Best Hotel Rewards Programs

I have been an active traveler for over 20 years and eventually I came to realization that there are really only 2 main strategies you can adopt in choosing budget conscious lodging for your vacation:

Strategy # 1: search for a deal every time you travel

PROS:

-you do not limit your options

-you may in fact snatch the best deal available at the moment

CONS:

-it takes a lot of time and effort

-you will never be sure that you did in fact get the best deal, because when you are comparing 1 hotel to another certain discounts are only shown to hotel’s loyalty program members (see Strategy #2) so you are comparing apples and oranges

-unpredictability (in terms of service, amenities, etc.) – if you have not been to a place before you cannot be 100% sure what to expect

Strategy # 2: stick with the best hotel rewards program (or two)

PROS:

-you earn loyalty points every time you stay in lodgings within the loyalty program and then points are translated into rewards, like free nights, free meals, travel gift cards, etc.

-you get price discounts or extra free night(s) only available to members

-the search is quick and easy since you are only looking for deals within your loyalty program(s)

– there are no unpleasant surprises (every hotel within each chain is exactly the same, you know what to expect for breakfast, what type of bed you are going to get, what perks, etc.)

CONS:

-your choices are limited

-you might not be getting the very best deal out there

For myself I have long decided that I am better off with hotel rewards programs. I have tried many hotels and savings were not overwhelming if you keep shopping around. I really do not have time digging for super deals all the time, however I do enjoy the perks I am getting from our hotel rewards programs and I absolutely love predictability. Once I had to stay at a Marriott, and I could not sleep there one minute because the bed was just too soft for me (I have back issues) but when I go to either Best Western or Hilton family of hotels I know EXACTLY what type of bed is waiting for me. All hotel beds are, in fact, different. I recently found this interesting article about hotel beds mattresses in most famous hotel chains.

In some ways when you stop at the same hotel time after time it starts feeling as if you are coming home because everything is so familiar. I like that extra comforting feeling when I am traveling because every trip is stressful enough as it is, without sleepless nights.

Best hotel rewards programs

How to choose the best hotel rewards program? It all depends on your specific needs. But definitely choose more than one but not more than a couple. You do want some extra options but you do not want to dilute your choices because you need to concentrate your loyalty points in the least amount of places so that they accumulate as soon as possible. When we analyzed our needs we chose Best Western and Hilton Honors.

I like BW hotel rewards program because it is a budget option with great coverage in the U.S. for a road trip. You won’t as often find BW in the center of a big city close to all attractions but you will probably find one in the middle of nowhere on your way from one National Park to another. I like their simple but sufficient breakfast, comfortable beds, a pool and in many places a hot tub too. Rooms usually have a fridge and a microwave which saves you a lot of money if you want to bring perishable picnic items on your trip or re-heat lunch leftovers for dinner.

BW loyalty points never expire. BW hotel rewards program gives you an option to use your points to cover the price of a night stay partially (through purchase of a travel card) rather than wait till you accumulate the full amount of points required for the night. Or you can redeem your points for gift cards unrelated to travel.

Once you start climbing their ladder of membership levels you get more and more rewards with each level (but you do have to maintain that level every year with the required number of nights to stay on that level)

The only downside of this program is that if you book your stay on Expedia or any other travel site but their own, you do not receive loyalty points for that stay and sometimes Expedia could have better deals on their site than BW has on its site.

What I love about Hilton Honors hotel rewards program is that it has a variety of hotel options (14 to be exact) for any need and budget. For instance, Hilton and Embassy Suites will be located right smack in the middle of all the action in a big city; some Hilton, Double Tree and Embassy Suites may offer you resort-like facilities; Embassy Suites has 2 rooms suites as standard (with a TV in each one), which is essential if you are travelling with a baby or extended family or if you have more than 2 kids; and good old Hampton Inn is your best friend on a road trip.

The hotel rewards program at HH is similar to BW but what I really find useful about it is that, unlike BW, it gives you a perk of “buy 4 get one free night”, and “buying” means not necessarily buying with money but also with points. But this program does not offer “travel cards” as rewards the way BW does.

One other thing attracts me to HH family is breakfast. Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn will always have free breakfast and it will be much better than in BW but BW will more often than not be a cheaper option (if we do not factor in a free night offer by HH described above, i.e. if you stay for less than 4 nights) and in most cases only Hampton Inn within HH family can compete with their pricing.

So for us I made a decision that if we are embarking on a long road trip hopping from hotel to hotel every night, then BW will be cheaper and simpler option; if we are staying for a longer period of time in one spot, I would most likely choose HH hotel because of the amenities, services and yummy breakfast, Hampton Inn being my absolute favorite for the combination of quality and price.

How to make your loyalty points accumulate quicker.

Besides traveling more frequently, the best way to accumulate loyalty points is through credit card spending. Both HH and BW have a credit card offer and it is up to you to choose the one that suits you better. Some people have their credit card linked to an airline to collect loyalty miles for airplane tickets, rather than loyalty points for hotel stays. But as the title of this blog suggests we are a road trip family, we do not like flying much and so we fly only when we have to, about once a year. Therefore, for us it was a no-brainer to link our credit card spending to our hotel rewards program. This way every dollar we spend is translated to a loyalty point or two and when we stay at a hotel we get points for the stay (through the hotel) and points for the purchase (through the credit card) = double points!

Conclusion

If you want to know more information about other existing hotels rewards programs, you can read an article by Forbes that ranks the best hotel rewards programs. We made our choice of programs before I came across this article but now that I had a chance to read it,I found out some interesting information.

#1 and #3 on the list are luxury hotel brands, which probably won’t fit a family budget. #2 is the low end program that includes such brands as Microtel, Motel 8, etc. – these lodging options would be the cheapest alternatives but not too good on amenities. And then at #4 comes Hilton, which made me very happy because it proves that our gut feeling was right when we became HiltonHonors members. For us HiltoHonor IS the best hotel rewards program.

Now you know why in a lot of my blog posts I will talk about either to BW or HH. For our family it became a matter of economy, efficiency, convenience and tradition. Whether you follow in our footsteps or pave your own path – it is entirely up to you to decide because you need to find the best hotel rewards program that suits YOUR needs. In any case, I sincerely hope you will find this information useful.

P.S. When choosing a lodging for vacation, have you ever thought about how would you feel living your whole life in a hotel? Being Russian I am often asked my opinion about A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel book, which main character is being sentenced to a life-long household arrest in a luxurious hotel in Moscow during the turbulent times of the October Revolution. I was thinking about this book while writing this post. I might consider the opportunity if it were somewhere in Hawaii or the Caribbean 😉 I will leave you with this thought, but in any case this book makes an interesting travel read so pack it with you next time you go on vacation and let me know later what you think about it.