140. Maximize Hotel Free-Night Certificates: Comparing Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

Alex, Pam and Jess

Places & Travel, Education, Society & Culture, How To

4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

No one loves the annual fees of credit cards, but what if they could save you hundreds on travel? Free-night certificates are one of the most valuable perks you can earn from hotel credit cards, and with the right strategy, they can easily pay for themselves year after year. While many travelers cancel their cards after claiming the welcome bonus, the savvy few know that some cards deliver ongoing value, thanks to these certificates.

In this episode, the Travel Mom Squad breaks down how hotel free-night certificates from Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG can transform your travel planning. We share specific redemption examples, reveal which cards we keep just for these certificates, and explore how to maximize their value—whether you're booking a luxury stay or using them for family trips. By understanding the unique ways each brand offers and limits these certificates, you can get far more than you paid in annual fees.

You can find links to resources mentioned in this episode plus the transcript here: travelmomsquad.com/140

Ready to get started with NEARLY FREE travel? Click here for the exact offers we would sign up for this month: travelmomsquad.lpages.co/bestoffers/

The Travel Mom Squad is also on YouTube! You can watch this episode here: youtube.com/@travelmomsquad

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One of our favorite credit card benefits are free night certificates that come with our hotel credit cards.
0:05.8	Tune in to hear some of our favorite ways we've redeemed them.
0:08.8	Welcome to Points Talk with the travel mom squad.
0:11.7	We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free.
0:20.2	We've used credit card points of miles
0:21.8	to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best
0:28.7	part? We each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your
0:34.3	dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to show you how.
0:39.6	Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. Let's talk points. So none of us particularly
0:47.7	loves paying annual fees on credit cards. While it is always worth that fee the first year for the elevated welcome
0:55.9	offer that you can earn, there are several cards that we keep year after year, and it's just
1:02.1	for one perk, hotel free night certificates. So we are going to deep dive into hotel free night
1:09.4	certificates in this episode, how to earn them, where we like using
1:13.2	them. And you can see if it might make sense for you to keep one or two of those cards that you
1:18.2	are thinking about canceling after the first year. So let's start off with what is a free night
1:23.4	certificate, Alex. All right. So it's a special reward issued by hotel brand-end credit cards,
1:29.9	and it allows you one-night stay at participating hotels for free. So typically, you get these
1:37.0	once a year on your account anniversary. Like, there's other ways to earn them, which we'll talk
1:42.3	about in a bit, but that's like the most common way that in the easiest way to get them like you literally just hold the credit card
1:48.3	and you get one on your account anniversary you can get a ton of value out of these free
1:53.3	nurse certificates well well more than the cost of that annual fee like if you're booking during
1:59.8	peak season or in an expensive city or in
	...

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