How About Hotel Cards?
When you think of travel reward programs, hotels aren’t likely to pop into your mind. Instead, you are most likely to consider a frequent flyer program or other credit card that allows you to trade in your reward points for miles. Because they have been overlooked for so long, hotel reward cards are now working overtime to become more attractive to consumers like you.
The first good news is that annual fees are fast becoming a thing of the past for these cards. A number of cards, such as those for big names like Hilton, Holiday Inn, and Ramada don’t even have them, and Marriott will waives its low thirty dollar fee for the first year. Even annual percentage rates, better known as APR’s, are attractive, with few in the eighteen percent or higher range and many cards offering less than fifteen percent.
Naturally, if your goal is to earn airline miles, hotel cards may well fall short of what airline cards can offer. The average hotel card may only offer forty to sixty percent of the mileage earning rate of an airline card. Of course, if your desired payout isn’t in airline miles, hotel cards may be a better option. If your goal is to earn free hotel stays instead of free flights, then the value of hotel cards increases.
Actually, you may want to think this through. Recently, airline prices seem to be falling while hotel prices keep rising. If you are going to be traveling anywhere for an extended stay, you may very well be spending more money on your hotel room than on your airline flight, right? So a hotel card might well be the better reward card choice. In addition, you typically end up spending more of your vacation, or even your business travel, in your hotel room than on a plane. Perhaps it’s time to rethink the entire focus of your travel rewards program. Wouldn’t it make sense to perhaps cut back on the expense of the flight and indulge yourself on the hotel stay? A hotel rewards card can help you to do just that.
Even better, you may be able to get the best of both worlds. Many airlines and hotel chains are now partnering up for their rewards. This means that a hotel rewards card or the parent company may team up with an airline or a frequent flyer program to actually offer you a travel card plan with the option of earning and redeeming points for either a flight or a hotel stay. As always, the real key to finding out which is the best reward card for you is to research the plans that are available. This is the only way that you will find the one that you are most likely to actually use and benefit from in your life. Your spending and traveling habits are going to be different from someone else’s, so don’t count on the advice of a friend or even a family member to take the place of actually exploring your options.