topic Re: Help with Hotel Rewards! in Credit Cards

Help with Hotel Rewards!

icyhot — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 16:21:02 GMT

Im in 5 loyalty programs and I think I should scale back to 2 or 3 so I'm not spreading my stays out and getting points faster. I'm in SPG, Marriott, Hyatt, Choice and Hilton. I just got the Hilton credit card so that's staying. Hyatt has the best redemption that I can use to transfer my UR to. SPG points really take forever to accumulate, so I think it'll be easy to leave them. But to choose between Marriott and Choice is pretty hard. Choice always seems to be available for last minute trips and the price range is always great, and I'm one night away from reaching elite status. But I'm not in any program that would transfer points to them. Marriott is always pretty available, the price points are a touch higher than Choice but not much, and I also have UR to transfer to if I need to top it off. I'm wondering if there's a good strategy to maximize my points across all programs so I don't necessarily have to lose any and they all see activity. I stay in a hotel every weekend, so stays aren't an issue, I'm just worried about spreading them out too much. Or am I missing something?

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 16:37:19 GMT

Where do you stay the most?!

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

icyhot — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:05:26 GMT

Used to be Choice, but since I started exploring others I stay somewhere different every weekend. Not much room for points building

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 19:28:21 GMT

Don't use a loyalty program to determine where you stay...pick the place you want for the price you're willing to pay and stay there, keep all your loyalty accounts open and if you accumulate enough points for a free night or something cool, if not I'm sure you saved more money than you would've gotten with the perks anyway. Unless you travel extensively or have corporate paid travel or both, then you can ignore what I just said.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

icyhot — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 19:45:17 GMT

I do travel extensively. My biggest spend is travel because I live two hours away from my school and have to go to class. So I'm trying to see if there are ways I can maximize all the programs or if it's best to scale back

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

Repairman — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 15:13:14 GMT

@icyhot wrote:
Im in 5 loyalty programs and I think I should scale back to 2 or 3 so I'm not spreading my stays out and getting points faster. I'm in SPG, Marriott, Hyatt, Choice and Hilton. I just got the Hilton credit card so that's staying. Hyatt has the best redemption that I can use to transfer my UR to. SPG points really take forever to accumulate, so I think it'll be easy to leave them. But to choose between Marriott and Choice is pretty hard. Choice always seems to be available for last minute trips and the price range is always great, and I'm one night away from reaching elite status. But I'm not in any program that would transfer points to them. Marriott is always pretty available, the price points are a touch higher than Choice but not much, and I also have UR to transfer to if I need to top it off. I'm wondering if there's a good strategy to maximize my points across all programs so I don't necessarily have to lose any and they all see activity. I stay in a hotel every weekend, so stays aren't an issue, I'm just worried about spreading them out too much. Or am I missing something?

SPG points don't take forever to accumulate if you use SPG hotels.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

jsucool76 — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 15:18:57 GMT

To me, loyalty programs are less about points, and more about status/benefits.

Free breakfast, free wifi, maybe waived paking fees, waived resort fees can outweigh the cost of a free night.

Breakfast can be a ridiculous cost at a hotel (sometimes 40$ per person), wifi is usually 10-15 dollars at full service properties, parking can be $20 or $100 (though you normally wont get it waived in a metro area where it's an exorbitant cost, so we'll say $20 for something like a hotel near disney), and resort fees can be $20-$30 a night.

Figure, one day if you have status, and get all of these for free

____________

$105 per day you can be saving on the first night (then dump internet from the cost) and you're left with $90 a day in savings (if you're staying in a resort)

Moral of the story...loyalty programs are about more than points.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

yfan — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 16:06:44 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
To me, loyalty programs are less about points, and more about status/benefits.

Free breakfast, free wifi, maybe waived paking fees, waived resort fees can outweigh the cost of a free night.

Breakfast can be a ridiculous cost at a hotel (sometimes 40$ per person), wifi is usually 10-15 dollars at full service properties, parking can be $20 or $100 (though you normally wont get it waived in a metro area where it's an exorbitant cost, so we'll say $20 for something like a hotel near disney), and resort fees can be $20-$30 a night.

Figure, one day if you have status, and get all of these for free

40
15
20
30
____________

$105 per day you can be saving on the first night (then dump internet from the cost) and you're left with $90 a day in savings (if you're staying in a resort)

Moral of the story...loyalty programs are about more than points.

I don't know what status allows all these benefits, but Marriott's Silver status hardly netted me anything. Not a single place I stayed at waived the parking fees, and the places where I got free breakfast advertised free breakfast for all guests. Same with free wifi. Yes I know that all Marriot properties now give free wifi to loyalty members, but the point is so many properties give them to everyone that it's hardly an added value. As for resort fees, you are double counting several of the others in those cases. In many cases wifi and parking are included in a resort fee, and many chains only waive resort fees for award stays.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

-NewGuy- — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 16:14:22 GMT

I don't know of a program that offers all, but most programs offer some of these. Hilton Gold (included with Surpass or Hhonors Reserve) includes free breakfast and wi-fi. Hyatt card (Platinum) includes wi-fi and award stays don't charge resort fees, for example.

In my personal opinion (strictly from a rewards perspective anyway), I would consolidate spending to two-ish chains. Although you can certainly accrue enough points on all five every year to keep the account open, it will decrease your options for redemption at each place. Also keep in mind that time is money with ALL loyalty progams as it's not a matter of if it will get devalued, but when. So merely keeping an account active by occasional spending might not be worth it.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 17:03:18 GMT

@icyhot wrote:
I do travel extensively. My biggest spend is travel because I live two hours away from my school and have to go to class. So I'm trying to see if there are ways I can maximize all the programs or if it's best to scale back

You definitely should look into AirBNB. My friend took my advice, and strictly used airBNB for his masters program, saved him several grand. They are much cheaper than hotels. You wouldn't earn the miles of course. But the savings is better than staying and earning.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

yfan — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:57:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@icyhot wrote:
I do travel extensively. My biggest spend is travel because I live two hours away from my school and have to go to class. So I'm trying to see if there are ways I can maximize all the programs or if it's best to scale back
You definitely should look into AirBNB. My friend took my advice, and strictly used airBNB for his masters program, saved him several grand. They are much cheaper than hotels. You wouldn't earn the miles of course. But the savings is better than staying and earning.

This is becoming less and less true as cities are leveling the playing field by levying occupancy taxes on AirBNBs the same as they do on hotels and motels - and as AirBNBs in popular locations are beginning to charge just as much as hotels (and sometimes more than motels). I have stayed at AirBNBs during my Europe trip and the experience was less than pleasant. Plus they tack on cleaning fees, sometimes hosts aren't willing to meet you at your time table (I can get to a hotel anytime I want and if the room isn't ready, they will hold my luggage), and hosts are often not accessible when there's a problem. I would much rather find an inexpensive hotel or motel deal.

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

icyhot — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 21:41:17 GMT

Yeah plus that seems like a lot of money to spend on something that wouldn't yield any rewards. I'm thinking perhaps stay with Hilton because I have the card, Hyatt to transfer UR to, and SPG because even tho the points are slow, I get 10% cash back on my BofA card

Re: Help with Hotel Rewards!

icyhot — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 21:41:42 GMT

And have Choice and Marriott on standby if nothing else is available