Planning and being prepared is the key to getting the most out of any day, month or year, because in order to maintain our lifestyle we seem to do more today than we did yesterday. So if we miss out on planning ahead the important thing in our life’s we are literally miss out on some opportunities. We all need to travel every year whether is for business, special occasions or for vacations, we all find ourselves in the need to spend some nights at a hotel. The idea is that if we plan ahead and we find a good hotel credit card offer that really works for us we can save up for those occasions simply by using our hotel credit cards. Depending on your taste in specifics brands of hotels; the hotel credit cards reward program can actually help you as the cardholder get more vacation this year.
Before going out shopping for a hotel credit card there are some useful information’s about the hotel credit card that you as the future hotel credit card holder should be aware of. First of all as you might have suspected the hotels credit card are connected to major chains of hotels and every hotel chain has different rules about the reward points. For example you can earn from one point up to ten points per dollar spent, this is very important to know before you start planning what to save up for. When choosing a hotel credit card reward program you should take your time and do your home work on the offers available to you and the same time be sure of what your needs are. Once you are aware of your preferences you can decide on a specific region or maybe two and this makes it allot easier to decide on your hotel credit card program. Manny people are focusing so much on the free stay that they dream of all year that they never thought to find out how many points they really need in order to earn that free stay and if they can actually earn that many points in that period of time.
At the moment there are many great offers that you can take advantage of still the secret of getting and using a hotel credit card is that you need to be loyal to only one because you get more from sticking with one program than you can ever get if you keep switching between the many offers available. This idea is easier to apply if your are planning a vacation but not so easy for a small business that require there employs to travel and spend the night at the hotel because they cannot always decide where they are going to be sent. Still there are some hotel credit cards programs that can allow the cardholder to redeem his points at any hotel in the world; of course every program has his own price. Most of the best reward programs for hotel credit cards now have great partnerships with hotels chains and airlines so that the cardholder can redeem the points in whatever way he sees best.
The points can be redeemed for miles for flights, or hotel stays and meals. There is also the option for the cardholder to turn his reward miles into reward points that can then use for other purposes. If you earned a big number of points but still don’t have enough to redeem your hotel free stay you have the option of combining the points with cash to get the desired hotel free stay, free plane ticket or a specific discount.
The hotels at which we aim to redeem our points into a free stay have some policies that the cardholder must be aware off. First of all every hotel chain has a policy in which they specify the number of available rooms to be redeem with reward points. Manny people don’t know about this policy and focus so much on reaching the necessary number of reward points and postpone the booking of the room at the hotel and when they actually get around to do the reservation they realize that there are no more rooms available that they can reserve with reward points. So be wise and be sure to check this policy ahead of time and make your reservation so that you don’t miss out on your free hotel stay.
Another policy that the cardholder should be aware of is the blackout policies. Basically through this policies the hotel chains specify certain period of times in the busy season when no rooms are available to be reserved with reward points. This problem was very common in the past but lately most of the big hotel chains have tried to eradicate the blackout policies, still it is something that should be checked in advance. Here are a few popular choices of hotel credit cards available:
Hilton HHonors Platinum Credit Card from American Express: 6 HHonors points per dollar at Hilton Family hotels and 3 HHonors points elsewhere, introductory APR: 2.9% for 6 months, no annual fee
La Quinta Visa Rewards Card: 5 points per dollar at La Quinta Inns & Suites and 1 point per dollar elsewhere, introductory APR: 0% for 6 billing cycles, no annual fee
Best Western Platinum MasterCard:10 points per $3 at Best Western locations and 10 points per $5 elsewhere, no introductory APR, no annual fee
Marriott Rewards Visa Signature Card: 3 points per dollar at Marriott hotels and 1 dollar elsewhere, introductory APR: 0% for the first 6 billing cycles, annual fee free the first year and then $30
Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express: 2 points per dollar spent at Starwood hotels and 1 point elsewhere, introductory APR: 2.9% for 6 months, annual fee free the first year and then $45
Priority Club Rewards Visa Signature Card:3 points per dollar at InterContinental Hotels and 1 point per dollar elsewhere, no introductory APR, annual fee free the first year and then $29
The Hotel credit cards usually come with an annual fee and a higher interest rate and it is very important to make sure that you are aware of this information because at the end of the year you do not want to be surprised with bills that make you wander if you saved up at all. Still if you remain faithful to a hotel credit card program you will be surprise how fast the points keep adding up and your vacation looks that much more attractive.
