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Joseph Hostetler
- Many travel rewards cards offer elite-like hotel benefits when you book with their online portals.
- Amex, Chase, Capital One, Mastercard, and Visa all field hotel-booking portals with varying benefits.
- The prices through credit card travel portals are often on par with booking directly through hotels.
- Read Insider's guide to the best travel rewards credit cards.
Many of the best credit cards, like the
However, you don't need to carry a specific hotel credit card to enjoy such benefits. Depending on the issuer and type of credit card you carry, you might have access to special online booking portals where reservations include these sorts of freebies, too.
The main programs offered by card issuers include:
- The Hotel Collection and the Fine Hotels & Resorts program (for select cardholders) from American Express
- The Luxury Hotel & Resorts Collection from Chase
- The Premier Collection from Capital One
Plus, depending on your credit card, you might be eligible to book through either the Visa Signature Hotels or Visa Infinite Hotels sites — and World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard holders can access their own specialized portal.
Here are the details of these hotel programs and what you can expect when you book through each.
We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
American Express
Amex provides two online hotel booking portals for certain cardholders. When booking through these platforms, you'll still earn hotel points and elite night credits — and your current elite status will even be recognized. This is quite unique among hotel booking programs, as benefits like these usually only come by reserving your room directly with the hotel.
The Hotel Collection
The first is called The Hotel Collection and is available to those with
With the various versions of the Amex Platinum card, you'll earn 5 points per dollar on prepaid bookings made through these portals.
With The Hotel Collection, cardholders who book a stay of two consecutive nights (either paid or using Pay With Points) receive the following benefits:
- A $100 hotel credit to spend on qualifying dining, spa, and other resort activities (but not room rates, taxes, gratuities, or fees)
- A room upgrade at check-in, if available
Given that room rates through The Hotel Collection are generally the same as you'll find through pretty much any other channel, adding an extra $100 in value to your stay and a good shot at an upgrade are reason enough to book through here instead.
You can book these hotels through American Express Travel online or by phone at 800-297-2977. The collection of partner properties includes over 700 hotels worldwide, and is a mix of luxury hotels, chain hotels, and smaller boutique properties. A few examples include the Soho Grand Hotel in New York City, the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht, Atlantis The Palm in Dubai, and the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in Hawaii.
Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts
Fine Hotels & Resorts is a program exclusively for cardholders with
The program comprises over 2,000 ultra-luxurious properties globally, including stunners like Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, Alila Seminyak in Bali, and the Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt Buenos Aires.
Cardholder benefits are much more comprehensive, and include:
- A room upgrade at check-in, if available
- Noon check-in, if available
- 4 p.m. guaranteed late check-out
- Occasional third- or fourth-night-free rates
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- Daily breakfast for two
- A unique amenity valued at $100 that varies by property
Given the caliber of hotels that can be found within Fine Hotels & Resorts, a third or fourth free night can be worth north of $1,000. Breakfast for two, likewise, can be a benefit worth over $100 per day. Although many hotels offer free Wi-Fi, you'll also find some that charge $20 per day for it, adding even more value.
Finally, if you do plan to eat at the hotel, enjoy drinks at the bar, or partake in an activity or spa session, the $100 amenity might come in handy, too.
American Express estimates the average value per stay to be $600 — enough to offset much of these cards' annual fees.
Chase Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection
In a similar vein, and with many properties that overlap with Amex FHR, Chase offers its own Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.
Chase does not publish a list of cards that are eligible for bookings made through it. However, online evidence suggests that it's open to cardholders of the following products:
Chase Sapphire Reserve® Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Chase Freedom Flex℠ Chase Freedom Unlimited® Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card United℠ Explorer Card New United Quest℠ Card
The program now includes over 1,000 participating hotels and resorts around the world, including the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, the St. Regis San Francisco, and the Rosewood Phuket in Thailand.
By booking through the Chase Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection, cardmembers receive the following benefits:
- A room upgrade at check-in, if available
- Early check-in and late check-out, if available
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- Daily breakfast for two
- A special benefit unique to each property such as a meal, afternoon tea, complimentary spa services, or on-property credits that range up to $100
While some hotels do offer a straightforward $100 on-property credit to be used during the stay, others substitute location-specific experiences like a dinner for two in the hotel's restaurant or a particular spa treatment. Before booking, be sure to double-check what the extra services entail and whether you will actually use them.
Capital One Premier Collection
Capital One offers the Premier Collection, which is currently only available to
- A $100 experience credit towards dining, spa, and other hotel activities
- Daily breakfast for two
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- Early check-in and late checkout, when available
- Room upgrades, when available
The Premier Collection features hundreds of handpicked hotels, resorts, and properties, including 1 Hotels, Six Senses, Proper Hotels, and more.
If you're interested in booking, you can do so through the Capital One Travel portal and with the search interface just like with regular hotels. You'll earn 10 miles per dollar with the
Similar to American Express hotel portals, the Premier Collection allows you to earn elite night credits, and hotel points, and even receive elite status recognition, when reserving through the platform.
Visa Signature Hotels and Visa Infinite Hotels
Visa has two hotel booking portals through which you can expect to reap hundreds of dollars of value per reservation. What's more, you are probably already carrying a card that entitles you to use them, even if you don't realize it.
The first and largest is Visa Signature Hotels. It's open to cardholders of various Visa Signature products including (among many others):
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card The World Of Hyatt Credit Card Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card United℠ Explorer Card Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card
It counts more than 900 properties worldwide, such as the Peninsula Shanghai and the Belmond Copa Cabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro. When you make a reservation through Visa Signature Hotels, you're automatically entitled to the following:
- Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
- Free in-room Wi-Fi
- Late check-out upon request, when available
- Complimentary breakfast for two
- A $25 food or beverage credit
While not quite as wide-ranging as Amex or Chase's luxury offerings, the perks still do provide quite a bit of value, especially that breakfast benefit. When you consider that many of the cards that are eligible for this benefit have annual fees of $95 or less, you can make up that value in a single stay.
A disadvantage to be aware of is that bookings made through Visa Signature Hotels will not earn hotel points or elite credits. If you're gunning for status with a particular chain, you are better off booking direct.
Visa Infinite cardholders — such as those with the
The perks are mostly the same as those offered by Visa Signature Hotels, though guests receive an additional property amenity, usually in the form of on-site credits.
World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard Hotels
There are over a dozen World and World Elite Mastercard products that are eligible for bookings made through Mastercard's hotel collection. They include the:
Citi Premier® Card Chase Freedom Flex℠ Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard® IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® JetBlue Plus Card
The collection includes thousands of hotels around the world, such as the Delano South Beach and the Mandarin Oriental New York. Like the other booking portals, this one bestows benefits like early check-in, late check-out, upgrades based on availability, daily breakfast, and on-property credits of around $50 to $100 depending on the hotel.
What to know about hotel booking programs
You might not have a premium credit card or elite status with one of the major loyalty programs. However, that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of credit card booking portals to enjoy perks like room upgrades, free breakfast, and on-property credits. Before booking anything, double-check which portals you might be eligible to use, and which one will give you the benefits that best suit your needs.