Hotel loyalty credit card in Australia

[_flyer]

The United States boasts several hotel loyalty credit cards with compelling incentives. Considering Australia's enthusiasm for airline points, I’m curious why hotel loyalty programs have not gained traction in this market. While Accor has collaborated with NAB, the partnership is not optimal. Ideally, offerings from Bonvoy, Hilton, IHG, or Hyatt would be welcomed here, as Accor's program is not considered the most favorable IMO.

 

[Buzzard]

The United States boasts several hotel loyalty credit cards with compelling incentives. Considering Australia's enthusiasm for airline points, I’m curious why hotel loyalty programs have not gained traction in this market. While Accor has collaborated with NAB, the partnership is not optimal. Ideally, offerings from Bonvoy, Hilton, IHG, or Hyatt would be welcomed here, as Accor's program is not considered the most favorable IMO.

Years ago there was a tie up with Hilton and Macquarie. Kept me Diamond for probably more than 10 years.

 

[justinbrett]

I don’t think the big three (Hilton, Marriot and Hyatt) have critical mass in Australia to make this work. Accor would be the only chain here big enough to make it work.

However the other issue is in the US it’s fine to have 10 or even more credit cards, they are easy to churn. In Australia once you get to 2 or 3 your credit rating can start to take a hit. Therefore we are more suited to more universal cards than ones just focussing on hotels.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Maybe here in Aus, the banks dont find it financially motivating enough to issue cards that tie in to hotels, unlike the airlines, where they say FF part of airlines make them the most money, and thus, they will/can pay the banks for it.

Like, Hertiage Bank didnt feel it was up to upgrading their systems to run QTMC, so cheapy cheapy EML took it over.

Or that, public transport cards here in Aus cannot be used in stores, not like for eg, Japan.

Many times, in the QF money section, when I need to check my QTMC balance, its "not available".

Or the fact that in the US, they have prepaid/amex debit, where anyone can get one, and load money and spend on it to earn MR, where as prepaid/amex debits are not available in Aus.

Also, all cards on visa/mastercard now must have the words "debit" on it if its not a "real true" credit card.

Or it could be too, that hotels here do not want to pay the banks to run a liaison with the hotels, credit card wise.

Interchange fees here only make up about 0.015% of the purchase price, so the margin is that great.

VFF and CUSCAL ditched the VFF side of visa debits, ala the VGW.

 

[Buster76]

Yep. The situation stinks for Australians in this regard. Americans are living the dream in terms of hotel co-branded cards. The NAB/Accor partnership isn't great in terms of rewards/status and the fact that NAB (as with Comm) aeem to be moving to monthly fees for their cards if under a spend threshold (meh). AMEX platinum is severely overpriced here and you still only get Hilton Gold (OK) and Marriott Gold (somewhat useless). Surely for the price it should be top tier! I had the Hilton Macquarie for years and it was a great card. If any of them launched a decent card that offered the ability to get to elite I'd be in right away. Also, with the USD being so mediocre against the AUD and most of the big chains billing in USD internationally it makes staying with them next to impossible whereas with a hotel branded card it makes better sense (and they get all your business) as you can accrue points, get free night certificates and so forth. Weirdly, even Indonesia has a decent (kind of) card with Accor. I really hope this changes as transferring points out of any airline to a hotel is an immense waste.

 

[JenniferBrown]

Yep. The situation stinks for Australians in this regard. Americans are living the dream in terms of hotel co-branded cards. The NAB/Accor partnership isn't great in terms of rewards/status and the fact that NAB (as with Comm) aeem to be moving to monthly fees for their cards if under a spend threshold (meh). AMEX platinum is severely overpriced here and you still only get Hilton Gold (OK) and Marriott Gold (somewhat useless). Surely for the price it should be top tier! I had the Hilton Macquarie for years and it was a great card. If any of them launched a decent card that offered the ability to get to elite I'd be in right away. Also, with the USD being so mediocre against the AUD and most of the big chains billing in USD internationally it makes staying with them next to impossible whereas with a hotel branded card it makes better sense (and they get all your business) as you can accrue points, get free night certificates and so forth. Weirdly, even Indonesia has a decent (kind of) card with Accor. I really hope this changes as transferring points out of any airline to a hotel is an immense waste.

Thanks for the info, I will keep it in my mind.