While many award travel enthusiasts focus on earning airline miles, there’s often more value, and fewer restrictions offered by hotel rewards programs. And the most flexible way to earn hotel rewards is through an online travel agency that can access hundreds of thousands of properties, rather than those with a single company.
Wells Fargo offers the Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card that offers rewards that you can redeem towards award nights in over 500,000 properties in 200+ countries around the world.
- Welcome Bonus: Two reward nights worth a total of $250 (max $125 per night), when you use your card to spend $1,000 within three months of account opening.
- Rewards: Collect one stamp for every $500 in purchases you make with your card, and one stamp for every night you stay at an eligible property booked on Hotels.com
- Annual Fee: None
- APR: 14.99% to 22.99%, based on your creditworthiness
- Promotional Financing Offer: None
How this card works
New cardholders earn two reward nights, worth a total of $250 (max $125 per night), when they use their card to spend $1,000 within three months of account opening. And when you use your card, you collect one stamp for every $500 in purchases you make, as well as one stamp for every night you stay at an eligible property booked on Hotels.com. Once you earn 10 stamps, you can redeem them for $110 towards an award night.
Earning stamps in the Hotels.com rewards program also offers benefits. Cardholders receive Silver status for the first year, which can offer perks such as free breakfast, airport transfers, free WiFi, and more at selected properties. Earn 30 or more stamps, and you’ll receive Hotels.com Rewards Gold status, which offers complimentary upgrades, early check-ins and late checkouts at VIP Access properties.
This card offers other benefits such as a mobile phone protection program that covers up to $600 in the event of theft or damage. You also receive trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage that offers reimbursement for a non-refundable passenger fare if your trip is interrupted or canceled for a covered reason, when your passenger fare is booked with your card.
There’s no annual fee for this card, and no foreign transaction fees.
Advantages
This card is a relatively simple way to earn hotel rewards, without having to only stay at properties within a particular brand. This can open you up to thousands of independent hotels including inns, bed and breakfasts and other properties that aren’t part of a chain.
This card offers rewards that combine with those already offered by the Hotels.com Rewards program, so Hotels.com customers may already have some of these stamps. And if you use the card and Hotels.com regularly, then you can enjoy the benefits of Silver or Gold status in the Hotels.com Rewards program.
The cardholder benefits and the new account bonus are both valuable and it’s always good to see a card with no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fees.
Disadvantages
The rate of return on spending for this card is good, but not exceptional. Since you need to earn 10 stamps to receive an award night worth $110, and you earn one stamp for every $500 you spent, you’re earning 2.2 cents in value per dollar spent. In comparison, Wells Fargo’s own Active Cash card offers 2% cash back on all purchases.
Also, the new account bonus, worth $250 is somewhat less than the most competitive offers currently available.
Alternatives
Expedia Rewards Credit Card from Citi. This card offers new accounts 15,000 Expedia Rewards bonus points after making $1,000 in new purchases within three months of account opening. You earn 3x bonus points per dollar spent on Expedia purchases, including flights, hotels, activities and travel packages. You earn one point per dollar spent elsewhere, and points can be redeemed toward travel rewards. There’s no annual fee for this card, and no foreign transaction fees.
Hilton Honors Card from American Express. This card offers you rewards with one of the largest hotel chains, and it has no annual fee. You earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 in purchases within three months of account opening, and another 50,000 points after spending a total of $5,000 on new purchases within six months. You earn 7x points at Hilton properties, 5x on dining, gas and grocery purchases and three points per dollar spent elsewhere. This card also comes with Silver Elite status
Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ credit card from Chase. This is another hotel card from a large chain that has no annual fee. New applicants earn 30,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 within three months of account opening. O You earn 3x points per dollar spent at Marriott properties, and 2x points on other travel purchases such as airfare, taxis and trains. You also receive 15 elite night stay credits, which gives you Silver status and a head-start on reaching Gold.
Bottom Line
Unlike hotel credits that are affiliated with a single chain, the Hotels.com card is different. By earning rewards and nearly any hotel, that you can redeem for award night stays at nearly any hotel, the Hotels.com card offers you maximum flexibility at a minimum price.
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