IHG and Marriott are transfer partners with Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program, which means you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to both of those hotel programs and use the hotel points for free stays. But my best advice to you is that you should basically never do this. Why?

You’ll get way, way more value from transferring to other programs.

Here are a few examples.

Example 1: Let’s say you want to stay at a nice resort on Kauai and you have your heart set on the Poipu area. There’s a Marriott property (Koloa Landing Resort at Poipu) and not far away there’s also a Hyatt property (Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa). Both Marriott and Hyatt are transfer partners with Ultimate Rewards.

A standard award night at the Marriott property for a random date I just picked in July 2024 will cost you 85,000 Marriott points.

A standard award night at the Hyatt property for the same date will cost you 35,000 Hyatt points.

That’s an enormous difference in points prices! And from what I’ve heard, even though these properties are fairly equivalent in quality and amenities for general comparisons, the Grand Hyatt is actually nicer than the Marriott.

So why would you transfer 85,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott when you could transfer 35,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and have an even better stay?

Example 2: You’re going to London and you want to spend around 25,000 to 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points on a hotel room.

You could transfer 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points to IHG and stay at the Holiday Inn Express – London Victoria, which I’m sure is a perfectly adequate Holiday Inn. And it’s in a good location.

Or you could transfer 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and stay at the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, which is one of the poshest hotels I’ve ever stayed at in my life. It’s also in the heart of Mayfair, which is one of the poshest parts of central London. Really convenient and close to Oxford Street shopping and Hyde Park.

That choice seems like a no-brainer, right?

And for a different way to look at it, to stay at an IHG property in central London whose quality is comparable to the Hyatt Regency – The Churchill, you’d need to spend at least 55,000 points (for the Kimpton Fitzroy, though that’s not quite as fancy as The Churchill), but probably more like 81,000 points (for the InterContinental London Park Lane).

Example 3: Let’s just talk numbers and cash and stick with our last example.

The Hyatt Regency – The Churchill is selling King standard rooms that same night for £423. So your 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth about $541. The same 25,000 points don’t even get you the $193 room at the Holiday Inn – London Victoria.

Another option for spending around 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points would be a round-trip ticket to Hawaii from the west coast (by transferring points to British Airways and using them to fly on Alaska Airlines). Technically that’s 26,000 points, but hey, pretty close.

What if there’s a transfer bonus going on? Does it make sense to transfer points to IHG or Marriott then?

Quick answer: Probably not. Even with a 100% transfer bonus to either IHG or Marriott, you’re still only then getting closer to the same level of value you’d get by transferring to Hyatt even with no Hyatt bonus at all. You’ll probably want to do the math if it’s close, but it’s going to be unusual for this to make sense, even with a bonus.

So when would anyone want to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to IHG or Marriott?

The only reasons I can think of why anyone would want to ever transfer Ultimate Rewards points to IHG or Marriott would be (1) if you are just a few IHG or Marriott points shy of having enough for an award stay and if you just transfer over a couple thousand Ultimate Rewards points, you’ll have just enough, or (2) if your travel dates and locations are inflexible and the only available hotel options are IHG or Marriott because there’s no Hyatt and you also don’t have any other IHG or Marriott points.

Do you have other reasons you’d consider transferring Ultimate Rewards points to IHG or Marriott? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!