Hotels, hotels, and also hotels: That’s what episode four of the pod is all about. Gunnar and Kyle talk about some huge hotel credit card bonuses and how Hyatt needs to step up its game … especially with Hilton hot on its heels lately for the crown of the world’s best hotel loyalty program. Gunnar makes a lot of pained (and strange) references to pools. And the guys quiz each other on where to set season 4 of The White Lotus – we know you’re listening, Mike White.
Hotels, hotels, and also hotels: That’s what episode four of the pod is all about. Gunnar and Kyle talk about some huge hotel credit card bonuses and how Hyatt needs to step up its game … especially with Hilton hot on its heels lately for the crown of the world’s best hotel loyalty program. Gunnar makes a lot of pained (and strange) references to pools. And the guys quiz each other on where to set season 4 of The White Lotus – we know you’re listening, Mike White.
(0:00) Where should season 4 of The White Lotus go???
(3:39) Something hot: Huge hotel credit card offers
(10:24) Something cold: Hyatt free night awards need a facelift
(17:23) A word from our sponsor: Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal (and hotel!) alerts
(19:43) The Extra Mile: Hilton > Hyatt … maybe?!
(40:51) A listener asks if she should be booking hotels directly, like flights
(44:40) Gunnar puts Kyle on the spot about his favorite hotel stay ever
Produced by Gunnar Olson & Nick Serati
Edited by David Strutt
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo. Welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar Olson from Thrifty Traveler here with the man who is such a travel sicko that he bought a house directly under the flight path for planes landing at MSP Airport. It's Kyle Potter. It's not funny.
My my wife is still mad at me. No. It's it's fine. It's fun. It's fun for me.
Alright, Kyle. We're both fans of The White Lotus, the incredible HBO series right now in its third season. If you're a travel fan at all, you need to watch this as long as you're cool with a little bit of murder, some nudity, and some, strange family dynamics, I would call them, in season three here. But the premise of the show basically is every season is set in a different super luxury hotel around the world. It started filming at the Four Seasons Maui during the pandemic.
The only place that would allow HBO to come in with a script that wasn't done and just film whatever they want. Last season, it went to the four seasons in Sicily, and this year, we're at the four seasons Ko Samoy in Thailand. All incredible destinations. Kyle, you're in charge of season four. What's your dream destination or hotel for season four of the White Lotus?
I gotta go South Africa on safari. And part of that's recency bias because my wife and I went there earlier this year. But I think that that would bring a really interesting dynamic. I think you either do, you know, South Africa for safari or you you just lean into, like, pure chaos of a city. So Hanoi, Bangkok, something like that.
I would I would really like to see, like, you know, a real fish out of water for the insanely rich people who star on the show. I think that would be really fun. But if if I have one pick, I think I go South Africa or Kenya on safari. What about you? I would love a cold Lotus, something in the Alps or, like, something would.
Something at, like, a really bougie US ski resort, like Vale or Big Sky or, like, the private resort that's connected to Big Sky called the Yellowstone Club. It's where, like, Tom Brady's a member, and it's all it's all rich and the famous. Are we are we allowed to say that on air? The Tom Brady? I think so.
I don't know. Alright. If you have complaints about this, Tom Brady's people, email gunnar podcast@thriftytraveler.com. Yeah. You know where to find me, Tom Brady.
I also think I I think a White Floatus, a super luxe cruise in the Mediterranean would just be so fun. I would love to see them locked in a cruise ship and see what Mike White, the creator of the show would do with that. That sound you hear is is is Mike White racing to trademark White FLOTUS. Too late, Mike. I got you there, and prices are going up.
I did I did learn, however, that Mike White hates the cold and will never do a cold lotus, though. So that's that's heartbreaking for me, but man, would I love to see that show set at a ski resort. Any other ideas? No. I think we I think we gave Mike quite a lot of well, not a lot of good ideas, a lot of ideas.
Yeah. That's right. For season four. Good luck, Mike. Alright.
Today on the show, it's a hotels episode. We're gonna do something hot and something cold about earning and using hotel points. And in our featured segment called the extra mile, we're gonna talk about Hyatt's status as the premier hotel award program. And if Hilton has something to say about that now. We'll see.
Welcome to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Let's jump into something hot and something cold, where we look into the good and bad of the news out there for travelers from the past week. And we're gonna start with something hot, and that's actually the ability to earn hotel points. When it comes to hotels, you need quick ways to earn these points to book the best rooms, and one of the best ways to do it is through credit card sign up bonuses. What's out there right now that people should know about?
Yeah. I mean, every as with everything in the, you know, points and miles travel credit card world, everything is about timing. Striking when the iron is hot, applying for a new credit card when that company, that hotel chain, that credit card company is out with, you know, a a bigger bonus than normal. And so the timing is great for this because we're we've got a handful of elevated credit card offers available from both Hilton and Marriott. Now I wanna be clear.
