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Hotels don’t have the same concept of alliances that airlines do, but they do have different brands within a program. For example: Sheraton is a part of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. When you stay at a Sheraton, you earn Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points that can be redeemed at a Sheraton or any of the other eight brands that fall under the Starwood umbrella, such as Westin, Le Meridien, or St. Regis.

With hotels, you don’t need to stay loyal to a specific brand within the program. Points earned at the Westin are deposited into the same account as the ones earned at the Sheraton, but if you want to accrue free nights with a program, you do need to stay loyal to it. Spending a night at a Courtyard Marriott will earn you points within Marriott Rewards, but not within SPG.

Just like airlines, you need to find the program that works for you. If you travel for work, its about the availability of properties in the cities you’re traveling to. In the U.S., Marriott and Hilton can be found just about everywhere and are often the two most popular programs with business travelers because of their availability. Other large programs in the U.S. are Starwood, Hyatt, IHG (Holiday Inn), Club Carlson (Radisson) and Best Western. Again, it is about finding properties that meet your requirements and working to be loyal within the program to rack up the free nights.

Two features that make hotel program points especially valuable are:

1. The ability to transfer points to a spouse/significant other – Not every program has this feature (we’re looking at you Hilton)
2. The ability to transfer points to various airline programs. Example: You can convert Marriott points to United Miles. It is not a 1:1 transfer, however this does provide added flexibility within a program.

The easiest way to earn free hotel nights is with co-branded credit cards from each of the programs, where you’ll typically get anywhere from 2-10 free nights just from the signup bonus. The cards below are ones I either currently hold, have held or plan to hold in the near future. Even though I love Starwood, they don’t have properties everywhere and I don’t like paying for hotel rooms. I will, however, go out of my way at times to stay loyal (maximize my points), but if the price isn’t right or there just isn’t a property, I need other options.  Here are the cards and how I used (or didn’t use) the bonuses associated with them:

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express & Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express: SPG is my primary program. With my wife and I getting these cards and SPG’s flexibility to allow you to combine points between accounts at the same address, this makes for a great way to build up our balance.

Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card & Club Carlson Rewards Visa Business Card: I was initially declined for the Club Carlson personal card, but 9 months later got an instant approval. This is my backup program, but I do not by any means stay enough nights to earn elite status. Enter the credit card and instant gold status. Gold isn’t anything extraordinary (free upgrades/bonus points), but it beats nothing. Best of all, with this card in your arsenal, you’ll get two nights for the price of one award night — love this benefit!

Hilton Honors Card from American Express: The reason I like this card is it is a no-fee American Express card that comes with a decent sign-up bonus, and at times you are offered upgrade options to the Surpass card, which comes with additional points and benefits. We used our sign up 40,000 points to book two random nights for friends who needed them.

Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express: I haven’t gotten this card yet, but am holding out for a decent upgrade offer, at which time I’ll take the points happily and upgrade.

IHG Rewards (Priority Club) card from Chase: Got this card with an 80,000 point signup bonus and used the points for a room in Italy on a one-day stop to see the Vatican. Instead of paying $550 per night for the room, we used these points happily. I keep this card and pay it’s annual $49 fee because it offers one free night annually at any IHG property (including Intercontinental).

Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card: Got this card for both my wife and I solely with the intention of using the points at the Ritz in Hong Kong for one night on our way to Thailand. Sara transferred points to my account and we had a great one-night stay here. It was a complete splurge to stay at the hotel with the highest pool and bar in the world.

Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Card: Frankly, this is one card I should not have gotten. This was my mistake card … keep reading. Anyone that has been in this game for a while will note one card missing from this list: The Hyatt Rewards card from Chase. These two cards award free nights. Hyatt offers two free nights at any property and the Hilton card offers two free weekend nights at any property (with a few exceptions), along with quite the signup bonus and elevated elite status. They’re both very good cards for their benefits; don’t get me wrong. But, I’d caution you: before you plan on getting either of these cards to make sure you have an idea on how you plan on using them. I burned two nights for a guys’ weekend in New York (worked out okay, but I could have just as easily stayed with SPG and gotten a decent rate) and for Sara, we threw the free weekend nights with the Citi Reserve away. They expired before we used them.

	Citi® Hilton Honors™ Reserve Card Add to Favorites	$95 first year $95 after first year	2 weekend night certificates After $2,500 in purchases within 4 months of account opening Read Review »
Already have this card? Track it and maximize your rewards.

	Citi® Hilton Honors™ Reserve Card
Apply Now Add to Favorites
Sign Up Bonus $95 first year $95 after first year 2 weekend night certificates After $2,500 in purchases within 4 months of account opening Annual Fee Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
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When points/loyalty programs don’t work out, I turn to Priceline and Hotwire and have honestly never had a bad experience. Just keep in mind their rates are prepaid! One important thing to note about hotels is that you’re typically only going to earn points and get credit towards elite status if you book through the hotel program website. While there are exceptions, in general if you book a prepaid rate through a site like Orbitz, Hotwire or Priceline you shouldn’t expect to get any special benefits, though some properties do extend benefits.

The only mistake you can really make with a hotel (or really any loyalty program) is to simply not sign-up and let those points go unclaimed.

Next up: Program Partnerships

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More Rookie Guide:

1. Introduction and Background
2. Set Your Goals
3. Points, Miles and Credits
   1. Airline Miles
   2. Hotel Points
   3. Rental Cars
   4. Bank Rewards
   5. Vouchers and Credits
4. How Your Good Credit Can Help You Travel for Free
   1. Myths and Facts
   2. Monitoring Your Credit Scores
   3. Maximizing Your Benefits With Credit Cards
   4. 2X, 3X, 5X Category Bonuses
5. Airline and Airline Alliances
6. Hotels and Their Programs
7. Program Partnerships
8. Saving with Consolidators
   1. Priceline
   2. Hotwire
   3. Expedia Express & Others
9. Double and Triple Your Bonuses With Online Shopping Portals
10. Earning Without Even Thinking About It
    1. Rewards Network Dining
    2. Plink and Others
11. Keeping Track of All Those Points and Miles
    1. AwardWallet
    2. FTG Wallet
    3. Spreadsheets Galore
12. Review Your Goals