The Credit Card Game, Hotel Edition: So I Stayed in Hotels!

As I mentioned before, from 2015-17 I was a geographical bachelor, which is essentially like prison without the sodomy, and with occasional weekend furloughs that would make Michael Dukakis proud (if you get that joke, congratulations! You're old).

It's hard to be broad and give generalized advice about the Credit Card Game (and its antecedents the Points Game, the Status Game, and the Lounge Game), so today I'll just explain how I stumbled into it at the peak of its Golden Age (which continues today!)

I had to serve two years as a geo bachelor, 2.5 hours from my home and family. For the first year, I rented a room in a townhouse that contained two other guys. The Craigslist ad said that a maid service came once a month to clean the whole house, which sounded good to me. I didn't realize that in the 30 days between maid visits, nobody cleaned the common areas (ergo sticky countertops, a sticky kitchen table, and a sticky hall toilet seat) but overall it was fine, I met some nice people, and I got to spend time with family and old friends.

I wasn't up for a second year of that rented room, though: too depressing. In the fall of 2016, I had the opportunity to complete an Army school a little closer to home, so I took it. That left me with six months to work at that assignment.

J. Mark Davison slept here

So I stayed in hotels! I worked Monday-Thursday (plus one weekend a month) and I took leave every Friday. That meant three nights a week, I needed a hotel room. I used Hilton points, IHG points, Marriott Points, Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, a few AirBNBs, and occasionally cash if there was a good deal (remember this: sometimes it's wiser to save your points and pay cash). I also took the commuter train to visit my parents, so one night per week I was a 40-year-old living in my parents' basement.

Some people kindly offered their spare room, but I also like sitting around in my underwear and doing my own thing. Besides, I like staying in hotels.

When I ran low on Hilton points, I got the American Express Hilton Ascend Card, which comes with a 80,000-point bonus after spending the standard $3,000 in the first three months: these points are good for about 3-4 free nights. When I got low on IHG points, I got the Chase IHG Rewards Mastercard and its 70,000-point bonus, also good for about 5 free nights. I never really had any Marriott Points, so I got the Chase Marriott Rewards Visa, good for 80,000 Marriott points: a relative deal that can get you 6-8 nights. I got the now-defunct Citibank Hilton card for another 70,000 Hilton points.

A word on bonuses: they fluctuate. The IHG card's bonus is currently 60k, for example. Watch them and when they go up, apply! Also, I include referral links in some of these cards that get me bonus points if you get the card through my link (Marriott and the two I mention below are referral links, the rest don't currently offer me a bonus, damn them!).

In addition to sign-up bonuses and additional points that I earned through spending on the cards (in the past year, three sets of braces have helped me meet the $3,000 minimum spending requirement) and hotel points earned on occasional work trips, I signed up for promotions and followed the incentives. Hotels give you bonus points for every "stay" (a check-in plus a check-out regardless of length of stay), so I stayed one night everywhere. I carried my small roller bag in one evening, out the next morning, and stayed somewhere else the next night.

INTERLUDE: how did I learn all this? I must give credit to The Points Guy, an excellent, informative, broad-ranging but somewhat commercialized site. There are many points/miles blogs and sites but I learned the most from the Points Guy. He's so famous, he recently got to be on Megyn Kelly's show (which reminds me of one of my go-to prayers: Lord, keep me anonymous and middle class).

Additionally, I had already signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, a hot new product in 2016 that I discuss here and will talk more about in a later post, and gotten 100,000 flexible points that can be traded for other air/hotel points or used as cash through the Chase portal. Those paid for a few flights and a few hotels. It's similar to the American Express Platinum which I discuss here.

So: hotel cards. Get some. In addition to the cards I have, other hotel groups like Carlson, Best Western, Wyndham, Hyatt and Starwood (recently acquired by Marriott) offer cards, but as far as number of locations nationwide, Hilton, Marriott, and IHG (Holiday Inn) are the biggest. Any of these cards will get you through this summer's family vacation for free, but it takes a couple months to spend the money and get the points, so get them soon.

Hotel cards have other benefits: some carry trip insurance, some give you a free night after a year, all earn extra points when you use them to pay at that corporation's hotels, and some confer an extra level of status.

But which hotel card should I get? If you want free nights, the Marriott card is best. If you're going overseas, the IHG card is best. But overall, the best card for the money (fees are all $75-95) is the  Amex Hilton Ascend. It confers Hilton Gold status, which gets you free breakfast in their mid- to high-end chains like Hilton Garden Inn. In addition to a good free breakfast (think salmon with capers, mmm)  you can Executive Floor/ Lounge access in Hilton's business-oriented properties, like DoubleTree and Hilton.  These generally feature cappuccino machines (yesss!) and evening receptions with free drinks and h'ors d'oevres: eat enough of them French-sounding things and they become "dinner." I have eaten a few annual fees' worth of free h'ors d'oevre dinners in the past two years.

One thing you probably won't see in the Executive Lounge? Some slovenly schmuck wearing pajama bottoms and flip flops (or worse, bare feet) to the breakfast buffet, Hampton Inn style. I know it sounds snobbish, but it's a pet peeve. I'm like the proverbial Cat Lady of pet peeves; I have more than a sensible number of them. I'll write about them soon.

So what did I learn in all those hotels? There's no place like home. My favorite is the DoubleTree Dulles in Sterling, VA. Exec Lounge, cappuccino machine, nice people, and always an outlet for plugging in my Prius (another game I play). And the room doors are engineered to close quietly. Honorable mention goes to the Hilton Springfield, with its awesome breakfast, professional staff and walking distance to the Springfield Mall as well as the middle-aged dad's mainstay, Barnes & Noble. My least favorite? It rhymes with FoamWood Treats in Springfield, VA: its parking garage and its buffets are shambolic, and I once stumbled upon three guys smoking pot from a hookah on the grounds, like I was in frickin' Marrakesh. TripAdvisor even refused to publish my review, just like the poor women who got drugged and raped at Mexican resorts (I canceled my TripAdvisor account; you should too).

Until next time, cheers from my own Executive Lounge!