Wyndham Beats Marriott for the #1 Hotel Rewards Program of 2026

Glenn: [00:00:01] Hey, everybody. It’s your hospitality friend Glenn here. I’m excited because I got our friend Elisabeth Von ter. She’s the senior travel editor with U.S. News and World Report, one of those magazines I used to look at as a kid and go, one day I’m going to write for these guys. I may not have, but Elisabeth has. Elisabeth, great to see you. We’ve got we’re going to talk about some rewards rankings today. Yeah.

Elizabeth: [00:00:25] Yes. Thank you Glenn. Thanks for having me.

Glenn: [00:00:27] I’m very excited. All right. So one of the things that I’m all about are those hotel rewards programs. And I’ve been noticing the major hotel companies are leaning into them in ways we’ve never seen before. In fact I don’t know this to be fact, but I know it to be true. All of the hotel companies seem to be moving more towards the loyalty company being the main driver rather than the individual brand. So, Elisabeth, how do you see it? And I’m seeing these kinds of these kinds of Our rankings more important than ever.

Elizabeth: [00:01:03] Absolutely. And, you know, just to point out, these rankings are really geared toward the everyday traveler. So what we look at closely is point values, how quickly you’re earning that free night with that program. And then of course, the kind of added perks are kind of just a little sugar on top of the value you’re getting out of that program. What we are seeing, I think you can agree devaluation is a very common theme with point day. This year, we saw World of Hyatt changed their categories. Wyndham rewards is going to change that as well. But overall, what I would say is that these two programs, since they’re still category based, they’re still providing a lot more value than those dynamic pricing models like Marriott, where the rates, the point rates fluctuate with the cost. So with that, Wyndham Rewards is our number one hotel rewards program this year.

Glenn: [00:01:57] Well, congratulations to our friends over at Wyndham with Marriott. Number two World of Hyatt. Number three choice privileges and then Sonesta Travel Pass coming in at number five. I love this. I’m good friends with all the executives over there. And what I love about it is I love the smaller companies, you know, pushing the bigger companies to to, to do stuff as well. So let’s go to number one, Wyndham. What is it that consumers are really connecting with that makes them the best travel rewards program?

Elizabeth: [00:02:29] Absolutely. So Wyndham has tons of budget friendly options, which in this economy, with travel costs on the rise, that’s becoming more and more important. A lot of people struggle to even use their points with other brands because it’s just requiring so many now wind up, you’re going to earn that free night after staying about eight nights on average, which is really a really great earning rate for them.

Glenn: [00:02:53] Yeah. I’m not here to, to, to smack down anybody, but I will tell you with the program that I get the most points in, I’ve recently used some of those points and I’m like really for that product. Really? Come on man. So, you know, I’m starting to feel like these brands, they want your loyalty, but they’re not necessarily giving it back in the way that they did. So it’s great to see that Wyndham is really delivering. So what what made Marriott fall short and what could they do to to curry more favor with the consumer mindset?

Elizabeth: [00:03:26] Yeah, absolutely. So Marriott you know, it’s a really well-rounded program of course offers tons of properties, lots of diversity. Again, where they really fall short is that points value. You know, you’re just not getting as much out of it. They devalued by about 20% this year.

Glenn: [00:03:41] Yeah. That’s why our friends at Hilton aren’t even in the top five anymore. Because of the yeah, because of that. Now these rankings have no, no bearing on what the quality of the actual hotel experience is because you hotel leaders out there know you’re, you’re doing a great job. And I see it every single day. All right. I forget world of heightened choice privilege is because they’re in the mushy middle there. But I want to I want to talk about Sonesta for a minute, because I don’t know if this is the first time in the rankings, but it’s got to be the first time in the top five, at least for them, right?

Speaker 3: [00:04:11] Yeah.

Elizabeth: [00:04:12] Yes. We’re we’re very excited about Sonesta. They’ve really grown as a brand in the last few years. You know really expanded their options. So you have a lot more choice of that program now than you would have 2 or 3 years ago even. And again, like with them, you know, they’re, they were actually the best earning and redemption rates the program with the best earning and redemption rates, which is pretty impressive for a smaller program on average, staying about seven nights, you’re going to get a free night with them.

