Free night certificates

  Credit Card Reference, Hotel Strategies

Several hotel credit cards give you a certificate, every year, that you can use for a free night at one of their hotels. With some cards, there are no additional requirements. With other cards, you need to spend a certain amount of money, over the course of the year, to qualify.

The main drawback to Free Night Certificates is that they are only valid for one year. If you don’t use them, you’ll lose them. If you don’t expect to have a good opportunity to use the certificates every year, it isn't worth paying the annual fee.

For most people, signing up for credit cards, just to receive travel benefits, good reward earning rates, or lucrative signup bonuses, isn't an irresponsible thing to do. It won't kill your credit rating—it just might improve it. But, if you have a problem with credit, or you aren't organized enough to avoid unwanted credit card fees, you'll need to stick to our other strategies for discounted travel. For more information, see our Credit Cards 101 guide.

Jump to

• Free night certificates from the major hotel programs
• Which certificates are the best options?
• Other options
• Tips

Free night certificates from the major hotel programs

Certificate "Point Values""

• To provide a rough idea of how much a certificate is worth, we calculate the point value of an award redemption at the maximum category or point cap of the certificate. For example, the "Point value" of an IHG certificate (that can be used for a hotel room that costs a maximum of 40,000 points) is the calculated as the value of 40,000 IHG points.
• But certificates are not actually nearly as valuable as the equivalent number of points. Free night certificates are not nearly as flexible as the corresponding chunk of points. You can't split the point value of the certificate to use for multiple nights, or augment it with additional points to use it as a more expensive hotel. If you use it for a hotel that cost fewer points, you don't receive any extra points back. Just as importantly, certificates will expire after a single year, while points won't expire if your account remains active.
• So these point values are more useful for comparing the values of different certificates, rather than deciding whether a credit card is worthwhile.

Marriott / SPG Certificates

• There is no spending requirement, but Marriott certificate can only be used for hotel nights that don't exceed a specified point cap. For example, the certificate from the “regular” Marriott card (Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card) can only be used for rooms that would require up to 35,000 points to book. Marriott Free Night Certificates.
• 35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels. 35,000 point certificates should be good enough to book solid hotels in most cities, and at least some hotels in expensive cities like New York. However, you are most likely to want to use your certificate when hotel rates are high, and Marriott is now increasing the required number of points during each hotel’s peak season. During peak season, certificates will only work at Marriott’s category 1-4 hotels, which tends to restrict you to Marriott’s lower tier brands, on the outskirts of cities.

Nevertheless, you should still be able to get more value than the effective cost of the certificates. Just don’t expect to find many opportunities to use your certificates for hotel rooms that cost $200 or more.

• 50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer hotels—Category 6 hotels during “standard” season, Category 5 hotels during “peak” season, and Category 7 hotels (out of 8) in “off-peak” season.
• If you are interested in additional certificates, you can sign up for multiple cards. However, if you want to also receive a signup bonus for each new card, you'll need to follow some restrictions that are detailed in our Marriott credit card guide.

Card	Max Points	Point "Value"	Effective "Cost"
Currently available cards
Marriott Boundless	35,000	$250	$95
Marriott Business	35,000	$250	$125
Marriott Brilliant	50,000	$350	$150
No longer available for new signups
Old SPG Card	35,000	$250	$95
Ritz Carlton	50,000	$350	$300
(Older) Marriott Premier	25,000	$180	$85
Marriott Premier Business	35,000	$250	$99

You can earn a 2nd certificate by spending $60,000 with the Marriott business card. This "benefit" is available for both the current and the older cards. However, the amount of reward points you would miss out on, by using the Marriott Business card instead of a better rewards card, makes spending this a bad deal.

Hyatt Certificates

• Every year you have the Hyatt Credit Card, you’ll receive a certificate for a free night, that can be used at Category 1-4 hotels (out of 7). This corresponds to hotels that cost up to 15,000 Hyatt points per night. Hyatt Free Night Certificates.
• You'll qualify for a second certificate, as soon as you spend $15,000 during your cardholder year. The opportunity cost of earning this certificate is around $100-120. So, if you are holding onto the card, and you are sure you will be able to use both certificates, it is usually worthwhile to try to use the card for $15,000 worth of spending.
• You can earn a second certificate by spending $15,000 with the card, during the year. The opportunity cost for doing so is about $100-150. If you know you are able to use the certificate, it is typically worthwhile to try to earn the certificate.

