Business Travel Tip: Hotel Loyalty Plans are Worth It

The Wall Street Journal crew recently did some research into the actual value of several Hotel Loyalty Plans that seem to be adding perks all over place, often generously enough to be valuable for even the infrequent traveler who can’t rack up sufficient night stays.

It turns out that in most cases, the free membership offer perks that are well worth the hassle of signing up. Their experience at Omni Berkshire Place, for example, caught my attention:

During our Saturday night stay, the free membership let us dodge the hotel’s wireless Internet charge of $9.95 a day and entitled us to free coffee or tea with juice in our room in the morning.

Speaking as someone who is hopelessly addicted to the internet but who does not yet have a traveling internet card from Verizon, Clearwire, Sprint, or whoever else is selling them (I’m waiting for the $29.99 price point – I may have to wait a while), free hotel wi-fi is a great benefit.

You can find run-down of all the hotel programs they checked, which include benefits like check-cashing services and free champagne, over at the Wall Street Journal article.