Most of the top hotel brands want you to book directly with them when making travel plans. But there are some cases when booking through a hotel collection, like Visa Signature Hotels, makes sense.
In this post I’ll lay out five ways booking with Visa Signature Hotels can be the right choice.
1. When you don’t have status
If you are just getting into points and miles, you may not have status with many (or any) hotel chains. That usually means no room upgrades, no free breakfast at full-service properties, no welcome amenities, and no late checkout.
This is where booking through the Visa website can help out.
When booking with Visa Signature Hotels, cardholders get seven premium benefits during their stay whether they have any or no status with the property they are staying with.
This includes Visa’s best available rate guarantee, complimentary in-room WiFi, when available, and VIP Guest status for the duration of a stay.
2. When you want a better cancellation policy
Some hotel properties adopted a more strict cancellation policy in 2017, including cancellation policies that take effect as far out as 72 hours. This can be a hassle if your plans need to change.
But with Visa, the cancellation policies are generally set at a standard of 24 hours. This gives travelers a bit more wiggle room when necessary.
3. When you want breakfast included
When staying at a full-service hotel, basic room rates do not usually include any kind of breakfast. To be clear, I’m not talking about properties with self-serve continental breakfast (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn, etc.)
However, when booking with Visa Signature Hotels, the rate includes continental breakfast daily. That means at a full-service hotel, cardholders can enjoy breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant each morning of their stay.
Beyond that, most full-service hotels deliver this benefit as a hot, cooked-to-order breakfast, bringing even more value.
If you factor in the cost of this one benefit per person each day of a stay, the savings can really add up! I’ve included specifics on this benefit and others from this stay at the Conrad New York.
4. When you want upgrades
While I don’t have much personal experience with this benefit, booking with Visa’s hotel collection offers an automatic room upgrade, when available. This can generally mean a room on a higher floor, a room with a better view, or a larger room overall.
It does not guarantee any kind of upgrade to a suite, and it actually doesn’t guarantee anything at all, as the benefit hinges on the words, “when available.” Your mileage may vary with this one.
5. When you want Visa Signature Hotels benefits and still earn hotel-specific points
Unlike some other third party hotel booking websites, Visa Signature Hotels allows cardholders to input specific hotel rewards program numbers from Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, and more.
This feature alone helped me earn 15,000+ Hilton Honors points for a two night stay that I mentioned above.
So is it always worth it?
The answer to that will always depend on how the benefits add up. If you do a little math, you can figure things out pretty quickly.
As a recap, here’s the full list of premium benefits available to Visa Signature cardholders during a stay.
- Best available rate guarantee
- Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
- Complimentary in-room WiFi, when available
- Complimentary continental breakfast daily
- $25 USD food or beverage credit
- VIP Guest status
- 3PM check-out upon request, when available
Once of the nice things about this hotel collection is there are many Visa Signature credit cards out there, and some don’t even have an annual fee.
Do the benefits add up for you? Share your experience in the comments.
Featured image of the Conrad Bora Bora Nui courtesy of Visa Signature Hotels.