Card	Max Points	Point "Value"	Required Spend	Effective Cost
Hyatt Card	15,000	$260	0	$95
2nd certificate	15,000	$260	$15,000	$115

• Even if you don’t have the credit card, you’ll earn an Hyatt free night certificate when you reach 30 elite night credits each year, and when you stay at your 5th (and your 10th) Hyatt brands. The credits you earn from your Hyatt credit card count towards the 30 night cap. In addition, you’ll earn an “uncapped” certificate if you hit 60 nights.

There is no time limit for earning the certificates you get by staying in a variety of Hyatt brands. For example, if you stay in a Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Place, and Hyatt House over a period of a few years, and you complete a stay at a Hyatt Regency, you’ll immediately qualify for the extra certificate.

IHG Certificates

• IHG Certificates can only be used for rooms that would cost up to 40,000 points per night. IHG is the loyalty program for several hotel chains, including InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn hotels. Up to recently, they could be used at any hotel, and were the best free night certificates available from any card. IHG Free Night Certificates.
• Unless you still have the older IHG card, you can’t earn more than a single certificate each year. You’ll receive your certificate some time after you renew your cards.

Card	Points Cap	Point "Value"	Effective Cost
IHG Premier	40,000	$200	$89
IHG Select	40,000	$200	$49

Hilton Certificates

The Hilton Certificates work differently from the other programs—they can be used at (almost) any hotel, but only on weekend nights. For example, you could use your certificate for an bungalow at the Conrad Maldives that would cost over $1000 per night, or a luxury Waldorf Astoria hotel in locations all around the world. Weekend means Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights. Some of these certificates require a certain amount of spending on the card during the cardholder year, in order to qualify. Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificates.

Hilton's premium Aspire card gives you a free night certificate, when you first get the card, along with the one you get every year you renew the card.

Card	Required Spend	"Cost" of Spend	Effective Annual Fee
Hilton Surpass	15000	$150	$95
Hilton Business	15000	$150	$95
Hilton Aspire	0	0	-$50-$450

The annual fee on the Hilton Aspire card is $450, but it comes with an annual $250 credit that you can use to pay for a room or incidentals at Hilton resorts, and an annual $250 credit that you can use for airline incidentals on your favorite airline (the Airline credit works identical to the one from the Amex Platinum card). If you can get full value from these credits, the card more than pays for itself, and throws in the free night certificate every year (without any spending requirement).

If you going to get the Hilton Ascend or Hilton Business cards, we would recommend spending enough money to earn the certificate. It is pretty easy to get more than $150 in value, even if you only have an opportunity to use the certificate at a less extravagant hotel. However, we wouldn't necessarily get the card, just to earn the certificate. The total cost would be $245 per year. Make sure you are getting sufficient value from the other benefits, such as the automatic Hilton Gold status that entitles you to free breakfast at any of the program's hotels. Get Free Breakfast or Club Floor Access with the Right Credit Card.

With both the Business and Aspire cards, you can earn a 2nd certificate if you spend a total of $60,000 per year—but we wouldn't recommend it. Even if you are capable of generating this amount of spending, you'll wind up paying too much for the certificate, especially since it will expire in only one year. You'll miss out on about $450 in rewards by spending enough to earn a second certificate on the Business version of the card, and about $600 in rewards by spending enough to earn a second certificate on the Aspire version of the card. The cheaper way to get multiple certificates is simply through one of the other cards (at an incremental cost of perhaps $250), and it is hard (but not impossible) to get more than $450-600 in value from one of these certificates.

Which certificates are the best options?

Every one of these certificates (except perhaps the older Marriott Category 1-5 certificates) provide good value.

You should be able to use them to save more money on a hotel room than they cost to acquire. But, if you don't get a chance to the certificates before they expire, you wind up "losing" the money you paid to have the credit card in the first place.

Therefore, it is a good idea to avoid getting too many of these certificates each year. You'll want to naturally have enough opportunities to take advantage of any certificates that you get. So, which ones are the most valuable?

