Get Extra Benefits and Cheaper Rates Just by Signing Up for Hotel Loyalty Programs
You don’t need to stay a bunch of nights or achieve some level of elite status to get value from hotel loyalty programs.
Before you make a reservation at any hotel, it is always worthwhile to join their loyalty program. Everyone who joins gets access to a few special benefits and usually reduced “member-only” room rates.
Don’t skip the step of joining the program because you don’t think you’ll stay often enough to earn a free night. It's worth joining even for a single visit. You’ll get some special benefits, it doesn’t cost anything, and it doesn’t take that much time to join. It will pay off every time you stay at one of the program’s hotels in the future, and by taking advantage of a free service called AwardWallet, you’ll be able to easily keep track of your membership information.
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Why become a member?
Becoming a member of the hotel’s loyalty program provides several benefits (even without any level of elite status).
- Free Wi-Fi and other perks. Even the entry level of most loyalty programs provides benefits like free Wi-Fi and late checkout. Some hotels offer more unique benefits. For example, entry-level members of Hyatt hotels get free breakfast at Hyatt Place hotels and entry-level members of the Club Accor program get free access to bicycles and free rides in hotel-owned BMWs at Fairmont hotels.
- Special members only rates. Almost every hotel company offers their members discounted rates. Members rates typically offer a 5-15% discount from the best available rate.
- Effortless reservations in the future. It takes a minute or two to enter your contact and default payment information when you initially sign up for a hotel loyalty program. However, once signed up, you never have to enter this information again. Over the long run, joining the loyalty program doesn't take extra time——it saves you time.
- Access to special promotions. Joining most programs gives you access to special promotions. For example, two stays at an (inexpensive) Marriott within a three-month period might be enough for a free night certificate.
- Reward points or miles. While accumulating a lot of hotel points (from your stays) may not always be a realistic objective, you will gradually build up points over time, and may eventually be able to redeem a free night. If you take advantage of promotions or credit card signup bonuses, you can accumulate a bunch of points, even if you don’t stay very often. Or you can choose to earn frequent flyer miles, instead of hotel points, for your stays.
- Better treatment. If there is a problem with your reservation or your stay, you are likely to get slightly better treatment as a member of the hotel’s loyalty program. Don’t count on much, but it can help.
Top hotel programs
Shortcuts to elite hotel status
Elite status gets you access to better benefits. Even if you’ve never stayed at one of the program’s hotels before, you may be able to take advantage of several shortcuts to elite status:
- Credit cards. Some hotel-branded credit cards give you instant elite status just for having the card. This is often the easiest way for infrequent travelers to enjoy the elite benefits that usually come from frequent stays. Lua error in Module:Link at line 366: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
- Status match. Once you have elite status at one of the major hotel programs, either through a credit card, or by staying for the required number of nights, you can often get your status matched at other hotel brands. For example, if you already have Marriott elite status, you can often get Hilton to give you the same level of status. Many smaller hotel programs will match the status you have with their larger brethren. If you’ve got an upcoming stay, you can ask them for a match before you go. Boost Your Hotel Status.
- Status challenge. A few hotel programs won’t automatically match your status, but they will let you complete a “status challenge”. You can earn elite status by staying a few times over a few months, rather than by making more stays over the course of a year. Normally this isn’t particularly useful for programs that you aren’t expecting to use very often. However, with some programs, you will be temporarily given elite status, while you are trying to meet your challenge, letting you take advantage of the extra benefits, starting with your first stay.
Managing your memberships
Signing up for a dozen or more loyalty programs isn’t completely painless. You’ll need to remember your account information, and you’ll probably starting getting a bunch of promotional emails.
- Fortunately, you can take the pain out of managing your loyalty accounts by using AwardWallet. It remembers the account numbers and sign-in information for all your loyalty accounts, tracks your point balances, and can even let you sign into your accounts automatically. Use AwardWallet to Easily Manage Your Loyalty Program Information.
- Manage promotional email. If you’re a travel discount junkie, you might appreciate the special promotions and deals that will be coming to your inbox. However, if you don’t want to get them, they are easy to avoid. When you go through the sign-up process, there will be a checkbox to turn-off these emails. Tips for Managing Promotional Emails.
What to do, if you don’t expect to earn many hotel reward points
One byproduct of always signing up for hotel loyalty programs is that you’ll eventually earn small numbers of points with many different programs. With most programs, you’ll lose those points after 1-2 years of inactivity. However, if you periodically earn or spend some points, your account will stay active, and you can keep your points indefinitely.
If you think you will gradually generate enough points to redeem for a free hotel night, that is always the most valuable use of your hotel points. If not, you have a few interesting options.
- Earn frequent flyer miles instead. Many hotel programs, particularly the larger ones, allow you to earn airline miles instead of hotel points. On paper, this is almost always a bad deal. The value of the hotel points you would be giving up is usually much higher than value of the miles you would receive. However, a handful of hotel points that will expire from your account aren’t worth anything. If you are never going to use them, you are better off earning some miles instead.
- Redeem for merchandise or gift cards. Another option, again mostly for the larger programs, is to use your points to purchase merchandise or gift cards. Like earning frequent flyer miles for your stays, this looks bad on paper. You are getting lower value per point than you would get by using your points for hotel nights. However, it is better to get a $10 gift card, than to have your points expire or just sit around in your account forever.
- Just let them expire. You don’t need to lose a lot of sleep over just letting your hotel points (from infrequently used programs) expire. After all, you didn’t necessarily join the program to earn the points. You might have joined primarily to get the special benefits and the discounted room rates. Although, if you earned a lot of points through a credit card signup bonus or other route, and you haven’t had a chance to use them yet, you definitely want to make sure you don’t lose them.
- Keep your account alive. With many programs, any sort of account activity is enough to keep you points alive. There are many ways that you can easily earn or redeem a small number of points and reset the clock. Keep Your Points from Expiring.
List of hotel loyalty programs
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