Best hotel credit cards in February 2024

With hotel occupancy rates surging to pre-COVID levels (and sometimes beyond), banks and major hotel chains are competing vigorously for your loyalty. There are hotel and travel credit cards on the market offering perks such as multiple free nights for no annual fee, free upgrades at boutique hotels, and instant Diamond elite status. There’s even a card that rewards you with points transferrable to several hotels and airlines just for paying the rent on time. 

Amidst all this choice and competition, which card is right for you? 

To help you choose, the Fortune Recommends ^TM team evaluated more than a dozen of the top hotel rewards credit cards available today, as well as a selection of travel cards not tied to one specific hotel brand. We’ve ranked them based on factors including rewards, welcome bonuses, annual fees, free nights and elite status. Read on to see our top picks.

See our full methodology here.

All interest rates, rewards, and fees are accurate at time of publication, but are subject to change.

Best overall: IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card

Why we like this card

The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card feels like an elite-tier card that simply forgot to charge us more than its very reasonable annual fee of $99 a year. Right out of the gate it offers a welcome bonus of 165,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. 

Depending on where your heart is set on traveling, that cache of points from the welcome bonus can net you several free nights. If we assume a cost of 30,000 points per…