Difference between revisions of "Reciprocal museum programs"

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{{#seo:|description=Everything you need to know to get free hotel nights using credit card points and free night certificates.}}
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'''You can easily earn loyalty points from hotel credit cards, promotions, and actual hotel stays, and use these points for free hotel stays'''. Unlike frequent flyer programs, availability is not an issue. If there is a standard room available, you can book it with your points.
 
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'''Many hotel credit cards also provide access to "free night certificates" that you can use, instead of points, for free hotel nights'''.
 
  
 
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Several of these strategies involve signing up for hotel credit cards. Unless you have a problem with credit, signing up for credit cards, just to receive their travel benefits, can make a lot of sense. It won't kill your credit rating—it is more likely to improve it. For more information, see our {{Link|Credit Cards 101}} guide.
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*[[#Getting free night certificates from credit cards|Credit card free night certificates]]
 
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*[[#Promotional free night certificates|Promotional free night certificates]]
 
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*[[#Hotel reward programs: the very basics|Hotel award night basics]]
 
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*[[#Getting points to use for award nights|Getting hotel points]]
 
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*[[#Seeing which award hotels are located at your destination|Seeing which award hotels are located at your destination]]
 
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*[[#Tips for getting good value from your award points|Tips for getting good value from your award points]]
 
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*[[#Determining if booking an award night is a good use of your points|Determining if booking an award night is a good use of your points]]
 
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=== Hotel reward programs: the very basics ===
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=== How reciprocal museum programs work ===
  
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If you are truly a newbie to the world of hotel loyalty programs, there are a few things that you need to know.  
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When you become a member of any museum or attraction in the program, you get free access to all of the other participating locations. For example, if you join the Science Museum in your home town, you can freely visit dozens of science museums all around the country.  
  
 
<ul class="bulletlist">
 
<ul class="bulletlist">
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<li>'''You usually are only entitled to "standard" admission'''. You usually need to pay extra for special exhibits, IMAX movies, and other valued-added attractions. Because these extras are often available as part of a discounted package, if you want the full experience, your discount might not amount to that much.</li>
  
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<li>'''You might not immediately recognize the names of a couple of the largest hotel programs'''. The largest hotel company in the world is called the “Intercontinental Hotel Group” or “IHG”. They are the parent company of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and a few other companies; but are named after their high-end Intercontinental brand. The Marriott program encompasses dozens of hotel brands that you might not associate with Marriott.</li>  
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<li>'''Nearby museums are usually not included'''. With most programs, you WON'T get reciprocal access to any museums that are located close to your home museum. Sometimes "nearby" is defined by an official number of miles, other times it is any location in the same state, and sometimes it is ad-hoc. So, don't expect privileges with other museums in the same metropolitan area or state.</li>  
  
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{{Image|HotelBrands.jpg}}
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<li>'''Joining an out-of-state museum can provide access to all the locations that are close to your home'''. If you want privileges at all the museums in your area, you can often join a museum in some other city, rather than your favorite nearby museum. While you'll be blocked at locations located nearby the institution you join, you won't be blocked at any of your local locations. There are some downsides to this approach. Your membership money will be supporting the museum you join, rather than the one in your area; and you won't be able to take advantage of many other membership benefits, such as access to special member's only visiting hours or events. With some programs, this approach isn't even possible, as you'll be blocked to local museums based on the address on your ID, rather than the address of the museum you belong to.</li>
  
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<li>'''You can earn and redeem points with any of the program's brands'''. For example, you can use Marriott points to stay at Westins or Delta Resorts, and not just at Marriott hotels.</li>  
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<li>'''Reciprocal benefits are not available with many less expensive memberships'''. You'll need to join your local museum at a certain level. Each of the programs enforces a minimum membership cost to access reciprocal benefits. For example, no museum in the program can provide reciprocal benefits with any membership level that costs less than $100 per year.</li>  
  
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<li>'''Some hotel points are much more valuable than others'''. Different hotel loyalty programs require very different amounts of points for free hotel night. For example, for a roughly equivalent hotel, Hyatt might require 12,000, Marriott might require 30,000, and Hilton might require 40,000 points. The expected value of different hotel points ranges from a low of about .4 cents per point, to a high of 1.75 cents per point. {{Link|Hotel Point Values}}</li>  
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<li>'''You can often get a membership discount'''. The best place to check is Groupon, but other promotional codes are sometimes available.</li>  
  
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This is very different from the world of frequent flyer miles, where most airlines charge roughly the same number of miles for the same type of flights.  
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<li>'''The number of guests depends on the type of membership you have'''. Typically, if you have an individual membership, you'll reciprocal benefits only apply to one person. If you have a family membership, you'll receive benefits based on the family membership of the museum you are visiting, not your home museum.</li>
  
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<li>'''Each hotel program has an award chart where the number of required points is based on the “category” of the hotel'''. For example, Hyatt currently has seven categories of hotels ranging from 5,500 to 30,000 points per night. Hotel programs generally keep the point costs for each category constant, but periodically move the hotels from one category to another. A hotel that was in category 5 one year, might be in category 6 the next. As you might expect, many more hotels move to more expensive categories than move into less expensive categories, so a typical hotel award night has gradually required more points.</li>  
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<li>'''Memberships are NOT typically based on the calendar year'''. They usually last for one year after you join. With some museums and attractions, it can take some time for you to receive your membership card. So, you'll need to apply weeks before you you plan to take advantage of any reciprocal benefits.</li>  
  
