OT: Best credit card for hotel stays
- Thread starter RivaDawg
- Start date
Just Google any particular hotels points (ex Hilton points). You’ll obviously need to set up an account to do it.
I have a Marriott Bonvoy card. No idea if it’s the best card but I like Marriott hotels when traveling.
I guess I forget how old I am, and how young some of you are.
Geez son, find you a card that pays you back handsomely, that you can pay off every month as part of your budget. It ain’t rocket science
How do y’all not know Dave Ramsey 101? Crazy
Geez son, find you a card that pays you back handsomely, that you can pay off every month as part of your budget. It ain’t rocket science
How do y’all not know Dave Ramsey 101? Crazy
This is the best offer out there right now. 120,000 bonus points which can be transferred to several hotel programs. The 120,000 points alone could be used for 24 free nights at Hyatt properties.
Marriott is probably my favorite hotel reward program and generally the Marriott properties are always clean and nice. I have one of these cards also:
Yeah I also have a Hilton Amex bc of the intro offer. And it feels like it takes more with Hilton.Marriott is probably my favorite hotel reward program and generally the Marriott properties are always clean and nice. I have one of these cards also:
It does. Seems like a basic room at a Hilton property is always around 40,000 points. I can get free IHG, Hyatt and Marriott rooms for much cheaper than that.
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I have a Marriott bonvoy card, chase sapphire preferred, and amex platinum.
I mainly use Marriott card when I stay at a Marriott property, that's it. Because of the Marriott gold status I have through the amex platinum card, I get 17 points/dollar spent I believe. Also, when booking with Marriott points your 5th night is free.
The chase sapphire is my every day card. You can use their points through their travel portal and book travel at 1.25 cents/point, or transfer them to various hotel and airline partners.
The amex platinum has a hefty annual fee but if you take advantage of everything it offers you come out ahead.
I'm headed to Hawaii soon for 13 nights, in 3 different nice hotels/resorts on 2 different islands, all paid for with points from using those 3 cards. The Marriott card ended up giving me the most bang for the buck. 5 nights in Maui in a room that is listed for just shy of $2,000/night, cost me around 350k points and $324 out of pocket.
If I had to have just one of them I'd go with the chase because of its flexibility and the ease with which you can build up points.
I mainly use Marriott card when I stay at a Marriott property, that's it. Because of the Marriott gold status I have through the amex platinum card, I get 17 points/dollar spent I believe. Also, when booking with Marriott points your 5th night is free.
The chase sapphire is my every day card. You can use their points through their travel portal and book travel at 1.25 cents/point, or transfer them to various hotel and airline partners.
The amex platinum has a hefty annual fee but if you take advantage of everything it offers you come out ahead.
I'm headed to Hawaii soon for 13 nights, in 3 different nice hotels/resorts on 2 different islands, all paid for with points from using those 3 cards. The Marriott card ended up giving me the most bang for the buck. 5 nights in Maui in a room that is listed for just shy of $2,000/night, cost me around 350k points and $324 out of pocket.
If I had to have just one of them I'd go with the chase because of its flexibility and the ease with which you can build up points.
Someone else’s card from the dark web.
I found The Points Guy website and social media accounts very helpful
everyone’s situation is different depending on where you need to stay, how often, and what else you spend money on and what the card rewards that with. Points Guy website lets you compare all types of travel cards from branded (Hilton, Marriott, etc) to generic (Chase Saohire, Capital One Venture, Amex Platinum).
everyone’s situation is different depending on where you need to stay, how often, and what else you spend money on and what the card rewards that with. Points Guy website lets you compare all types of travel cards from branded (Hilton, Marriott, etc) to generic (Chase Saohire, Capital One Venture, Amex Platinum).
I've been a Hilton Honors guy for the last couple decades which let's you access any of their many many brands with points. I use a Hilton Honors American Express to pay for most everything (utilities, groceries, Amazon, gas, restaurants, etc) except my mortgage which you can't do. I just never have any issues with Hilton brand hotels so I've stuck with them. You can use the points for the most basic Hampton Inn up to their Hilton World Wide Resorts. Don't know if they're any better or worse than others but they are solid for me
Southwest is offering the 85,000 bonus points again. I signed up for this offer back in June. That’s enough points for up to 4 free round trip flights if anyone is looking to travel for free.
So Chase let you have multiple cards?Southwest is offering the 85,000 bonus points again. I signed up for this offer back in June. That’s enough points for up to 4 free round trip flights if anyone is looking to travel for free.
Good deal. I just remember getting shut out one time but that was a long time ago.
I think they have a 5/24 rule. If you’ve opened 5 Chase accounts in 24 months they won’t let you open another.
