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After taking a look at which airline programs allow points pooling, let’s switch gears to look at hotels. The good news is that the three most popular hotel programs allow combining points in some fashion: Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt.
While none offer points pooling quite like airline frequent flyer programs, all three allow members to combine points in some fashion. The reasons to combine points include booking a more expensive hotel or booking from an account with elite status to enjoy benefits and collect elite nights there.
Unfortunately, none of the loyalty programs allow sharing of free night awards.
Marriott Bonvoy
For Canadians, Marriott is the most accessible hotel program. It’s the only hotel chain in Canada to have a co-branded card, with personal and business versions both issued by American Express. You can also transfer Amex Membership Rewards (MR) points to Marriott Bonvoy at a 5:6 ratio with occasional 30% transfer bonuses.
With Marriott, you can transfer up to 100,000 Bonvoy points per calendar year to other members. This is a cumulative annual limit regardless of how many members you’re sending points to. In terms of receiving points, the limit is 500,000 Bonvoy points per year, again regardless of how many people send points to your account.
This is a great way to combine points with your partner if you both earn an Amex Bonvoy sign-up bonus or borrow points from a friend for an upcoming stay, and you can easily pay them back later. After all, Marriott does not limit transfers to immediate family, so you can transfer points to any other member.
Marriott makes it easy to transfer points online; simply fill out the form, and points arrive instantly.
Hilton Honors
Hilton is the most generous of the three major hotel loyalty programs, offering two ways to share points: transfer points to another member or pool points into a shared pot. In practice, these are the same as the first involves sending points and the second involves joining a (up to 11-person) points pool before sending points in the exact same process.
Hilton’s limits are 500,000 points for sending and 2,000,000 points for receiving. It’s much more generous than Marriott, though with a few extra limitations: you can send only 6 outgoing transfers per year, and you can send or receive points only if your Hilton account has been open for 90 days. If you have some activity in the account, the timeline drops to 30 days.
As with Marriott, you can send points to anybody, and the recipient does not have to be related to you. It’s very easy to transfer points online with the Hilton points transfer form.
One major benefit of being able to transfer points is that purchasing Hilton Honours points is a great deal at 0.5¢ each, but each account is limited to 160,000 points (320,000 points after accounting for the 100% bonus). With the transfer points feature, you can pool points with your partner and effectively buy 640,000 points in one Hilton account.
World of Hyatt
Hyatt is simultaneously the best and worst program for combining points: there’s no limit to how many points you can transfer, which is fantastic, but transferring points requires filling out a physical form that you have to email and wait for a reply.
Technically, you can only share points “in order to have a sufficient number of points to redeem a particular reward”, but that’s never enforced in practice. You can also only have one points sharing transaction per 30 days (which is enforced).
You can access the Points Combining Request form on the Hyatt website (at least it’s a fillable PDF) and then send it off to combinepoints@hyatt.com. It typically takes 2-5 business days, although I’ve also had replies within the hour. Because of the somewhat unpredictable timeline, it’s best to combine points before you think you’ll need them.
If you’re a Globalist member, try asking your Concierge to speed up the process.
Takeaway
Unlike many airline pooling programs, none of these hotel programs require members to be related or live at the same address. Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt all make it possible to combine points, which is especially useful when booking expensive award stays or consolidating points into the account with elite status. Marriott has the lowest points transfer limit, but easy online transfers. Hilton offers great flexibility with online transfers and high transfer limits, while Hyatt stands out for allowing unlimited transfers, albeit with a more arduous process.
Each program has its quirks, but the ability to move points between accounts is an underrated benefit. Whether you’re combining sign-up bonuses with a partner or topping up an account for a redemption, understanding these rules can help you get more value from your hotel points.
Feature Image Credit: Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island, from Hilton