If if you're a Thrifty Traveler reader and you apply for a credit card through our site, most times, not every time, but most times we make some some money on that. That's part of our business. But the reason why we're talking about this has nothing to do with hoping that you go apply for a Marriott or a Hilton credit card. It's just kind of letting you know, like, hey, you know, if these hotel chains that we're going to be talking about are on your radar, you have, you know, a big life expense coming up, a great a big house project, a federal tax payment, even Timing it right by doing two things, opening a new credit card when it's out with one of these big bonuses and meeting that minimum spend requirement to actually earn that bigger bonus, that's the one two punch that is just magic in this space that allows you to earn a lot of points quickly. Yeah.
I love especially with bonuses like this, kind of reverse engineer, the bonus based on the trip that you wanna take. Right? If you have a hotel out there that you're dying to go visit, and right now your your balance is just not looking right, go get a hotel bonus based on that hotel that you wanna book in, say, you know, a few weeks after you've hit the bonus. Don't let it go for too long because you never know in this business. Sometimes there's some quick hitting devaluations that will put that hotel out of reach once again.
But, if you're close, a bonus like this could be exactly what you need to book something you otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. Exactly. So, you know, let's start with Hilton because we're gonna talk a lot about Hilton later on in this episode. But Hilton and American Express Express, recently rolled out bigger bonuses on basically their entire portfolio of credit cards. What's really special about this is you're not just getting a bigger sum of points.
You can also get just a flat out free night certificate that you can use to book, you know, virtually any hotel in the entire Hilton five, six thousand strong portfolio as long as there's standard award availability. So when you're searching on Hilton.com, you need to see that points price typically somewhere between 180,000 points per night, saying it's a standard room reward That is huge to earn, not just, you know, a hundred a 75,000 Hilton points plus a free night certificate right off the bat, something that, you know, typically with most of these cards, you're not going to earn. It's a it's a huge bonus. So just as an example, the Hilton card that I have is the Hilton Aspire card. I've had it for years.
At this rate, I'm probably never going to get rid of it in large part because I do get one of those free night certificates every single year, but it's out with a 75,000 bonus, after spending $8,000 within the first six months. That's a big sum of points to be able to take that sum of points and also use a free night certificate is really huge. But even as you move move down the food chain into some of Hilton's cheaper credit cards, you know, earning a 30,000 points on the Hilton Surpass card plus, again, one of those free night certificates. This is easily one of, if not the best bonuses that we've seen on Hilton credit card. So I'm gonna test you now, Gunnar.
How are you feeling about Hilton? A little better? Feeling a little better. Yeah. It's still a long way to go.
There's a lot of podcasts left for you to tell me what I really need to know about the Hilton ecosystem. But is there anything else out there from any other chains that that is, that should be of interest to our listeners? Yeah. The the the other big one is, the the portfolio of Marriott Amex cards. Marriott is really confusing.
I don't know what branding wizard decided to name these cards the Bonvoy Brilliant or the Bonvoy Bevy or the Bonvoy Boundless or Bountiful. It sounds like I'm making this up. Those are all actual credit card names. Oh, and by the way, there are also Chase Marriott cards, none of which are, you know, as we're speaking right now, out with elevated welcome bonuses. But there are some big bonuses, out on the Amex portfolio of Marriott card.
So on the kind of top dog of the Marriott portfolio for Amex, the Bonvoy Brilliant card. I just I hate saying it. It's don't it's just please just change your card names. Okay. Moving on.
You can earn a 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, if by spending 6,000 within the first six months, moving down a 55,000 points on the Bonvoy bevy. If you spend $5,000 in the first six months. And it kinda goes down from there, including on, you know, the one of their business cards. You can earn three free night awards, with the same similar spending requirement. So there's a lot on the table right now.
And, you know, I think one of the biggest things that we struggle with, especially for people who have maybe opened an airline credit card or two or, like, a Chase Chase Sapphire card or an Amex platinum or gold card, is it takes a while for people to start to really think about hotels just because there's so much more value out there in the in the world of redeeming flights and and booking award tickets and all of that, which is true. But, you know, one of the hardest things is people tend to latch on to just one hotel program. And I think that's you gotta you gotta keep an open mind to this. And, you know, if you can, as you said, set a goal and work backwards, figure out a property that you really wanna book. Just be open to, you know, opening one of these, hotel credit cards, assuming you can do it responsibly.
Credit cards are serious business. But from there, don't just, you know, latch on, chain yourself to just one of these hotel chains. There's value everywhere in all of them, you know, whether it's Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, keep going down the list. There's value in all of them. It just you you gotta be flexible.
You gotta know what to look for, and and seize on it when you can. Yeah. I mean, diversifying in points and miles is always a smart move, and that's why I don't do that at all. I am a Hyatt guy. I I stick with Hyatt and I have this world of Hyatt credit card that gives me a category four award certificate, and that leads us to something cold.
