Does the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card Stand Up to the Competition?

If you’re a small-business owner, signing up for a business credit card can help you maximize the rewards that you earn on your expenses. And if a large portion of your spending is on hotel stays for you and your employees, then it’s worth looking into a hotel rewards business credit card.

The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card issued by Chase is definitely among the best options for small-business owners who want to earn great rewards on hotel spending as well as in other categories, including dining, gas stations, advertising and more. This card also includes a potential 10% redemption bonus (making your World of Hyatt points more valuable), automatic World of Hyatt Discoverist status and the ability to earn up to $100 in Hyatt property credits per year.

While the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card is definitely a good option, there are many more hotel rewards credit cards out there for small-business owners. So, before you submit any applications, you should be aware of all the options available to you.

Let’s see how the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card stands up against the competition and suggest some other business credit cards that you may want to consider.

The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card Overview

Since we’ll be using the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card as our baseline for this comparison, let’s first examine the different features of this co-branded credit card. This card has an annual fee of $199 (which is high compared to some other hotel rewards business credit cards). However, you can offset that annual fee with the spending bonuses and other benefits offered by this card.

The following table includes all of the most relevant information about the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card:

Since World of Hyatt points are typically valued above 2 cents each, you’d need to earn about 9,950 points annually to offset this card’s $199 annual fee, which seems achievable considering that this card offers 2X points in a wide variety of common expense categories. Additionally, you’ll earn 4X points on stays booked at Hyatt hotels and resorts.

And, this doesn’t even factor in the value that this card provides with its welcome bonus. These bonuses and their terms change over time, but here’s the most recent welcome offer from the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card:

So, by earning this welcome bonus alone, you can offset this card’s annual fee for several years.

Additionally, this card includes automatic Discoverist status (which includes some valuable perks), up to $100 in Hyatt property credits annually, a Hyatt Leverage membership, a 10% rebate on Hyatt points spent and more. These added benefits could potentially provide you a ton of value, further improving this card’s value proposition.

World of Hyatt Business Credit Card vs. The Competition

As mentioned above, there are many other hotel business credit cards available. So, for the purposes of this article, we’re going to compare the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card to a business credit card from each of the other major hotel rewards programs, namely:

• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (see rates and fees)
• Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (see rates and fees)
• Wyndham Rewards Earner® Business Card

With its $199 annual fee, the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card is the most expensive of these credit cards. The Hilton Honors Amex Business Card has the next-highest annual fee at $195. The Marriott Bonvoy Amex Business Card has an annual fee of $125. And the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card has a $95 annual fee.

Let’s take a look at each aspect of these cards side-by-side. However, in comparing these cards, it’s important to keep in mind that they do have different annual fees, and the value of each benefit should be weighed against that card’s annual fee.

Elite Status Upgrades

One common perk of all four of these credit cards is that they all include automatic elite status in their respective rewards program. These elite statuses come with perks ranging from welcome gifts to complimentary room upgrades. So, let’s look at the elite status that each of these cards will get you and the perks that they entail.

The following table includes the elite status that comes with each of these cards and the benefits included with each status:

In comparing the elite status benefits that come with each of these credit cards, it seems that the Hilton Honors Amex Card definitely has the advantage. It comes with Hilton Honors Gold status, but if you spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on your card in a calendar year, you can earn an upgrade to Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year.

Hilton Honors Diamond status offers 100% bonus points on stays, which is a considerably larger bonus than any of the other elite statuses listed above (even when you consider that Hilton Honors points are less valuable than most other hotel points, which will be discussed in detail later).

Additionally, the ability to gift Hilton Honors Gold status to another member and access Hilton Executive Lounges (which offer free food and drinks at certain locations) are valuable.

The next-best elite status listed above is probably Marriott Bonvoy Gold status, which is a perk of the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Card. This status comes with 25% bonus points on Marriott stays in addition to a welcome gift of either 250 or 500 points whenever you stay at a Marriott location. These two benefits can significantly improve how quickly you accumulate Marriott Bonvoy points. Plus, the enhanced room upgrade perk can improve the quality of your stay at no additional cost.

