What is your favorite hotel rewards program?

[Aristomommy]

Between DHs new job that takes him out of town almost weekly and our summer travel, we are looking at many nights at hotels. I would like to find a good hotel rewards program that is flexible (very little blackout dates etc.) and doesn't require their own credit card to get points. The area DH will be traveling to for work has a great variety of hotels, but we would like to keep it more on the budget side. I have Marriott rewards and all those brand hotels are more than DH is willing to pay for a quick crash, so I need to find something more reasonable. I should also mention that DHs hotel needs will be last minute as we might get a day or two notice when he has a long day scheduled and driving home would not be a good idea. What is your favorite and why?

 

[MIGrandma]

DH has a Citi Visa card, and Hilton Honors Points. He gets points no matter what hotel he stays at, and points for every purchase on the card. We even put major purchases (like a cruise, vacation home rental, etc.) on it just to get the points. We don't use the points for hotel stays, although we could. But we are saving up the points for a cruise.

 

[ead79]

We love the Starwood Preferred Guest program. While we do have the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card, you certainly don't have to have it.

There are no blackout dates--if they have a room available, you can book it. Plus, they have a large number of hotels, so there is typically one where we want to go.

The SPG program includes Sheraton, Westin, W, St. Regis, Aloft, Le Meridien, Four Points, etc. Our favorite way to redeem points is for a stay at the Swan (a Westin hotel) or Dolphin (a Sheraton hotel) at Disney.

The Starwood Preferred Guest program often wins the "Freddie" award for best hotel rewards program.

 

[bballmom56]

Have to agree with Starwood. They have been very easy to deal with. We have booked a stay once with points. They were even kind enough to restore some points we had earned, but had no stays in over one year (which I forgot about). And we do not have a credit card through them.

 

[Silent1CB]

I used to do the ones mentioned above, but have switched to Holiday Inn Express. Priority Club. I believe the points do not expire. And they are rehabbing all their hotels. You can shop online thru their website & have points go to your account. Don't need to use their credit card to earn the points.

We also like their hot & cold breakfasts. Its not as nice as the breakfasts at Hilton, but we still like it.

FYI, Marriott has lower priced Fairfield Inn, but I do not like their breakfast buffett.

 

[Aristomommy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into all mentioned. My plan is to use our Disney Visa for the expenses and then accrue points by hotel stays. DH has his own preference in hotels, but like I told him, he needs to go where we get best points, LOL! I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and I was surprised by the updates. Since DH spends only one night at a time, maybe 2-3 times a week at a hotel, this may be a good option also. Starwood sounds good as well, since we could stay on WDW property. Keep the suggestions coming, esp. how easy the points are to redeem.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

My dh travels alot too, a real lot lately. We dont get to pick the hotels since he works for the gov. they tell him what hotel to stay at etc, hence I sign him up for every hotel program.

Personally I like Hilton, so you can "double dip" as they call it, you can get hilton points, plus airline miles whichever airline you sign up for. He also has priority club, starwood etc.

The flyertalk website has a lot of info about each hotel program. Also sign your dh up for all the promotions, some are specific dates, specific cities etc. I just sign my dh up for any and all of them where he is traveling. I know his plans about a month out, like next week he is going to frankfurt, siberia, bejing, aukland,los angeles and then new york, so basically around the world.

If you play the hotel game right, you can rack up alot of miles and points etc.

 

[monarchsfan16]

My dad travels a lot for business, and is a member of just about every major hotel rewards program going (except Starwood). Of the ones he's a member of, he seems happiest with Hilton Honors. He stays primarily at Hampton Inns (but sometimes at Hilton Gardens) with fantastic AAA discounts and has accrued MANY points. And if you fly Southwest, you can double dip, and earn HH points PLUS Rapid Reward credits.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

I travel almost weekly for work. I have enrolled in three points programs, but use Hilton almost exclusively.

I will go to Marriott when there is no Hilton available, and on a very rare instance use a Wyndam hote, but that's about it.

I did stay in a Holiday Inn last summer on an overnight trip for family reasons. It was surprisingly decent and I'd stay there for travel.

I prefer a suite with a kitchen when I travel for work and Hilton does that better than Marriott.

 

[dex08]

I love the Hilton program and I'm a Hilton Honors Diamond level due to my extensive business travel. There are many brands within the Hilton family so I am usually always able to find one of their properties (Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, DoubleTree, Hilton Garden Inn, Conrad, & Waldorf Astoria).

I don't have their credit card but they do have a 'double dip' program for free where you can opt to receive bonus Hilton Honors points or you can receive Hilton points plus airline miles.

We were able to use points to stay for one of our two weeks in Hawaii for our honeymoon for free (yes, a whole week free at one of the Hilton resorts).