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{{Image|HyattRewardChart.jpg|480}}
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<li>'''To get access, you'll need to carry your membership card'''. There is no way to look you up in some "member database". You'll need to have a valid membership card and photo ID.</li>  
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<li>'''If there are rooms available, you can almost always use your points'''. Unlike frequent flyer programs, hotel programs generally don't limit the number of rooms they make available for award redemptions. If they still have rooms available, you can almost always book them with your points. However, this only applies to regular rooms. If the only thing left are deluxe rooms, junior suites, etc., you may not be able to book an award night, or you may have to use a higher number of points.</li>
 
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Occasionally, a specific hotel will have very few rooms that are considered "standard", with most of their rooms being considered to be special "view" rooms. This can make it nearly impossible to use your points.
 
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<li>'''Marriott and Starwood have merged'''. They unified their reward programs in August of 2018.</li>
 
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<li>'''You'll usually receive any membership perks when you book an award room'''. For example, if you are entitled to free breakfast at Hilton hotels, you'll receive this benefit, even when you are using points to book your room. With most programs, you'll even receive credit towards higher-level elite status.</li>
 
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
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=== <span id="Credit Card Points">Getting points to use for award nights</span> ===
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=== Major reciprocal museum programs ===
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Unless you travel a lot for work, you probably aren’t going to earn very many points through actual hotel stays. Sophisticated travel hackers can sometimes take advantage of loyalty program promotions to earn larger than normal amounts of points on their paid stays. But for most people, it takes a long time to earn enough points to be able to redeem a free night the normal way.
 
  
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So how do you earn enough points to able to get multiple free hotel nights every year?
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While there are many smaller or more specialized reciprocal programs such as the Empire State Museums Reciprocal Program (mix of museums in New York state) or Connections (photography museums around the country), that may be interesting based on your location or interest, the following programs include the widest range of the most popular museums and attractions.
  
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<ul class="bulletlist">
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==== Art Museums ====
  
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<li>'''Most of your free nights are likely to come from signing up for credit cards'''. Each time you sign up for a card, you’ll generally receive enough points for 1-3 nights at a high-end hotel, or up to dozen (or more) nights at a less expensive option. A few credit cards provide free night certificates instead of hotel points.</li>
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Unlike Science Museums, Zoos, and Children's Museums, Art Museum reciprocal programs are pretty fragmented. Some of the more significant programs include.  
  
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{{ImageX|CreditCards1.jpg}}
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<ul class="checklist">
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<li>'''[//www.metmuseum.org/join-and-give/membership/faqs Metropolitan Reciprocal Membership Program]'''. Includes 15 of the top art museums in the country, anchored by the Met in NYC.</li>
  
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<li>'''Unless you have a problem with handling credit, signing up for credit cards just to collect signup bonuses is a sensible thing to do'''. It won’t kill your credit rating—in fact, it is more likely to improve it. {{Link|Credit Cards 101}}.</li>
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{{Image|MET.jpg}}
 
   
 
   
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<li>'''You can sign up for multiple of these cards over the next few years, and take advantage of dozens of free hotel nights'''. In this table, you can see how many free nights you can expect to get from the typical signup bonus of each card. {{Link|signup intro}}</li>  
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<li>'''[//www.artic.edu/support-us/membership/member-faqs Art Museum Reciprocal Membership Program]'''. Includes 15 of the top art museums in the country, anchored by Art Institute of Chicago. A few museums belong to both this program and the Met's program. </li>  
  
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{{Hotel Signup Table}}
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<li>'''[//sites.google.com/view/marplist/participating-museums Museum Alliance Reciprocal Program]''' (MARP). Includes 32 major US art museums, but not quite at the same overall level as the Met and Art Institute programs.</li>
  
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<li>'''Free Hyatt hotel nights are a good use of your Chase Ultimate Reward points'''. Another way to get more hotel points is to earn Chase Ultimate Reward points, and convert them into Hyatt points. Each Ultimate Reward point coverts into one Hyatt point, which you can then use for free Hyatt hotel rooms</li>
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{{Image|Guggenheim.jpg}}
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{{Logo|Ultimate Rewards}}
 
  
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Ultimate Rewards is a program operated by Chase for a several of its credit cards, and is probably the best credit card based loyalty program. We strongly recommend signing up for their cards, and using them for your credit card spending, to earn large quantities of Ultimate Reward points. The points can then be converted into different types of frequent flyer miles to redeem free airplane tickets, or they can be used (like cash) to pay for any type of travel. But, one of the best ways to get good value from your Ultimate Reward points is to convert them to Hyatt points, and use them for free hotel rooms. {{Link|Ultimate Rewards}}.
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<li>'''[//thewalters.org/support/membership/art-museum-reciprocal-network/ Art Museum Reciprocal Network]''' (AMRN). Similar to the MARP program, but a different cluster of major museums. </li>
  
