Airbnb Rewards Hacks
How to earn points and miles on Airbnb Stays in 2023?
Use booking and shopping portals to maximize value
When Shawn and I travel, we usually look first for Airbnbs. While it’s occasionally possible to snag a good deal on a hotel, Airbnb’s usually offer better value. This is especially true abroad, where we’ve stayed in some beautiful and comfortable homes at bargain prices. Unfortunately, while there are many ways to earn points/miles/rewards with hotels, the options are more limited with Airbnb. Nonetheless, while most generic credit cards will earn only 1x on an airbnb booking, it’s quite possible to do much better.
Credit card points:
Few credit cards offer significant bonus points on those stays. Only the $550-fee Chase Sapphire Reserve and the $150-fee American Express Green card offer 3x points on “travel” that includes Airbnb . The $99-fee Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 2x points, while the Bilt card that advertises 2x back on “travel” actually only offers the base 1x point on Airbnb stays. But double-point by default cards like the Citi Double cash or Capital One Venture/X will at least earn 2x. And if you book on Bilt’s “rent day” (or buy an airbnb gift card on rent day) you can get 2x that way as well. (Points/miles: 1-3)
Airline Booking portals:
You can earn 1 Delta mile for every dollar spent after clicking through deltaairbnb.com or 1 Avio per dollar via British Airways. This will be on top of whatever you received from the other methods. (Points/miles: 1)
Gift cards:
Here’s where it gets fun (but decidedly less lazy). You can earn additional bonus points–beyond what you get from your credit card–by buying airbnb gift cards. For example, you could:
Go to Rakuten (referral link), click through to CardCash.com, and then buy a discounted gift card. You will get 1 membership reward point or 1% cash back from Rakuten for each dollar spent, plus the discount on the card (e.g. buy a $200 gift card for $196). (Points/miles: 1)
Airbnb gift cards can be purchased via United Mileageplus Shopping, which typically offers 2 United Miles for each dollar spent on the gift card. But look out for special offers—I just received 4 miles/dollar thanks to a promotion. Other shopping portals may have indirect deals (e.g., as I write this, the AA shopping portal will award 200 miles for a $100 Airbnb gift card purchase via Staples, and the Delta portal offers 100 miles for the same). (Points/miles: 1-4)
Adding it all together, with a little effort and the right card you can easily get 5 points per dollar on Airbnb stays, and even more is possible with good timing.