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If you’re thinking about opening a hotel credit card, the first step is to analyze your travel goals.
Are you a road-tripper who wants to book cheap hotels along the highway? Do you mostly use small-town hotels during trips to grandma’s for Thanksgiving? Do you want a five-star vacation in the Maldives? The way you answer these questions will help you find the best hotel card for you.
It’s also important to consider the card’s welcome bonus offer, recurring benefits, ease of earning free nights via credit card spending, category bonuses, and elite status perks (if any). With that in mind, here are the best hotel credit cards.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Best travel card overall: Chase Sapphire Preferred
Best travel coverage: Chase Sapphire Reserve
Best for luxury hotel perks: Amex Platinum
Best if you’re not loyal to a hotel chain: Capital One Venture X
Best for Hotels.com: Hotels.com Credit Card
Best for Hilton stays: Hilton Aspire Card
Best for IHG stays: IHG Premier Card
Best for Hyatt stays: World of Hyatt Credit Card
Best for Marriott stays: Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
Best for Wyndham stays: Wyndham Earner Plus Card
Compare the best hotel credit cards
Chase Sapphire Preferred card
If you’re loyal to a specific hotel brand, having a co-branded card makes a lot of sense, as it can get you complimentary elite status, bonus points, and other perks when you stay with that chain. (You’ll see our top card picks for each hotel brand further down in this guide).
But if you care less about brand loyalty and more about earning as many points as possible, a general travel rewards credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred could make more sense. This card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points (with 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards and 2x points on all other travel purchases, including hotels), which you can redeem for travel bookings through the Chase Travel Portal or transfer to partners including Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG to book).
The Chase Sapphire Preferred also offers excellent travel insurance, so it’s a good card to use for hotel bookings and airfare.
Recent updates to the Chase Sapphire Preferred include the addition of up to $50 per year in statement credits for hotels booked through Chase. If you maximize this credit, you can shave off more than half of the card’s Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card annual fee.
Read Insider’s guide to points and miles valuations to find out what your credit card rewards, hotel points, and airline miles are worth.
Read more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred:
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Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is the higher-end sibling of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, with many of the same benefits except higher earning rates (5x total points on air travel and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, after earning the $300 travel credit, and 3x points on other travel and dining) and even better travel coverage.
It includes everything from trip cancellation and trip delay insurance to primary car rental insurance. Unlike the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Chase Sapphire Reserve includes emergency evacuation insurance. In exchange for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® annual fee, you get up to a $300 annual travel credit, Priority Pass airport lounge membership, and more.
Read more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve:
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Amex Platinum card
Platinum Card® from American Express is a great card for booking hotel stays for several reasons. First, it offers complimentary Gold elite status with both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy**. This can get you room upgrades and bonus points on your paid stays — and Gold status with Hilton even gets you free breakfast (currently offered as a food and beverage credit at US hotels.).
Plus, if you have the Platinum Card you can access Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts — a collection of luxury properties booked through Amex that offer benefits like complimentary upgrades, free breakfast, and property credits. The Amex Platinum has a $550 annual fee, but it easily can be worth it thanks to benefits like this.
The recent increase in the Platinum Card’s annual fee brought a number of new benefits, including up to $200 per calendar year in credits toward prepaid Fine Hotels and Resorts and Hotel Collection bookings (minimum two-night stay).
Read more about the Amex Platinum:
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Capital One Venture X
Travelers who aren’t fussy about staying at the same hotel chain every time or don’t care about earning hotel points for stays should have a close look at the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. It’s a premium card with a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual fee, but it comes with benefits that more than justify its cost.
Most notably, the card offers up to $300 in statement credits each year toward hotels, airfare, and car rentals booked through the Capital One Travel Portal. That alone negates most of the annual fee, but there’s also a 10,000-mile bonus each card anniversary (worth at least $100 in travel) that essentially offsets the rest.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card starts off strong with a welcome bonus of Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. You can redeem Capital One miles toward travel purchases made on your card (including hotels) at a rate of 1 cent apiece, making this bonus worth Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card in stays.