Can you tell me why I am just ice cold when it comes to booking travel right now, Kyle? Because these Hyatt free night certificates just continue to get worse and worse. So let's back up. You know, most hotel, co branded credit cards offer a perk starting typically in your second full year with the card, where you get a free night certificate. It's not there's not necessarily a points bonus attached to that.
You just say, alright, you get the certificate. You get to book a hotel night with us once per year as, you know, a perk of paying the annual fee for another year. With Hyatt, that's capped and it's capped at category four hotels. So, you know, Hyatt's award chart has eight different tiers ranging from, you know, category one, which starts as low as 3,500 points per night all the way up to category eight, which clocks in as high as 45,000 points per night. Category four, that puts you in the range of, you know, for a standard award night during kind of the normal time of year, just 15,000 points per night.
And as we talked about in one of our previous episodes, these things just keep getting hammered every spring when when Hyatt reshuffles, it's a war chart to the point where I can't think of a off the top of my head, a Hyatt property bookable for 15,000 points where I would say, you know what? That's a great deal. Let's do that increasingly. As you know, the number of properties have moved out from category four up to category five or even higher, therefore, becoming ineligible for these Hyatt free night certificates. There's just fewer and fewer to pick from.
Yeah. I, I picked up this World of Hyatt credit card with the free night cert last year, as I recommended, at the top of the show to kinda reverse engineer a trip I knew I wanted to take to go stay at the Park High at Saint Kitts, which was awesome. Worth every penny. We have a review on our website if you wanna see what it was like. How many pennies did you spend on the food and beverage?
So many pennies. I had the most expensive meal of my life there. Of your life. Not just, like, at a hotel, but in of your life. For it was just my wife and I, and for just the two of us, it was it was shocking.
I don't even wanna say how much it cost, but I earned a lot on World of Hyatt points on my, stupid little credit card. But anyway, basically, I'm about to have access through my my category four award cert, and I'm just realizing now how hard it is to book these. We we mentioned it a couple weeks ago when we recorded, but the fact that a lot of Hyatt Regencies are slipping off this list now really hurts. It used to be just kinda like a sure fire award cert. It's nice to stay near airports at a Regency or in a downtown at a Regency.
But a lot of those are slipping off. We've seen a lot of those go into into category five and are thus ineligible. But I guess my plan going forward with this free night cert is just using it as a way to book one nighters where I need them, just kinda in and around my travels, to fill out an extra night of a trip. But, there's kinda there aren't a lot of special ways to use them or to, like, stack them with a bunch of points to to book something really valuable. Unfortunately, this this kinda perk of this card is kind of fallen away, and it's only a 99 $95 card.
Right? 95. Yeah. $95 card. So I guess you get what you pay for, but it's still pretty worthless.
I mean, they're it's not worthless. Right? Because you can you can quite easily recoup that $95 annual fee just by using this free night certificate, but it's it's not very sexy. You're not gonna book a sexy hotel with this free night certificate, which, you know, as we'll get into is not the case for some of the other major hotel chains. But, I mean, just just this spring, the hotels that fell off the list that are no longer bookable for this were some really good ones.
You know, Hyatt Centric, the Liberties in Dublin, great location in Dublin, used to be a category four, so you could use one of these free nights, no longer available. The Hyatt Regency Tokyo, one of the few, you know, budget friendly, both in terms of points and in some cases, cash. Hotels from the major chains in Tokyo. That one is now a category five. So that one is now, again, no longer eligible to use these free night certificates.
I mean, we could go on and on with this stuff. I mean, what I would really like to see, I would like to see one of two things or preferably both, you know, just as the tide has shifted in so many of these hotels have slipped above that threshold. I I I would like to see how it push that threshold higher and say that these free night certificates just based on where the volume of hotels are is now category five. So then that allows you to book some of these nicer properties or, you know, do what Marriott has been doing for years, which, you know, they have several different flavors of these free night certificates, but they allow you to kick in up to 15,000 points in order to cover the difference. So if you have a if you have a Marriott free night certificate that's worth up to 50,000 points, they allow you to book a hotel night that costs up to 65,000.
Now 15,000 additional points might not be the right number for Hyatt, but at this point, I think we can safely say category four is not the right number either. Yeah. It's just it's too limited as it is right now. And, yeah, I just like to see some flexibility or just like, you know, I don't want them to get into boundless and brilliance and bevies and and whatever, but another tier of card would be nice in Hyatt's portfolio because right now, it's just the one. I've already gotten business card.
And that's it. And, you know, people have been talking about this for years, and every time it it feels like Hyatt is inching towards something, you know, a quote, unquote premium travel credit card for Hyatt members, it just kinda disappears. So who knows? Yeah. I'm, I'm not thrilled with my options going forward, but I will definitely make use of it somehow, whether it's a Hyatt Place somewhere just to fill in, fill in some itinerary.
Hyatt Place, Eden Prairie. Yeah. Exactly. Next to the Fox nine station, your old stomping grounds. That's right.
Yeah. I can get a nice night stay there. So I I guess that's what awaits. This is this is the rub is and I and I think why this has become an issue is, like I said, there's just really nothing exciting about this. You can make use of it, but it's not going to be in a part of an amazing trip.
