What is the best hotel program, in terms of rewards payoff for stays, affiliate programs for earning points, and a good rewards credit card? I travel for business, and get enough points that way to cover trips. So I would like to join a hotel program to earn stays in nice hotels at the beach.

Which one is the best program? I've heard Hilton Honors, but I like the range of hotels provided in the Marriott program, because I can stay cheap and still get points towards a nice resort. My favorite hotel is the Hyatt, but they have no credit card so thats out.

Sorry if this has been covered before. I did search, and could not find anything comparing programs.

Definitely there are a number of threads out there comparing various programs. Here are a few:

Is Starwood Slipping? Or Are Others Catching Up?
Hilton HHonors versus Starwood Preferred Guest
Thinking about switching to SPG

There are others as well, you might want to do some searching in the various hotel forums themselves.

Overall, the answer to your question depends on a number of factors though. Where are you travelling? How many nights per year? What type of hotel (inexpensive, moderate, full service, luxery) will you be able to stay? What will be your travel patterns (i.e. one place for long stays, many places short stays, etc?) Where/how would you want to use the points you are aquiring?

Each of the hotel chain programs have their strengths and weaknesses. Your job is to try and figure out which chain's strengths match up with your travel and redemptions needs. We can help, but we will need to know quite a bit more about you and your situation to do that.

Good luck in your journey.

Full Service/Luxury hotels at the beach is ideal. I just did 3 nights at the Marriot Resort in Hilton Head, for instance, on a weekend getaway. An upgrade to ocean view or free night in that room would have been great.

The possibility of transferring miles to Delta is nice, but not required. A credit card is essential, as that is how I will get most of my points... my business travel is mostly not in US chains.

Basically: I get lots of Delta Skymiles at work, but not hotel points. So I want a hotel program for beach vacations where I can get points with a credit card. I want to use points for upgrades on longer stays for vacations, and for covering the entire room for weekend getaways.