Five hotel groups run the loyalty schemes most travellers will ever join. All five pay back roughly the same amount, somewhere near five percent of what you spend, and only two of them will tell you that before you book. This page does the arithmetic for each one and gives you the test to run on your own booking.
The short answer
Accor is the only scheme where the rebate is a fixed, provable number. Hyatt is the only one that still publishes what a night costs in points before you commit. Marriott, Hilton and IHG price awards nightly, which means your rebate is whatever they decide it is on the day you redeem.
| Programme | Base earn rate | What one point is worth | Rebate you can prove before booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accor ALL | 2.5 points per €1 | Fixed at €0.02 | 5.0 percent, always |
| World of Hyatt | 5 points per $1 | Published chart, varies by hotel | Calculable per hotel |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 10 points per $1 | Set nightly, not published | None |
| Hilton Honors | 10 points per $1 | Set nightly, not published | None |
| IHG One Rewards | 10 points per $1 | Set nightly, not published | None |
Choose on footprint and on how cheaply a scheme hands out its entry tier, not on what a blog says its points are worth. Then run the half-cent test below before every redemption.
What did we compare, and what did we leave out?
The criteria, set before the verdict: the published earning rate, what a night costs in points, how long points survive without activity, what the entry elite tier costs in nights, and whether the redemption price is knowable in advance. Every figure below comes from the operator’s own terms or award chart.
Two things are out of scope. Credit card earning, because that is a card comparison and the cards differ by country. And the cents-per-point valuations published by points blogs, because those are averages of other people’s past redemptions, not a rate anyone is offering you. The five here are Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt and Accor. Wyndham and Choice Privileges are larger by property count in North America and much less relevant everywhere else.
How much does each programme actually pay back?
The whole thing reduces to one line. Your rebate equals the points you earn per unit of spend, multiplied by the value you realise per point. Nothing else in a loyalty scheme changes that number.
At 10 points per dollar, every tenth of a cent of point value is worth one percent of rebate. Ten points at $0.001 each is one cent, earned on one dollar of spend. So Marriott, Hilton and IHG points have to clear half a cent for the scheme to be a 5 percent rebate. Hyatt pays 5 points per dollar, so the same 5 percent needs a full cent. Accor pays 2.5 points per euro, so it needs two cents.
Accor is the only programme where that second number is nailed down. Its terms set 1,000 Reward points against a €20 discount, so a point is worth exactly €0.02. A base Classic member earns 25 points per €10, so €800 of eligible spend earns 2,000 points and €40 off the next stay. Exactly 5.0 percent, every time. Diamond members earn 50 points per €10 and get 10 percent. ibis and Mama Shelter earn at half rate and pay back half as much.
Hyatt still publishes a chart, so you can do the sum for a specific hotel. A category 4 property at the Moderate level costs 19,000 points under the chart that took effect on 20 May 2026. At 5 base points per dollar you need $3,800 of spend to get there, so the rebate beats 5 percent only if that night would otherwise have cost more than $190. Globalist members earn a 30 percent bonus, 6.5 points per dollar, which cuts the spend needed to $2,923 and the break-even room rate to $146.
For Marriott, Hilton and IHG there is no chart and no advance number. Run this instead, on the booking in front of you. Divide the cash price by the points price. Above half a cent per point, redeeming beats paying. Below it, pay cash and keep the points. A $200 room at 40,000 points is exactly break-even. The same room at 50,000 points is 0.4 cents, a 4 percent rebate on a stay you could have paid for.
Which programmes still publish a price?
One. Hyatt runs eight categories, and from 20 May 2026 each category has five redemption levels instead of three. The floor did not move. The ceiling did.
| Hyatt category | Old chart, off-peak to peak | New chart, Lowest to Top | Change at the top |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5,500 to 6,500 | 5,500 to 9,000 | +38 percent |
| 4 | 14,000 to 18,000 | 14,000 to 25,000 | +39 percent |
| 7 | 27,000 to 35,000 | 27,000 to 55,000 | +57 percent |
| 8 | 35,000 to 45,000 | 35,000 to 75,000 | +67 percent |
That is what a transparent devaluation looks like. Members could see the damage before it landed. Marriott abandoned its chart in 2022, IHG abandoned its own, and Hilton has priced dynamically for years, so all three can move an award price overnight without announcing anything. Accor never needed a chart, because its points are a discount voucher applied to the cash rate.
What changed in 2026?
Hilton did the most. From 1 January 2026, status stopped being earned on base points and started being earned on dollars. Silver takes 10 nights, 4 stays or $2,500 of spend. Gold fell from 40 nights to 25. Diamond fell from 60 nights to 50. A new top tier, Diamond Reserve, needs 80 nights or 40 stays plus $18,000 of qualifying spend. Rollover nights were abolished, so anything above your tier threshold is now worth nothing next year.
Hilton also cut earning. From 8 January 2026, Homewood Suites and Spark by Hilton pay 5 base points per dollar instead of 10, joining Home2 Suites and Tru. Half the earning rate is half the rebate, and Hilton did not lower the room rates to match.
