Hotels News

Graduate hotels join Hilton ( lots of college town character )

a screenshot of a room with a blue column and a blue chair

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


You can now earn and burn HIlton Honors at Graduate hotels ( they announced they would be purchased in March of 2024 by Hilton ). The idea behind Graduate is that they’re almost all based in College towns, which is pretty awesome market, and it started in Nashville TN just 10 years ago focusing on older, more distinct properties that needed some TLC. This is a great get for Hilton – the acquisition brings a ton of character to the Hilton portfolio. Read more here

Remember Hilton uses dynamic pricing, and if you’re Hilton Silver or above you get a 5th night free. Here’s a look at the Graduate Evanston which was pricing in at 60k for the night with points and $381 wish cash ( tho over $400 when you factor in taxes, etc ).

a screenshot of a room

The full list of properties from WikiPedia:

Hotel Location Opening Year Nearby University
Graduate Annapolis Annapolis, Maryland 2019 United States Naval Academy
Graduate Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, Michigan 2016 University of Michigan
Graduate Athens Athens, Georgia 2014 University of Georgia
Graduate Berkeley Berkeley, California 2017 University of California, Berkeley
Graduate Bloomington Bloomington, Indiana 2018 Indiana University
Graduate Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2020 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduate Charlottesville Charlottesville, Virginia 2015 University of Virginia
Graduate Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 2020 University of Cincinnati
Graduate Columbia Columbia, South Carolina 2019 University of South Carolina
Graduate Columbus Columbus, Ohio 2019 Ohio State University
Graduate East Lansing East Lansing, Michigan 2021 Michigan State University
Graduate Eugene Eugene, Oregon 2019 University of Oregon
Graduate Evanston Evanston, Illinois 2020 Northwestern University
Graduate Fayetteville Fayetteville, Arkansas 2019 University of Arkansas
Graduate Iowa City Iowa City, Iowa 2018 University of Iowa
Graduate Knoxville Knoxville, Tennessee 2020 University of Tennessee
Graduate Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska 2017 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Graduate Madison Madison, Wisconsin 2015 University of Wisconsin-Madison
Graduate Minneapolis Minneapolis, Minnesota 2017 University of Minnesota
Graduate Nashville Nashville, Tennessee 2020 Vanderbilt University
Graduate New Haven New Haven, Connecticut 2019 Yale University
Graduate Oxford Oxford, Mississippi 2015 University of Mississippi
Graduate Palo Alto Palo Alto, California 2022 Stanford University
Graduate Providence Providence, Rhode Island 2020 Brown University
Graduate Richmond Richmond, Virginia 2017 Virginia Commonwealth University
Graduate Roosevelt Island New York (Roosevelt Island), New York 2021 Cornell Tech
Graduate Seattle Seattle, Washington 2018 University of Washington
Graduate State College State College, Pennsylvania 2019 Pennsylvania State University
Graduate Storrs Storrs-Mansfield, Connecticut 2020 University of Connecticut
Graduate Tempe Tempe, Arizona 2014 Arizona State University
Graduate Tucson Tucson, Arizona 2020 University of Arizona

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with blue lines and white text

Learn More

Affiliate Link

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

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.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.