Later this summer, my wife and I are planning to stay two nights at The Lodge at St Edward Park to visit relatives who live nearby in Everett, WA. Picking the hotel was easy. Figuring out how best to book it was a challenge. This Small Luxury Hotel is bookable through many channels: Hilton with points or cash, Amex’s The Hotel Collection, Visa Infinite’s Luxury Hotel Collection, Capital One’s Lifestyle Collection, and more. With each booking option, I considered the all-in price, extra perks, and any points or rebates I would earn. The end result floored me. My best overall option was to book through Delta Stays! Another top option was to book through Bilt. Wow, I did not expect that! Nor did I expect that my Delta elite status would make a difference, but it did!
Findings
Through many different booking channels, I looked up the all-in price for a classic King room. Additionally, I calculated an adjusted rate by subtracting rebates and other credits.
Some of the booking options include free breakfast and/or property credits. To estimate their value, I assumed that, with or without rebates, we would spend $50 per day on breakfast and eat at least one other meal at the property. To compare apples to apples, I always picked a fully refundable rate when available. In most cases, I also assumed I’d pay for the stay with my Sapphire Reserve card to earn 4 points per dollar, except when a different card was required to earn more points and rebates. I could have modeled earning 5X with my Wells Fargo Premier Autograph Visa Infinite Card, but I chose a card that I figured more readers would have access to. The credit card rebate is such a tiny part of the equation that it doesn’t materially affect the results.
Before considering perks and rebates, the best all-in prices I found were approximately $200 less than the hotel’s own rate ($1,052):
- Hilton points: 170,000 = $595 at 0.35 cents per point, or $850 at 0.5 cents per point
- Super.com member rate: $796
- Delta Stays: $812
- Expedia / Hotels.com Silver VIP rate: $829
- Rove: $850 (but the refundable rate wasn’t really refundable since the deadline for refunds was 11 PM on the day I ran the search)
- Bilt: $855
- Super.com non-member rate: $877
Hilton: When valuing Hilton points at the current 0.35 RRV, booking with only $595 worth of Hilton points looked like an amazing deal. On the other hand, I prefer to cherry-pick awards and only spend Hilton points when I get at least 0.5 cents per point. So, at 0.5 cents per point, 170,000 Hilton points are worth about $850. That’s right in the mix with the best alternatives, but it’s not the best. Another way to look at using Hilton points is to calculate the value per point compared to booking the stay for $812 (the Delta Stays rate). In that case, I’d get $812/170K = 0.48 cents per point. That’s not bad for Hilton points, but it’s not great either.
I was stunned to find that Delta Stays had one of the best rates overall. This was only true when logged in as a Delta elite (more about this later in this post). I was equally stunned to find Bilt in the running. In the past, Bilt has rarely shown good prices when I’ve searched there. This is the second time in recent weeks that Bilt has shown competitive pricing. That’s not a big sample size, but it’s a great trend if it holds.
After considering the value of perks and credit card rewards, things look different. The best adjusted prices were as follows:
- Expedia VIP w/ Rakuten portal at 10X: $617
- Rove: $680 (but this wasn’t really a refundable rate)
- Expedia VIP $711 (no portal rewards)
- Citi Travel w/ Strata Elite: $712 (I added this option for informational purposes — I don’t have this card anymore)
- AA Hotels (Pay with AA Globe card): $720
- Delta Stays: $737
- Super.com member: $777
Here, the Expedia VIP rate looks amazing when combined with a short-lived Rakuten 10X deal. Rove would look good, too, except it didn’t offer a truly refundable rate. Then we see that Expedia VIP (without portal rewards), Citi Travel, AA Hotels, and Delta Stays all cost roughly the same amount after accounting for perks and credit card rewards: $711 to $737.
