The Best Credit Cards For Reward Luxury Hotel Stays
I’ve stayed at a number of amazing luxurious hotels the past few years. To name a few, there were the Park Hyatt Milan, Andaz Maui at Wailea, Hilton Bentley South Beach Miami, Conrad Tokyo, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort. I also have a few new ones coming up that I’m really looking forward to. While staying at any of these hotels would have been very expensive if I were paying for them, the trick is to have the right points with the right credit cards. Below are my top five picks for the most rewarding hotel credit cards for those reward luxury hotel stays!
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Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve
The Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve credit card has the most generous offering in terms of immediate elite status benefits for its cardholders. The credit card comes with immediate Gold status that you get to keep for the lifetime of the card and Hilton HHonors Gold benefits include complimentary breakfast at Hilton, Conrad and DoubleTree properties, room upgrades, complimentary internet. The advantage here is that Hilton’s mid-tier Gold status provides a breakfast offering, a rarity among elite programs. The top-tier Diamond status for Hilton can be achieved through spending $40,000 on the card in a single year and it’s definitely a nice option to have to be able to upgrade and reach top-tier status simply by spending on the card. The card has no foreign transaction fees, but a $95 annual fee which is not waived.
The sign-up bonus itself offers two free weekend award nights (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) in any Hilton property worldwide once you spend $2500 in the first four months of account opening. An anniversary free award night is given for any year you spend $10,000 on the card and pay the $95 annual fee. These free nights can be used at top properties such as the Conrad Tokyo, Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island or a number of other Hilton properties. Hilton is a huge chain with a huge footprint and you can easily find plenty of high-end hotels all over the world to spend point.
I used my two free night certificates last year at the Hilton Bentley Miami South Beach, a very nice hotel right in the heart of South Beach. With my Gold status, I ended up getting an upgrade to an ocean front corner one-bedroom suite and enjoyed a free buffet breakfast.
Starwood Preferred Guest
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express offers 25,000 points after spending $5,000 within 6 months of account opening. The points themselves are highly valuable. Last December, I spent 40,000 points for five nights at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort in Thailand. Room rates were $650 a night and the stay would have cost me over $3000. Being that the hotel was a Category 4 and Starwood points offer the fifth night free, I got a great deal at 40,000 points. I also spent two nights at the Rio Sheraton Hotel & Resort over New Year’s 2012, when hotel rates were $800-$1000 a night (you may have guessed Rio is extremely popular for New Year’s).
The other valuable aspect of Starwood Preferred Guest points is that they can transfer to 30 different airline partners. These include American Airlines, US Airways and British Airways, to name a few. Most airline partners will transfer at a 1:1 ratio and give a 5,000 mile bonus when you transfer 20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points. So 20,000 Starwood points equals 25,000 miles. The card carries a $65 annual fee, waived the first year.
US Bank Club Carlson
The US Bank Club Carlson Signature Visa card has a totally awesome perk. When you redeem for an award stay of at least 2 nights, you receive your last night free. My parents stayed at Radisson Blu St. Martin in April and spent five nights. The hotel was 50,000 points a night and they got their last night free. They may have spent five nights, but the way to optimize the free night is to spend two at a time – you pay points for the first night and get the second night free.
The sign-up bonus is 85,000 Club Carlson points after spending $2,500 on the card within 90 days. Every year, you receive a 40,000 Club Carlson point anniversary bonus when you pay a $75 annual fee, which is not waived the first year. Other than nine hotels topping out at 70,000 points, most hotels cost 50,000 points a night or less. The other nice thing about the card is it earns 5 points per dollar on all spending, making it very easy to spend enough to earn a free night (or two nights given you receive the second night free with every award redemption).
Chase Hyatt Visa
The Chase Hyatt Credit Card offers two free award nights in any participating Hyatt worldwide after spending $1,000 within 3 months. This is a fairly low spending requirement for the award nights and I am definitely a big fan of Hyatt properties. Last year, I stayed at the Park Hyatt Milan, Andaz Maui at Wailea and Grand Hyatt Kauai on my trips to Europe and Hawaii in 2013. The credit card will provide two nights at any of them and they were all beautiful properties. This year, I still have the Park Hyatt Vienna and Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires all coming up. The annual fee of $75 is waived the first year. Every year, you also get a certificate good for a free award night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt property.
