Ultimate Guide to Booking Hotel Brands with Points

Discover how to book hotels using loyalty points with this comprehensive guide. Maximize your savings and enjoy a hassle-free experience.

While booking that business or first class flight on points is nice, we can’t forget about where we’ll be resting our little heads. Being able to book that luxury hotel while away from home can elevate the trip so much more.

So the 8 hotel brands I’ll be covering are

• Hyatt

• IHG

• Marriott Bonvoy

• Hilton

• Choice

• Best Western

• Wyndham

• All Accord Live Limitless

If you ask anyone they’ll probably have a different hotel brand they prefer. Mine is Hyatt, although they don’t have the largest footprint worldwide and just lost the SLH partnership they still provide great value compared to paid rates given that they have a fixed award chart. Best Western and Wyndham also benefit from this.

• n Honors: 5,000 to 150,000 points typically for standard reward night but with fully dynamic pricing I’ve seen some nights over 1M (Conrad Bora Bora)

• Choice Privileges: 6,000 to 35,000 points with a published award rates chart based on the night of the week

• Best Western Rewards: 5,000 to 70,000 points based on property and location

• Wyndham Rewards: 7,500 to 30,000 points based on hotel category

• All Accord Live Limitless: Points are worth a flat 2.2 cents so the more the hotel cost the more points

Along with points needed for each stay, we also need to consider each hotel brands transfer partners. While all the hotel brands transfer to airlines, some are noteworthy like Hyatt being the only one able to transfer to AA. Although its 5k World of Hyatt points to 2k American Airline points its something worth considering.

While I really never consider Wyndham properties they do have a partnership with Vacasa an Airbnb competitor. For 15K per room per night you can use your Wyndham points to book a stay. Just be careful that you’re getting at least 1.1 cents per point worth of value. Try focusing on 1 bedroom or studio properties you can book for that 15k since extra bedrooms can add up quick.

Last thing before I let you go. I saved the most complex for last. Depending on the credit card, you may be able to transfer those credit card points over to specific hotel loyalty programs. Being able to do this unlocks the number of hotel programs you’ll have access to. That’s why it is so important to prioritize getting credit cards with multiple transfer partners versus getting a co branded card and having all your points stuck with one airline or hotel program.

Here is a quick look into which credit card issuers transfer to which hotel loyalty program along with the points transfer ratio.

• American Express Membership Rewards: Marriott Bonvoy (1:1), Hilton Honors (1:2), Choice Privileges (1:1)

• Chase Ultimate Rewards: World of Hyatt (1:1), IHG One Rewards (1:1), Marriott Bonvoy(1:1)

• Citi ThankYou Rewards: Choice Privileges (1:2), Wyndham Rewards (1:1), All Accord Live Limitless (2:1)

• Capital One Miles: Choice Privileges (1:1), Wyndham Rewards (1:1), All Accord Live Limitless (2:1)

• Bilt Rewards: World of Hyatt (1:1), IHG One Rewards (1:1), Marriott Bonvoy(1:1)

For example, one of my favorite things to do is transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points over to Hyatt so 5,000 Chase points would transfer over to 5,000 World of Hyatt Points. Conversely 5,000 American Express membership Rewards points could be transferred over to 10,000 Hilton Honors points.