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<li>'''Other than using Ultimate Rewards points for Hyatt redemptions, it rarely makes sense to transfer flexible credit card points to hotel programs'''. Amex operates a loyalty program called Membership Rewards, and Citibank operates a program called ThankYou points. Both programs allow you to transfer your points into various hotel programs to redeem for free hotel nights. However, the value you get when you do so, is lower than you can typically receive using these points in other ways. You can also transfer your Ultimate Reward points to hotel partners other than Hyatt, but these other options typically aren’t worthwhile. {{Link|Transferable Points}}.</li>  
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<li>'''[//whitney.org/Support/Membership/ReciprocalProgram The Whitney Reciprocal Program]'''. Unlike the other programs, this isn't a mutual alliance amongst a group of museums. Rather, joining the Whitney ($140/2) gives you access to 16 other museums in the US and Europe, and joining any of those museums gives you access to the Whitney. But the various partner museums don't necessarily have any reciprocal benefits between themselves.</li>
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</ul>
  
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<li>'''Using the “Cash & Points trick” you can purchase IHG and Choice points at good enough prices that they are always interesting award options'''. Every hotel program allows you to purchase additional points, rather than earning them. However, the rate for buying hotel points is normally too expensive to be worthwhile. But, with both IGH and Choice, you can take advantage of the “Cash & Points” trick to purchase last-minute points at lower-than-normal rates. While buying points to use for an award isn’t really a free night, it essentially allows you to purchase rooms at what is often a significant discount.</li>  
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==== Others ====
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<ul class="checklist">
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<li>'''[//www.astc.org/passport/ Association of Science and Technology Centers Travel Passport]''' (ASTC). Provides benefits at over 350 museums in North America, plus a smattering of museums elsewhere in the world. Includes almost every large science museum, with the notable exceptions of the Exploratarium and the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in New York. You won't have privileges at museums that are within 90 miles of your home address or your membership museum. [//www.astc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ASTCTravelPassport_6pt_Nov2018-Apr2019.pdf Participating Museums].</li>
  
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For example, you can purchase IHG points for {{Value|ihgcash}} cents each (and sometimes less). If you are interested in staying at a Holiday Inn that costs 15,000 points per night, the required points would cost around {{Value|ihgcash|15000}}. This might be significantly cheaper than the normal price for the room. {{Link|cash & points trick}}.
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{{Image|BostonGenerator.jpg}}
  
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<li>'''It can make sense to purchase hotel points when they are running good promotions'''. While the normal purchase prices are too expensive, hotel companies sometimes have sales where you receive bonus points for every purchase. Sometimes, this bonus rates can be as high as 100%, meaning that you’ll get double the normal number of points. When they are running a particularly good sale, it can make sense to purchase points and have them on-hand for future redemptions. {{Link|Hotel Point Purchase Promotions}}.</li></ul>
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<li>'''[//narmassociation.org/ North American Reciprocal Membership]''' (NARM). This is the largest reciprocal museum program, with over 1,000 participating art, history, and specialty museums, primarily in the United States. Most of the hightest-profile museums are not members, but you'll get free access to many excellent museums in every corner of the country. [https://a1pir3oc6nm1k9qfq28au9qx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NARM_Winter_2018-2019.pdf Participating Museums].</li>
  
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=== Seeing which award hotels are located at your destination===
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Most '''[//sites.google.com/site/roammuseums/home Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums]''' (ROAM) members are also part of the much larger NARM program. But, if your membership includes both, you'll have access to some additional museums that are members are ROAM, but not NARM.  [https://sites.google.com/site/roammuseums/home/list-of-roam-museums Participating Museums].
  
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Usually the first step for using your hotel points is to determine which hotels are available where you are travelling, and how many points they cost per night. Remember that you can book hotels that belong to any of the hotel programs where you have a point balance.  
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<li>'''[//www.aza.org/reciprocity Association of Zoos and Aquariums]''' (AZA). Provides reciprocal benefits at over 150 North American zoos and aquariums. It includes most major zoos, but a few of the most significant zoos (including the San Diego Zoo Bronx Zoo, and Brookfield Zoo) don't participate, and it doesn't provide benefits at most major aquariums. [//www.aza.org/assets/2332/reciprocitychart.pdf Participating locations].</li>
  
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{{Box}}
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Unlike most of the other major programs, you usually only receive a 50% discount, rather than free admission. However, memberships with a smaller set of participating zoos and aquariums will give you free admission with that same set of locations (and 50% off everywhere else).
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In addition, you can always book IHG and Choice hotels, by taking advantage of the opportunity to purchase reasonably priced last-minute points. And, if you have Ultimate Reward points, you can often get value on Hyatt hotels as well.
 
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{{/Box}}
 
  
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Unfortunately, there are no longer any really good tools for finding all of the chain hotels at your destination. There are several different options, but each has their flaws.  {{Link|finding hotels}}
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{{Image|KansasCityZoo.png}}
  
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<ul class="bulletlist">
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<li>'''[//findachildrensmuseum.org/reciprocal-network/  Association of Children's Museums]''' (ACM). Provides benefits at around 200 different children's museums. Like the Zoo program, and unlike the other programs, you'll only receive 50% off the regular admission. Nearly every US children's museum participates, admission is good for up to six people, and the conveniently don't block privileges at nearby museums.  [http://childrensmuseums.org/images/Reciprocal-Brochure_1.17.19.pdf Participating Museums].</li>
  