It's like really kind of squeezing it in, in order to use that free night certificate, not just something you can organically do Kind of increasingly have to go out of your way in order to redeem these certificates, which is is a bummer, you know, a $95 a year credit card isn't zero. It's not cheap. It's not a ton of money either, but it just seems like there's more to be done there just to make it a more rewarding benefit and to encourage people to keep renewing that card year over year. Alright. Let's take a break for a word from our sponsors.
And this week, that sponsor is, you guessed it, Us. So we like to think that Thrifty Traveler is synonymous with finding the best flight deals. But within the last year, we branched out and we added a new optional add on to our Thrifty Traveler premium flight deal alert service, Hotel Alerts. So two or three times a week, our Hotel Alert subscribers are getting alerts to book some of our favorite, the top rated hotels, resorts, all inclusives, you name it, using their hotel points. And then, you know, within their flight deals, we also now include discounted cash rates as well as some point deals within each individual flight deal.
So if we send you a flight deal to Denver or Dublin, we're going to send you some recommendations of some of the best hotels with discounted rates or points deals available in Denver or Dublin. Gunnar, you're looking at your premium hotel alert inbox there. What do you see? Yeah. Our our hotel alerts team is on fire as always.
Long Tran and Katie Rawlins are killing it, and, they're sending out some amazing stuff. So here are some of the the standalone hotel deals that we've we've been sending to people. The W Maldives, under 84,000 Marriott points per night. Pretty spectacular stay there. We got Secrets, Maroma Beach, Riviera, Cancun, under 35,000 Hyatt points a night.
The Westin Bora Bora under 80,000 Marriott points. Here's one that I thought was really cool. The Riverview Ranch Retreat in Montana, someplace I'd never heard of, an all inclusive kind of Montana ranch resort kind of thing. A 30,000 Hilton points per night. Pretty spectacular one there as well.
And that ranch costs, like, dollars 5,000 per night. So to book that for a hundred and 30,000 Hilton points is is a pretty amazing value. Yeah. We've got the Andaz, Tokyo, we have Kalala Island in Nicaragua, Thompson, Miami Beach, so we're doing some domestic stuff too. It's been Murderers Row in your inbox if you've subscribed to our hotel alerts lately.
You can sign up today at thriftytraveler.com/premium. As a special treat, podcast listeners can use the promo code t t pod for $20 off your first year of flight and hotel alerts. That's thriftytraveler.com/premium. Use the promo code t t pod, five letters, all one word, for $20 off your first year. Alright.
It's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper into some of the major travel topics that concern us this week. And Kyle, for this one, I've only ever really dabbled in the Hyatt ecosystem and earning and burning world of Hyatt points. And that's because all the travel experts out there when I got started in this told me that it's the only thing to do. Right? It's it's the best and only way.
But lately, you have been telling me that I might be swimming in the wrong pool. What am I missing that's out there? Swimming in the wrong pool. Yeah. You like it?
No. I don't. I don't at all. That's weird. Okay.
Moving on. No. It's I think it's it's high time for this conversation. So I actually pitched this story for the first time to our our team in the fall. I mean, many, many months ago, and I feel like everybody in the room was kinda looking at me like I'm crazy, which, like, fair.
That's you're not wrong, but it's not because of this. I think there's no such thing as a one size fits all solution for what is the best hotel loyalty program. It depends on where you're going, what you care about. You know, the right hotel loyalty program to focus on is gonna depend on, you know, do you want budget travel? You know, do you just wanna stay in the cheapest night that's gonna get you a bed, or are you all about super luxury and all inclusive resorts?
You know, the right answer for somebody is is gonna depend on those things. It depends on where you're traveling because some some of the big hotel chains are just stronger in certain areas of the globe than others. And, you know, above all, there's no reason to chain yourself to just one. Like like we talked about earlier in the show, too many people as they finally kind of branch into hotels and caring about these points ecosystems really laser focus on just one. And for most of them, it's like you.
It's Hyatt. And I understand why. I mean, I think the biggest thing is that so much of the conversation about which hotel points matter and which ones are most valuable and which aren't is shaped by, you know, travelers out there who are writing about this stuff, who are, you know, making social media reels and TikToks about it that are spending, you know, sixty plus nights a year in hotel in Hyatt hotels. They are ultimate road warriors. And I'm I'm not saying that those people are wrong.
I'm saying that that viewpoint that Hyatt is the be all end all of all hotel loyalty programs is correct for people who are spending sixty plus nights in Hyatt hotels because, you know, you stay that many nights, you get Hyatt globalist status, which is far and away the best status among the big hotel chains. It's not even close. So if that's what you care about is, you know, where you're traveling for work and how to use those points and then how to use more of them for, you know, your personal travels when you're not traveling for work. I mean, conversation over, it's Hyatt. But for the rest of us, which certainly describes you and me, describes a lot of people who are going to be listening to this.