Finally, I considered the value of hotel credits available from certain cards. The best prices after considering hotel credits, perks, and credit card & portal rewards were as follows:
- Delta Stays: $302
- Citi Travel w/ Strata Elite: $412
- Amex The Hotel Collection: $472
- Hilton points (at 0.35 cents per point): $495
- Bilt: $502
- Capital One Lifestyle Collection: $541
As you can see above, six booking channels have an adjusted total under $600. Delta Stays offered the best adjusted price, $302, thanks mostly to my being able to leverage two $200 rebates. My wife and I each have the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, which offers a $200 Delta Stays rebate each year. So, I booked the hotel one night at a time in order to use both cards. I made sure to book the prepaid rate (which is still fully refundable) to earn those credit card rebates. Then I contacted the hotel to ask them to link the reservations together so that we could stay in one room the whole time.
Note that Bilt, Citi Travel, and Amex’s The Hotel Collection require 2-night stays, so I couldn’t have applied two credits with those booking channels the way I did with Delta. With Capital One, if I had two Venture X cards (which I do not), I could have booked the nights separately, resulting in a total of $241.
Detailed search results
| Booking Channel | All-In Rate | Perks & Rebates | Perk Value | Adj Rate | After Credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct with hotel | $1,052 | Earn 4X paying with my Sapphire Reserve card = 4,200 points x 1.5 RRV = $63 | $63 | $989 | |
| SLH | $1,032 | Earn 4X = 4,128 points x 1.5 RRV = $62 worth of Chase points | $62 | $970 | |
| Hilton Honors Discount Rate | $1,032 | Free continental breakfast thanks to my Hilton Gold status. Assuming it’s good enough, that will save us $100. Plus, I’ll earn about $50 in Hilton points and $62 in Chase points. | $212 | $820 | |
| Hilton points | 170K | By booking through Hilton, we’d get free breakfast (~$100). The current Hilton RRV = 0.35, so paying 170,000 points is like paying $595. | $100 | $495 | |
| Expedia VIP | $829 | My OneKey Silver status means I get a discount at this hotel, plus a $35 food-and-beverage (soft drinks) credit per stay. I’ll also earn about $50 in Chase points and $33 in OneKey rewards. | $118 | $711 | |
| Expedia VIP w/ Rakuten portal at 10X | $829 | Rakuten was offering 10X at Expedia today as I write this. With the base rate of $609, that would mean an additional rebate of 6,090 Bilt points (RRV=1.55) = $94 on top of the rewards shown above. | $212 | $617 | |
| Super.com | $877 | I’ll earn about $53 in Chase points | $53 | $824 | |
| Super.com Member | $796 | This requires a paid membership for a couple of months (~$29). I’d earn about $48 in Chase points. | $19 | $777 | |
| Gondola | ? | Gondola kept showing an error when I tried to select a room. | |||
| Rove | $850 | The booking earns 10x Rove miles = 8,500 miles. At 1.4 RRV, that’s like $119. Plus I’d earn about $51 in Chase points. Note that this “refundable” option stated it was only refundable until 11 PM on the same day as the search. I *think* that was simply a display bug, but I’m not sure. | $170 | $680 | |
| Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection | ? | Error retrieving availability | |||
| Capital One Lifestyle Collection (Pay with Venture X card) | $1,041 | With my wife’s Venture X card, we would earn 10X miles (about $150 in Capital One Miles). This Lifestyle Collection booking includes a $50 experience credit. Plus we could use the card’s annual $300 travel credit. | $200 | $841 | $541 |
| Amex The Hotel Collection (Pay with Platinum card) | $1,052 | We would earn the Platinum card’s $300 hotel rebate plus 5X points (about $80). Additionally, this THC booking includes a $100 property credit and free breakfast (estimated value: $100) | $280 | $772 | $472 |
| Chase (Pay with Sapphire Preferred) | $1,031 | We would earn 5X booking through Chase Travel (about $77). Plus this would qualify for the card’s annual $100 hotel rebate. | $77 | $954 | $854 |
| Bilt (Pay with Palladium card) | $855 | I would be able to use my Palladium card’s $200 hotel credit plus $100 Bilt Cash towards this booking. Plus I’d earn about $53 in Bilt points. | $53 | $802 | $502 |
| AA Hotels (Pay with AA Globe card) | $905 | My AA Globe card is still alive! It earns 6X at AA Hotels, plus AA Hotels itself offers 7,800 miles for this booking. Altogether, the miles are worth about $185. Additionally, I’d earn the Globe card’s $100 Splurge credit. | $185 | $720 | $620 |