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<li>'''For now, the only truly reliable approach is to individually search each hotel program's website'''. [//www.marriott.com/search/default.mi Marriott], [//hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/index.html Hilton], [//www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/reservation IHG], [//www.hyatt.com/ Hyatt], [//www.choicehotels.com/ Choice], [//www.wyndhamhotels.com/wyndham-rewards Wyndham], [//www.accorhotels.com/gb/usa/index.shtml Club Accor], [//www.bestwestern.com/en_US.html Best Western].  {{Link|Hotel Program List}}.</li>
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<li>'''[http://timetravelers.mohistory.org/ Time Travelers]'''. Provides benefits at more than 300 historical sites and museums throughout the United State. [//csv.mohistory.org/static/pdf/institutions.pdf Participating Locations].</li>
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</ul>
  
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<li>'''[//wandr.me/hotel-tools/hotel-hustle/ Hotel Hustle]'''. Hotel Hustle searches across all the major hotel programs, rather than requiring you to search them one-by-one. Unfortunately, it is annoying slow, and often doesn't display the point cost for many of the hotel programs. So, you can use it to see what hotels exist, but you can't quickly see how many points they would cost.</li>
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=== Access multiple programs with a single membership ===
  
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{{Image|HotelHustle.jpg}}
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Many museums belong to multiple reciprocal programs. Becoming a member one of these museums lets you enjoy the benefits of multiple programs for a single membership fee.  
  
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<li>'''[//awardmapper.com Award Mapper]'''. Award Mapper does a great job of showing most of the possible award hotels on a map. You can even continuously move the map to see all of the hotels in any area. Unfortunately, its database of hotels is out-of-date, so you won't see all of your options. And, for hotel programs that have variable point costs (such as Hilton and Marriott), it will only show you the point range, and not the actual points cost.</li>
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==== Art Museums ====
  
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{{Image|AwardMapperResults.png}}
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<ul class="checklist">
  
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<li>'''[//www.yeekapp.com Yeek]'''. Yeek is quick, up-to-date, and allows you to easily compare the point cost to the "best available" cash rate. Unfortunately, it only supports Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt, doesn't provide a map view, and is buggy. For example, it starts out in Chinese, and when you switch to English in the menu, the text doesn't change until after you do your first search. And even then, calendar months are still displayed only in Chinese.</li>
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<li>'''Both the Met and Art Institute Programs'''. A few museums belong to both of the most prestigious art museum programs.</li>  
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<li>'''[//preferredhotels.com/destinations?search=top-nav Preferred Hotels & Resorts]'''. You can use Choice hotel points to book rooms at many of the hotels in the Preferred Hotel & Resorts program. If you are looking for a luxury hotel, make sure to check the Preferred Hotel directory. These hotels won’t show up in the other tools. {{Link|choice preferred}}.</li></ul>
 
  
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=== Tips for getting good value from your award points ===
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<ul>
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<li>Qualifying membership at [//www.philamuseum.org/membership/?page=2 Philadelphia Museum of Art] costs $250 and also includes a membership in AMRN.</li>
  
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You’ve been building up loyalty points through a combination of credit-card signup bonuses, hotel promotions, shopping portals, and hotel stays. Now, it’s time to travel. How do you best use your points to get free hotel rooms?
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<li>The [//www.lacma.org/membership/join/levels/friend Los Angeles County Museum of Art] (LACMA) costs $250 and also includes reciprocal benefits with the Whitney.</li>
  
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<ul class="bulletlist">
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<li>The [//www.dma.org/support-partners/dma-members Dallas Museum of Art] costs $250 and also includes a membership in the Western Reciprocal Museum Program and ROAM.</li>
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</ul>
  
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<li>'''Point-based stays are most valuable during periods of top demand, such as during festivals and events, ski season, or school breaks'''. The number of points that you need to redeem for a hotel are based on the normal rates for the hotel—the more expensive the hotel or destination, the more points you need. While some programs require more points during “high season”, award rates don’t fluctuate as much as regular room rates do. As a result, your most lucrative redemptions are going to be when you need to visit a destination when the hotel rates are high—during ski season, school breaks, special events, holidays, and peak travel season.</li>  
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<li>'''One of the Met or Art Institute plus more'''. A few museums belong to either the Met program or the Art Institute and one of the next tier programs (MARP or AMRN).</li>  
  
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{{ImageX|Skiing.jpg}}
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{{Table|Basic}}
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!Museum
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!style="width: .5in;"|Fee
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!style="width: .5in;"|Met
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!style="width: .5in;"|Chicago
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!style="width: .5in;"|MARP
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!style="width: .5in;"|AMRN
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!style="width: .5in;"|WRMP
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!style="width: .5in;"|NARM
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!style="width: .5in;"|ROAM
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!style="width: 1in;"|Other
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|-
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|[//denverartmuseum.org/membership-support/membership-details-benefits Denver Art Museum]
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|$150||y|| || ||y|| || || ||[//museumswest.org/ Museums West]
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|-
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|[//discovernewfields.org/give-and-join/become-member Newfields] (Indianapolis Art Museum)
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|$250||y|| ||y|| || ||y||y||[//ahsgardening.org/gardening-programs/rap/find/statebystate AHS]
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|-
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|[//www.clevelandart.org/join-and-give/membership-and-circles/about-membership Cleveland Museum of Art]
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|$250|| ||y||y||y|| || || ||
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|-
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|[//www.mfah.org/membership/levels/ Museum of Fine Arts] (Houston)
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|$185|| ||y||y|| || || || ||
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|-
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|[//walkerart.org/support/membership/ Walker Art Center] (Minneapolis)
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|$125|| ||y||y|| || || || ||Whitney
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|-
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|[//nelson-atkins.org/join/member-benefits/reciprocal-membership-programs/ Nelson Atkins Museum] (Kansas City)
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|$250|| ||y|| ||y|| ||y||y||
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{{/Table|Basic}}
  
