On the Internet, there are plenty of great travel rewards cards and in fact, there are too many of them. If you are actually planning a vacation with your family, it can be difficult to find a good stay. There are some places which might not be comfortable to stay and there are some places where you can stay in which is definitely comfortable but too expensive.
It is too difficult to find the perfect hotel for you to stay in which you are comfortable as well as it is economical. Luckily, you can find the best hotel credit cards which give every traveler an opportunity to earn free nights at great hotels/leading hotel brands. It can even earn you an opportunity to upgrade your room, hotel loyalty member perks and many more but customers mainly earn points and use them for hotel or travel related expenses.
Hotel credit cards can be divided under 2 heads: Co branded and General Travel.
Co-branded Hotel credit cards are best suitable for the people who like to travel frequently. If you prefer to stay in a specific brand of hotel and if you wish to reach the elite status in that hotel’s loyalty membership program, co-branded Hotel credit cards is a best option. Otherwise, general travel credit cards are not bad at all. For anyone else who is not a frequent Traveler, it would be a better fit because of its great flexibility to earn and to redeem the points.
How Hotel credit cards work?
When you spend money from the hotel credit cards, points get added to the SIM card which can be used later on, for Hotel-related rewards. It can also however, be transferred into airline points or miles. Most of the co-branded Hotel credit cards give you more points for spending with affiliated hotel brand. General cards, on the other hand, does not have such offers and usually gives a flat rate on all purchases or a higher rate for specific categories but not specific hotels. Actually, specific categories include travel expenses and dining.
The best hotel credit cards are usually used for availing the offers of free night stays. Those are the most common benefit of Hotel rewards cards. That is of course the most famous reward which you can avail but there are also many hotel cards which offer a much broader range of perks. Those which carry an automatic entry into an advanced membership level of a hotel’s loyalty program are the exact cards which carry many perks with it. It includes late checkout for free, room upgrades for free, complimentary breakfast for a better stay and guaranteed room availability. Without a doubt, these are the best hotel credit cards available.
On the other hand, you actually need to understand the drawbacks and the benefits of Hotel credit cards. Hotel credit cards are definitely not for everyone and it is important for you to understand the pros and cons of this type of travel card before you start to use it.
Benefits of Hotel credit cards
As already mentioned, the most popular kind of rewards you can get is free nights but depending on your card, several other perks are also available such as room upgrades to cash back to travel and leisure experiences to merchandises. You also have an option of transferring the points to other loyalty programs or booking through the online platform of reward program. The points you earn from hotel can also be used when it comes to rewards like free or discounted airfare or cruise tickets.
Hotel membership perks: Many hotel cards give different offers to avail but most of the common offers are-
- Late checkout
- Complimentary breakfast and/or refreshments
- Guaranteed room availability
- Free stays and room upgrades
- Complimentary internet
- Complimentary club-level access
Cardholder benefits: Best hotel credit cards often provide their own perks and own benefits through their own hotel credit cards which has nothing to do with the offers provided by the hotels. As an example, Visa Signature Hotel Cards usually include the following offers:
- Fraud protection
- Extended warranty
- Price, purchase and/or return protection
- Auto rental insurance
- Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance
- Trip delay reimbursement
- Baggage delay insurance
Drawbacks of Hotel credit cards
Complicated rewards structures: Navigating through the complicated rewards structures in hotel credit cards is probably the most difficult thing you can do. Just like the airline cobranded cards, the best hotel credit cards are also very difficult to navigate through. The hotels basically designate their properties by categories based on amenities, room rates, time of the year and many other factors and with more luxurious locations costing higher rewards. The category designations change quite often without any notice which is very difficult for you to track.
Restrictions: When you are getting something for free, there are ought to be restrictions. All hotel and travel credit cards have limitations when it is about using the earned points. For example, for many cards, spending on anything other than hotel purchases will only earn 1% rewards. On the other hand, general travel cards with a flat point earning rate, offer the ability to earn rewards with a wider group of travel providers but they can never match the high rate which co branded cards agree to give.
Fees: Many of the best hotel credit cards charge annual fees which is definitely not an advantage at all. The cost might be even less than $100 per year, but many of the best hotel credit cards also come with some of the highest purchase APRs available in the industry. If you really carry a balance, the annual fee could quickly be compounded for making the interest payments.
High spending requirements to qualify for sign up: If you want bonus in the best hotel credit cards, you will have to spend thousands of dollars in the first few months of you owning the card. This is exactly how you can qualify for the bonus but spending a lot of money in the first few months is something that every card holder will not be able to afford.