Canada’s 9 Best Hotel Credit Cards

Hotel Credit Cards: What You Need to Know

When choosing a hotel credit card, you should familiarize yourself with what benefits a hotel credit card can offer, what features to look out for, and how hotel credit cards can fit into an optimized overall credit card strategy.

Why get a hotel credit card?

Hotel rewards are important because you’ll always need a place to stay. Whether you’re venturing overseas for a few weeks or spending a weekend closer to home, whether you travel by plane, train, boat, car, or on foot, a good night’s rest will set you up to enjoy your trip.

When you stay at a major hotel brand, it’s often a good idea to book with points by using their loyalty program. You’ll get free cancellations, no resort fees, and in many programs the Fifth Night Free on any award booking.

Also, if you’ve earned or are aiming for elite status with a hotel program, you’ll only be able to use your elite benefits and earn elite qualifying nights by booking with points or cash directly with the hotel program. Bookings made through third-party booking platforms won’t qualify.

As a side benefit, some hotel rewards can be transferred to an enormous variety of frequent flyer programs. This can open some doors to book sweet-spot flight rewards using points that are harder to earn through the major Canadian credit cards.

What should you look for in a hotel credit card?

The Canadian market for co-branded hotel credit cards is slim, with only Marriott Bonvoy offering bank partnerships here. For Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, or IHG Rewards, you’d have to turn to US credit cards.

Whichever hotel cards you consider, the following benefits are quite common:

• Large signup bonuses
• Significant bonus points on spending at any of the chain’s subsidiary hotel brands
• Annual free night certificates
• Annual credits for use at any property
• Property credits for each stay at specific brands
• Automatic elite status qualification
• Elite qualifying night credits (annual or with spending)

If you aren’t loyal to a single brand, or if your lodging style is a bit more freewheeling, the advantages of elite status aren’t quite as strong. In that case, you might be better off collecting any bank’s travel rewards program, or even cash back, and using those rewards to book your accommodations.

After all, there are a huge variety of types of places to stay. When you’re looking at an Airbnb or boutique hotel, a hostel, or an all-inclusive resort, a flexible rewards program is often the only way to book.

Alternatively, other premium travel credit cards (not co-branded with a hotel) often have hotel benefits of their own. You can book hotels through third-party services, like American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts or the Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection, and receive many of the same perks as members with elite status.

What’s the optimal strategy for hotel credit cards?

If you’re a dedicated traveller who wants to see as much of the world as possible by maximizing your credit cards, hotel credit cards will play a significant role in your strategy.

On the whole, it’s relatively easier for Canadians to earn points that will cover your flights at a good value, compared to hotels and other places to stay.

Therefore, the objective of your hotel credit card strategy is to give you as many free hotel nights using points as possible, while elevating the quality of all your hotel nights (whether free or paid) through elite status benefits.

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card are the two most prominent hotel co-branded credit cards in Canada.

By getting both cards, you’ll instantly unlock enough points for a couple of free nights via the welcome bonus, and then you can rely on the cards’ anniversary Free Night Awards every year to outweigh their respective $120 and $150 annual fees.

Either of these two cards also gives you 15 elite qualifying nights towards your Marriott Bonvoy elite status. Stay 35 more nights, and you’ll reach the 50 elite qualifying nights required for Platinum Elite status, which is where your elite benefits (like free breakfast, suite upgrades, and lounge access) really start to kick in.

The American Express Platinum Card is another straightforward way to boost your hotel experiences, offering mid-tier Gold status with Marriott and Hilton, as well as access to the Fine Hotels & Resorts program to unlock elite-equivalent benefits at a wider range of luxury hotels around the world.

To further maximize points with the major hotel chains, you’d likely need to explore US credit cards, which offer a much wider range of more powerful credit cards among Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and several other global hotel chains.

Meanwhile, if you prefer to stay at other forms of accommodation, like non-chain independent hotels, hostels, or Airbnbs, then your credit card strategy may be more scattered across the various Big 5 banks’ points programs.

These points currencies can all be used to offset against the cash expenses associated with these other types of lodging options, or in RBC and TD’s cases, redeemed at a good value for your accommodation of choice through the Hotels.com and Expedia portals respectively.

No matter your preferred travel style, your accommodations are likely the second-largest travel expense after your flights, so a solid hotel credit card strategy that works for you should be a top priority alongside maximizing points for flight rewards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some questions we frequently hear from readers about the best hotel credit cards in Canada.

Will hotel status from my credit card give me elite qualifying nights?

No. Elite nights give you elite status, but elite status doesn’t give you elite nights.

For example, if you earned Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status by holding an American Express Platinum Card, you’d still need a full 50 elite qualifying nights to reach Platinum Elite, the next level up. Being Gold Elite doesn’t get you halfway there unless you’ve earned the qualifying nights to back it up.

When will I receive my 15 elite qualifying nights from the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards?

The 15 elite qualifying nights are typically deposited into your Marriott Bonvoy account within a few days after the credit card application is approved, and then on January 1 every year that you remain a cardholder.

Can I combine the 15 elite qualifying nights from the personal and business Marriott Bonvoy credit cards for a total of 30?

For the Canadian-issued Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, the answer is no: you can only earn a maximum of 15 elite qualifying nights per year, even if you hold both the personal and business versions of the Marriott Bonvoy credit card.

The only way to earn 30 elite qualifying nights from credit cards is by getting US credit cards. If you hold US-issued personal and business Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, then you’ll earn a total of 30 elite qualifying nights, or a total of 40 elite qualifying nights if your personal card is the Bonvoy Brilliant Card.

When will I receive my Free Night Award from the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards?

The Free Night Award is typically deposited into your Marriott Bonvoy account within eight weeks after the statement containing your renewal annual fee has been posted.

Can I pool points from different individuals’ Marriott Bonvoy credit cards into one account?

Yes, you can pool points between different Marriott Bonvoy accounts, although each account is limited to sending 100,000 points per calendar year and receiving 500,000 points per calendar year.

Points transfer can be done over the phone or on the Marriott website. The sender will need to provide the recipient’s Marriott Bonvoy account number in order to initiate the process.