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<span id="5th Night Free"></span>
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</ul>
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<li>'''You are sometimes better off taking advantage of a cash and point redemption (when you can)'''. Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to use "cash and points" awards, which require fewer points, if you pay a cash surcharge. Unless you earn so many points that you can book award rooms every time you travel, you are going to make a combination of award and paid reservations over the course of the year. You’ll sometimes get more value by taking advantage of cash and points redemptions to spread your points across more nights.</li>
 
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Cash and Points awards are usually a good deal for Category 2-6 Hyatt hotels, expensive IHG hotels (whenever you have the option of saving 20,000 points), all Choice hotels, and some Wyndham hotels. They are almost never a good option at Marriott or Hilton hotels. {{Link|Cash and Points}}.
 
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<li>'''Marriott and Hilton give you your 5<sup>th</sup> night free on award stays'''. Four nights worth of points will get you a five-night stay. For Hilton, you need to have at least Silver elite status to take advantage of this benefit.</li>  
 
  
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{{Image|5thNightFree.jpg}}
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==== Others ====
  
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<li>'''IHG credit cardholders get their 4<sup>th</sup> night free on award reservations'''. This is an even better deal than Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton, but requires that you have the IHG Premier or Traveler cards (cardholders of the now discontinued regular IHG card are not eligible). The IHG Premier card costs $89 per year, but comes with a free hotel certificate, automatic Platinum elite status, and several other useful benefits.</li>
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<ul class="checklist">
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<li>'''Science museums and zoos'''. A handful of places are members of both the Science Museum and Zoo programs.</li>
  
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<span id="Upgraded Room"></span>
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<ul>
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<li>'''Consider staying on the outskirts of cities, or by the airport'''. The required number of points for a typical hotel are usually much lower outside the city center. If you are sightseeing by car anyway, in may not make a big difference on your trip, and you’ll usually save even more money by avoiding the need to pay for expensive overnight parking. For example, the Westin Riverwalk costs 12,000 Starpoints a night, but the Four Points by Sheraton San Antonio Airport only costs 3,000 points on a weekend night, and still gets a 4.5 rating on Trip Advisor. The San Antonio Marriot Riverwalk is 35,000 Marriot points per night, but the TownPlace Suites San Antonio Northwest is only 10,000 points.</li>  
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<li>Qualifying membership at the [//www.boonshoftmuseum.org/membership/ Boonshoft Museum of Discovery] (Dayton, Ohio) costs $115 for a family, but provides the option to join at a $145 level and also qualify for the Children's Museum program. Both include free admission, rather than 50% off, at a subset of the participating Zoos.</li>  
  
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<li>'''You can often spend a small amount of additional points to get a junior suite, club room or other upgraded room'''. Sometimes, you’ll need to call-in to take advantage of the opportunity to book an upgraded room.</li>
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{{Image|BoonshoftMembershipLevels.png}}
  
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{{ImageX|HotelSuite.jpg}}
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<li>Qualifying Membership at the [//wildwnc.org/membership Western North Carolina Nature Center] (Asheville, NC) is only $34 for one person, $49 for two, and $69 for a family, and your membership entitles you to free admission, rather than 50% off at a subset of participating Zoos. At the [//www.lszooduluth.org/visit/membership/ Lake Superior Zoo] (Duluth, Minnesota), qualifying family membership is only $75.</li>
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<li>'''You’ll get the most value from your points at a hotel chain’s cheapest and most expensive hotels'''. The required points for staying at Category 1 or Category 2 hotels can be ridiculously low. Obviously, the cash rates for these lower category hotels also tend to be low, but the relative point cost is even lower. Bloggers are happy to point out that 95,000 Hilton points will get you a single night at one of Hilton’s most expensive hotels, or nineteen nights at one of their Category 1 hotels. Of course, most of the time, you won’t have an opportunity to stay at a Category 1 or Category 2 hotel unless you are visiting a very inexpensive (usually international) destination. {{Link|Low Category Hotels}}.</li>
 
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{{ImageX|HyattPlace.jpg|360}}
 
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At the opposite end of the spectrum, the room rates at the most expensive hotels in the chain can be extremely high, sometimes over $1000 per night, giving you a very good return your award points. There is a fixed upper limit to the number of points required for a free hotel night, but there is no upper limit to the cash price of the hotel room. Of course, the real value you receive is based on what you would have actually paid to stay at the hotel, not the necessarily the hotel’s listed price.
 