A lot of our readers, a lot of travelers out there, there is life beyond Hyatt. And to me, I think the answer really is it's either Hyatt and Hilton or, you know, if you have to choose just one, I would argue it should be Hilton. But like I said, I think you were let's just call it skeptical when I first brought this idea to you. Yeah. I was skeptical.
I think I'm a little more susceptible now because, you know You're willing to swim in my pool? Yeah. You're allowed. I'm wading into your pool. But what I think about is is you're right that it's it's a lot of road warriors who are are, people who love Hyatt, and that makes a ton of sense because I will never sniff globalist.
I'm spending 10 to 12 hotel nights a year. And maybe if that, a lot of times I'm in Airbnbs and, you know, a lot of other times I'm just booking whatever's cheapest using other hotel credits I get with credit cards or whatever. So I'm never gonna make it to Globalist, the kind of lowest level Discoverist, with Hyatt. You got me beat. I got I I got, like, five nights a year in Hyatt hotels if that.
Yeah. The Discoverist you get just by holding the credit card. So that's pretty much just the entry level, Hyatt status, and it really doesn't come with all that much. But, you know, what is most interesting to me about Hilton is one, there are some really cool aspirational properties. I love the Park Hyatts so much.
My wife and I just adore those places. But with Hilton, there's a lot of different kinds of places that that have been really intriguing to me. And two, just kind of more as a utility, there's a Hilton in every city and there's not always a high in every city. There there are way fewer Hyatts and, you know, that comes back to bite me sometimes, as well. But, alright, keep going.
Keep going. I I'm waiting into your pool. So I'm surprised you haven't haven't said yet out loud. I I can see you thinking it. Alright.
So there's there's Hilton ins in every city, and they have a a handful of different kind of luxury properties that seem really cool. But those luxury properties probably cost a hundred thousand Hilton points, hundred and 20, hundred and 50 thousand Hilton points. Oh, and by the way, sometimes when I look at Hilton.com for a free night in one of these cool places, it actually is trying to charge me, like, a million Hilton honors points. How on earth am I going to earn that many points? Yeah.
That's the scary part is is, you know, Hyatt's redemptions are so cheap comparatively, but those points are not one to one. Right? It's it's totally apples to oranges. Hilton and Hyatt's award ecosystems just exist in completely different scales, and I think that alone scares people away from you or even entertaining the idea of caring about Hilton for a second because earning that many points just seems like it's unattainable. But I would just, you know, ask you, ask others to start to think about it like currencies of the world.
You know, 1 US dollar is not equal to 1 Japanese yen. They exist in different scales, and it's just so so much easier to earn Hilton points in particular at scale than it is Hyatt. You know, Hyatt benefits from, you know, being able to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards, which I think again is probably a big part of the reason why people tether themselves to the Hyatt brand so much from the outset because they've got those chase points from one of their first big travel credit cards. They've seen people talking about Hyatt and how cheap the the award nights can be, and the conversation ends there. So I get it at the same time.
I mean, the ability to earn Hilton points is incredible. They have far more hotel, hotel cards available. Like we've talked about, they're currently out with some record setting bonuses. And you can also earn a ton of those points on an ongoing basis on on Hilton hotel stays far faster than you would, at at Hyatt. So let's put this into life with with two quick examples.
You know, currently, you can earn as much as a 75,000 Hilton honors points on one of their top AmEx credit cards. Hyatt, that almost never goes north of 60,000. And also to earn that 60,000 Hyatt points from a credit card bonus, you have to spend, like, five times as much money Yeah. Over a twelve month span in order to earn those 60,000 points. Now to take it a step further, you can earn I mean, it depends on on how you stack things, which which Hilton credit card you have in your wallet.
The the more expensive the card, the more Hilton points you're gonna earn on every paid stay. It also depends. Hilton is always out with a promo to earn two, sometimes even three times the points on each hotel stay. But you start to add those up. You can earn more than 40 Hilton points per night per doll sorry.
More than 40 Hilton points per dollar spent on a paid stay with Hilton. With Hyatt, that tends to top out around 10 to 12. So, again, I just need to stress, Hilton points and Hyatt points are not equal. Are you gonna get charged a lot more of them in order to book one of those really cool Hilton stays? Absolutely.
But it's also just so much easier to earn them at scale than it is with Hyatt. Yeah. They're they're priced so differently than the points and miles that we're used to. And, you know, especially with, being used to seeing what you redeem for flights and for Hyatt hotels, just seeing those numbers, a 30,000 points a night, that that's a little scary sometimes. But, you know, it the your pool might be a little deeper, but it is a lot easier to swim.
And you don't have your trunks on yet. Thank God. Yeah. Exactly. So, okay.
In in Hill what I said before in Hilton's kinda portfolio of of hotels, there's so much there's so many interesting properties and options all over the world led by these small luxury hotels in the world. Tell me about those and what the addition of these properties has done for Hilton. I think it's been a game changer. You know, every when, you know, the the people who are Hyatt road warriors encouraging people to focus on Hyatt and every other hotel program sucks. When when I'm talking about Hilton, a lot of what we talk about is, you know, the big redemptions of points that get you outsized value.
