I have a question:
Is it better to take nights or points when you sign up for a hotel credit card ?
Or looking at it another way, are the nights as good a deal as I think they are ?
We had a wonderful experience with the Marriott card. I preferred the idea of receiving 5 nights when I signed up for the Chase Marriott card.
The nights are worth up to 50,000 points each, so that means equivalent to 250,000 points.
My usage:
This may be the secret to getting the most value out of the nights.
Choose your hotel carefully.
Using the night of November 25,2024 as the control date I checked the St Regis in New York. It is 120,000 points for that night.
The St Regis in Morocco is 71,000 for the night, Mexico City is 92,000 points for the night, Rome is 116,000 and so on.
When we used our nights we checked in to the St Regis, Bangkok.
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/bkkxr-the-st-regis-bangkok/overview/
Using next week November 25th as the sample again the St Regis in Bangkok is 45,000 points and $58 a night.
This is for the same St Regis quality as everywhere. 45,000 points versus 120,000 points or 92,000 points and so on.
When we stayed there I arranged for the hotel to send a limo to fetch us from the airport. The limo was an extra cost.
I saw the driver make a call about 5 minutes before we arrived at the hotel, and when we did arrive there was a concierge and 3 porters waiting to greet us.
We were taken straight up to our room, sat down with a nice cup of tea and only then did we get checked in.
About 15 minutes later once we were comfortable our luggage arrived. They even offered to unpack for us but we were happy to do it ourselves.
Each floor has a butler that you can call for anything. Maybe pressing your evening outfit or a pot of tea and cookies.
The hotel was wonderful, as I presume all St Regis hotels are.
We had a wonderful breakfast in our room, everything you could want from the meal.
There are many extras in the room such as various toiletries, an umbrella, various size glasses and a lovely bath.
Each evening a bottle of champagne was opened with a sword in tribute to the warriors of the past. You can stand on the balcony outside the bar sipping champagne and eating snacks with the wonderful view of the Bangkok skyline.
There is a lovely pool, a signature afternoon tea service and many more facilities available.
Conclusion:
The point I am making is that if you have 250,000 points you could use them for only 2 nights at the St Regis in New York, or you could use them for 5 nights in Bangkok with the exact same signature St Regis service as at every St Regis around the world.
Just a thought to ponder when you are deciding on which credit card to choose.
I would highly recommend choosing the nights as long as you use them wisely.
Let me know if I am missing something about the value of points instead.
