I am a big fan of staying in name brand hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, or Marriott. However, there are times when my wife and I enjoy staying in boutique hotels or other small hotels for different reasons.
- Boutique hotels sometimes have a feel, character, and hospitality that you may not find at large hotels. For example, we recently stayed at the Duque Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina which is currently the #3 hotel in Buenos Aires, according to Tripadvisor. It was small, quaint, with amazing local hospitality and I agree with its extremely high rating.
- Large hotels may not be available in areas that you are looking for. On our South American trip, we stayed at the San Martin Hotel in Iguassu Falls, Brazil. The hotel is walking distance to Iguassu National Park. Although it’s not the greatest hotel, it was extremely convenient to walk to Iguassu Falls.
- Finally, nice boutique hotels may sometimes be cheaper than name brand hotels.
The downside of staying in boutique hotels is that you don’t earn any hotel loyalty points which we all love. This is where Hotels.com comes into play.
Main advantages of booking through Hotels.com
The ultimate rewards portal currently offers 4x points for making your booking through Hotels.com. This is a fairly lucrative offer knowing that ultimate rewards has great travel transfer partners. In comparison, Expedia offers 1x, Orbitz 1x, and Travelocity offers 2x points through the portal. Check out this site by HikerT for the most up to date payout from the ultimate rewards portal.
For example, lets say you spent $500 on a hotel through Hotels.com and you used your Chase Sapphire Preferred card which earns 2x for all travel purchases.
Total Ultimate Rewards earned on this transaction = 6x points = 3000 UR points. This is like earning 3000 Hyatt points or 3000 United miles for a $500 boutique hotel stay.
Also, keep in mind that when you book through Hotels.com, you can double dip by participating in their Welcome Rewards program which indirectly offers you 10% off your booking. In the end, you are getting 6x ultimate rewards points and 10% off, not too bad.
The downsides of booking through Hotels.com
- Your credit card is charged immediately as opposed to paying when you check out of the hotel.
- You likely won’t get any upgrades or other loyalty perks that you are accustomed to.
- You will not earn any credit towards gaining any elite status.
In conclusion, Hotels.com provides a good opportunity to earn valuable UR points as opposed to no points for boutique hotel stays. Of course, this 4x points could change at any time.