We are asked all the time about hotel loyalty programs: Which is the best? I’m going to try to tackle that question in this post. First, I will walk you through our choice and how it has benefited us over the years. Then, I’ll throw out a few additional factors that you might want to consider. Lastly, since I certainly don’t have all the answers, I’ll provide a few links to other blogs and websites that share their own well-thought-out analyses.
A long time ago, we took a spring break trip to Disney World and stayed at one of the terrific Disney hotels. The kids were the perfect age for Disney and loved visiting the parks. But after a couple of nights, our son’s food allergy flared up and he was sidelined for a couple of days. I decided that we needed to find a way to better control his “food chain” by staying somewhere with a full kitchen. Airbnb hadn’t been invented yet, so we looked at timeshares. After a lot of research, we decided that Marriott’s Vacation Club was the right program for us.
During the sales process, I learned about a couple of ways to enhance my ownership. First, I could earn a sizable amount of points by running my purchase and payments through my Marriott credit card. Second, I could convert my timeshare week to the old Marriott Rewards points every other year and visit locations all over the world rather than be limited to the dozen or so (at the time) places that featured Vacation Club properties. I traveled an average of 3-4 nights a month on business, mostly to larger cities, and Marriott had nice properties almost everywhere I needed to go. So I became a “Marriott Guy”. After about 3.5 million points and 1100 nights credited to me (most of which came from credit cards), I’ve received a ton of value from being a loyal Marriott customer.
Image courtesy of Marriott International
And that value comes primarily from one part of the program: Free nights. Over the last five years, we’ve received about $18,000 in free stays at Marriott hotels all over the world. From Aruba to Venice, in properties ranging from the Westin, St. Regis, and five-star boutique hotels to clean and comfortable Courtyards, there has been a Marriott virtually everywhere we’ve traveled, for business or pleasure. The key to most of those free nights isn’t staying and paying at Marriott (although that helps); it’s getting Marriott co-branded credit cards and using them wisely. Here’s how:
- Each card that charges an annual fee gives you one night per year up to a certain mid-tier level of hotel.
- Both the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex card and the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Chase card pay you 6 points per dollar spent at Marriott and 2 points per dollar everywhere else. The Brilliant card also pays 3 points per dollar spent on dining and flights booked directly with airlines.
- When you use those points to book a hotel stay, if you stay four nights with points, the fifth night is free.
- Throughout the year, Marriott and the credit card issuers run special promotions and offers that can lead to additional points being credited to your account.
- Sign-up bonuses for Marriott co-branded cards typically run from 30,000 to 80,000 points, providing a nice boost to your Bonvoy points balance when you sign up for a new card and hit the spending requirement.
Given all of the ways you can earn points and free night certificates, many people can get at least a week’s free lodging each year by channeling their spending onto credit cards and staying at a Marriott whenever possible.
There’s a lot more detail and nuance to every hotel loyalty program, like status, which bestows various freebies like free breakfast, free wi-fi, free parking, free resort fees, late checkout, early check-in, etc. But I believe it really boils down to one thing, free nights. . .and how fast can you get them and how easy is it to cash them in. If you focus on that, you’ll make a good decision.
At this point, you’re probably figuring that Marriott is paying me to do this post. After all, Marriott is just one of 15 or more rewards programs. That’s not the case; TET receives no compensation of any kind from any travel provider. And, in fact, if I were making my decision today, it would be different. I would choose Hyatt’s World of Hyatt program, which is exactly what Mrs. Exceptional has done.
Image courtesy of Hyatt
Over the last several years, most hotel loyalty programs have dramatically devalued their points “currencies” by increasing the number of points required for a night’s stay. My goal with Marriott USED to be to get 1.5 to 2 cents of value per point when I redeemed points for a hotel stay. . .in other words, about 15,000 to 25,000 points for a night at a hotel costing $300. Today, the average value of a Bonvoy point is about eight tenths of a cent, and I’m really happy if I can get a penny per point. The one major exception to this devaluation trend is Hyatt, where World of Hyatt points are still valued at about 1.7 cents per point. Hyatt House (equivalent to Courtyard or better) is generally 5,000 points per night, for a room costing $100-200. . .that’s two to four cents per point. Top level hotels around the world are typically 30,000 to 40,000 points per night, for a room costing $500-1,000. That is exceptional value in today’s hotel loyalty world. And it means that’s it’s easier and faster to earn free nights at Hyatt than just about any other program.
The downside to Hyatt is that they only have about 800 hotels included in their program worldwide, compared to about 8,000 for both Marriott and Wyndham. You will definitely not find a Hyatt in every little town in the US, and you might have only a couple of choices in major cities and tourist destinations versus several hotels with the biggest programs. But those choices will be top notch, and Hyatt has been working aggressively to expand their offerings by partnering with the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, whose beautiful boutique hotels can be found in many desirable locations, particularly outside the US. We’ll see how this works for us as the world begins to reopen and we start to travel again. Since I have Marriott Bonvoy’s Lifetime Titanium status and a ton of Bonvoy points, and Mrs. Exceptional is working her way toward Globalist status with Hyatt, we should have great choices.
Here are some of the resources I used to research this post:
- https://travel.usnews.com/rankings/travel-rewards/hotel-rewards/
- https://thepointsguy.com/news/how-to-decide-best-hotel-loyalty-program/
- https://millionmilesecrets.com/guides/which-hotel-points-are-the-most-valuable/
- https://www.forbes.com/advisor/travel-rewards/should-you-change-airline-or-hotel-loyalty-in-2021/
- https://thepointsguy.com/guide/which-marriott-credit-card-to-get/
In addition, a simple Google search for “Best hotel loyalty program” will get you dozens of other thoughts and opinions.
The right hotel loyalty program will be different for each of us, but it really boils down to one overarching factor: Free nights, how fast can you get them, and how easy is it to cash them in. Please share your thoughts with the Exceptional community in the comments section below. Hope this was helpful. . .safe travels!
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