Best Credit Cards Offering Free Hotel Nights

Best Credit Cards Offering Free Hotel Nights

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Hotel credit cards are among the most underrated out there. Understandably a lot of people get cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) and Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) to maximize the rewards they’re earning for their spending, and that’s a great idea. These cards offer valuable bonus categories, no foreign transaction fees, great travel coverage, and more.

But I think supplementing one of those cards with a hotel credit card can make a lot of sense. That’s because hotel credit cards largely offer some incredible perks that more than justify the annual fee, including free hotel status and even some free night certificates.

In this post I wanted to specifically look at which credit cards offer free nights as part of their rewards structure. These free nights come in different forms:

  • Some free nights are offered for spending a certain amount on a card
  • Some free nights are offered as an annual benefit just for having a card, with no spending required

Hotel credit cards with free nights March 2024

Below I’m listing all the hotel credit cards that offer free nights as one of the benefits. In many cases, these free nights can more than justify the annual fee, and it can be worth having the cards just for these free night certificates.

Below are the hotel credit cards with the best free night perks that are still open to new applicants.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

Annual fee: $150 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers a free night reward after you spend $15,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year; this covers properties retailing for up to 150,000 points per night, and you can find a list of excluded properties here

Apply for the Hilton Honors Amex Surpass Card, read a review of the Hilton Honors Amex Surpass Card.

Hilton Honors American Express Business Card

Annual fee: $95 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers a free night reward after you spend $15,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year, plus a second free night reward after you spend $60,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year; this covers properties retailing for up to 150,000 points per night, and you can find a list of excluded properties here

Apply for the Hilton Honors Amex Business Card, read a review of the Hilton Honors Amex Business Card.

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

Annual fee: $550 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers a free night reward shortly after you get the card, and an anniversary free night reward every year upon your account renewal with no spend requirement, plus an additional free night reward after you spend $30,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year, plus an additional free night reward after you spend $60,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year; this covers properties retailing for up to 150,000 points per night, and you can find a list of excluded properties here

Apply for the Hilton Honors Amex Aspire Card, read a review of the Hilton Honors Amex Aspire Card.

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Redeem your free night reward at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives

IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card

Annual fee: $99
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any IHG hotel retailing for up to 40,000 IHG points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with points (in other words, you could book a 60,000 point hotel for a free night certificate plus 20,000 points)

Apply for the IHG Premier Card, read a review of the IHG Premier Card.

IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card

Annual fee: $99
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any IHG hotel retailing for up to 40,000 IHG points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with points

Apply for the IHG Premier Business Card, read a review of the IHG Premier Card.

Redeem your anniversary free night certificate at the Kimpton EPIC Miami

Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card

Annual fee: $125 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 35,000 Marriott points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with up to 15,000 points

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card, read a review of the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card

Annual fee: $95
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 35,000 Marriott points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with up to 15,000 points

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card, read a review of the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card.

Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card

Annual fee: $250 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers a free night certificate after you spend $15,000 on purchases on your card in a calendar year, valid at any property retailing for up to 50,000 Marriott points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with up to 15,000 points

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card, read a review of the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card

Annual fee: $650 (Rates & Fees)
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 85,000 Marriott points per night; it’s also possible to redeem for a more expensive property by topping off your certificate with up to 15,000 points

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, read a review of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card.

Redeem your certificate at the St. Regis Venice

World of Hyatt Credit Card

Annual fee: $95
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at a Category 1-4 Hyatt property, plus a second free night certificate when you spend $15,000 on the card in an account anniversary year with similar terms; a majority of Hyatt properties are Category 1-4, and you can find a full listing of hotels by category here

Apply for the World of Hyatt Card, read a review of the World of Hyatt Card.

Redeem your anniversary free night certificate at the Andaz Vienna

Cards with free nights (closed to new applicants)

The above are the cards offering free nights that new members can still apply for. Now I wanted to share some of the cards offering free nights that are no longer open to new applicants. This is because over time credit card issuers change their card portfolios, which is why these cards are no longer open to new cardmembers.

Below are the hotel credit cards that are no longer open to new applicants that are best for free nights.

IHG Rewards Select Credit Card

Annual fee: $49
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any IHG hotel retailing for up to 40,000 IHG points per night; this covers a vast majority of IHG properties over at least some dates (IHG has dynamic award pricing)

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

Annual fee: $95
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 35,000 Marriott points per night

Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card

Annual fee: $125
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 35,000 Marriott points per night

Ritz-Carlton Credit Card

Annual fee: $450
Free night certificate: This card offers an anniversary free night certificate every year, valid at any hotel retailing for up to 85,000 Marriott points per night

Bottom line

There are potentially lots of great benefits to hotel credit cards, including big welcome bonuses, easy opportunities to earn hotel status, generous rewards structures for spending, and more.

The best part is that most issuers let you have multiple credit cards, meaning you can potentially earn more than one free night certificate per year. In the case of just about all of the above cards, I’d say the free night certificates more than justify the annual fees.

What’s your favorite hotel credit card free night certificate?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (Rates & Fees).

Conversations (3)
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  1. Kurt Guest

    You neglected to mention that the Chase IHG Card and the Hilton Amex cards I have give you get a free bonus night with long stays. Chase IHG gives you a 4th night free if using points for 3 nights in a row. Hilton Amex gives a 5th night free if using points for 4 nights in a row.
    This can be a big savings at expensive hotels.

  2. grichard Guest

    I often choose non-chain hotels, so these cards don't appeal to me that strongly. I would love to see a post that directly addresses "best strategy for hotels.com users after its devaluation."

  3. Bill n DC Diamond

    I’ve still got the IHG Select plus the current one and the Hyatt. Have had them for years so with value in the ‘free’ nights and long retention of the 3 cards. No other spending goes on the IHG but I use the Hyatt when staying at a Hyatt

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The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Kurt Guest

You neglected to mention that the Chase IHG Card and the Hilton Amex cards I have give you get a free bonus night with long stays. Chase IHG gives you a 4th night free if using points for 3 nights in a row. Hilton Amex gives a 5th night free if using points for 4 nights in a row. This can be a big savings at expensive hotels.

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grichard Guest

I often choose non-chain hotels, so these cards don't appeal to me that strongly. I would love to see a post that directly addresses "best strategy for hotels.com users after its devaluation."

0
Bill n DC Diamond

I’ve still got the IHG Select plus the current one and the Hyatt. Have had them for years so with value in the ‘free’ nights and long retention of the 3 cards. No other spending goes on the IHG but I use the Hyatt when staying at a Hyatt

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