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<li>'''Don't let your points expire'''. With most hotel programs, if there is no activity in your account for 12 to 36 months, you can lose your points. Fortunately, you usually don't need to spend a night in a hotel to keep your points alive. Any activity that earns or spends points is usually enough to keep an account alive. There are typically a bunch of ways to easily earn or spend a few points with a partner. {{Link|point expiration}}.</li>
 
  
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<li>Other options are he [//curiodyssey.org/membership/reciprocal-program/ CuriOdyssey] (San Mateo, California),  [//www.mos.org/membership Museum of Science] (Boston, Massachusetts), [//www.greensboroscience.org/get-involved/membership/index.html Greensboro Science Center] (Greensboro, NC), and [//www.lifeandscience.org/benefits Museum of Life and Science] (Durham, NC).</li> 
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
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=== Determining if booking an award night is a good use of your points ===
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<li>'''Science, Art, History, and Specialty museums'''. A handful of museums are members of both the Science Museum program and of the North American Reciprocal Museum program. You'll need to pay at least $100 for any membership that includes NARM privelges. If you aren't interested, there are some Science Museum only options that are as low as $50/family, such as the [//www.eaa.org/shop/Membership/Join.aspx Experimental Aircraft Association].</li>
  
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<li>The [//kerncountymuseum.org/membership-1/ Kern County Museum] (Bakersfield, CA) also includes benefits in ROAM and at Children's Museums. Qualifying membership is $125/family, and also includes benefits at a hundreds of historical sites through the [//timetravelers.mohistory.org/ Time Travelers] program.</li>
  
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<li>'''Because you have a limited supply of points, you need to be smart about when to book an award night, and when to just pay the going rate for your room'''. You don’t want to use up all your points on free hotel nights, where you are only getting a low value per point; and not have enough to be able to use them later, when you could get more value. At the same time, you don’t want to hold onto your points forever, passing up free hotel rooms, while you forever seek out the highest possible redemption rates.</li>
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<li>The [//www.cmog.org/get-involved/membership Corning Museum of Glass] (Corning, NY) and [//www.burkemuseum.org/membership Burke Museum] (Seattle, WA) also include benefits in ROAM, but memberships are more expensive. </li>
  
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<li>'''We recommend converting the required number of points into an “award room rate”'''. Your points have real value. The best way to think about whether it makes sense to book an award night is to convert the required number of points into a dollar value, and then decide whether the room is worth “spending” that much money, or whether you are better off taking advantage of another option.</li>  
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<li>The [//greatex.org/memberships/ Great Explorations Children's Museum] (Saint Petersburg, FL) and [//www.theclaycenter.org/join/membership/ Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences] (Charleston, WV) also include benefits at Children's Museums. Qualifying memberships are $150 per family.</li>  
  
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For example, if the points cost of a Sheraton hotel is 35,000 Marriott points per night, and you value Marriott point at {{Value|marriott}} cents per point, the “cost” of using award points is around {{Value|marriott|35000}} per night. If the {{Value|marriott|35000}} “award room rate” is lower the regular room rate, you are better off making an award booking, rather than a normal booking. But, if the room still isn’t worth {{Value|marriott|35000}} per night, compared to the other options at your destination, you are better off saving your points, and booking another hotel instead.
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<li>A qualifying membership at the [//evansvillemuseum.org/product/patron-membership/ Evansville Museum of Art, History, and Science] (Evansville, IN) only costs $100, and includes the [//timetravelers.mohistory.org/ Time Travelers] program as well as NARM and ASTC.</li>
  
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<li>'''The value per point that you should use is based on your own individual circumstances, but we provide a set of values that work well for many people'''. In some cases, you might have an award opportunity that is so good that it makes sense to purchase new points, if you don’t already have enough to make an award reservation. {{Link|Hotel Point Values}}</li>  
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<li>A qualifying membership [//minnetrista.net/home/about-minnetrista/get-involved/membership/ Minnestrista] (Muncie, IN) costs $125/family and also includes reciprocal benefits at [//ahsgardening.org/gardening-programs/rap/find/statebystate American Horticultural Society] members.</li>  
  
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<li>Other options include the Powerhouse Science Center (Sacramento, CA), Yale Peabody Museum (New Haven, CT), Delaware Museum of Natural History (Wilmington, DE), Hagley Museum (Wilmington, DE), Museum of Arts and Sciences (Daytona Beach, FL), South Florida Museum (Bradenton, FL), Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL), Indiana State Museum (Indianapolis, IN), Grout Museum District (Waterloo, IA), Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA), Springfield Museums (Springfield, MA), Air Zoo (Portage, MI), Farmington Museum (Farmington, NM), Cape Fear Museum of History & Science (Wilmington, NC), The Works (Newark, OH), University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (Eugene, OR), Reading Public Museum (Reading, PA), McDonald Observatory (Fort Davis, TX), The Reach (Richland, WA), and Wenatchee Valley Museum (Wenatchee, WA).</li>
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
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See our more in-depth analysis of {{Link|evaluate award nights}}.
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<li>'''Science and Children's Museums'''. There is a lot of overlap between the Science Museum and Children's Museum programs. Many museums belong to both. As listed above, the Boonshoft museum also includes membership in both programs plus the the Zoo program, the Kern Museum in both programs plus NARM and ROAM, and the Great Explorations and Clay Center in both programs plus NARM.</li>  
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=== Getting free night certificates from credit cards ===
 
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<li>'''Most hotel credit cards also provide access free night certificates'''. For example, the Hyatt credit card gives you a free certificate every year you have the card, good for a free night at Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel; and the Hilton Ascend credit card gives you a free certificate, good for a weekend stay at any hotel, if you spend $15,000 during a calendar year.</li>
 
