed).
I started out with HH credit cards since Mr. BOGO did not want an annual fee airline credit card. Now we have both with no annual fee. With kids, it is harder for us to accumulate enough miles to go on a family vacation and use airline miles, but there is usually a Hampton Inn or other Hilton brand wherever we go. With putting $25K on credit cards per year and reading Flyer Talk for extra tips, we have been able to get about 10-15 free nights a year for the last couple of years. :cool:

Wow. We're blown away by all the insights offered in just 24 hours. We really really appreciate it.

We will heed the general consensus of joining the various hotel programs, but will also try to concentrate on Starwood and HHonors. I guess our general strategy (based on everyone's wonderful input) could be:

1) check Starwood/Hilton/Choice price & availability
2) compare directly to Orbitz/Hotwire
3) get some rough estimates for Priceline and maybe place a strategic bid
4) if bid is successful, go with Priceline (and hope it still counts if the hotel is with one of the programs)
5) if bid is unsuccessful, choose a hotel from steps 1 and 2 that is the best balance of price and quality
6) enjoy ourselves :)

I guess my original concern was diluting points by being part of too many programs. But I do agree that as a less-frequent traveler, I shouldn't be too loyal to any one program anyway.

We're also looking into SPG Amex and HHonors Visa.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions!! There are a lot of finer details too in what was written that I didn't necessarily want to address point by point (thereby dragging this out longer). But some of those details are really excellent and I hope it helps others as it has us. Much appreciated.

I can second this. At first I only wanted to take a look how I can manage my bookings, now I am looking out for cities with cheap possibilities for a mattress run.

"Berlin is great. You love Berlin. If you do a hopping around you can have your stays more easily managed. And if those IC bonusses come in, you could try a Gold match run with Hilton. You don't know what to do in berlin? Hei, but you would be gold afterwards!" ;)))