The Idea

• Visa offers the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection to its Signature and Infinite cardholders which allows you to book curated hotels with additional benefits such as room upgrades, free internet, free breakfast, US$25 F&B credit and 3pm late checkout
• This can be useful for comparison shopping if you’ve decided you’re not interested in hotel loyalty programs- but do note that you still need to comparison shop rates with an OTA to ensure you’re getting a good deal
• The Visa Luxury Hotel Collection offers a BRG, but only against fully cancellable rates found on other OTAs

 The Details

Sure, elite status is a great thing to have, but some of us may be casual travelers who take the odd trip here and there. Is it too much to want a bit of special treatment when we travel too?

If you have a Visa Signature or Infinite card, you can.

Visa has a special program called the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection. This site works as a booking portal for specially curated hotels around the globe. When you book through this portal and pay with your Visa card, you get to enjoy the following perks

• Automatic room upgrade when available
• Complimentary in-room wifi
• Complimentary continental breakfast daily
• USD$25 F&B credit
• 3PM check-out when available
• “VIP” guest status (this may or may not be a meaningless term- I’ve certainly not been treated any differently when I stayed. But apparently in Vegas VIP guest status lets you bypass the (very) long check-in lines)

One thing to note about this booking channel is that the rates it offers are invariably higher than those I find through Kayak. That said, they offer a BRG policy. I’ve not tested how willing they are to honor that yet, but it’s also good to note that most of the rates on this website are refundable.  (A necessary implication of that is that you can’t challenge a non-refundable rate you find on an OTA against the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection rate- the rate you challenge with must also be refundable)

Let’s look at Las Vegas, for example, for a one night stay in end-April

Kayak tells me that the Trump is available for US$112 per night on Priceline

The Visa Luxury Collection offers me the same price of US$111 for a cancellable reservation

In this case, it happened that the rates we found were identical on both sites. But there are other instances where you can find rates which are much cheaper on an OTA. If the OTA is also offering a cancellable rate, be sure to file a BRG claim with Visa Luxury Hotel Collection after booking (and confirm that your booking can be cancelled without penalty)

The funny thing about this is that the promotion was created for “premium Visa cardholders”, which includes “selected” Visa Platinum cards.

But in Singapore, Visa Platinum has been cheapened so much that pretty much anyone who has a Visa has at least a Visa Platinum. I can’t remember the last time I saw a regular Visa card, even my OCBC Yes! Debit card is a Visa Platinum

Therefore I’m not sure if your Visa Platinum will work for the purposes of booking a stay through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, but you’re welcome to try and let me know in the comments below.

Overall I think this is definitely worth a look- the US$25 F&B voucher + free breakfast and free wifi can lead to significant savings. The free room upgrade and late check out are subject to availability, but you’ve got very little to lose by trying.

If you’re interested in learning how to get bona fide elite status quickly with hotels, have a read of this page!