Marriott and IHG held still. Marriott runs Silver at 10 nights, Gold at 25, Platinum at 50, Titanium at 75 and Ambassador at 100 nights plus $23,000 of spend. IHG runs Silver at 10 nights, Gold at 20, Platinum at 40 and Diamond at 70.
Where do the schemes take the money back?
Expiry is the quiet one. A balance saved for something good is worth nothing if the clock runs out first.
| Programme | Points expire after | Exemption |
|---|---|---|
| Accor ALL | 365 days from the date each point was earned | Any new points credit extends the balance |
| IHG One Rewards | 12 months of no activity | Elite members |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 24 months of no activity | Lifetime Elite members |
| Hilton Honors | 24 months of no activity | None |
| World of Hyatt | 24 months of no activity | Co-brand card holders |
The rest of the leakage is in what does not count.
- Booking through an agency earns nothing at all, neither points nor elite nights. Our comparison of the big booking platforms puts numbers on that gap.
- Taxes and resort fees usually sit outside the earning base. You earn on the room rate, not on the bill, which is the same trick the rental desks run when the headline rate and the final invoice stop matching.
- Checking your balance is not activity. Only earning or redeeming resets the expiry clock, and logging in a hundred times will not save a balance.
- Read the brand before you credit a stay. Marriott pays 5 or 2.5 points per dollar at its extended-stay and apartment brands, Hilton pays 5 at four brands as of January 2026, and IHG pays 5 at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites.
- Cash and points rates void most free-night perks. Marriott’s fifth night free needs four nights paid in straight points, with no certificates and no cash-and-points blend.
Which programme wins on which dimension?
| Dimension | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Predictable value | Accor ALL | The only rebate you can quote before you book, at a flat 5 percent |
| Redemption ceiling | World of Hyatt | A published chart at 5 points per dollar returns well above 5 percent on expensive nights |
| Cheapest status | Hilton Honors | 4 stays for Silver and 15 for Gold, counted in stays rather than nights |
| Footprint | Marriott Bonvoy | Around 30 brands, and the one most likely to have something in a small city |
| Points longevity | Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt | 24 months of inactivity against IHG’s 12 and Accor’s 365 days |
Who should pick the loser? Accor finishes last on upside, and that is structural rather than fixable. Two cents a point is a hard ceiling, so an Accor redemption can never be a bargain and never will be. It is still the correct choice for a European business traveller cycling through ibis, Novotel and Mercure, because a certain 5 percent off the next stay beats an uncertain shot at 8 percent you may never find availability to use. Take the fixed discount and stop thinking about it.
Frequently asked questions
Which hotel points are worth the most?
Per point, Hyatt. Its standing price for selling its own points is around 2.6 cents, against roughly 1.25 cents for Marriott and 1 to 1.35 cents for IHG, as reported by points trade sites in August 2026. Those are retail prices rather than valuations, and they move with bonus promotions, but a programme rarely prices its own currency far below what it redeems for. Per dollar spent the gap narrows, because Hyatt pays 5 points per dollar and the others pay 10.
Is it worth chasing status in more than one programme?
Entry tiers, yes. All five hand out their first tier at around 10 nights, so spreading a light travel year across two of them costs nothing. Top tiers, no. Hilton Diamond Reserve wants 80 nights and $18,000, Marriott Ambassador 100 nights and $23,000. Splitting 60 nights buys two mid tiers and no top tier.
Do points get devalued without warning?
Regularly. Hyatt’s top category award went from 45,000 points to 75,000 on 20 May 2026, and members got notice only because there was a chart to change. The dynamic three owe you none, because they publish no price. Spend points rather than banking them.
Should I take points or the cheaper rate?
Take the cheaper rate whenever the discount exceeds 5 percent. Member rates and prepaid rates routinely cut 10 percent or more, which is double the rebate you are giving up, and a cash saving is certain in a way a future redemption is not.
Does a co-branded credit card change the answer?
It changes the earning side and leaves the uncertain side alone. A card adding 6 points per dollar roughly doubles a Marriott rebate on paper, but the point is still worth whatever the programme decides on redemption day. A card improves the number you already knew and does nothing about the number you do not.
What counts as qualifying spend for status?
The room rate, plus food and beverage charged to the room at Marriott. Taxes do not count, and third-party bookings do not count anywhere. Hilton’s switch to dollar thresholds in January 2026 makes this the number to watch, because a spend figure that excludes a chunk of the bill is a harder target than it looks.
Sources: ALL Accor Terms and Conditions of Membership (all.accor.com), for earning rates by status and brand, the 1,000 points to €20 conversion and the 365-day points validity. World of Hyatt award chart update, announced at newsroom.hyatt.com and effective 20 May 2026, with the category-by-level figures as tabulated by NerdWallet. Hilton Honors Fact Sheet (stories.hilton.com) for the 2026 elite tier thresholds and the Diamond Reserve tier. IHG One Rewards Member Terms and Conditions (ihg.com). Marriott Bonvoy programme terms for earning rates, elite thresholds and the 24-month expiry rule.
Researched from primary sources and checked August 2026. General information, not advice.