On top of that, all four of these elite statuses offer similar basic benefits like free Wi-Fi, early check-in and late checkout.

Spending Bonuses

In deciding between these business credit cards, perhaps the most important consideration is the spending bonuses. Each of these cards offers at least 1X points on all purchases as well as elevated spending bonuses in certain business categories. Choosing a card with spending bonuses tailored to your business’s expenses will ensure that you earn a lot of points into the future.

For instance, if your business’s largest expense is social media marketing, then you’ll probably want to sign up for a card that offers a high spending bonus in this category.

In the table below, we’ll list the spending bonuses offered by each of these four hotel business credit cards:

In comparing these spending bonuses, which card is best for your business really depends on your business’s largest expense categories. However, the fact that the Hilton Honors Amex Card offers 5X points on all purchases up to the first $100,000 every calendar year is good for pretty much any small business. This card also offers 12X points total on purchases made at Hilton properties, which is the highest spending bonus for hotel spending offered by any of these cards.

The Wyndham Reward Earner Business Card is a great option for businesses that spend a lot on gas as it offers 8X points on all gas station purchases (as well as purchases at Hilton hotels and resorts).

The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card doesn’t appear to have the best spending bonuses. It offers 4X points on Hyatt hotels, 2X points in a wide variety of categories and 1X points on all other purchases. However, when you consider that Hyatt points are typically considered to be twice as valuable when redeemed as any of the other hotel points (around 2 cents per point whereas other points are worth about 1 cent per point or less), these spending bonuses are actually impressive.

Welcome Bonuses

Another important benefit of each of these credit cards is their welcome bonuses. Essentially, the way that these bonuses work is that you need to spend a certain amount of money on your card in the first few months after account opening. If you meet the spending requirement within the time period, you’ll receive a large sum of points, which is typically enough to book several hotel nights.

These welcome offers change often, so it’s important to check the most updated welcome offer before signing up for a credit card. We recommend making sure that you can meet the spending requirement before opening a card. These bonuses are valuable, and you don’t want to miss out on them.

Here’s the current welcome offer from the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card:

Here’s the current welcome bonus offered by the the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card:

Here’s the current welcome offer from the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card:

In weighing the overall value of each of these credit cards, it’s important to consider the value of each card’s welcome bonus. Once again, Hyatt points are typically valued at about double the value of any other hotel rewards currency, so you should consider that when calculating the value of the welcome bonus offered by the World of Hyatt card.

Other Benefits

In addition to elite status, spending bonuses and welcome bonuses, each of these business credit cards offers other benefits. These benefits range from statement credits for hotel stays to anniversary points bonuses to special benefits with car rental companies. And if you want to get the most value possible out of any of these credit cards, you’ll want to make sure to take full advantage of these perks. So, before you open a new card, make sure that you’ll use its benefits year after year.

The following table details the other benefits included with each of these hotel business credit cards:

In terms of these other benefits, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Card definitely has the advantage. The fact that you’ll receive a free night award worth up to 35,000 points every cardmember year simply for renewing your account is highly valuable. And if you spend $60,000 in a calendar year, you’ll receive another free night award worth up to 35,000 points.

So, if you spend $60,000 on your card in a year, you’ll receive not one, but two free nights, worth around $490, which is excellent value for a card with an annual fee of $125.

The runner-up in this category is probably the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card because it offers 15,000 bonus points every cardmember year and gives an automatic 10% discount when redeeming Wyndham points.

The Hilton Honors Amex Business and World of Hyatt Business cards offer similar perks, but they require you to reach spending minimums to receive those benefits (for instance, the World of Hyatt card offers 10% back on points redeemed after you spend $50,000 in a calendar year).

It’s also worth noting that each of these cards also comes with other benefits ensured by either Visa or American Express.