• The Chase, IHG, and Marriott cards are affected by the Chase 5/24 rule. If you've gotten at least 5 credit cards in the past 24 months, you can't get approved. If you've gotten fewer than 5 cards, you may want to use any available "slots" on more valuable cards. Even though the Marriott cards are affected by 5/24, you can still get Marriott certificates from the Amex SPG cards. Dealing with the Chase 5/24 Rule.
• If you like luxury hotels, make sure to get one or more of the Hilton certificates. They are the only ones that you can use to stay at (almost) any of the program's hotels. With Hilton, that includes most of the luxury Waldorf Astoria and Conrad hotels, super-expensive ski lodges during peak ski season, and extravagant beach resorts around the world. Excluded hotels.


Unless you can are sure you can get value from the Hilton Aspire card's travel credits, it will cost a bit more to acquire these certificates than the alternatives; and you can only use them on weekend nights. But, they are one of the most effective ways to get a discounted night at a spectacular hotel.

• You may have trouble getting good use of the Hyatt certificate, but it provides sold value when you can use it. The Hyatt program is much smaller than Marriott / SPG's, IHG's, or Hilton's. With the other certificates, if you are willing to settle for hotels that would only cost $100-150 per night, you can use your certificate almost anywhere. But, with Hyatt, they may not have hotel, or the only hotels may be too expensive. For example, in our example locations of Manhattan and Hawaii there are no hotels where you could use your certificate, and in Paris, you would only be able to use your certificate at the airport, or at the mediocre Hyatt Regency on the edge of town.

However, in most major cities and tourist destinations, the Hyatt hotel options would often be slightly nicer than what would be available from the Marriott / SPG certificates (especailly during peak-season), or the IHG Certificates.

• The IHG certificates can be used in more useful locations than the Marriott / SPG 35,000 point certificates, but the hotel options are more mundane. Once Marriott / SPG introduce their peak-season pricing, it will not be possible to use the 35,000 point Marriott / SPG certificates in the most valuable locations, like New York City or Paris. With IHG, you'll have a number of different choices in the same locations, some of which are well reviewed. In general, there are qualifying Holiday Inn hotels almost everywhere that there are chain-brand hotels.


However, when you do get a chance to use your Marriott / SPG certificates, you'll often have an opportunity to do so at a more distinctive hotel, or one of the city's major downtown hotels. That includes standard season dates at nice hotels in fairly expensive locations, when you can use the certificates at Category 5 hotels.

• The Marriott/SPG 50,000 point certificates should always provide good value. With the higher points cap, you'll be able to stay at more expensive destinations, like New York or Paris, even in peak season. And you can take advantage of standard season rates at more luxurious resorts and hotels.
• You can often find opportunities to get rooms worth $200-400 per night with the "capped" certificates from all three programs, as long as you wind up occasionally staying at hotels with room rates this high. This is especially true during holiday periods or special events.
• With the possible exception of the Hyatt certificate, it is usually easy to "unload" your certificate at a hotel that would cost $100-150 per night. All of these hotel chains (except Hyatt) have literally thousands of hotels where you can use your certificate. If it doesn't look like you'll have the ability to use your certificate at one of the more valuable hotels, you can usually just use it when you are staying in a less expensive location, at an airport hotel at the beginning or ending of a trip, or for a quick weekend trip to a destination near where you live. You might not get a room night that is worth hundreds of dollars per night, but you should easily get more value than it cost to acquire the certificate.

Other options

Most people will be interested in one or more of the options from Marriott / SPG, Hyatt, IHG, or Hilton. But, there are also some other options.

