Lazy Guide: Hotel Discount Rates
Tl;dr: List price isn’t everything. The big hotel chains offer major discounts in points if you book directly—they guarantee the best price, too.
There’s a lot more to hotel pricing than just the list price—it’s a complex web of discounts, loyalty programs, offers, shopping portals, and more. Today, I have a simple question: What booking platforms and hotel chains have the best discount rates? I’ll be factoring loyalty rewards, credit card points, and typical shopping portal discounts. The winners and losers may surprise you.
First, a few things to consider.
Best-price guarantees
All the major hotel chains promise that you’ll find the best price on their websites and apps. The details vary by brand, but generally you’ll need to: find a price at least 1% cheaper somewhere else within 24 hours of booking, with the exact same details (beds, view, meals, cancellation policy, etc.), that is open to the public (nothing you need to sign in for), and immediately bookable for payment. You must also usually notify the brand 24-48 hours prior to arrival, although Hilton allows same-day claims. Each has an online form to use to submit the claim.
Each major brand also offers a bonus if you find a better price elsewhere (links contain program terms and conditions). Marriott offers 25% off or 5k points. Hilton offers 25% off. Hyatt offers 5k points or 20% off. IHG offers 5x points on the booking, up to 40k. Choice offers a $50 reward card. And Wyndham offers 3k points.
Low point balances have limited value
Hotel points have value, and for this analysis I relied on Nerdwallet’s point values. Those say that Hilton points are worth about 0.6¢ each. So earning 10,000 of those points on a stay is “worth” about $60. But that’s only if you have enough to actually book a room. In the U.S., a Hilton in a major city will cost you at least 40,000 most of the time, so a 20,000-point balance is closer to being worth $0 than to $120, at least until you collect enough to book a room (there are always low-value uses like paying for Lyft rides). Thus, the discount rates below are only helpful if you earn enough hotel brand points to actually redeem them for a free night before they expire.
Assumptions
For purposes of consistency, I’m assuming that a given purchase will earn 2% cash back. That might be slightly high (if using a 1% cash-back card) or low (if using a card that earns more due to a bonus category and the points can be redeemed for more than 1¢ per point). I made an exception for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, however, and its 1.5¢/pt redemption value.
Shopping portal bonuses often fluctuate, so where possible I used the most common Rakuten bonus based on my experience. I list the bonus used next to the hotel/OTA in the rankings.
The calculations do not include merchant offers or chain offers. I have also not attached any value to possible elite status perks like free breakfast, and assumed no elite status points bonuses.
The rankings (with a 2% card)
If you book a $100 hotel, what are you actually paying?
I looked at Hotels.com/Expedia, Airbnb, Vrbo, the major credit card travel portals, and the major hotel chains mentioned above.
If you use a Chase Sapphire Reserve to book a hotel through the Chase travel portal, it will cost you $85 on net, the cheapest option available. That’s because you’ll earn 10 points per dollar and those 1,000 points are worth $15 in the Chase portal.
Next best is booking directly with Wyndham. Despite not usually offering a shopping portal bonus, you’ll earn 1,000 points valued at 1.2¢ each, plus $2 from your payment card, for a total cost of $86.
Third place goes to Hyatt, which also doesn’t offer a shopping portal bonus, but offers 5,000 points valued at 2.2¢ each, for a total cost of $87 when factoring in the payment card.
Airbnb, without any rewards program, comes in at $97 thanks to the bonus Delta point; $95 if you snag some United miles too.
Here’s the full list, ranked:
Chase Sapphire Reserve (Portal): $85
Wyndham: $86
Hyatt: $87
Choice: $87 (3% Rakuten)
Marriott: $87.5 (1.5% Rakuten)
Best Western: $89 (3% Rakuten)
Citi Stata Premier/Capital One Venture X (Portal): $90
IHG: $90 (3% Rakuten)
Hilton: $90.50 (1.5 AA miles/$ through portal)
Hotels.com/Expedia: $93 (3% Rakuten)
Vrbo: $93
Chase Sapphire Preferred (Portal): $94
Capital One Venture (Portal): $95
Airbnb: $97
Shopping portal bonuses are noted above. Other calculations are based on the chain/OTA’s published base rewards rate and Nerdwallet point values.
In my anecdotal experience, IHG is underrated on this chart, as it almost always has a bonus point offer available, and the Rakuten bonus is frequently 10% or more—although other chains also have elevated offers from time to time, IHG’s bonuses tend to be bigger. I would expect many if not most IHG bookings to come in at the $82-87 range.
The above calculations are all based on using a standard credit card at a hotel with no status. But what if you have a hotel credit card and the status that comes with it?
The rankings (with a hotel credit card)
Here the two best performers (apart from ultra-premium options from Marriott and Hilton) were the Choice Privileges Select and the World of Hyatt card. The Choice card earns 10 points—rated at 0.8¢ each—per dollar from the card, plus 10x as member, plus a 25% status bonus from the card. Combined with the Rakuten bonus, a $100 hotel booked directly with this card would cost only $77 on net. The World of Hyatt card, meanwhile, offers 4 points from the card, plus 5 points from membership and a 10% status bonus. That’s $21 worth of points on a $100 hotel stay, leaving a net rate of $79.
The full list (annual fee in parentheses):
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant ($650): $77
Choice Privileges Select ($95): $77
Hilton Aspire ($550): $78
World of Hyatt Card ($95): $79
Wyndham Earner+ ($75): $79
Hilton Surpass ($150): $81
Wyndham Earner ($0): $81
IHG w/ United Club Infinite ($525): $81
Marriott Bevy ($250): $82
Choice Privileges ($0): $82
Marriott Boundless ($95): $83
IHG Premier ($95): $84
Best Western Rewards Premium ($89): $84
Marriott Bold ($0): $86
Marriott w/ Amex Platinum ($695): $86
Hilton w/ Amex Platinum ($695): $87
Hilton Honors Amex ($0): $87
Best Western Visa Signature ($0): $88
IHG Traveler ($0): $89
You can see from both lists just how valuable the Hyatt and Wyndham loyalty programs can be, especially if you have their co-branded credit cards.
Some no-fee cards represent real value for reasonably-frequent customers of certain chains, namely the Hilton Honors Amex, Choice Privileges Mastercard, and the Wyndham Earner, each of which offers elite perks and a meaningful discount rate rate.
The Hilton Surpass looks like a great option for Hilton loyalists, although you’ll need to stay regularly to recoup the annual fee.
And again, the IHG Premier is an likely underrated performer for the reasons discussed above. Additionally, the IHG Premier has Chase Offers on IHG properties surprisingly often, offering further discounts. IHG properties also come up on SimplyMiles from time to time, meaning more rewards when using a linked MasterCard like the Premier. And regardless of whether the discount rate blows you away, the Premier remains one of my absolute favorite cards regardless.
Conclusion
Booking directly with a hotel chain usually offers the best overall rate, especially if you have a co-branded credit card. Just try not to spread those points between too many programs, and don’t let them tempt you into overspending. I like to keep my points in one or two programs where I have credit cards and status (IHG and Hilton, currently), and book via a portal for more flexible rewards when the cheapest room available isn’t with one of those brands. And, of course, I run through all the hotel savings hacks before booking.
Happy travels! -🦥