Best hotel credit cards of January 2026: Free nights and more

It’s free to sign up for hotel programs, so the first step is to sign up. As both a loyalty member and co-branded cardholder, you’ll earn extra points on top of your card’s rewards rate and have access to elite status perks if you qualify. 

Just because a hotel card has a high rewards rate doesn’t mean you are getting outstanding value. Many hotel programs hover under 1 cent per dollar in value. For example, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass earns 6X points at U.S. supermarkets, while an American Express Gold card earns 4X points. However, according to our valuations, Hilton points are worth roughly 0.6 cents each, while Membership Rewards points from the Amex Gold are worth around 2.0 cents each. So while the Gold has a lower rate, it offers much higher value.

To give you a better idea of the value of various hotel rewards, here's a list of loyalty programs and their point values, according to Bankrate's valuations:

While not always ideal for everyday spending, co-branded cards really shine when you are staying with the brand. For example, the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card earns 14X points for Hilton stays, which stacks with an extra 20X points from base earnings and the bonus earnings from the card’s automatic Diamond status for up to a whopping 34X points per dollar spent at Hilton properties. Take a close look at your points values and redemption opportunities so you can better understand where you can get the most value. 

Complimentary or fast-track to elite status with a hotel loyalty program is a valuable feature available on several hotel rewards cards. Kickstarting your elite status journey could give you a boost toward incredibly valuable perks like improved rewards rates, exclusive upgrade privileges, extra award nights or other on-property discounts.

Qualifying for elite loyalty status usually centers around frequent card use, but many cards carry automatic status or provide bonus elite nights for hitting certain milestones. Here’s a list of popular cards that offer complimentary elite status to cardholders or provide enough automatic elite night credits to qualify for elite status, along with the annual fees and Bankrate's estimated point values for each program:

You usually receive extra value by booking your room through the hotel’s website or an issuer’s travel portal. Booking through third-party sites may not qualify for the expected rewards rate or count toward elite status qualification. Also, hotel bookings through travel portals will make you ineligible for any elite status benefits you have, although they may have other special offers you can utilize for your trip.

Many issuers offer the highest rewards rates for hotel bookings when you use their travel portal. To see which makes sense for your trip, compare the costs and rewards earned when you book via the portal against those of booking directly. Be sure to factor in the value of elite benefits that might not be applied to your trip.

Award pricing may change often, especially for hotels with dynamic pricing. You should check the price of your stays throughout the year since you can easily rebook and save points when the prices drop. You might also consider setting up alerts with sites that specialize in monitoring hotel prices and award availability, so you can act quickly when prices change.

Most hotel credit card issuers recommend applicants have a good to excellent credit score, or a FICO score above 670.

Hotel rewards points don't usually expire if your account is open, active and in good standing, although terms and conditions vary by program. The reason for expired points is often the consumer, not the company.

Here's a chart with rewards expiration policies for several popular hotel loyalty programs

Keep in mind that "qualifying activity" is pretty broad. While the exact terms vary by program, usually any sort of account activity will keep your account active — including earning, redeeming and transferring points.

Reimbursement for canceling a hotel reservation depends largely on:

• The hotel chain
• Which card you booked with (or if you booked with rewards)
• The advance notice you're giving before cancellation
• The circumstances of your cancellation

It may be difficult to get your money back if you cancel your accommodations at the last moment simply because you changed your mind. However, should you need to cancel your trip due to circumstances beyond your control, you may have a better chance of being reimbursed if your hotel card offers trip cancellation or interruption insurance. Always review the cancellation guidelines at the time of booking.

Several reward programs (like Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, and IHG One Rewards) allow you to transfer points to partner airlines or redeem for travel, gift cards and merchandise, but you often lose a lot of value by doing so. One of the only exceptions where you may get outsized value would be transferring 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. You’ll get a 5,000-mile bonus for a total of 25,000 miles with your selected airline. Marriott Bonvoy has several airline partners that no other flexible rewards program has as a transfer partner, which may open some new travel prospects for you.  

If you prefer vacation rentals over hotels, a general travel credit card with a solid bonus on travel purchases is likely your best option. Either of the One Key cards may also be suitable for you.

The primary criteria for a rewards-earning card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits. In other words, we assess whether the card earns rewards at a high rate in the most popular spending categories. 

We use consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to get a reliable third-party measure of people’s spending habits. The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2023 was $77,280 per consumer. From here, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). After subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases, education and healthcare, we get a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $6,000
• Dining out: $3,900
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,400
• Apparel and services: $2,000

Using this data, we are able to assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 26 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. 

We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various [issuer, airline and hotel] rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

Here’s a deeper look at the factors considered as part of a rewards card’s “Value” rating:

We also score cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards cards. However, the latter rating only has a slight influence on the card’s score and whether the card is included in our list, since rewards card users generally try to avoid carrying a balance.

More important to both a card’s score and its inclusion in our list is how its annual fee influences its overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. 

Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. After all, the highest rewards rates and most valuable perks are often found on cards with annual fees. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against those of other cards in the category when you subtract annual fees.

That said, we strive to include as many no-annual-fee options in our list as possible since many people would rather not worry about offsetting fees, even if a card carries impressive rewards and perks.

Rewards cards may make it easy to earn a lot of points, miles or cash back, but how easy is it to use those rewards? Co-branded hotel cards tend to have the best redemption value for hotel stays and purchases, but many offer other redemption options, too. It takes a ton of effort to redeem rewards or you can only redeem rewards in a couple of ways, a card may be more trouble than it’s worth. 

As such, we rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards. We factor this rating into a card’s overall score and consider it when deciding on a card’s inclusion in our list. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on only a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to travel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 includes fewer features than even standard credit cards (for example, an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits). 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, free hotel award nights, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

In evaluating the best cards, we tend to favor cards that offer at least Tier 3 benefits, unless they include other unique features that could make up for less-impressive perks.