Our favorite Hotel rewards credit card

Ocean City, MD  sunrise

We have signed up for a few Hotel Rewards credit card in the past:
1. Citi Hilton Reserve personal credit card
2. Two Chase IHG personal credit cards
3.  American Express SPG personal credit card
4. Two Chase Marriott Personal credit cards
5. Chase Marriott Business credit card

This post is going to discuss our experience with the Chase IHG credit card.  Some people might not like Holiday Inns but we love them.  They are very kid friendly.  We both signed up for the Chase IHG credit card - Kim in 2013 and myself in 2015.  We signed up for this card because we stay at a Holiday Inn & Suites every summer in Ocean City, MD.

OC Holiday Inn Pool 

This card comes with an awesome sign up bonus and a free night each year starting with you first anniversary of card opening.  This free night and the bonus points can be used at any IHG brand property, not just Holiday Inn.

This free night can be worth big money.  Here are some of the awesome properties around the world where the free night can be utilized:

INTERCONTINENTAL BORA BORA RESORT THALASSO SPA:

INTERCONTINENTAL LOS ANGELES CENTURY CITY

Crowne Plaza South Beach - Z Ocean Hotel

InterContinental Presidente Cancun Resort

Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan

Holiday Inn Club Vacations At Orange Lake Resort

INTERCONTINENTAL SAN FRANCISCO

Here are some other perks of the card:

• 80,000 bonus points
• after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.
• $0 intro annual fee for the first year, after that $49
• Earn 5,000 bonus points after you add your first authorized user and make your first purchase in the first three months from account opening.*
• This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.
• Earn 5 points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG® hotels.
• Earn 2 points per $1 spent on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants.*
• Earn 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.*
• As an IHG® Rewards Club credit card member, you qualify for an upgrade to IHG® Rewards Club Platinum Elite status for as long as you remain a Select card member, and as long as your IHG® Rewards Club membership remains in good standing.*
• 10% rebate on IHG® Rewards Club point redemptions
• For example, if you redeem 30,000 points, you will receive 3,000 back! Up to 100,000 points back each year.*

IHG Points are also cheap to buy in my opinion.  Every so often IHG offers 100% bonus on points purchased.  We have bought points for .575 cents or 10,000 points = $57.50.  For example our Ocean City hotel takes 40,000 points to get a free night.  The cash rate for this room is $480/night.  If I were to buy buy 40,000 points for .575 cents/point our room would now only cost $230 per night.  That is a savings of $250 per night.  

The 80,000 bonus points can be turned into great value.  IHG has 3 all inclusive resorts - one in Jamaica and two in Mexico.  For example the Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay costs 35,000 points per night.  Plus 2 kids under 12 are free in each room!!

The Holiday Inn Resort Los Cabos is also 35,000 points per night

This card would get you two free nights at each of these hotels just for meeting the minimum spending requirements.

IHG rewards reservations also have good cancellation terms.  Most rewards reservations can be canceled for no penalty up to 24 hours before your stay.  If canceled the reward night or points will be posted back to your account.  You do need to use your reward night within 12 months of issuance.  

My advice when signing up for hotel credit cards is to have a trip in mind before applying.  You want to make sure you will get good value out of the sign up:
 - We knew we would instantly save money getting these IHG cards because we planned on going to Ocean City.
-  We signed up for the Hilton credit card because we knew we were going to Fort Lauderdale and we could use the free nights to get an oceanfront room.
-  We signed up for the SPG card because it could get us a few free nights at the Disney Swan hotel in Orlando which included Disney Transportation services.

We definitely recommend looking into Hotel Reward credit cards.  Remember other travel rewards credit cards can also be used to get free hotel nights.  See this post.  Where would you use your free nights?

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