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<li>'''You get most free certificates just for holding onto the credit card each year'''. You usually don't get a free night certificate when you first sign up for the card (you just get the signup bonus). But, every year, when you renew the card, you'll get a free night certificate a few weeks later. With some credit cards, you need to spend a minimum amount of money on the card each year, in order to earn the certificate.</li>
 
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<li>'''Some hotel certificates can be used at any of of the program's hotels, but most of them can only be used for less-expensive hotels'''. The "unlimited" certificates are a great way to get a free night at very expensive hotels that would normally cost over $500 per night. The other certificates can only be used at the program's less expensive hotels, but can still often be used for rooms that would cost $200-300 per night.</li>
 
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<li>'''The main downside of hotel certificates, is that they usually expire after a single year'''. If you get too many certificates, you might not have a good opportunity to use them all.</li>
 
 
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We recommend that everyone take advantage of credit card hotel certificates to stay for free, especially for luxury hotels, or when regular rates are higher than normal. {{Link|Free Night Certificates}}
 
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===Promotional free night certificates===
 
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'''The other way to get free night certificates is through hotel promotions'''. For example, Marriott will give any new member a free night certificate, if they stay two times during the first few months of their membership. To take advantage of this promotion, you NEED to sign-up for your membership through the promotion page. {{Link|New Marriott Member}}
 
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Another easy way to get a free night certificate is via the [//www.slh.com/ Small Luxury Hotels of the World] program. New members can earn a free night certificate after they book their first paid stay. {{Link|SLH Free Night}}.
 
  
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'''Throughout the year, several hotel companies will run promotions along the lines of "stay 2 nights and earn a free night"''' (sometimes you have to stay 3 times). This can be an excellent way to get free hotel nights, especially because you can often earn the certificate by staying at inexpensive hotels, and then use the certificate to stay at a more expensive property. {{Link|Hotel Promotions}}
 
  
  
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How reciprocal museum programs work

When you become a member of any museum or attraction in the program, you get free access to all of the other participating locations. For example, if you join the Science Museum in your home town, you can freely visit dozens of science museums all around the country.

  • You usually are only entitled to "standard" admission. You usually need to pay extra for special exhibits, IMAX movies, and other valued-added attractions. Because these extras are often available as part of a discounted package, if you want the full experience, your discount might not amount to that much.
  • Nearby museums are usually not included. With most programs, you WON'T get reciprocal access to any museums that are located close to your home museum. Sometimes "nearby" is defined by an official number of miles, other times it is any location in the same state, and sometimes it is ad-hoc. So, don't expect privileges with other museums in the same metropolitan area or state.
  • Joining an out-of-state museum can provide access to all the locations that are close to your home. If you want privileges at all the museums in your area, you can often join a museum in some other city, rather than your favorite nearby museum. While you'll be blocked at locations located nearby the institution you join, you won't be blocked at any of your local locations. There are some downsides to this approach. Your membership money will be supporting the museum you join, rather than the one in your area; and you won't be able to take advantage of many other membership benefits, such as access to special member's only visiting hours or events. With some programs, this approach isn't even possible, as you'll be blocked to local museums based on the address on your ID, rather than the address of the museum you belong to.
  • Reciprocal benefits are not available with many less expensive memberships. You'll need to join your local museum at a certain level. Each of the programs enforces a minimum membership cost to access reciprocal benefits. For example, no museum in the program can provide reciprocal benefits with any membership level that costs less than $100 per year.
  • You can often get a membership discount. The best place to check is Groupon, but other promotional codes are sometimes available.
  • The number of guests depends on the type of membership you have. Typically, if you have an individual membership, you'll reciprocal benefits only apply to one person. If you have a family membership, you'll receive benefits based on the family membership of the museum you are visiting, not your home museum.
  • Memberships are NOT typically based on the calendar year. They usually last for one year after you join. With some museums and attractions, it can take some time for you to receive your membership card. So, you'll need to apply weeks before you you plan to take advantage of any reciprocal benefits.
  • To get access, you'll need to carry your membership card. There is no way to look you up in some "member database". You'll need to have a valid membership card and photo ID.

Major reciprocal museum programs

While there are many smaller or more specialized reciprocal programs such as the Empire State Museums Reciprocal Program (mix of museums in New York state) or Connections (photography museums around the country), that may be interesting based on your location or interest, the following programs include the widest range of the most popular museums and attractions.

Art Museums

Unlike Science Museums, Zoos, and Children's Museums, Art Museum reciprocal programs are pretty fragmented. Some of the more significant programs include.

  • Metropolitan Reciprocal Membership Program. Includes 15 of the top art museums in the country, anchored by the Met in NYC.
    • MET.jpg
  • Art Museum Reciprocal Membership Program. Includes 15 of the top art museums in the country, anchored by Art Institute of Chicago. A few museums belong to both this program and the Met's program.
  • Museum Alliance Reciprocal Program (MARP). Includes 32 major US art museums, but not quite at the same overall level as the Met and Art Institute programs.
    • Guggenheim.jpg
  • Art Museum Reciprocal Network (AMRN). Similar to the MARP program, but a different cluster of major museums.
  • The Whitney Reciprocal Program. Unlike the other programs, this isn't a mutual alliance amongst a group of museums. Rather, joining the Whitney ($140/2) gives you access to 16 other museums in the US and Europe, and joining any of those museums gives you access to the Whitney. But the various partner museums don't necessarily have any reciprocal benefits between themselves.