When I don't stay at Hilton brands, I prefer Mariott. Many of my colleagues chose Mariott as their loyalty brand due to the lower point values required for redemption of free hotel stays.

 

[minniebeth]

DH shares his time travelling equally with Marriott and Hilton. We like the Marriott properties the best for personal travel, lots of nice resorts and hotels in many locations. Not always easy to redeem, although they've gotten better and have lifted blackout days. Hilton requires a ridiculous amounot of points to redeem to stay anywhere decent, DH travels a lot with them and his points seem slow to rack up.
My brother-in-law seems to really like the Hyatt program, he says they are easy to work with and the Hyatt Place brand is cropping up all over the place it seems like. They have nice resorts in different places.

American Express points can be rolled over into many hotel chains as well, that's where we get the majority of our points to use for travel from.

We wish we could use Starwood more, they just don't have the locations where DH needs....

 

[SereneOne]

Hilton is great
Holiday Inn is also
Comfort Inn is in a lot of small towns that others are not.

My DH travels extensively, Mon thru Fri most weeks unless he is local, which is maybe three months out of the year....he will be gone for several weeks and then gets a week or two local and then a month's vacation for the year...anyways!

He likes to stay at Hamptons the most and Holiday Inn is good too. Comfort Suites are compatible, we stayed at one in Jacksonville on our way to Disney and it was so nice, I had to keep checking to see that I was staying at a Comfort, lol. But always try to check online, there can be some old and nasty ones.

I don't know of any black out dates, anytime we have wanted to use them, we have used them.

 

[mlynn]

My husband only uses Holiday Inn Priorty club. We love it!!! We only need 63,000 more points to stay at the Holiday Inn Vacation club right out side of Disney.We stayed 2 years ago at a Holiday inn express by Universal. Didn't have to pay a dime for a room.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

another vote for Hilton! DH travels for work and we use the free nights for extra vacation time!!!

 

[SereneOne]

My husband only uses Holiday Inn Priorty club. We love it!!! We only need 63,000 more points to stay at the Holiday Inn Vacation club right out side of Disney.We stayed 2 years ago at a Holiday inn express by Universal. Didn't have to pay a dime for a room.

We have stayed at the HI by Universal, it was nice.

We have also used our HI points to stay at the HI Sunspree on PC Beach, FL. They have a mini water park and are right on the beach.

We have stayed free many times with all our points from all three. This last trip we stayed at DTD Hilton until we moved onto Disney property.

One of the few perks of DH traveling so much.

 

[mlynn]

We have stayed at the HI by Universal, it was nice.

We have also used our HI points to stay at the HI Sunspree on PC Beach, FL. They have a mini water park and are right on the beach.

We have stayed free many times with all our points from all three. This last trip we stayed at DTD Hilton until we moved onto Disney property.

One of the few perks of DH traveling so much.

That is the best part of my Dh traveling so much too? We might use some inKey West in 2 years for 15year anniv.

I really love the picture of the HI Vacation Club!!!

 

[RicGarrido]

I am the writer of the Loyalty Traveler blog which focuses on consumer analysis of hotel loyalty programs and strategies to upgrade your hotel travel.

Right now there are promotions with Hilton and Hyatt through June 30 for free nights. Hyatt Gold passport is offering complimentary elite membership for bonus points and extra amenities. Hyatt's promotion awards a free night credit for every two hotel stays.

Hilton's promotion offers a free night credit for every four hotel stays.

The high value of these promotions is the ability to use the free night anywhere in the world for that chain.

Two Hyatt Place hotel stays can be as short as one night each and some locations have Hyatt Place hotels for under $75 per night. $150 paid for two hotel stays earns a free night credit valid through August 31, 2010. There are upscale Hyatts in Florida, New York, Aruba, Tokyo, London, Paris that will run over $500 per night. Hyatt has a great return on investment.

Hyatt runs the stay twice, earn a free night promotion every year for at least a few months.

Hilton HHonors current promotion is unprecedented in that a member can earn a free night after every four hotel stays through June 30. The advantage of Hilton is the free night certificate is valid for one year after issue. Hilton has ski resorts, beach resorts, and 3,500 hotels around the world to use the free night.

Priceline and budget hotels may be cheaper for your initial hotels stays, however, the free nights earned with the chain hotels can easily be worth more than the cost to earn them if you plan to use your free nights for a luxury hotel vacation.

Since I am new here I can't post any links until I have had ten posts. Check out BoardingArea.com for Loyalty Traveler and search my blog for Hilton and Hyatt and you will find plenty of details on the promotion opportunities available. You must register for both of these free night promotions.

Ric Garrido
Loyalty Traveler