Chase Fairmont
The Chase Fairmont Visa Signature Credit Card offers two free award nights including breakfast for two at any participating Fairmont property after you make $3,000 in purchases within 90 days. Fairmont is a far smaller chain than any of the ones mentioned above, but they definitely offer a number of high end hotels. A few years ago, I spent one night at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria and was thoroughly impressed. It’s an old-world Edwardian architecture building and I am a big fan of that style. Every year you spend $12,000 on the card, you get another free award night to spend at any Fairmont hotel of your choice. There are no foreign transaction fees and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
What are your favorite hotel credit cards?
I agree the Citi Hilton Reserve is for sure the best hotel card. I got it last year and have received lots of Gold status benefits – breakfast, upgrades, internet, a nice “welcome”. I am going to try for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge next. Great idea on that! Thank you for the post.
Thanks a lot for the post! There are a lot of credit cards and really hard to navigate through it all. I actually used the Barclaycard Arrival for a few hotel stays (thank you for that idea too!), but want to make our next vacation really spectacular. I am thinking of going to Rome and hopefully can stay at the Waldorf… so the Hilton card would be perfect for that.
Great post! I wouldn’t exactly call a Hyatt or Hilton property luxury, I haven’t found one yet that holds a candle to the four seasons!! :-)
I have never given much thought to the citi reserve, but it seems great, my favorite hotel card is the SPG Amex.
Thanks for the post! I found the Citi Hilton Reserve Card through CreditKarma and am going to apply there. Thanks for all the advice you’ve given us!
Excellent review. Looking at getting the Hilton. Does the sign up bonus for the SPG ever increase?
I like the Marriott rewards signature visa. It came with a 70,000 point sign up bonus, first year fee waived, a stay at a category 1-4 just for signing up for the card and a category 1-5 every year you keep the card. pretty sweet deal. We used the free night to stay at a Fairfield Inn at Jacksonville Beach in Florida last weekend and will be using our 70,000 for two nights at the Autograph in Prague. Also got the Hyatt card and will be staying in the Vienna Park Hyatt this Winter on the same trip.
Any thoughts on The Ritz Carlton card? either the 70,000 with the first year fee waived, or the 140,000?
@Joel – it had a 30k point promotion last summer. No guarantee it’ll happen again, but I’d wait till then.
Thanks Chris. I have to wait until mid June anyway for my next round, so I will be on the look out for it.
Amazing blog post and thank you for listing this as I plan to travel soon.
I have a question: now that you have already used almost all of the points and free award night certificates for the stays you had previously these past years, what is your plan to cope with all the cards’ annual fees that are coming up and what will you use for your next free night stays (since you used the points and certificate already)?
Do you cancel the card and apply for the same one and can get the bonus again?
I saw you already answered some questions today but I haven’t get response yet …. I understand maybe you are busy so that you might miss my post.
Appreciate it if you could get back to me on this. Thank you.
Hi, the comments are sorted in backwards order so that’s where I reply first :) As I travel with lots of different people (boyfriend, family, parents), there’s essentially an endless supply of credit cards we can get and we can keep earning points. As an example, I had the Hilton card, but none of my traveling companions have had it – at some point, if we need a high-end Hilton night, whoever I am traveling with will sign up. I also get an additional night every year after spending $10,000 and, since it’s an easy way to have Hilton Gold, I’ll probably keep that card.
The Starwood card, I have had for ten years and keep accumulating points and using them for various stays. I haven’t had Club Carlson yet, but my parents have it and I will likely sign up when I need it. In general, many hotel credit cards do give an annual perk (Gold status, free night, more points) that end up being quite useful when traveling a lot… Regardless, I do usually call and see if the annual fee can be waived. It’s all about the value – if the annual fee cannot be waived and doesn’t bring back its value in perks, then I think it makes sense to cancel the card.