Others

  • Association of Science and Technology Centers Travel Passport (ASTC). Provides benefits at over 350 museums in North America, plus a smattering of museums elsewhere in the world. Includes almost every large science museum, with the notable exceptions of the Exploratarium and the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in New York. You won't have privileges at museums that are within 90 miles of your home address or your membership museum. Participating Museums.
    • BostonGenerator.jpg
  • North American Reciprocal Membership (NARM). This is the largest reciprocal museum program, with over 1,000 participating art, history, and specialty museums, primarily in the United States. Most of the hightest-profile museums are not members, but you'll get free access to many excellent museums in every corner of the country. Participating Museums.

    • Most Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM) members are also part of the much larger NARM program. But, if your membership includes both, you'll have access to some additional museums that are members are ROAM, but not NARM. Participating Museums.

  • Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Provides reciprocal benefits at over 150 North American zoos and aquariums. It includes most major zoos, but a few of the most significant zoos (including the San Diego Zoo Bronx Zoo, and Brookfield Zoo) don't participate, and it doesn't provide benefits at most major aquariums. Participating locations.

    • Unlike most of the other major programs, you usually only receive a 50% discount, rather than free admission. However, memberships with a smaller set of participating zoos and aquariums will give you free admission with that same set of locations (and 50% off everywhere else).

    KansasCityZoo.png
  • Association of Children's Museums (ACM). Provides benefits at around 200 different children's museums. Like the Zoo program, and unlike the other programs, you'll only receive 50% off the regular admission. Nearly every US children's museum participates, admission is good for up to six people, and the conveniently don't block privileges at nearby museums. Participating Museums.
  • Time Travelers. Provides benefits at more than 300 historical sites and museums throughout the United State. Participating Locations.

Access multiple programs with a single membership

Many museums belong to multiple reciprocal programs. Becoming a member one of these museums lets you enjoy the benefits of multiple programs for a single membership fee.

Art Museums

Others

  • Science museums and zoos. A handful of places are members of both the Science Museum and Zoo programs.
    • Qualifying membership at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery (Dayton, Ohio) costs $115 for a family, but provides the option to join at a $145 level and also qualify for the Children's Museum program. Both include free admission, rather than 50% off, at a subset of the participating Zoos.
      • BoonshoftMembershipLevels.png
    • Qualifying Membership at the Western North Carolina Nature Center (Asheville, NC) is only $34 for one person, $49 for two, and $69 for a family, and your membership entitles you to free admission, rather than 50% off at a subset of participating Zoos. At the Lake Superior Zoo (Duluth, Minnesota), qualifying family membership is only $75.
    • Other options are he CuriOdyssey (San Mateo, California), Museum of Science (Boston, Massachusetts), Greensboro Science Center (Greensboro, NC), and Museum of Life and Science (Durham, NC).
  • Science, Art, History, and Specialty museums. A handful of museums are members of both the Science Museum program and of the North American Reciprocal Museum program. You'll need to pay at least $100 for any membership that includes NARM privelges. If you aren't interested, there are some Science Museum only options that are as low as $50/family, such as the Experimental Aircraft Association.
    • The Kern County Museum (Bakersfield, CA) also includes benefits in ROAM and at Children's Museums. Qualifying membership is $125/family, and also includes benefits at a hundreds of historical sites through the Time Travelers program.
      • KernCounty.png
    • The Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY) and Burke Museum (Seattle, WA) also include benefits in ROAM, but memberships are more expensive.
    • The Great Explorations Children's Museum (Saint Petersburg, FL) and Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences (Charleston, WV) also include benefits at Children's Museums. Qualifying memberships are $150 per family.
    • A qualifying membership at the Evansville Museum of Art, History, and Science (Evansville, IN) only costs $100, and includes the Time Travelers program as well as NARM and ASTC.
    • A qualifying membership Minnestrista (Muncie, IN) costs $125/family and also includes reciprocal benefits at American Horticultural Society members.
    • Other options include the Powerhouse Science Center (Sacramento, CA), Yale Peabody Museum (New Haven, CT), Delaware Museum of Natural History (Wilmington, DE), Hagley Museum (Wilmington, DE), Museum of Arts and Sciences (Daytona Beach, FL), South Florida Museum (Bradenton, FL), Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL), Indiana State Museum (Indianapolis, IN), Grout Museum District (Waterloo, IA), Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA), Springfield Museums (Springfield, MA), Air Zoo (Portage, MI), Farmington Museum (Farmington, NM), Cape Fear Museum of History & Science (Wilmington, NC), The Works (Newark, OH), University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (Eugene, OR), Reading Public Museum (Reading, PA), McDonald Observatory (Fort Davis, TX), The Reach (Richland, WA), and Wenatchee Valley Museum (Wenatchee, WA).
  • Science and Children's Museums. There is a lot of overlap between the Science Museum and Children's Museum programs. Many museums belong to both. As listed above, the Boonshoft museum also includes membership in both programs plus the the Zoo program, the Kern Museum in both programs plus NARM and ROAM, and the Great Explorations and Clay Center in both programs plus NARM.






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