| Delta Stays (Pay for each night separately with Delta Platinum Business cards) | $812 | I booked each night with a different Delta Platinum Business card in order to earn two $200 hotel rebates. Additionally, through Delta Stays and the Delta credit cards, I’d earn 3,700 miles (worth about $40). Additionally, the VIP rate here includes a $35 food-and-beverage (soft drinks) credit per stay. | $75 | $737 | $337 |
| Citi Travel (Pay with a Strata Elite card) | $1,062 | I don’t have a Strata Elite card, but I thought it would be interesting to compare this option too. This is one of Citi’s few “The Reserve” properties that offer extra perks: Daily breakfast for 2, $100 experience credit, etc. For this exercise, I’ll value those at $200. This would also qualify for the card’s annual $300 hotel credit, and it would earn 12X (about $150) | $350 | $712 | $412 |
VIP Access with Delta Stays
I recently updated my post “What is Delta elite status worth?” In the process, I learned that, at select properties, Delta elite members get discounts and extra benefits when booking through Delta Stays. I previously had no idea! I have Delta Diamond status, so I’m eligible for the top benefits at any hotels labeled VIP Access on the Delta Stays website.
This is awesome because my wife and I each have the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, which offers $200 back each year for prepaid Delta Stays bookings. Now, at some properties, we can get that rebate, plus a great price and other perks. Win!
Conclusion
The analysis above showed that booking through Delta Stays resulted in the best price after perks and rebates, but only because I had two Delta cards to work with. With just one Delta card, the results would have been nearly tied between Delta Stays, Amex’s The Hotel Collection, Hilton points (at 0.35 cents per point), and Bilt. With two cards, the best final price would be with two Capital One Venture X cards (which I don’t have). Both Amex’s The Hotel Collection and Bilt require two-night stays, so a two-card solution wouldn’t work with those.
There’s an important factor that was not considered above: how easy is it to use the credits before they expire? Delta’s hotel rebates apply to any hotel listed on Delta Stays (powered by Expedia), with no minimum stay requirement. Plus, the credits are valid for a full year. Easy. Some of the other credits are much more limited. Bilt and Amex Platinum hotel credits are valid for only 6 months. With Bilt, the credits require a 2-night stay. With Amex, credits are limited to properties in Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection. With the latter, a minimum of 2-nights is required. In general, when I find a good use of these more limited credits, I like to use them first. Otherwise, they might expire unused. If the final results had been closer, I might have used the Bilt or Amex credits for this booking. But since Delta had nearly a $200 advantage, I went with that.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Thanks for the very insightful post, Greg!
Do you usually call the hotel as soon as it’s booked, or do you wait closer to the stay? My experience when calling is that they always say they’ll take care of it at check-in.
Also, do you find that linking reservations/staying in the same room reduces your chances of getting an upgrade (at Hilton, Marriott, etc.)?
Thanks for sharing your deep dive case study, Greg. It is eye-opening with all the options to consider. My wife and I both have the Venture X. Thanks for the reminder about the hotel credit.
Wonder how Booking.com genius level 3 would have compared.
Thanks for the great detailed analysis Greg.
Great post Greg! Couple quick questions. What’s the advantage of your P2 having a Delta Reserve or did you just grab it for the SUB? I have and booking using multiple back to back FHRs. 3 nights alternativing between me and my P2. P1/P2/P1. Have you tried this and do you recommend contacting the hotel to link them or do you risk breaking the FHR rules?
1) We each have the Delta Platinum Business card. It more than pays for itself with the annual $200 hotel credit plus companion ticket. And it’s good for my wife to have a Delta card for the 15pct award discount. She has more miles than me.
2) it’s fine to book multiple back to back nights. I’ve done this many times. Just don’t complain if they only give you one stay credit (you’ll still get daily breakfast and you’ll earn multiple statement credits). I always do contact the hotel in advance to make sure we can stay in the same room.