No Marriott credit cards? I assume it is because of the measly annual benefits?
The high-end properties at Marriott take a lot of points to redeem and that card is just not valuable for spending. It provides one point per dollar only so I’d be spending for a loooong time before I’d get a free night.
Agree that the card is not valuable for spending, however you do get a free night every year for the annual fee, just like the Hyatt with category restrictions of course but no additional spend required. IHG is also in that mix with no category restriction and only a $49 annual fee.
thanks for the great post. I am interested In applying the Hilton hhonors reserve card. I would like to use the free hotel nights for hotel in maui, how do I find which hotel is eligible to redeem the offer? thanks
If you go to the regular Hilton website and search for a hotel in Maui and click on Redeem Hilton Points, you’ll see the options. The only Hilton resort in Maui is the Waldorf Astoria. To redeem there, there has to be standard room award availability and it would have to be on a weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).
With 2 reward nights at Hyatt how can you manage so many stays? Or can we apply multiple times?
A lot of those trips are with different people (parents, friends, boyfriend) and they all have their own Hyatt points or credit cards with free nights so, essentially, yes, we do have multiple cards between all of us :) You can also transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt Gold Passport, which is how I redeemed a few of the free nights… but I tend to use the credit card nights for the most expensive ones!
I think that the best credit card for hotels is a Barclays Priceline Rewards Visa. This card is one of the best credit cards around, far better than Barclays Arrival. I’ve got one few years ago, and still gives me 2 points per dollar everywhere, and 5 points for Priceline NYOP. You can redeem your points on anything (not just travel), and if you redeem for Priceline purchase, then the value of the point is between 1.1-1.3 cents each. That means you’re getting at least 2.2 points per dollar (more when you use Priceline NYOP). All my hotels stays are free with this card. And you’re not limited to a specific chain of the hotels. And the prices on Priceline are far better than anywhere else. And there is no annual fee.
Hmmm, but you don’t get any credits towards hotel loyalty status by ordering with Priceline.
Yes, but free hotels are good enough for me.
The second best credit card for hotels is Chase Ink Bold/Plus. It earn 5 points per dollar in Office supply stores, and for phone/internet/cable. You can redeem those points for 5 hotel chains (Hyatt is the best value). It also pays you two points per dollar at the hotels. This is the best credit card ever, not just for the hotels.
I clicked on the CreditKarma link to apply for the Citi Hilton card but didn’t see it on the list. I could find it on Google but want you to get the credit due for the amazing job you do. Let me know what I need to do. Thanks!
Thank you so much! The portal seems to act up sometimes, but clicking on Best Credit Card Deals under the “Credit Card Deals” on the menu item should take you to the same portal and then you can find the hotel credit cards by clicking on Hotel Credit Cards on the menu on the right hand side once on the portal. Let me know if you have any questions :)
I think the Chase IHG Rewards Club MasterCard belongs on the list. Not commonly associated with “luxury”, but with an 80,000 point (Flyertalk) sign up bonus, that’s one-or-two nights at top-tier InterContinental hotels. But the killer bonus is that for a $49 annual fee (after the first year waived fee), you get a free night at any of their hotels worldwide. Plus while IHG Platinum status isn’t as good as other programs’ top elite status, it’s thrown in for free for just holding the card, along with some other miscellaneous benefits. Well worth it in my book.
Hi, just curious. I have the Hilton Reserve, and got my Hilton Gold Membership card. It shows the card expires in 2016. If I can cancel my Hilton Reserve today, will I still have Hilton Gold till 2016?
Thanks.
I don’t know the answer to that, unfortunately, as I haven’t tried. Sorry!
Fairmont card has an often overlooked perk – Premier status and certificates that come with it, especially worthy are 1 Suite Upgrade and 1 Third Night Free per year. The best strategy is to book two paid nights (Virtuoso rate for added perks) and apply third night free certificate, then add two free nights from the card and apply Suite Upgrade on top of this = 5 nights vacation in luxury suite for the price of 2.