There are a lot of nice causes to remain at impartial hotels and vacation rentals. Sadly, the convenience of incomes rewards on these stays is just not one in every of them — or so that you may suppose. Through the years, I’ve loved quite a lot of unforgettable stays and picked up a number of tips to maximize my savings and rewards on them. Here is what I’ve discovered.
Associated: Best hotel rewards programs in the world: Which one is right for you?
Why I really like impartial boutique inns
Typically I keep at impartial boutique inns or trip leases out of necessity — perhaps the small mountain city I am visiting does not have any chain inns, or my buddy group wants extra space and may save massive bucks by splitting an Airbnb. Different occasions, I select impartial inns due to the distinctive facilities and experiences they supply.
As an illustration, I as soon as spent an evening outdoors Mount Rainier Nationwide Park in a cabin with an genuine Ukrainian restaurant and “cannibal” sizzling tub heated by a wooden fireplace. One other memorable keep was at a Kyoto ryokan full with a seven-course Japanese meal and an in-room onsen. I additionally spent a week in an Airbnb in Paris, which gave me extra of a glimpse into “actual” Parisian life than I might get at a factors resort within the prime vacationer neighborhood.
The draw back is that there are normally no elite advantages or factors to be earned at these properties. Fortunately, I’ve nonetheless discovered loads of methods to maximise my journey after I keep at impartial inns and trip leases.
Associated: How to use points to book vacation home rentals
How I get monetary savings on impartial resort stays
It’s doable to redeem rewards for stays at impartial inns, similar to by reserving with factors or miles via a credit card travel portal. However since this does not present nice worth for my rewards, I normally ebook these stays with money and deal with making an attempt to economize.
Use bank card journey credit
I maintain the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which offers an annual $50 resort credit score for properties booked via Chase Travel℠, and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, which offers a $300 journey credit score for flights and stays booked via Capital One Travel. Each of those are available in very helpful after I ebook impartial inns.
As an illustration, I just lately used my Enterprise X credit score on a two-night keep at a bed-and-breakfast within the Wicklow Mountains outdoors of Dublin (no factors inns there) and a rental automotive to get there. After my $300 credit score was utilized, I spent a grand complete of $4 on my two-day mountaineering journey.
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Listed below are another playing cards with journey credit which you can put towards stays at impartial inns:
Earn money again with procuring portals
I really like utilizing procuring portals to earn money again on my on a regular basis purchases. However they don’t seem to be only for retail procuring — you may earn money again at many hotel-booking platforms, like Reserving.com, Lodges.com, Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz and Tripadvisor.
Although reward charges fluctuate from everyday, they typically aren’t too shabby. On the time of writing, Rakuten was providing as much as 10% money again at a few of these websites.
Nonetheless, it is vital to learn the tremendous print on Rakuten earlier than you determine which website to ebook via. On this instance, Rakuten is providing 6% again on inns and trip leases however only one% again on automobiles and a measly $1.25 again on flights.
Vacationers who maintain a card that earns Amex Membership Rewards points can get additional worth out of Rakuten by switching their incomes desire to Amex points as an alternative of money again.
Different procuring portals to contemplate embody Extrabux, Mr. Rebates and TopCashback. You too can generally discover hotel-booking websites on airline shopping portals and bank card portals like Capital One Shopping. A shopping portal aggregator like Cashback Monitor may help you see which portals supply the perfect returns in your buy.
Seek for offers
Earlier than I ebook a keep, I all the time test a number of websites as a result of costs can fluctuate broadly. As an illustration, a part of my current journey to Dublin concerned spending two nights within the metropolis with my husband and a buddy. We wished an condominium with room for the three of us, however most Dublin Airbnbs required a four-night minimal keep. I settled on an apartment-style resort with a number of bedrooms and a kitchen that was working a sale for 10% off on direct bookings — saving me roughly $100 on our keep.
Worth is not the one factor I examine from one website to a different. I have a look at cancellation insurance policies too, and I typically prioritize reserving via a website with a versatile cancellation coverage, even when it prices a little bit extra. That manner, if my plans change or I discover a higher charge later, I can cancel without cost and rebook.
Associated: When plans go wrong: Your guide to booking refundable travel
How I maximize rewards on impartial resort stays
The extra factors I can earn on a resort I booked with money, the earlier I can redeem these factors for my subsequent free flight or Hyatt keep.
Earn transferable factors with bank card journey portals
Many in style journey playing cards supply portals via which you’ll ebook inns, flights, rental automobiles and extra — and earn bonus factors on these purchases. The variety of factors you may earn depends upon which card you maintain, but it surely’s sometimes 5 or extra factors per greenback spent.