Do people actually have experience booking with Super? Was it a positive experience?
Carrie has reported good luck with Super. I haven’t tried it.
That is one of my favorite hotels in the Seattle area! You have to try the hotel restaurant – it is amazing!
I’ve updated this post to show the adjusted hotel rates before considering credit card hotel credits, and a new column with the hotel credits included. I think the adjusted rate (without credit card hotel credits) is the best to use for fair comparisons across booking channels. Then it’s easier to see if a particular booking channel is a good or bad use of your credits.
Thanks so much for sharing your thought process. I was booking a hotel stay for my wife last weekend, and partway through considering all the options, I thought to myself, “It’s so hard deciding how to book this property. I wish I were better at the points and miles game.” Well, seeing your analysis made me realize that the better we get at the game, the more options there are to consider and the harder the analysis gets. Thanks for this detailed walkthrough.
To me, credit card hotel credits are partial offsets to their annual fees, so I wouldn’t use them to compare rates across different booking channels. Otherwise, I’d be double-counting their benefits.
Great point. I added a new column to the data so that we can see the adjusted rates before hotel credits.
There is some interesting data here.
But I would also say you could pay with two Globe, VX, CSP, etc.
I would also be curious what a booking.com card would come out to.
Yes, great point, but I only have one of each of those cards. Other than the Strata Elite example, I showed options that I personally have available.
Sentence number 2: ” Picking the hotel was easy. ”
Based on all the analysis and machinations you went through in deciding how you PAY for the stay, I kind of have to question you on how you found it so easy to pick this place. There are loads of chain hotels in the area, as well as upscale wine country spas too.
I almost always spend waaaaay more energy on figuring out where I want to stay.
Did you pick this place (mainly) to illustrate the various payment options?
I picked it because Tim recommended it, and it’s a short drive from there to the family we’re visiting.
For what it’s worth, it’s a Michelin Key hotel.
I guess I’m not posh enough to know if that’s important
I would hesitate to be willing to say the Capital One cost is so low, paradoxically because the credit is so flexible. With this many hotel credits I’d really rather use it on flights.
100% agree. While I didn’t mention Capital One, I talked about that general issue in the conclusion. Somehow, it’s necessary to consider which credits are easy to use if not used for this trip. I haven’t thought up a good way to do that, but I’m open to suggestions!
To be fair with using 2 delta stays credits with 2 cards, you should consider using 2 FHR credits with 2 cards.
This is a 2-night stay and this is only a THC property.
It’s THC so you couldn’t but I agree with your logic that this is an unfair comparison. Could’ve done two CSP for example or could’ve likely refreshed super a couple times and found a much cheaper price.
Except that I only have one CSP
I think your comment is fair. If two cards are in play, then other scenarios open up. His and her VXs, for example.
I don’t know that this technique still works but here goes. As this was a planned stay, there’s a different approach to using two credits . . . from one card. You use the FHR credit from (say) 2026H1. Once July 1st hits, cancel the booking and the credit returns to your card. Next day, book again with the FHR credit for 2026H2 and the just-returned credit. With $600 in credits, the effective price is $172, Again, I don’t know that this technique still works. If not, please don’t fault me for trying.
==========
The article was instructive about overlooked benefits (in this case, Delta). Thanks for that.
Certain booking platforms would afford loyalty credit and benefits that are separate from and in addition to the card credits. Forgive me if I missed it but was this included in the methodology?
While you excluded the WF Premier Autograph due to access, WF Autograph Journey is widely held and has the same earning structure. And, use it on Rove . . . which would enable your loyalty credit and benefits.
==========
In the end, as JeffLAX is scratching at, I think there’s a little more depth to be explored.
AMEX has always clawed back the $300 FHR credit when I’ve cancelled reservations, making your plan for double dipping ineffective (plus you would lose out on the 1H26 credit entirely). Are you saying this has worked for you? That surprises me. I’ve had AMEX let me keep Hilton Aspire resort credits after cancellation but the FHR credit has been reversed pretty quickly.