I’d argue that if you travel often, for work or pleasure, it pays to find a hotel chain you like and stay there whenever possible. Even if you don’t travel often that it is likely to get you some freebies eventually.
Here are some of the perks you should consider:
- Earn points just for staying; extra points for meals and so forth.
- Meet your expectations – this helps especially when traveling often. It is nice to know what you’ll find wherever you are in the world.
- Get bonus points for using a credit card associated with the rewards program.
- If you are a frequent traveler you can expect better treatment and perks as you move along. Reaching gold status on United recently showed me how nice this can be.
- Get bonus points through partner programs and so forth.
Some rewards deals you might want to look into are:
Marriott Rewards
Hilton Honors
Starwood Preferred Guest (Sheraton)
Priority Club (Holiday Inns)
Most have visa programs that also provide up to triple the points for use at the hotel and the points themselves tend to go further, dollar for dollar, than miles do. In my view it is still important to rack up points where it will get the most savings. For instance, in the past I’ve stuck with the mileage for free flights, since I’d rather get something free that I would already be paying for. Now that we have so many night for R&Rs it might be worth it to get more hotel points for free nights.
With all of my travels these days I’m having to remember room numbers like pin numbers and have to remind myself just where I am at. Despite the similarity between hotels it is comforting to see how each country makes them a bit different.
Safe Travels!
Miel
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