Understanding Rewards-Based Cards for Hotels

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

Looking beyond cashback cards, rewards cards offer benefits like hotel memberships, and free stays. Let's break down how these work for hotel memberships and free stays:

Obtaining Memberships and Free Stays​

• Joining Fees: Some cards offer a free night's stay voucher or coupon when paying the joining fee.
• Membership Levels: Certain cards come with memberships like gold or platinum, granting discounts and benefits. That means, if you get the card, you also get platinum membership in one of the hotel chains for an year.
• Free Stays:
  • Spend-Based: Some cards offer a free night's stay for spending a certain amount annually. Like hitting certain spending thresholds, e.g., ₹2 lakh in a year.
  • Annual Fee: Others provide a free stay when paying the joining or annual fee. Straight voucher that you can redeem while booking hotels.

Reward Points​

• Hotel Partnerships: Many cards have partnerships with hotel chains, offering accelerated reward points for certain hotel spends. For other spends, you get normal reward points.
• Point Conversion: You can convert these points into hotel loyalty points (e.g., Marriott Bonvoy or Accor points) and use them for bookings.
• Conversion Rates: Conversion ratios vary between cards and banks, affecting the value of your points.
• Value Comparison: Rewards cards often offer better value than cashback cards (5-10%), especially for frequent travellers or those with specific spending patterns.

Reward multiplier, accelerated rewards, and spend limit based rewards

• Some cards gives you 10x rewards if you spend it on their specific platforms.
• Some cards give accelerated rewards for some categories of spends, or specific dates etc.
• Some cards give free points when you reach some limit - like 1000 points free for reaching 1L spend in one month.

Key Considerations​

• Upfront Benefits: I find cards offering free stays with joining or annual fees advantageous.
• Spend-Based Rewards: Some cards that offer free stays for reaching annual spending limits are also valuable.
• Point Accumulation: Earning and converting points to hotel points provides flexibility but requires more tracking.
• Point Expiry: Make a note if these points or vouchers expire within a year or so. Some of them have expiry dates and validity restrictions.

Some Major hotel chains to consider: ITC, Marriott, Accor, Taj
I think even if you only visit these luxury hotels once a year for vacation, it's worth experiencing.

There are many existing TF Wiki posts and Informative threads about this and specific cards and hotels.

Which type of card do you prefer for hotel stays? Can you suggest some good options in these categories?

I'll write about air miles in the next post. (Trying to understand and simplify reward cards for my own reference, if there are any mistakes, please do comment.)

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

Adding @helloworld, @SSV, @Subhankar for views and inputs.

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

I have a question here:
How do I extend my hotel or airlines tier status and membership benefits to my family members if I am not travelling or staying with them?
Is it possible to do so? I know for airlines, it will be near to impossible, but what about hotel stays?

For example, I might have silver status in Mariott but if I need to book for my relative using my account, it is not allowing.
What are the tips to use/extend our membership benefits for our relatives if at all it is possible?

 

[HumorSimpson]

Without tagging the OG @anirban.choudhury , this is like doing vratam without shuklam bharadharam.

 

[PrinceHeart]

I have a question here:
How do I extend my hotel or airlines tier status and membership benefits to my family members if I am not travelling or staying with them?
Is it possible to do so? I know for airlines, it will be near to impossible, but what about hotel stays?

For example, I might have silver status in Mariott but if I need to book for my relative using my account, it is not allowing.
What are the tips to use/extend our membership benefits for our relatives if at all it is possible?

This is a real life example for you:

I booked a room in le meridien jakarta, for few nights for 2 people. My wife was near the hotel at checkin time so she went there and did checkin, with her driving license. They allowed it.

1. Booking was in my name.
2. Wife's name was not added to the booking.
3. I didnt call ahead.
4. We stayed at same hotel few times in past, so they knew us.

Now answering your query, this is technically not allowed unless you are one of the guests in that reservation as well.

For relative's booking, its not possible. They have to create their own marriott bonvoy accounts and do seperate booking.

Tip - you can call the hotel ahead of checkin time, to let them know your relatives will be going. Only works if you know some staff in that hotel.