I like the IHG Premier rewards card. You automatically get platinum elite status and if you book 3 nights consecutively with points the 4th night is free, which I like and dislike since I’m less motivated to use points for a night or two due to the extra value of staying 4 nights.
From what I can tell, the hotel points are terrible value unless you are staying in really nice hotels. It's not the best value you can get, but the easiest thing to me is just to maximize cash back. Sam's business credit card gives 5% back on the first $6k of gas in a year. Lots of cards will get you 3% on dining, restaurants, rideshare, and/or travel without an annual fee, although most of them seem to exclude walmart and targets from groceries. Then just have a basic 2% cash back for anything that doesn't fall within those major categories.
We just don't travel a ton and I think the flexibility of being able to go for the best value without being tied to a particular brand (for both hotels and airlines) is worth more than whatever extra benefits we could get by sticking to a particular brand and using one of their credit cards. .
This is correct, but just know that the 5 card aren't necessarily 5 cards from chase. It's 5 total cards across any institution.
I had two for a little while. Used the 0% APR deal they had going on one to buy something.
We use the Sam’s card as well to get 5% back on gas and 3% back on restaurants. We use the Citicard to get 2% back on everything else.
We also use hotel cards (Marriott, IHG, Hilton and Hyatt) to get the bonuses that we use for free nights when we travel. And of course, the Southwest card to fly for free. I can’t tell you the last time we paid for a hotel room or a domestic flight.
Are you getting free nights based on spend on the cards? Or just free annual nights that come with paying the annual fee? I just haven't been able to get them to pencil out in a way that justified the hassle of not just booking where I want when I want.
When an attractive bonus point offer is posted for one of the 4 hotels I use, I sign up for the credit card and make the minimum purchase required to receive the bonus points. I then stop using that card and go back to the regulars (Sam’s and Citicard). Once the bonus points are received, I call and cancel the hotel card. If the bonus is really attractive, I’ll get my wife a card as well and follow the same procedure. Typically, the annual fee is about $99. The bonus points alone will usually get me about 7 free nights, which I equate to around $900 worth of hotel rooms. So I turn a $99 annual fee into about $900 of benefits.
Let me add that I’m a huge Dave Ramsey fan, started listening to him in the 90’s and we agree on nearly everything… except credit cards. I always pay off the credit card at the end of the month and have never paid a late fee or interest. For those that typically carry balances on credit cards, I would suggest not doing what I do. It works for me because I’m very disciplined and only buy things I would normally buy anyway and never carry a balance.
I can tell you I’m about to get 3 nights at about $1800 value from the Hilton/Amex sign up and still have a bunch of Hilton points left from some spend but not a ton. I’m not going to math it out but I’ve always felt great value. And psychologically a bunch of free hotel rooms gives me better satisfaction than $12 here or $28 there cash back.
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My wife and I are traveling overseas this spring. Trip requires 8 hotel nights. Prices in US dollars range from $400 to more than $500 per hotel night where we will be staying. I’m using points to get all 8 nights for free at a savings of about $4000.
We have also booked all of our hotel rooms for MSU basketball and baseball this winter/spring. Staying in Starkville at either the Holiday Inn, Marriott or Hilton for about 20 nights total and won’t be paying anything.
We have also booked all of our hotel rooms for MSU basketball and baseball this winter/spring. Staying in Starkville at either the Holiday Inn, Marriott or Hilton for about 20 nights total and won’t be paying anything.
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I don’t need anyone else posting things on the web about credit cards for hotels, flights, Disney, etc. I’m still rocking the Cabela’s black card and get between $600-$800 a year in free gear. Can’t have my wife trying to cash that in on beach vacations or Mickey and Minnie. I need ammo and camo!
Everyone knows the best hotel plan is to only vacation in Vegas and get all your rooms comped. Dave Ramsey and I are really good at Buffalo Gold
I find that Chase points transferred to Hyatt is the most cost effective option. Rooms usually range from 3500 to 30k points per night depending on the level of hotel.
Get a card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited and pair it with the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. Chase points transfer at 1:1 to Hyatt.
With the kids we'll usually stay in a Hyatt Place or Hyatt House. They're clean and have free breakfasts.
Without kids, we'll do one of the better ones (Grand Hyatt, Thompson, Park Hyatt, Regency, etc.)
I've stayed in Hyatt properties 17 nights this year, and I think I've paid for three of them just by choice because they were cheap.
For the Outback Bowl (er I mean Reliaquest Bowl), we stayed at the Grand Hyatt where the team was staying for 15k points a night if I'm not mistaken. We stayed in the Hyatt House next to the arena in Charlotte for 12k points per night for the NCAA tourney this year.
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