Which Hotel Program Is Best For Leisure Travelers?

Picking a hotel loyalty program is very much a personal decision, as there’s not a “one size fits all” answer as to which program is best. Everyone is looking for different things from a hotel group.

In this post I wanted to compare some of the major hotel loyalty programs. While there won’t be “winners” and “losers” here, I wanted to share pros and cons of the big programs, so that people can hopefully take those points into consideration to decide what makes most sense for them.

What makes a hotel loyalty program good for leisure travelers?

I thought it would be interesting to look at hotel loyalty programs from the perspective of a leisure traveler. Why? Well, business travelers might not have to work hard at all to rack up elite nights, and for that matter their hotel stay decisions may be driven by corporate contracts, where they need to stay for work, etc.

It’s a bit of a different story for leisure travelers. Here are some of the things that I think make a hotel loyalty program good for non-business travelers:

• Easy to earn status — leisure travelers have to earn elite status on their own dime, so it’s worth considering the amount of effort that it takes to earn status
• Free breakfast — while business travelers typically have an expense account, leisure travelers generally appreciate perks like free breakfast, since it can save you significant money
• Guaranteed elite perks — while perks that are “subject to availability” are better than nothing, there’s something really nice about being able to secure the perks that matter most to you in advance of your stay
• A big global footprint — being loyal to a hotel group is hard, so the bigger the hotel group, the easier it is to stay loyal

Pros & cons of major hotel loyalty programs

Let me share what I consider to be the pros & cons of the major hotel loyalty programs. I don’t think there’s a single program that’s best for everyone, but hopefully this is a good starting place for people to decide which program makes the most sense for them.

I’ll be focusing on Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt, which are the biggest hotel loyalty programs in the United States that have co-branded credit cards, lots of aspirational properties, etc.

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors is the best program for earning status…