The Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN is designed for business owners who like staying at the Starwood Hotels & Resorts worldwide (including Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, St Regis, etc), and have a business that is more than two years old with strong credit history. This card lets you earn points on Starwood and everyday purchases which you can redeem for free hotel stays or free air tickets.

Here I’ll do a detailed review of the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN, one of the best credit cards for business owners who like to earn travel rewards, and tell you how we rate this credit card.

Things We Like About This Card

No annual fee for the first year. During the first year of card membership, you will enjoy all the benefits this card has to offer for free, without having to pay an annual fee. After the first year, you’ll have to pay an annual fee of $65.

Earn 10,000 points with your first purchase, with which you can get up to 3 free nights at a Category 1 or 2 hotel, or 1 night at a Category 4 hotel, like Four Points by Sheraton Midtown – Times Square or the Sheraton Kauai Resort! Simply make your first purchase with the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card within one year of card membership.

Earn another 15,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first 6 months. By spending just $834 per month on your business credit card for the first 6 months, you will receive an additional 15,000 bonus points – which means more free nights for you!

Earn 1 point for every eligible $1 you spend and up to 5 points for Starwood purchases. Here’s the breakdown of the 5 points: For every eligible $1 spent at SPG hotels & resorts, you get 2 points on the card, plus 2 points as an SPG member (you will automatically be enrolled under the Starwood Preferred Guest program), and you get 1 more point with SPG Gold or Platinum status. You will also receive one point for every $1 spent on practically everything else.

Use points for free stays and upgrades at more than 1,000 Starwood hotels and resorts in almost 100 countries including Sheraton, W Hotels, Westin, Aloft, Element,  St. Regis,  Le Meridien and more. With no blackout dates and availability restrictions, you’ll find it a breeze to redeem your points. You can redeem for free weekend nights at a Category 1 or 2 hotel with as few as 2,000 points. If you like staying at the Starwood chain of hotels and resorts around the world, and like to get free stays as rewards, this benefit will appeal to you the most.

Use points to fly to your next destination. With your points, you can use SPG Flights to redeem Free Flights on more than 350 airlines without blackout dates. So if you have earned enough points, you can fly for free!

You can transfer points to other airlines’ frequent flyer programs. Have you got an airline frequent flyer account? If you do, you can transfer your points to frequent flyer programs of 30 airlines, mostly on a 1:1 basis. Plus, you’ll get a 5,000 bonus points when you transfer 20,000 points to a frequent flyer program!

Stay 2 nights, and get the 3^rd night free at participating Sheraton hotels and resorts around the world. To receive one night free for every two nights paid, you must make advance reservations through Starwood. Blackout dates and other restrictions apply.

Get 5 night credits toward SPG elite status every year. This is another new benefit offered to new sign-ups. Once you are approved for this card and by February 15 of each subsequent calendar year you have the card, you will get 5 night credits toward your Starwood Preferred Guest Elite status. Note that these are not actual free nights that you can use.

Open Savings business discounts of 3% to 10% on brand-name partners. As an American Express OPEN cardmember, you’ll receive discounts on a variety of business expenses from retailers such as FedEx, Hertz, OfficeMax, hpdirect, Epson, airTran, Hyatt, Marriott and more. Just pay with your Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card and the savings will be credited to your account automatically.

Receive additional employee credit cards with no annual fees. This is a great advantage if you own a small business and you have to provide your employees with a credit card.

Online expense management tools. These online expense management tools are very useful, especially for a business or company, since these tools can be customized to track charges on your business card and you can use them to monitor your company’s expenses closely.

Security services. To make you feel more secure, this card also comes with purchase protection, return protection, identity theft assistance, fraud protection guarantee, emergency card replacement, and many other benefits.

Travel insurance. If you travel often, you’ll be happy to know that this card also comes with travel-related benefits such as a $100,000 travel accident insurance, car rental loss or damage insurance, etc.

Extended warranty. When you purchase eligible items with this business credit card, you’ll get free extended warranty.

24/7 customer service. Customer service at American Express is known for being the one of the best in the credit card industry, so if you have any questions or concerns about this card, you can call their customer service and have your questions answered.

Account alerts and payment reminders. To make sure you don’t go over your spending limit, spend too much money or forget about paying your bills, these alerts and reminders will help keep you on track with your spending and will remind you when to pay your bills.

Year-end summary. At the end of every year, to help you better organize your accounts, taxes and budget for the upcoming year, you will get a free itemized report of all your spending that current year.

Our Least Favorite Things About This Card

After the first year, you will have to pay an annual fee. After the first year of having this card, you will have to pay an annual fee of $65. This annual fee is well worth it, considering all the reward points you will stand to gain from your everyday business expenses as well as Starwood purchases worldwide.

Our Verdict: 4.5/5 Stars

If you like staying at the Starwood chain of hotels and resorts, have a business that is more than two years old with a positive cash flow and strong credit history, the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN might just be the card you are looking for.

I would highly recommend this card since it gives you points whenever you spend on your card: you earn up to 5 points per $1 spent on Starwood purchases and 1 point per $1 spent on anything else. You can accumulate your points to later redeem for free hotel stays, free flights or even transfer to your airline frequent flyer program on a 1:1 basis.

Plus, you get to earn 10,000  bonus points with your first purchase, which you can redeem for a 1 night stay at a Category 4 hotel!  There’s also a new benefit for cardmembers – stay 2 nights and get the 3rd night free at participating Sheraton hotels and resorts anywhere in the world.

You’ll also get to enjoy many benefits which will be very useful for your business. You can get additional credit cards for your employees with no annual fee, track your business expenses closely with their online tools, and more. You’ll also get many travel-related benefits such as insurance coverage. All in all, the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN is an excellent choice of card for business owners who like staying at the Starwood chain of hotels.

Click here to go to the American Express official website to apply online for Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN now. You’ll get a response within 60 seconds.

Would you prefer a business cash rewards credit card without an annual fee instead? Then apply for Ink Cash Business – $250 Bonus Cash Back (read our Chase Ink review), issued by JPMorgan Chase. This card gives you up to 5 points for each dollar you spend, and has a signing promotion whereby you get a $250 points just by making your first purchase and spending $5,000 in the first 3 months!