Changes coming to hotels.com Welcome Rewards and the Marriott credit card?
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By coincidence, two surveys from market research companies have crossed my desk in the last couple of days. Both imply that changes may be coming to popular reward schemes.
Hotels.com and Welcome Rewards
The most interesting relates to Hotels.com and its Welcome Rewards loyalty scheme. You will find my introduction to Welcome Rewards here. It is effectively ‘the hotel loyalty scheme for people who can’t be bothered with hotel loyalty schemes’.
Book 10 stays via Hotels.com and their Welcome Rewards scheme will give you a credit equal to 10% of the total cost of those 10 nights.
You can use that against almost any room at almost any hotel that they sell – no black out dates, no restrictions.
(The downside is that bookings at chain hotels via hotels.com will not earn points in Hilton HHonors etc for your room rate. Neither will you earn stay credit towards status. Often your existing status will not be recognised either. The only benefit you will get is points on food and beverage spend.)
A reader sent me a survey he had received from Hotels.com. It is very complex but the essence is that Hotels.com is considering scrapping the current arrangement.
Some options suggested in the survey would require more than 10 nights to get a room credit.
In all scenarios proposed, you would NOT be able to use that credit to pay the full cost of a room. It would only be valid for a certain percentage of the cost (say 50% or 75%). You would be liable to pay the rest. (You are already liable to pay the taxes and fees element of a Welcome Rewards free night.)
In return for potentially bumping up the number of nights required, Hotels.com is considering allowing you to ‘buy’ extra nights. If you had 17 nights credit and the target for a room credit was 20 nights, you could pay a fee to effectively top up your account.
Remember that, at present, this is only a proposal which Hotels.com is sounding out with some members. Given that the current scheme is arguable over-generous, I would not be surprised to see some changes.
Marriott Rewards MasterCard credit card
The Marriott Rewards credit card is the ugly duckling of the hotel credit card pack. A poor 10,000 Marriott Rewards points sign-up bonus and a shockingly poor earnings rate of 1 Marriott point per £1 spent (equivalent to about 0.5p of value) means it has little attraction.
The only upside is the free Marriott Rewards Silver status – but that has no real benefits! It does effectively make it easier to retain Gold or Platinum though.
The survey which I received suggests that Marriott has finally grasped the nettle. Whilst the survey had a wide range of options, it appeared to be leaning towards a structure where the card would carry an annual fee but would come with a voucher for a free night at any Marriott property (category 1-5 only, so nothing too luxurious!).
As with hotels.com, I wouldn’t expect any immediate change – although it seemed fairly clear that change IS coming to this card. I would not be surprised if it was taken away from Creation and handed to Barclaycard or MBNA to manage, with a full relaunch undertaken at the same time.
Want to earn more points from credit cards? – September 2023 update
If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.
In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.
You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard
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Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review
You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.
SPECIAL OFFER: The sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard is doubled to 30,000 Virgin Points if you apply by 2nd October. You receive 15,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase and a further 15,000 points if you spend £3,000 within 90 days. Apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus
25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express
30,000 points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard
30,000 bonus points (SPECIAL OFFER TO 2ND OCTOBER) and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review
Earning miles and points from small business cards
If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum
40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold
20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review
For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card
1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review
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