Glenn: [00:04:39] Wow. That’s great. Where a lot of the others are ten or, or, or more. And if you get that free.

Elizabeth: [00:04:45] So about 15 now actually. So yeah, yeah, it’s really about half. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:04:49] Wow. I have not been following this story. That’s why we need experts like you, Elizabeth. Over here. So I love, I love that, but I thought let’s take a minute or two. I’m also curious to talk a little bit about like the best hotel brands for business travelers, because that’s that’s where I’m. I’m fitting in over here. So you want to share the the rankings?

Elizabeth: [00:05:10] Yeah, yeah. So we, of course, these are brand new rankings this year. We really wanted to focus for the Road Warriors because, you know, business travel is not going anywhere

Glenn: [00:05:21] 150 nights a year. So I’m, I’m loving what you’re thinking. Why don’t you tell us the top five from five to to one.

Elizabeth: [00:05:30] All right. So for hotels for business, we have at number five choice hotels number four Hyatt number 3IHG. And I don’t think the top two will surprise you.

Speaker 3: [00:05:44] Number two it’s just order.

Glenn: [00:05:46] Are they in.

Elizabeth: [00:05:48] Number two is Hilton and number one is Marriott. And really you know Marriott stood out for it’s we do have a little bit of a hotel quality element in that ranking. We got stood out for quality point redemption power over Hilton of course. And then of course, there’s a little bit more flexible with status, too. Hilton took away their status rollover nights. Marriott has that soft landing program where you’re not going to immediately drop reward tiers. You only go down.

Glenn: [00:06:20] Yeah, I hate I hate that not just with the companies that you’re mentioning, but in general, because it really changes to me the nature of the loyalty relationship from we Love You to what have you done for me lately? To quote 1980s Janet Jackson song, right? That sort of thing really frustrates me. My airline, which which I happen to like, all the people there are absolutely incredible, but you get the feeling that they just, you know, I hear stories all the time was like it was the most loved traveler ever. I didn’t travel for one year and now I’m a stranger. And they give me they give me a shifty eye, you know.

Speaker 3: [00:06:55] Yes, yes, I agree.

Glenn: [00:06:57] So what else do we need to to to know about any of this stuff? Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: [00:07:03] You know, I think in terms of trends, you know, we talked about devaluation. I always advocate for people using their points. I know it’s sometimes hard to get away on that personal vacation. But that’s a great thing to remember and also look out for partnerships. We have some awesome new partnerships this year with United and JetBlue. Hilton partnered with explore a journey the more luxury cruise line. So there’s always a lot of exciting partnerships happening to increase the ways to earn.

Glenn: [00:07:30] Elizabeth, I really think you nailed something right here. This partnership thing is exploding. It’s suddenly as if the hotel companies woke up and realized, oh, we could be banks like the airlines and do all of these deals, right? Because they’ve already moved from to an asset like strategy over the last 30 years. They’re really fee based companies now. So they’re really setting themselves up to be more of that quote unquote, bank. Like I just said, like the airlines legitimately are, am I speaking crazy talk or are we on to something here?

Elizabeth: [00:08:03] No, I definitely agree. I think hotel programs in general are starting to mimic airline programs. And, you know, offering more of that premium tier levels as well. You know, Hilton added an extra tier choice, added an extra tier. So they’re just trying to get those high end travelers up there too.

Glenn: [00:08:21] Yeah. I’m never going to make those those upper tiers or wherever. I don’t understand how people make those upper tiers. I guess they’re flying first class and staying in suites all the time on the company dollar. Elizabeth, anything else that you want to add? And how about a good, strong plug for us.

Speaker 3: [00:08:39] News and report?

Glenn: [00:08:41] Again, one of my favorite magazines growing up that inspired me to become a writer.

Elizabeth: [00:08:46] So thank you so much. Check out our rewards rankings and our brand new Business Traveler rankings@travel.usnews.com.

Glenn: [00:08:53] And the link will be below here right now. So give it a click. Elizabeth, thanks so much for being here. Thank all of you for being here today. Remember, like, share, subscribe, all of that kind of good stuff. And remember, you’ve got one life. So blaze on and we’ll see you next time everybody.