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Which Rewards Cards are Best for Vacation Rentals?
When you love to travel but don’t necessarily adore hotels, vacation rentals are easily the best alternative. With an Airbnb-style rental or vacation condo, you don’t have to cram your entire family into a hotel room. Plus, you can also score more room to move around, along with a shared living space and kitchen for meal preparation — so you don’t have to pay to eat out at every meal.
But, the biggest benefit of vacation rentals comes in when it’s time to go to sleep. If you’re traveling with children or extended family and don’t want to share sleeping space, you can book a vacation rental with more than one bedroom.
In a lot of ways, renting a vacation condo is more like staying in someone’s home than staying in a hotel. You get more space, and can often score a reasonable price: Many properties you can rent through VRBO or HomeAway offer much lower rates than you’d find if you tried to book a similarly-sized hotel room. And you may even get the amenities of a big resort, too — such as a pool, hot tub, gym, or on-site restaurant.
Five Travel Rewards Cards Ideal for Airbnb Travelers
While one of the biggest gripes people have about vacation rentals is that they’re not as easy to book with rewards points, you can pay for rental condos with points if you have the right rewards credit card. Here are five rewards cards that work perfectly, allowing you to redeem points for vacation rental stays.
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card may be the ideal rewards card to cover vacation rentals, and for more than one reason. First off, this card offers unlimited 2x miles for each dollar you spend, plus a huge signup bonus. Second, you can redeem your miles for any travel experience you want at a rate of one cent per mile.
Let’s say you managed to rack up 75,000 miles with this card after earning the signup bonus and using your card for regular spending. At that point, you would have $750 in travel credit you could use to pay for part or all of a rental condo of your choosing.
Redeeming your miles is also easy as pie since you can use the miles to erase all or part of travel purchases from your bill. The key to making this work is ensuring your vacation rental will code as travel on your credit card statement.
Discover it® Miles
The Discover it® Miles is another card option that makes booking vacation rentals with points easier than ever. This card doles out 1.5 miles for each dollar you spend. However, Discover will also match the miles you earn in the first year, bringing your year-one haul to three miles per dollar.
Redeeming your miles is also easy since you’ll cash them in at a rate of one cent per mile to cover travel expenses on your bill. So, you can use your Discover it® Miles to pay for your vacation rental when you’re ready, then cash in your miles to cover part or all of the expense.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is another travel card that works well for vacation rentals, and there’s more than one way to use it. This card is also a good one to have in terms of long-term earnings since it offers 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide, eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases, and a big signup bonus.
On the redemption side, keep in mind that you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits at a rate of one cent per point. For that reason, you can redeem your points for any purchase you want, including vacation rentals.
But, you may also be able to book vacation rentals through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, depending on where you stay. While options are limited in some cases, it’s not uncommon to see two- or three-bedroom condos bookable directly with points. The advantage of booking through the portal is that the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 25% more value when you book with points. So, you may fork over fewer points for the same condo with this strategy.
Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card – 25,000 Bonus Points Offer
The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card can be a smart option for travel expenses since you earn a flat 1.5 points for every $1 you spend. There’s no annual fee – and no foreign transaction fees — and you can also score a signup bonus early on. Your points also never expire as long as you have the card.
Like a few other cards on this list, this one lets you redeem your points for statement credits to cover travel expenses. Unlike many hotel rewards cards, this flexibility allows you to price shop and compare vacation rentals to find the best deal, instead of being locked into one hotel brand.
If you find a vacation rental you like for a price you can live with on Airbnb or VRBO, for example, you can use your card to book it and then redeem your points once the charge posts. But, you have the option to shop around for a lower price, so you could book with other travel vendors like Expedia, TripAdvisor, or Priceline, too.
Remember that any travel expense will work, so you could also use your points to book a vacation rental, flights, or a traditional hotel. The choice is up to you.
Too long, didn’t read?
A vacation rental can be better than a hotel because it affords you more space to spread out. Having your own kitchen can also save you money if you’re someone who wants to prepare some meals at home in lieu of dining out.
Fortunately, you can cover the full expense of your trip with the right combination of rewards cards. Or, at the very least, you can rack up some points to pay for part of your trip.
Doing so can reduce the costs of your family vacation, whether you’re opting for a vacation rental at the beach, in the mountains, or near your favorite theme park. By scoring your digs for free or at a discount, you can free up cash to spend on food and fun.
Please Note: Information about the Discover it® Miles and Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card has been collected independently by TheSimpleDollar.com. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy.
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