Alternately, you can book hotels with miles through the Capital One Travel portal at the same rate, or pay with your card and earn 10x miles on hotel purchases. Capital One also has three hotel transfer partners — Wyndham, Choice Hotels, and Accor Live Limitless — and by transferring miles to one of these chains, you can potentially get even more value for your rewards.
This card also offers excellent travel and purchase protections, Priority Pass and Capital One airport lounge access, and a credit toward the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee.
Read more about the Capital One Venture X:
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Hotels.com Rewards card
Hotels.com is a third-party online travel site that allows you to book over 500,000 hotels, apartments, and vacation rentals around the world, often at a discount. It’s got its own loyalty program with a simple rewards structure — members earn one reward night for every 10 nights they stay.
If you book a lot of Hotels.com stays, it’s worth considering the Hotels.com Rewards Visa®️ Credit Card. It currently has a welcome offer of Hotels.com Rewards Visa®️ Credit Card. Cardholders collect 1 stamp each time they spend $500 on card purchases, with 10 stamps equal to one reward night.
The Hotels.com Rewards Visa®️ Credit Card comes with decent benefits for a no-annual-fee card, including Hotels.com Silver status for as long as your card is open, cell phone protection, secondary car rental insurance, trip interruption and cancellation insurance, and travel accident insurance.
Read more about the Hotels.com credit card:
Hilton Aspire card
The Hilton Honors Aspire Card is hands-down the best co-branded hotel credit card out there. For starters, with the welcome bonus offer (Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card), you can book upwards of 30 free nights, depending on the hotel category. The card also comes with top-tier Hilton Diamond status, which gets you free breakfast (currently awarded as a food and beverage credit), lounge access, and a 100% bonus on points earned via paid stays.
The Hilton Honors Aspire Card also offers a free weekend night reward when you renew your card at your account anniversary, plus an extra free night when you spend $60,000 in a calendar year. Travelers will appreciate up to $250 in annual Hilton resort statement credits, up to $250 in annual airline incidental credits**, and Priority Pass Select membership**.
If you don’t stay at Hilton properties frequently enough to justify this card’s Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card annual fee, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, with a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card annual fee, is a better option. It earns 12x points on eligible Hilton purchases (compared to 14x on the Aspire), and like the Aspire it offers a high welcome bonus.
You can stack the Aspire’s $250 resort credit with the annual weekend night reward at Hilton Resorts to save even more on a luxury stay.
Read more about the Hilton Aspire Card:
Amex Hilton Aspire card reviewI opened a second Amex Hilton credit card even though I already have the premium Hilton Aspire — here’s why I’ll keep both for the long termI just booked a stay worth $4,400 at the luxe Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach resort, and thanks to my Hilton credit card it will be completely free
IHG Premier card
The IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card is one of the best hotel cards in terms of value. It’s currently offering a welcome bonus of IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card.
In exchange for an annual fee of $89, waived the first year, cardholders get complimentary IHG Platinum elite status, a fourth night free on award bookings of three or more nights, and a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS application fee credit of up to $100 every four years. Additionally, cardholders earn a reward night every year, which you can use at any IHG hotel worldwide that costs up to 40,000 points per night.
IHG points are worth, on average, 0.7 cents each based on Insider’s points and miles valuations. You can find out more about how to maximize your rewards in our guide to earning and redeeming IHG points.
The IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card (and its no-annual-fee sibling, the IHG® Rewards Club Traveler Credit Card) recently received a makeover, including new bonus categories and improved benefits.
Read more about the IHG Premier Card:
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World of Hyatt card
The World Of Hyatt Credit Card comes with free Discoverist status, which offers benefits like premium internet and 10% bonus points on paid stays. Cardholders aiming for higher status will appreciate the five qualifying night credits issued every year and the ability to earn two additional credits per $5,000 spent on the card.
Cardholders also receive a free night certificate on their account anniversary every year, valid at Hyatt Category 1 to 4 hotels. You can also earn a second free night after you spend $15,000 or more on purchases in a calendar year.