Since both the World of Hyatt and Wyndham Rewards cards are Visa Signature cards, they come with benefits like extended warranty protection, auto collision damage waiver, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement, trip cancellation/trip interruption reimbursement, baggage delay reimbursement and cellular telephone protection.

Both the Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy Amex cards come with a similar suite of benefits.

Points Value

In looking at the value that each of these business credit cards provides, it’s important to look at the number of points that you can earn with each card, but it’s also important to consider how valuable each type of point is. Each of these hotel currencies has a different average value, which is important in determining the monetary value that you can extract from welcome bonuses, spending bonuses and anniversary bonuses.

The following chart includes the average value of each of these four types of hotel rewards points:

So, using these values, we can estimate the true monetary value of welcome bonuses, spending bonuses and anniversary bonuses. For example, the true monetary value of the 15,000-point anniversary bonus included with the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card would be about $180 (15,000 points x 1.2 cents per point = $180).

It’s also worth noting that, although the Hilton Honors Amex Business card offers particularly impressive spending bonuses, the true monetary value of these bonuses may be much lower than they appear because Hilton Honors points have a relatively low value. The opposite can be said for World of Hyatt points.

We recommend that you calculate the true value of all bonuses offered by each of these cards and then add up what you think the total annual value that each of these cards offers.

Which of These Cards Is Best?

In determining which of these cards is best, we recommend that you estimate how many points you could earn with each of these credit cards annually through welcome bonuses, regular spending bonuses and anniversary bonuses.

Then, multiply that sum of points by the average value per point of whichever type of hotel points you’re looking at to get the true monetary value of those points. After that, add your best estimate of the annual monetary value of any other benefits (such as elite status, statement credits or redemption discounts). And finally, subtract the annual fee from that total value.

After these calculations, whichever card has the highest annual monetary benefit is the card that you should probably go with.

To make things a bit easier, we’d recommend the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Card to consumers who spend over $60,000 per year. Just for having this card, you’ll receive a free night award worth up to 35,000 points. If you spend $60,000 or more annually, you’ll automatically receive another free night award worth up to 35,000 points (for a total of up to 70,000 points), which is a massive benefit to receive year after year. Plus, this card has a relatively low annual fee of just $125.

If you plan on spending less than $60,000 per year on your card, then the World of Hyatt Business Card might be the best choice for you as this card offers a spending bonus of 2X points in a wide variety of common business expense categories. When you consider that World of Hyatt points are worth about 2.2 cents apiece, these spending bonuses are a valuable benefit.

Of course, if you are partial toward one of these hotel chains, then that should factor into your decision as well. For instance, if you tend to stay at Conrad Hotels & Resorts (which is under the Hilton corporate umbrella) often, then you may want to sign up for the Hilton Honors Amex Business Card so you can receive Hilton Honors elite status and earn lots of points whenever you stay at Hilton-owned locations.

Overall, each of these cards has something different to offer, and it’s impossible to definitively rank these cards in terms of their value to all consumers. The only way to know for sure which of these cards is best for you is to calculate each card’s value to you per year, factoring in the value of each type of hotel points.

The Bottom Line

After comparing the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card to three other hotel rewards business credit cards with similar annual fees from different programs, it would seem that this card does stand up to the competition. However, that’s not to say that it’s the best hotel business credit card for everyone.

Ultimately, the decision of which card is best for your small business depends on your spending habits as well as which hotel chain you tend to stay with more. Nonetheless, if you’re indifferent to which hotel program you earn with, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Card seems to offer more value than the World of Hyatt Business Card due to the fact that it offers one free night award automatically each year and another free night award if you spend $60,000 in a calendar year (each worth up to 35,000 points). The Marriott Bonvoy Card also has a lower annual fee than the World of Hyatt Business Card.

Still, it’s important that you do your own calculations using the comparisons above to determine which of these cards could provide you the most value. Of course, if you tend to spend a lot on hotel stays for yourself and your employees, it may even be worth signing up for multiple hotel rewards credit cards.