Total Rewards Credit Card Webpage	Total Reward Visa card. Total Rewards is the loyalty program of the Caesar’s and Harrah’s family of casinos.  Their credit card comes with automatic Platinum status the first year. Your status renews every year that you spend $5,000 on the card. Total Rewards Platinum status comes with the ability to book a complimentary 3-night stay at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas every year. You'll even get a pass good for valuable free activities and food, while you are at the hotel. If this is something that you can take advantage of, it is hugely valuable benefit. The card has no annual fee, but you’ll miss out on about $75 in rewards, by spending $5,000 on the card, instead of taking advantage of your general-purpose reward card.
Wyndham Credit Card Guide	Wyndham Rewards card. You can also get the free 3-night stay at Atlantis, via the Wyndham Rewards card. It comes with Wyndham Platinum status, which will be automatically matched to Total Rewards Platinum status, and entitle you to the Atlantis benefit. There is no minimum spending requirement, but the card has a $75 annual fee.
Radisson Rewards Credit Card Guide	Radisson Rewards cards. These certificates only work at their US locations. Unfortunately, most of the Radisson Hotel Group's nicest hotels are in Europe. Unless you regularly travel to one of the few US locations that have super nice Radisson hotels, it is hard to get good value from these certificates. However, if you can make good use of these certificates, you can earn up to 3 per year per card (by spending a total of $30,000). Radisson Rewards Free Night Certificates There are four different Radisson Rewards cards, so you could possibly earn up to 12 nights per year. With each of the cards, you’ll need to spend $10,000 per year, to qualify for the certificate. Depending on the card you use, you’ll earn 1x to 5x points on your spending, worth from .4 – 2%. So, for each $10,000 you spend, you’ll be giving up $50–200 in rewards, that you could have earned from your general-purpose reward card. With annual-fees ranging from $0 - $75, the best value is the Premier Rewards card, with a $75 fee, and $50 worth of lost rewards.

Free night certificate tips

• In most cases, you won't receive a certificate when you first get the card. One exception is the Hilton Aspire card which provides your first certificate as part of the signup bonus itself. With other cards, you’ll receive your certificate some time after you pay the fee to renew the card, or when you first meet any spending requirement. Note that you typically only receive anniversary certificates 1-2 months after your annual fee, so that you can’t receive the certificate and then quickly cancel the card to avoid paying the annual fee. However in some cases, you can downgrade the card after you receive your certificate, and get a partial refund.

Unfortunately, this means you can't wait until you have a specific trip planned to decide to get a credit card that provides annual free night certificates. You'll need to signup proactively.

• It is helpful to get multiple certificates from the same program. If you only receive a single certificate each year, it can sometimes be hard to use conveniently. If you choose an expensive hotel to use your certificate, and you need to stay more than one night, you’ll either need to switch hotels or pay a lot for the additional nights.
• Spending enough money to qualify for a certificate is a better deal during the initial year. You will have already spent a bunch of money in order to qualify for the signup bonus. For example, if you spent $2,000 to earn the signup bonus on the Hilton Ascend card, you will only need to spend an additional $13,000 to earn the signup bonus. Because the Hilton card's spending requirements are calendar year based, it is best to signup for the card earlier in the year, to give you more time to spend the full $15,000.
• If you would struggle to meet the spending requirement, it may be worthwhile to leverage an option that allows you to shift more of your spending to your credit cards. For example, you could use Plastiq to shift your rent or mortgage payments to your credit card. You'll typically pay a fee of around 2.5% to increase your spending in this way, but you'll receive extra points along with your certificate. For example, if you spent the full $15,000 to earn the Hilton certificate, you'd pay $375, but you'd earn 45,000 Hilton points, worth $160, plus a certificate good at any hotel. Pay Any Bill with a Credit Card (To Increase Your Credit Card Spending).
• Your stay needs to take place within 12 months of receiving your certificate. This is the biggest drawback of free night certificates. If you have a certificate that is about to expire, you can try calling in, tell them you are having a problem, and see if they can extend the certificate date. You might get lucky—just don't count on it.
• Don't get too many certificates. You want to make sure that you have natural opportunities to use your certificates every year. If you get too many certificates and you need to let one expire, you're wasting money. Scale slowly, so you can gauge how many certificates you can comfortably use each year.
• Don’t hold onto your certificates for too long. Unless you already have a trip planned, where you know you will get better value from your hotel certificates, considering using them whenever you have an opportunity, even if it is at a less expensive hotel,. Many people decide to hold onto them, hoping to get more value later in the year, and then wind up not getting a chance to use them before the expire. A bird in the hand...
• If you have a spouse/partner, you can each get cards and earn twice as many certificates. t is usually better to spread your applications across the year, to spread out the expiration dates. You can use certificates from different people to book multiple nights in a row, and then have the front-desk link the reservations, so that you don’t have to switch rooms.
• You’ll keep any certificates in your account, even if you cancel your credit card. Just like any points you earn, they are associated with your loyalty account, not with your card.

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