Of all the hotel programs Insider evaluated, World of Hyatt came out on top with an average per-point value of 1.5 cents. You can read more about our methodology to see how determined our points and miles valuations.
Chase recently launched a Hyatt card for small-business owners, too. The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card offers more perks but charges a higher annual fee — you can find out more in our World of Hyatt Business card review.
Read more:
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Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card includes solid perks for a mid-tier hotel credit card, including a free night each year after your cardmember anniversary at Marriott Bonvoy hotels that cost up to 35,000 points per night. Marriott recently added the ability to “top-off” these certificates with up to 15,000 Marriott points — giving you the freedom to use your anniversary Free Night Awards for hotel nights that cost up to 50,000 points.
Another reason to consider it? It’s currently offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Insider estimates Marriott points to be worth 0.7 cents — making this bonus worth up to Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card in travel.
Marriott Bonvoy points aren’t just good for booking free hotel stays — you can also transfer them to over 40 airline partners to book award flights.
Read more about the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless:
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card reviewChanges to the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card make it easier to earn points and elite status, with no increase in annual fee
Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card
The Wyndham Rewards® Earner Plus Card offers good benefits, including Platinum elite status, which comes with benefits like upgrades on Avis car rentals, early check-in, and a status match to the Caesars Rewards program. Each year after your account anniversary, you’ll also receive 7,500 bonus points (with no spending requirement). The annual fee is a moderate Wyndham Rewards® Earner Plus Card.
It earns a solid 6 Wyndham points per dollar on eligible Wyndham purchases and at gas stations, 4 points per dollar at Wyndham Timeshare properties and at restaurants and grocery stores (excluding Target and Walmart), and 1 point per dollar on everything else (excluding Wyndham Timeshare resorts down payments). You’ll also get discounts on both paid and points bookings with Wyndham hotels.
Wyndham is a transfer partner of both Citi ThankYou Rewards and Capital One, so if you need more points for an award stay, you can transfer miles from cards like the Citi Premier® Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, or Capital One Spark Miles for Business to top-off your account.
Read more about the Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus:
Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card review
How we chose the best hotel credit cards
Personal Finance Insider analyzed dozens of hotel cards, looking at benefits, annual fees, rewards, and ancillary benefits to arrive at our final list of the very best options.
Many hotel brands offer various “tiers” of credit cards. For example, in addition to the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card with a Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card annual fee, there’s the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card, which has a Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card annual fee and includes an annual statement credit for Marriott stays.
When more than one personal credit card was available from a top hotel chain, we chose the card that offers the most value to an average guest, not someone who travels every weekend.
Additionally, some hotel credit cards offer a free night after each account anniversary or for meeting spending thresholds. These nights can be worth much more than the cards’ annual fees, and make them worth keeping year after year.
If you’re interested in rewards credit cards that offer travel benefits that extend beyond hotel perks, check out Insider’s list of the best travel credit cards.
For instance, we chose the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card as the best credit card for Marriott stays, because it balances a moderate annual fee with a few valuable perks and a great welcome bonus offer. The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card has more perks to justify its annual fee, but it’s harder to recommend to everybody — especially since it only offers complimentary mid-tier Gold status with Marriott.
On the other hand, we named the Hilton Honors Aspire Card, with a Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card annual fee, the best card for Hilton stays, because it comes with several statement credits that can effectively reduce the fee — and it offers the highest level of Hilton elite status as a complimentary benefit to cardholders.
Hotel credit cards frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Are hotel credit cards worth it?
If you have a good credit score and pay your credit card bills off each month, it makes sense to get a rewards credit card that earns you points on your purchases — including hotel stays.
How do I find the right hotel rewards credit card for me?
You’ll have to decide whether you stay with a particular hotel chain frequently enough to opt for a co-branded hotel credit card (such as an IHG card). If you want to earn travel points and enjoy some benefits on your hotel stay but you don’t stay in hotels very often, you’re probably better off with a general travel rewards card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Platinum Card® from American Express.