Co-Branded Hotel Cards - Katie's Travel Tricks

How to Book Lodging with Points

Co-Branded Hotel Cards

Many of the large hotel chains have partnered with banks to offer hotel credit cards.

For some loyalty programs (like IHG One Rewards), opening a co-branded hotel card is the fastest way to earn a lot of points for free hotel nights. For other programs (such as Hyatt), opening a flexible rewards card (Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card) and transferring the points to the hotel chain will earn you even more free hotel nights. Co-branded cards have some great hotel-specific benefits.

Hotel card benefits

Earn points faster

If you want to stay at a Hilton, IHG, or Marriott hotel, you'll earn points much more quickly by signing up for the co-branded card than transferring from a flexible rewards card.

Annual free night certificates

One of our favorites is the annual free night you earn by holding the card. This night isn't truly free since you are paying an annual fee. But we like to think of it like a discounted, pre-paid vacation. With The World of Hyatt Credit Card, we typically stay one night in Chicago with our free night certificate at a hotel that costs $300 per night!

Faster path to elite status

You also can earn instant hotel status which could qualify you for upgrades to larger rooms with some cards.

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