Best travel credit cards for hotels

08.08.2023 - 18:13 / lonelyplanet.com

This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.

Choosing the right hotel means you can immerse yourself in a destination. Beautiful design, events and tours that bring in local culture and amazing food can make you feel less like a tourist and more like a traveler. The best travel credits for hotels can help get you there faster, with plenty of perks to boot. 

The best travel credit cards provide exclusive benefits and rewards to cardholders, often elevating you to VIP status when traveling. The perk lists range from early check-in and extended to check-out times, complimentary breakfast and free upgrades, and coveted free nights. Your ascent to VIP has never been easier to obtain with the best hotel credit cards, making getaways that much more enjoyable.

You don’t have to pay a high annual fee to get valuable benefits from a hotel credit card. Annual fees range from $0 to $695, with the best cards often falling in the middle of that range and offering plenty of perks to offset their annual fee. The market is saturated with hotel credit cards, so how do you narrow down the best options? If you’re in the market for a hotel credit card and don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered with our hand-picked list. 

While “the best” card is subjective, we’ve narrowed it down based on criteria that include the card’s welcome bonus, recurring benefits, travel protections and elite status perks. All the cards we chose carry no foreign transaction fees, so you can use them abroad without incurring a 3% fee. Beyond that, each card we chose fits a different traveler and brand loyalist type. 

Here’s a look at the best travel credit cards for hotels:

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is hands down the best Hilton credit card – and is arguably the best hotel credit card. The Hilton Aspire is the only hotel credit card offering automatic top-tier elite status, which comes with valuable perks like complimentary food and beverage credit, club lounge access and 100% bonus points on paid stays, to name a few. The card also has a high welcome bonus, which you can swap for up to 30 free nights at Hilton hotels. 

Most importantly, the Aspire Card comes packed with several recurring perks that offset the $450 annual fee: A $250 annual Hilton resort credit, up to a $250 airline fee credit, an annual free night award and Priority Pass Select membership for airport lounge access. The card also earns up to 14 points per dollar on eligible purchases at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio, making it an excellent way to earn Hilton points.

Welcome bonus: 150,000 points after you spend $4000 in the first three months of card