This month I have decided to try out an hotel credit card. I have a plan for a summer trip with my kids and having a few free nights would be awesome. Starwood just merged with Marriot, so it is also possible to transfert points from Starwood to Marriot.

Starwood Preferred Guest SPG Credit card

What I'm interested in:

• 5 nights (2 stay) per year count toward the status.
• Current bonus is 35000 points. Booking a room can cost about 4000 to 10000 points per night (for cheaper hotels). For nice hotels, it would be 25000 points. (~5nights * 100$= 500$)
• 95$ yearly fee
• Free wifi
• No Fx Fees

Total value of the card for the first year is about 1200$ (conservative estimate since I used 100$/night).

Also, you can accumulate points very quickly especially if you need to travel for work. There is a 5x points for every dollars spent at Starwood hotels.