And in that regard, you know, Hilton bringing in SLH, small luxury hotels of the world, stealing it away from Hyatt in 2024 has been a total coup. I mean, the there are, you know, now at this point, more than 400 additional SLH properties that are now bookable through Hilton using Hilton honors points. And these aren't just, you know, crappy rundown hotels across The United States and across the globe. A lot of them are really, really cool, properties that have a boutique feel but still super high end service. I mean, to date, my single favorite, not just Hilton honors redemption, but Hilton state period, is Hermitage Bay in Antigua, Caribbean all inclusive that had the best meals by far I've ever had, not just that an all inclusive period at a hotel property.
Amazing service. The location was incredible. It's right on the beach. You know, picturesque blue water, white sand beach. The villas were spacious.
I mean, I just cannot say enough about that property. I say that a handful of others, including TomTom Suites in Istanbul. Awesome location to explore one of my favorite cities. You know, there's, I think, five or six at this point, new properties in The Maldives that are part of SLH. There's another one we called out on the site a few weeks ago.
I'm gonna butcher this. I'm sorry. The people of France and Quebec, Grand Hotel du Poi. It's one and a half city blocks from the Louvre. It's it is the location to be within Paris.
I mean, the list goes on. Cape Fawn on Koh Samui, this is a property that that, you know, back when it was part of Hyatt. Us here in the office, we were obsessed with. It's like, what is this property in Koh Samui doing? It is on its own private island just off of the main island of Koh Samui, and you can book it with points.
I wanna feel like a bombed villain. This is great. I I could just I could go on and on about how amazing SLH has been and how surprising it has been that not only do the points redemptions fall in line with, you know, your Conrads and your Waldorf Astoria is, you know, the top of the line Hilton properties that are part of the Hilton brand, not just part of this one off partnership, but also availability to actually book at these rates has been surprising, surprisingly good. I mean, certainly far better than many of these properties were when you could book them with Hyatt points. It's been not just a win win for people who have Hilton points, but an emphatic win.
It's it's incredible. Yeah. The best availability or the best ability is availability. It's it's so, it's funny to talk about these SLH properties in terms of, you know, I had to say goodbye to them at Hyatt, including, like, Hotel Ranga in Iceland, which I booked and stayed at a few years ago. We have a review of that property on our website too.
But, you know, it was nearly impossible to book with Hyatt points. You especially if you wanted to try and get it in the summer, it was just an absolute no go. And it seems like these SLH properties, you know, we're digging into them. Our hotel alerts team is digging into them every day, and and, we're searching we're running so many searches. This is there's no magic here.
There's no AI. It's just manpower doing searches. And, we're we're finding all this best stuff, for small luxury hotels in the world. And these these places are really cool. They don't feel like chains.
Right? They're they're not, you know, they're not big Hilton branded things. They're not cookie cutter. They're special, and, it's it's pretty exciting to see. So while Hilton has has done this and introduced these hundreds of properties to get outsized value redeeming Hilton honors points, Hilton stole SLH away from Hyatt.
In response or maybe as a result of that, you know, Hyatt brought in mister and missus Smith, which is kind of a loose portfolio of independent resorts, some of which are also part of SLH. So they set up this new partnership. But instead of, you know, giving people the same bang for their buck that they can now get through Hilton with SLH that you you used to be able to get through Hyatt. Hyatt has introduced dynamic pricing for these properties, which means the more that that mister and missus Smith location in Greece or Bali or wherever costs in cash, the more Hyatt points it's going to cost you. So instead of, you know, getting, you know, a great redemption for your Hyatt points, it's all kinda meh.
You know, like, is it is it better to use, you know, tens of thousands of Hyatt points than spend $700 a night? Maybe. But there's also far better ways for me to use those Hyatt points, so why would I bother? Yeah. You're not getting that outsized value anymore Exactly.
When you're booking those properties. It's a bummer. So that's been that's been a real bummer. And, you know, I think as I go down the list of the reasons why I think Hilton deserves a lot more attention right now from the average to even the advanced traveler who, you know, spends a lot of time thinking about how to earn more points and miles and how to redeem them. You know, you've we've been talking about just how weak highest free night certificates have become that, you know, as the number of properties that fall below the category fourth threshold has waned, that it's harder and harder to find a good use for them.
Hilton don't have that. Hilton says if you can find a free night award availability, even if it costs 150,000 you can use a Hilton free night certificate to book a Hilton Garden Inn in Des Moines, Iowa or the Waldorf Astoria in The Maldives. That is incredible. It is something that no other hotel chain does. And so while, you know, it feels like you have to labor to find a good use for, you know, Hyatt free night certificates now, you can use these free night certificates from Hilton to book part of an incredible trip.
