I have been a member of the Priority Club for many years now and have found it the best and most rewarding scheme to join. I do travel a lot with work and stay away in hotels an lot, I have almost every card going for each hotel chain, but this is the only one which I continually use and actually get anything out of it.

Firstly two hints on how to get the most out of this scheme. Use Holiday Inn's, if you have a choice go for the Holiday Inn wherever possible. And secondly sign up to every single special offer they send through, even if you don't think you will meet the criteria it is worth signing up as you just might get some bonus points.

There are 3 levels of membership which you can move through, basic is Club, then Gold and the top is Platinum. To move between levels you either have to stay a set number of nights, 15 to get Gold and 50 to get Platinum. Or you need a set number of points 20,000 for Gold and 60,000 for Platinum. It is normally easier to get the levels with a number of points rather than nights, especially if you pick up bonus points for stays.

Once you get to Gold level each stay gains an extra 10% on points and at Platinum you get 50% bonus points. This also helps keep the level once you get to the top. I have managed to stay as a Platinum level when I didn't get enough points or stays one year, not sure how often this happens.

Now lets look at benefits of having the card. At the lower level you don't get that much, yes you can gain some points and then spend them on nights away but turning up at the hotel you only really get a newspaper.

Once you get to Gold you get a priority check-in option which normally just means that the hotel has already set up your room and you just sign for a key. This is quite nice and very useful after a long trip to a hotel.

If, or when, you get to Platinum you then get one of the best things about the club, that is you get room upgrades where possible when checking in. When checking in I have probably been upgraded 8 or 9 times out of 10 and on the other occasions they have been apologetic that they haven't been able to upgrade me.

This often means you move from a standard floor to the business rooms or to a nicer view, or larger room. This is a really nice touch and does make you feel wanted by the hotel brand.

Once you are in the club you can also get a number of complimentary items at hotels, this includes free drinks, money off meals and free internet. Recently I got a free drink on arrival and 25% off all food and drink at the hotel.

So this means that staying at a hotel is much nicer and you get some nice rooms and feel important when checking in. But what else can you get from the points and club. You can decide to collect points or air miles, I have always chosen points as I see air miles as pretty pointless in the long run.

Priority Club have a shop on line where you can trade in points for goods, I have friends who have traded points in for a PS3 or John Lewis vouchers to then buy an iPad. I haven't traded in points for goods, I have always used them for free nights in hotels. This has really pleased my wife over the years as we have had many short breaks in a hotel for free. I have used points for single nights throughout the UK and around the world.

I managed to get 4 nights in Rome for free through the points and 2 nights in the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Depending on the type of hotel and the area depends on how many points a free night will cost. Prices range from 20,000 to 50,000 that I have seen. 50,000 is normally for Intercontinental hotels, while 20,000 could be Holiday Inn's or Expresses depending on locations. The four nights in Rome in a Crowne Plaza cost 25,000 a night.

These points can be used at any point in time and the points do not expire which does mean you can slowly build up points and then use them at a later date.

When using points you just get a room you cannot book extras such as breakfast, so be aware of that.

Priority Club does have links to other partners such as Hertz which means you can book cars with a discount and gain points for the booking. This has also resulted in me getting some very nice cars from Hertz at times.

Cards like this work, because you start gaining advantages so keep staying at the same hotel to gain more things. It really works for me because I get very good service from the Intercontinental brand due to being a Platinum member and I know the hotels are going to be pretty good most of the time.

I would strongly recommend signing up to this club and attempting to make it work for you as it is pretty easy to get good things out of it.