BenefitHub: Save More On Hotel Stays Than Booking Directly

I’ve written a couple of times recently how a free BenefitHub membership can earn you rewards on Costco memberships and Uber Eats orders, as well as saving you money when booking stays with Wyndham and Choice.

It turns out that it’s not only stays at those two brands where BenefitHub can save you money on hotel stays. They have a travel portal where you can book hotel stays with other hotel chains and the prices are surprisingly good.

There isn’t a specific link I can give to the travel portal because you have to be logged in to a free membership account to access it. To find it, you can register with Home Place Rewards here, then go to Shop By > Travel.

When doing a search for a stay in Portland, OR, in nearly every single instance BenefitHub offered notably cheaper rates than booking directly.

For example, the Embassy Suites Portland Downtown would be $207 per night when booking directly with Hilton, but only $136.63 via BenefitHub – that’s 34% cheaper.

Savings at other properties weren’t always as high, but there were still some decent discounts. For example, The Bidwell Marriott Portland was $226 when booking directly versus $164.99 via BenefitHub – a 27% discount.

The Hyatt Centric Downtown Portland was $127 when booking directly on Hyatt’s website versus $109.48 with BenefitHub – a 13.8% discount.

The Candlewood Suites Portland Airport was $123.25 on IHG’s website and $108.66 with BenefitHub – a discount of 11.8%.

I finally managed to find an instance where BenefitHub was more expensive than booking directly. The Kimpton RiverPlace Hotel was $310.41 with BenefitHub but only $275.90 with IHG.

However, the other Kimpton in Portland – Hotel Vintage – came out cheaper with BenefitHub than IHG by 7.2%.

A Few Caveats

Before rushing to book hotel stays through BenefitHub, there are a few important things to be aware of.

Resolving Problems

First, I haven’t had a chance to book a stay via BenefitHub yet and so can’t attest to what the rest of the process is like. When booking through an OTA such as this there’s also the risk that any issues that arise will be harder to resolve than when booking directly with a hotel chain.

Points / Elite Nights / Status Benefits

Seeing as you’re booking through an OTA rather than directly, you won’t earn points on your stay. Elite night credits won’t be earned either, nor will you receive status benefits in most cases.

Cancellation Policies

It doesn’t look like hotel stays booked through BenefitHub are fully refundable. In all the instances where I checked, you have 7-10 days to cancel for a $20 fee. Cancellations after that point seemed to incur a one or two night fee. Booking via BenefitHub is therefore best done if your plans are set in stone.

Not Best Rate Guarantee Eligible

If you were to find such low rates through a site like Hotels.com, you could book directly with the hotel and submit a Best Rate Guarantee claim to have them match the rate and either give you a further discount or bonus points depending on the hotel chain.

That’s sadly not the case with BenefitHub. You have to log in to be able to search and book a stay with BenefitHub which means those rates aren’t eligible for BRG claims.

No Portal Cashback

Most hotel chains can be found on shopping portals which means you can earn cashback when booking stays directly with them. You’d be forgoing that when booking with BenefitHub; considering the high cashback rates we’ve seen at times, that cashback could more than make up for the higher room rate when booking directly.

Best Uses

If price is your primary concern, booking through BenefitHub might be worthwhile. That could particularly be the case when booking stays with limited service hotels where you get free breakfast and/or elite status benefits are limited (e.g. Hampton Inn, Residence Inn, Candlewood Suites, etc).

If earning points and elite nights and receiving status benefits like room upgrades and free breakfast are important, you might be better off booking directly despite the higher room rate.

Question

Have you ever booked a hotel stay via BenefitHub? If so, did the stay work out smoothly or did you encounter some kind of issues due to booking via their website rather than directly with the hotel chain? Let us know in the comments below.

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