You know, you you layer in some points with that as well, and you're set. That is just not an option, not just for Hyatt, but for any of the major hotel chains. And I'll do you one better. You know, you didn't get that Hyatt free night certificate until your second full year with the card. You had to pay that renewal fee in order to get that.
With Hilton, you can get it right off the right off the drop, you know, with the with the at least with the top tier, Hilton Aspire card as well as some of the limited time offers that are out on, you know, the Surpass and the entry level Hilton card. You can get a free night certificate, you know, within year one. Within a few months of opening the card is when they tend to hit your account. So not only are those free night certificates far more valuable than what you can get through Hyatt, they're also a heck of a lot easier to earn. Yeah.
Alright. Well, I think you've given me a pretty good No. I'm gonna keep going. Nope. You're not ready to dive in yet, Gunnar.
No. I I do wanna point out a couple other things. Hilton has a a fifth night free benefit. So if you book five nights, you pay for four. If you book six nights, you pay for five.
If you have some level of Hilton status, you need to have Hilton silver status or higher. That is incredibly easy to get. All of the Hilton credit cards offer some level of instant status. So, by the way, it does the American Express Platinum card. You get Hilton Gold status with that.
So as long as you have one of those in your hand, in your pocket, in your wallet, you can get a fifth night free on award stays. Hyatt doesn't do anything like this. I understand why, you know, their points redemption values are so much lower than Hyatt's they're or than Hilton's. They probably don't need to, but it is another advantage of of using Hilton points. And then the last one, and then you can tell me whether I won you over or not.
I still tend to find just so much value, so much more value, using Hilton points for big events. So, you know, big sports games, big concerts. The the example that I always lean on, though it's not the only one, is, is, you know, my wife and her friend went to Indianapolis to see Taylor Swift last year, and hotel rates were bonkers. I mean, I am nobody should be paying $900 for, you know, a basic crappy hotel in Downtown Indianapolis. Even though, you know, the hotel that we eventually booked was charging more than $900 a night, we were able to book it for 50,000 Hilton honors points.
There it is. Every single Hyatt within a 30 mile radius of Indianapolis was unavailable during that span. Now does that mean that's always gonna be the case for every Hyatt during every big sporting event or concert? No. Of course not.
There still are ways to do that, but at least in my experience, and it's not just Taylor Swift, it's it's other stuff too. The ability to, you know, book even when cash rates are obscenely high and use your points. Are you gonna be are you gonna have to use more Hilton honors points to book? Yeah. I mean, it's $50,000 for, like, a Hilton Garden Inn in Indianapolis.
That that's not the best, but it sure beats paying $900 a night, especially when, you know, there's no option to redeem high points period for those kinds of properties at that time. Yeah. That's a, honestly, a really good example. There's always the aspirational bookings that we do where we're booking way far out and we wanna find this perfect hotel, but then there's also the, I need a room tonight and everyone else does too and who's gonna get it. And that that, Taylor Swift concert in Indianapolis, just a perfect example of that.
And that, you know, I do that kinda traveling all the time too. So I think you've given me a pretty good off ramp from high I guess, we'll stick with the metaphor. You have you are the lifeguard that has given me the okay to take the water slide This is so bad. Into the Hilton pool. And I am I'm sliding into your pool, Kyle.
I think at least I need to diversify. I think it, you know, I'm I don't think I'm ready to leave Hyatt forever. I still love Hyatt's highest end properties are still some of my favorites and I love those rates. But I definitely need to at least dabble. And I think picking up a card during this these LTOs is is probably not a bad idea for me.
And, honestly, that's the point. It's not to make people pick between one or the other because, again, I don't think you know, unless if you are traveling a hundred plus nights a year and you're paying with a corporate card, there's really no need to be hotel loyal. You should be hotel branded agnostic. You should pick what suits for you. But, you know, my fear is that, you know, over the years, people have just completely written off Hilton and focused only on Hyatt to their detriment.
There's a lot to love about Hyatt. It should be part of anybody's plan for booking hotels if you wanna dip into the world of using hotel points, you know, especially for, you know, we we talk about a lot of the aspirational, really cool properties, but Hyatt still is really great for booking on the lower end. You know, sometimes you don't need or nor can you even book, you know, a a park Hyatt in Andaz in the city. Being able to just book a Hyatt Regency or a park or a Hyatt Place, you know, just a a bed in a city. Hyatt really excels at that.
It's still giving you outsized value even for those, you know, those hotel bookings that may only cost you five, eight thousand points. It's not gonna happen with Hilton. But for everything else, I think Hilton has should really enter your thought process about how you think about hotel chains and and think about both. Yeah. That's awesome.
Good advice. Thank you. I, I think I've got a lot to think about here. So something to consider. I'll always be your lifeguard, Goodness.
Alright. Enough of that awkwardness. Let's move on to the listener question of the week, which comes from Megan s from Appleton, Wisconsin, who asks, I know it's always best to book flights directly with the airline, but do you recommend the same for hotels? Booking hotels through Capital One travel to earn 10 x points with my VentureX card is too tantalizing to to pass up sometimes. And I hear you, Megan, but, Gunnar, I'm gonna let you tackle this one first.