For instance, I can earn 10 Capital One miles per greenback spent on inns booked via Capital One Journey after I pay with my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. And I can earn 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per greenback spent on inns I ebook via Chase Journey with my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
Different playing cards that earn bonus rewards on their respective reserving platforms embody:
Since I am not loyal to anybody resort program, incomes transferable factors is extraordinarily beneficial to me. I can switch my Chase factors to Hyatt or Marriott, for instance, or switch my Capital One miles to Selection or Wyndham, relying on which resort chain makes probably the most sense for my journey.
Associated: How (and why) you should earn transferable credit card points
Earn additional miles with airline reserving platforms
Most airline reserving platforms supply subpar incomes charges. Nonetheless, I really like Southwest Hotels as a result of you may earn as much as 25 factors per greenback spent on choose properties, so I all the time search right here first.
Rocketmiles works equally however helps you to select which rewards to earn from a protracted listing of airline loyalty packages, together with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue and United MileagePlus.
Earn airline miles on trip leases
Trip leases could also be a little bit behind the occasions on this planet of factors and miles, however this does not imply you may’t earn any beneficial rewards in your subsequent residence away from residence.
I’ve arrange my Airbnb account to earn British Airways Avios by coming into my frequent flyer quantity here.
That is as a result of I can earn 2 Avios per greenback spent on Airbnb bookings, and I’ve discovered Avios helpful for reserving worldwide flights out of Denver. Nonetheless, you can even decide to earn 1 Delta Air Lines SkyMile per greenback or 1 Qantas point per Australian greenback ($0.64) spent on Airbnb bookings. Select the forex that is most beneficial to you.
Should you favor Vrbo, you may earn 3 United Airways miles per greenback spent on Vrbo leases whenever you ebook via this page along with your MileagePlus quantity.
Associated: How to earn cash back or points when booking Airbnbs, Vrbo rentals, hostels and more
Earn free journey with One Key
Launched in 2023, Expedia’s One Key is a comparatively new loyalty program for Expedia, Lodges.com and Vrbo. Members can’t solely save 10% on stays booked via these websites but in addition earn OneKeyCash to spend towards inns, flights, rental automobiles and extra ($1 in OneKeyCash saves you $1 on purchases via these websites).
Since OneKeyCash is redeemed at a flat charge, you will not get the outsize worth that you would with different resort loyalty packages’ award charts and sweet spots. Nonetheless, One Key’s simplicity might be a draw for some vacationers, particularly since you can select from the large number of inns on three completely different websites.
Though I normally find yourself reserving via a bank card portal as an alternative, I am very intrigued by the One Key loyalty program, and I am contemplating including a One Key credit card to my pockets. I am additionally anxiously awaiting the day when Airbnb comes out with a cobranded bank card.
Which bank card do you have to use to ebook impartial inns?
If I can ebook a resort via a bank card portal similar to Chase Journey or Capital One Journey, I all the time use the relevant card to earn bonus factors. It is a no-brainer.
However generally I have to ebook a resort immediately with a view to get a deal, or I need to keep in an Airbnb, which is not obtainable on any platform mentioned above. Although it’s doable to redeem points for Airbnb gift cards, similar to redeeming my Chase Final Rewards factors at 1 cent per level, that is far under TPG’s March 2025 valuation of Chase factors and does not get me the perfect worth for my factors.
Due to this fact, my greatest wager is to ebook with a card that earns bonus rewards on journey purchases — however that is not the one factor I take into account.
Do not forget that many journey playing cards include built-in trip insurance. If you find yourself canceling a nonrefundable resort reserving, these perks can put a number of {dollars} again in your pockets. And if you happen to’re reserving a resort overseas, you’ll want to pay with a card with no foreign transaction fees.
For me, this implies I ebook most impartial inns with my Chase Sapphire Preferred. This card gives journey safety and no international transaction charges, and it earns 2 Final Rewards factors per greenback spent on all journey purchases plus a ten% factors enhance each account anniversary. Since Chase factors are value 2.05 cents apiece primarily based on TPG’s March 2025 valuations, that is a 4.5% return.
Different playing cards that provide bonus earnings on travel embody:
Backside line
There are many methods to economize and maximize your rewards on impartial inns and trip leases. It could take a little bit additional effort to sift via these choices, however it should repay in the long term.
Plus, I really like the variability impartial inns supply. Since there are such a lot of selections, you are certain to seek out one thing distinctive and ideal to make for a memorable journey.
For charges and costs of the Bilt Mastercard, click on here.
For rewards and advantages of the Bilt Mastercard, click on here.
TPG founder Brian Kelly is a Bilt adviser and investor.
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