Stay With Points

Unlock Luxury for Less: How to Book Hotel Stays with Transferable Points and Miles

Booking hotels with transferable points has become more challenging to find good value. In most instances, having a few of your favorite hotel chain's co-branded cards is better. Here are some of our favorites: Marriott Bonvey Boundless Card, Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card, World of Hyatt Credit Card.

Most transferable points, such as Chase or Amex, should be worth at least 1.75 cents per point. Redeeming your transferable points with any hotel chain usually doesn't make sense because the average hotel redemption rate is .53 cents per point. The exception is transferring your points to Hyatt from Chase Ultimate Rewards or BILT Rewards. Hyatt points, on average, are worth 1.7 cents per point.

You can also book directly through Chase’s travel portal, which will get you 1.25 cents per point on any hotel you choose if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred credit cards. Having the Chase Sapphire Reserve card will increase your cents per point to 1.5 for all bookings.

Sometimes booking hotel stays with your card instead of points makes sense. Cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Capital One Venture X card will offer 10x points on all hotel bookings through their portals. Always compare the price on the portals to the cost on the hotel's website before purchasing. If the hotel's website has lower pricing and you have that hotel's co-branded card, booking it on that card could make more sense than using points.