Yeah. So you're absolutely right. You should exclusively book, flights with the airline. But for me, at least, it's not the same for hotels. If it's a Hyatt, like we've talked about, and I'm trying to either earn towards status or earn a bunch of extra points.
And because I'm in their ecosystem, I'll usually try and book directly through World of Hyatt. But for all other hotels, I will throw the book at a hotel booking. I I'll either go with the lowest rate I can find. I'll go through Capital One like Megan does here with my venture x for the 10 x points. I'll look through the portals that I'm a part of, like the Capital One travel portal, the AmEx travel portal, the Chase travel portal, and even Delta Stays because I get credits from each of those.
I get $300 with Capital One for the VentureX card. I get $200, for Amex fine hotels and resorts. I get $50 with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card and a hundred and $50 from Delta Stays through my, Delta SkyMiles platinum card. So those are that's all money I'm getting by having credit cards. I need to use those credits in order to justify the annual fees on those cards.
So when it comes to hotels, I I am not loyal and I don't always book with the hotel. I'm willing to spread it around a little bit. What do you think? I think I think for flights, it's almost always pretty cut and dry, black and white, just book with the airline because, you know, you would have to save a substantial amount of money. I mean, I'm talking typically hundreds of dollars for me personally to justify, you know what?
I'm going to book through Expedia or another online travel agency because while it's saving me money, potentially, though, I would say not always, it also means there's a middleman for dealing with this reservation. And if something goes wrong day of or weeks out and I need to change or cancel that flight, That's gonna be much more of a headache dealing with that OTA middleman than it is having booked direct. And I just don't that's not that's not as true with hotels. There's still an element of that. There's also, as you touched on, you know, getting elite credit, earning points with your hotel chain of choice.
You're not gonna do that typically when you book through any kind of third party site. But I I don't think that's as important. I think, you know, anytime you book a hotel, you really do need to fan out. You need to check the numbers, do the math about, you know, what what credits and benefits do you have on one of your credit cards that can potentially save you even more if instead of booking through Hyatt or Hilton, you book through Capital One. You know, with Capital One, you can book any kind of hotel, any travel expense period, and then go back and remove that charge from your statement using your miles.
So that gives you another avenue to save more even if you're not booking direct with that hotel chain. There's just a lot more to consider when it comes to booking hotels. So, again, I feel like we're harping on this. But at a certain point, you really just need to leave your loyalty behind. And that includes, you know, maybe second guessing yourself and putting behind the impulse to book direct, which I think you really need to do with hotels.
Yeah. Take your time. Look around. The the same room is gonna be priced differently elsewhere, and and you always have a chance to do better. So great question from Megan s.
If you want us to answer your question, email us at podcast@thriftytraveler.com, and we might feature in next week's show. Alright, Kyle. It's time for on the spot, and I'm putting you on the spot this week. Are you ready? No.
Okay. I'm gonna take you back, Kyle. March seventh twenty twenty two. You remember? No.
Okay. That day, you wrote that Columbia's hotel, Las Islas Baru, was your favorite hotel in the world. But I just heard you talking about Hermitage Bay, Antigua, and you had a little glimmer in your eye. Have you have you changed your mind? Are you stepping out on Las Islas Baru?
What's your favorite hotel in the world, Kyle Potter, right now? How dare you use my words on the Internet against me? No. It's it it things change. That that hotel outside of Cartagena in Colombia was amazing.
I really loved it. I would very gladly go back. But Hermitage Bay in Antigua, like I said, is not just the best redemption of Hilton honors points that I've ever personally done. It might be the best period. And it is certainly in the conversation for the best all inclusive resorts in the world.
It's just in another league. So, you know, I would go I would get in that time machine and go back and talk to myself on 03/07/2022 and say, tame it down a little bit, bud. No. It's they're they're both incredible properties in completely different circumstances. But if I had to pick between the two, it's a no brainer.
It's Hermitage Bay and Antigua. No question. Awesome. Yeah. Kyle's review on our website of of the Hermitage Bay, Antigua is so cool.
You guys have to check it out. A truly unbelievable looking property. I'm very jealous. I think you've got everyone on our team thinking about it. And now we have a lot of competition with, all of you tens of listeners out there who are gonna be trying to book it as well.
But, thank you so much for listening to Thrifty Traveler podcast. It would mean a lot to us if you'd rate us five stars on your platform of choice and, like and subscribe to us on YouTube. It'll also help others find the the show if you do that. If you have feedback for us, send me a note, podcast at thrifty traveler dot com. We would love to hear from you.
If you can get, like, a pool or a waterslide metaphor into your review, that's extra bonus points as well this week. Kyle, tell us who helped us put the show together this week. This episode was produced by our hotel guru, Long Tran, and your favorite podcast host, Gunnar Olson. It was edited by David Strutt. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you later.