Of course, you could also stretch these points at
a lower tier hotel for several nights.
At
the lower tier hotels, the difference between the loyalty programs remains smaller: a Starwood elite with the co-branded credit card would need to spend $ 2000 to earn a free night at a Category 4 Starwood property, while a Hilton Gold elite with the free American Express card would need to spend $ 1622 in order to earn enough points for a free Category 4 Hilton night.
Hilton HHonors points can be more rewarding at
lower tier hotels.
IHG reward nights start at 10k a night for
lower tier hotels and go up to 50k points per night for their higher end properties.
Those can be used for 2 - 3 nights at most top - tier hotels, and a couple of weeks worth of stays at
lower tier hotels.
Not exact matches
One instance where transferring your Marriott Rewards to Starpoints would give you good valuation is for reward nights at
low -
tier hotels.
-- In this environment, Morgan Stanley's GIC expects housing, mid /
lower tier retail, airlines,
hotels and leisure's to benefit.
Generally, the
hotels on the PointBreaks list are mostly mid - or
low -
tier hotels, but every so often a higher
tier property will make an appearance.
Having reduced points earnings (6 at CC
hotels and 3 everywhere else, vs 10 and 5 with the Premier card), puts the Platinum in a
lower tier from the Premier, thus I would NOT include the Platinum in your «best credit card» list here.
In general, these
hotels are mostly
low or mid-
tier hotels, with some high -
tier properties also making an appearance occasionally.
Redemption rates begin at a very
low 5,000 points for Category 1
hotels, and range up to 30,000 for the top -
tier properties.
This new concept features three
tiers - SureStay
Hotel (premium economy), SureStay PlusSM
Hotel (
lower midscale) and SureStay Signature Collection ℠ (midscale soft brand)- and is expected to grow rapidly in Asia.
Since SPG has fewer categories, it's hard to match them up evenly but, in general, Starwood offers better value at
lower end
hotels and Marriott offers the better value for top
tier properties.
For your average
hotel credit card, you're typically given
lower mid-tier status (2
tiers away from the top elite status).
The good news (if it wasn't good enough yet) is that if the
hotel you're targeting is in a
lower tier, it only gets cheaper and cheaper.
With the ability to spend your way to Marriott Platinum status with the Marriott Rewards credit cards, this is a fairly inexpensive way to not only earn top -
tier hotel status but
low -
tier airline status as well.
That said, there are still many opportunities you can exploit to get excellent returns on economy flights and
lower -
tier hotels.
Pro tip: Use
hotel points for
lower -
tier hotel redemptions in developing countries and other sweet spots, and free night certificates at the most expensive
hotels worldwide to maximize your value.
Award nights at top category
hotels can be expensive, but the redemptions at
low - mid
tier hotels a = offer a great value.
With Starpoints, you can redeem a relatively
low number of points for free nights at some top -
tier hotels.
Our final
low -
tier property is the Hyatt Vineyard Creek
Hotel And Spa in Santa Rosa, CA.
The combined 105,000 points can be redeemed for two nights at a top -
tier Category 9 Marriott
hotel or upwards of 17 nights at
lower category properties.
I selected the
lowest tier in terms of
hotel category, but that yields the most amount of miles.
While some people might not like the fact that
low level Wyndham properties require the same number of points as top -
tier resorts, it actually makes sense: Top -
tier hotels generally offer the best redemption value anyway, while
low - level
hotels tend to have cheap paid rates and are thus better suited for Arrival Mile redemptions.
In some cities, these
low -
tier hotels may be in short supply.
Some
hotels will be going down to a
lower award
tier.