What is loyalty programs in hotels

No secrets here: The reason hotels have loyalty programs is to try to get you to increase the amount of time that you stay with them. At their core, hotel loyalty programs try to get you to make irrational decisions. Or you are used to the perks that come with elite status at a specific chain, so you avoid staying at other hotels.

The same concept is at play with frequent flyer mile programs. It is certainly possible to extract value from hotel loyalty programs. My family and I have leveraged hotel elite status to get perks that have certainly saved us money.

So you have to be on your toes to outwit the bean counters back at the home office of the big-brand hotel! Hilton Honors Diamond is one of the easiest top-tier elite statuses to earn.

With the Hilton Aspire hotel credit card, you automatically get Diamond status. Hilton Gold which comes with a variety of other reward credit cards is one of the most useful middle-tier hotel statuses because it comes with free breakfast.

Marriott is currently the largest hotel program in the world and offers a variety of different levels, from Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador elite statuses. You can get Gold status with a variety of cards with an avenue to Platinum status by spending on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card.

Hyatt Globalist status is another top-tier status that is relatively easy to earn and quite useful. The IHG credit cards offer a high sign-up bonus, but in my anecdotal experience, IHG has the worst upgrade and perks for mid-tier status out of any of the big 4 hotel chains.

The promotion is valid for all paid reservations made with IHG, but be sure to register before staying. The registration period and link for this promotion will be available starting Jan. The Kimpton brand participates in After registering for this elite status promotion, IHG Rewards members that stay five qualifying nights within 90 days at any IHG hotel around the world will automatically earn mid-tier Platinum Elite status.

The benefit will last all the way through the end of December Perks associated with the Platinum Elite tier include space-available upgrades and late checkout. Registration for the promotion will be available between Jan. Between now and Feb. There is no limit to the number of points a member can earn, but registration for the promotion is required before arriving at the hotel.

For statement credits on stays, Gold elite status, and other luxury perks, consider opening the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex, while Chase's Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card is a solid option for everyday earning. Radisson recently spun off its loyalty program in the Americas , including the U. To earn points at all 1, or so hotels globally, not just the properties based in those regions, you'll also need to rejoin the older Radisson Rewards program.

Yes, it's confusing. But it's also worthwhile, since you can earn up to 35 points per dollar on stays if you have elite status and one of the program's cobranded credit cards base members earn 20 per dollar. Award stays in standard rooms start at 15, points at the lower end of the spectrum, and range up to 75, points for more luxurious accommodations.

Hyatt now numbers over 1, hotels and resorts in 68 countries, and 20 brands including Andaz, Thompson, Miraval, and Park Hyatt, among others. The chain also has partnerships with Small Luxury Hotels and M Life, widening its sphere of influence even further. World of Hyatt members earn five points per dollar on Hyatt purchases, with bonuses for elite members. Award nights, meanwhile, start at 5, points apiece, and range up to 40, for the highest-end hotels in the portfolio. Members can also book stays using a mix of cash and points.

For an earnings boost plus automatic Discoverist status, consider opening the World of Hyatt credit card from Chase, which comes with an annual free night worth up to 15, points. There are over 9, participating properties in more than 80 countries, plus vacation rentals, club resorts, and other partners like Caesars Rewards hotels in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and more.

Note that even though Marriott and Starwood have finalized their merger and taken steps towards integration, for the moment the two are still operating as separate loyalty programs. When it comes to choosing a hotel loyalty program, many factors come into play. Does the program have properties in the cities you visit most frequently? How quickly can you earn rewards, and how valuable are those rewards?

If you earn elite status, how much value does that add? After thinking about all the elements that go into this decision, we settled on 10 categories, with our weighting for each in parentheses:. These criteria are designed to cover every aspect of a hotel loyalty program, while also recognizing that the most important factor is how you earn and redeem points.

With the 10 candidates and 10 criteria in place, it was time to gather data for each one. While the two numbers have some correlation, some hotels may have a lot of rooms at only a few hotels and vice versa.

However, we decided to break down these numbers by brands that are consistently luxurious or economical, as the case may be. This chart does not attempt to be comprehensive; it shows only the two extremes for each hotel chain.

Note that it also excludes brands that are part of the corporate umbrella but do no participate in their given loyalty program. This approach provides a quantifiable way of identifying how easy it is to use points at top-tier locations versus lower-tier ones. This makes sense as one of the main objectives in selecting a loyalty program is getting rewards.

Perks focuses solely on the published benefits given to all members who join the program. Most programs now include free Wi-Fi or offer member-only rates, while some allow you to freely share points with your spouse or household members.

Individual properties in other programs may waive resort fees on free nights, but Hyatt is the only one with a formal company-wide policy. Evaluating the Elite Status benefits of each program is exceedingly difficult, given that every hotel chain has different ways of awarding status and different benefits at each status level.

After determining these values, we then extrapolated how much value an elite member would receive across four different thresholds — those who stay 25, 50, 75 or nights a year — given the set of perks offered at each level. If you stay fewer than 25 nights, your elite-status benefits are either very limited or non-existent and are thus excluded from this analysis.

Having and utilizing a Hotel Credit Card is a great way to extend the value of your stays, and thus warranted inclusion in our analysis. Here, we looked at several credit-card features — welcome bonus, earning rates, annual fee, status benefits, foreign transaction fees, additional perks like renewal bonuses and free night certificates and other options like a business version or multiple personal cards.

For each of these seven categories, we ranked the ten programs and then weighted those ratings to arrive at a final score. The following list shows all the co-branded credit cards for each of our 10 hotel loyalty programs:.