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Beginner’s Guide: Always charge to the hotel room to maximize point earn
If you’re an expert in points and miles then you probably know some of these tricks, but there are a lot of beginners out there who are just getting their feet wet. The beginner series is designed to help out those who are new to the space and looking to hone their travel skills – they’re also meant to be helpful reminders to all the travel experts. In this brief post we explain how charging everything you spend at a hotel, resort, or partner property can earn you loads more points.
When you charge to the hotel room, you can earn hotel and credit card points.
Hotel programs give you points not only the price of the room, but for qualified purchases put on the room. So when you grab a coffee at the cafe downstairs…don’t throw a couple singles down – put it on the room. Dinner? Throw it on the room. This way you’re earning as many hotel points as possible, and then when you pay to check out, you’ll earn points on your credit card as well. Make sure that you’re charging hotel stays on the card you have that has a hotel category bonus.
A Great Vegas Example with Hyatt that you may not know about…
Hyatt and MGM have an agreement whereby you can earn status and points at their resorts, but did you know that you can charge at any hotel within the group to your mother hotel room…it provides a HUGE opportunity to earn points. Here’s a look at all of the MGM Resorts in Las Vegas ( check the list I provide down below for the participating properties ).
You’re staying at the MGM Grand
If you’re staying at MGM GRAND and go to dinner at BELLAGIO, you can charge that dinner to your MGM Grand hotel room. That’s fantastic. Or if you pop bottles and make it rain…think of all the points you can earn on your Dom P. Hitting up brunch to eat your body weight in mimosas and pancakes? CHARGE IT TO THE ROOM! Just remember that incidental purchases are limited limited to $5k on each stay for WOH points.
Eligible Incidental Spend:
Can I earn World of Hyatt points on M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend even if my stay is ineligible?
- Yes, you may charge your M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend to your room folio and earn World of Hyatt points, on up to $5,000 of M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend even if your stay does not qualify as an M life Rewards-Eligible Night.
What is eligible spend?
- Mlife Rewards-Eligible Room Spend is room rate spend on M life Rewards-Eligible Nights.
- M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend means any incidental charges charged directly to the member’s room/guest folio during a stay at a participating M life Rewards destination. Casino charges, taxes, gratuities, and charges at any retail location within an M life Rewards destination are not M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend. Members may receive World of Hyatt points on M life Rewards-Eligible Incidental Spend, regardless of whether their stay at the participating M life Rewards destination satisfies the definition of an M life Rewards-Eligible Night.
Here’s a list of MGM properties that are partnered with World of Hyatt.
- Bellagio®
- ARIA™
- Vdara™
- MGM Grand®
- The Signature at MGM Grand®
- Mandalay Bay®
- Delano Las Vegas
- Park MGM™
- NoMad Las Vegas®
- The Mirage®
- Monte Carlo™
- New York New York™
- Luxor®
- Excalibur®
When you check out…Throw your best travel rewards card down.
All of that eligible spend will earn you your Hyatt points, but when you pay the bill, you’ll earn credit card points. I end up putting a lot of my business travel spend on my Chase Ink Business Preferred because it earns be 3x points on every dollar I spend.
Learn MoreBeware..
You’ll also see exactly how much you’ve spent at once…which means you may need some st john’s wort nearby to boost your spirits. Or a shot of Don Julio…pick your poison.
Stacking VIP programs…
If you’re unfamiliar with hotel VIP programs I’d strongly suggest you read our comprehensive article on all hotel VIP programs. Not only will you be treated like a VIP, you’ll be paying the normal rack rate but have a ton of added benefits. Most include room upgrades, breakfast, and even a resort credit.
A list of all the Secret VIP Hotel programs you should be using
A few of the hotels up above are part of the Amex FHR program, but I want to note that Amex Prepaid hotels aren’t yielding WOH elite nights or points and may not qualify for other hotel programs either since they are prepaid. Only the purchases made to the hotel property are counting. So, if you make one of these Amex FHR reservations, and you want to earn WOH points and elite nights which I’d highly suggest, don’t prepay and instead book a room that you pay in full at check out. If you’d be
Here’s the difference in points you’d earn
It would look something like this:
$1000 eligible hotel purchases
- Pay with Amex Green – get 3x or 3000 Amex Points
- Credit to World of Hyatt – get 5x or 5000 Wold of Hyatt points
I hope this helps!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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