The Art Hotel Denver was a fantastic use of my American Express Platinum credit. Here’s how I ‘made money’ on the stay, and why I wasn’t going to be like most consumers and let credit card benefits and credits go to waste.

Credit Card Credits Depend On Breakage

Part of my Amex Platinum digital entertainment credit is being used to cover my New York Times digital subscription. With add-on for cooking it comes to $7.99 per month.

When the new benefit was introduced I switched my payment method to Amex, and I registered for the benefit. Or so I thought. I noticed that the $7.99 charge wasn’t getting credited back, so I went and looked and Amex still thought I hadn’t registered. And I haven’t gotten around to doing an online chat to get my $7.99 back.

Making consumers register is a way of containing the cost of the offer. It’s great to add up the full value of the benefit when you’re considering the card, but that calculation is contingent on whether the offer will displace cash you’d actually otherwise spend – and whether you’ll remember to sign up for the offer and use it fully.

Most cardmembers don’t register and an even smaller proportion of those use the benefit. And so the digital entertainment credit looks like a $240 benefit ($20/month) per cardmember but it might cost American Express a couple bucks a month and that’s before any contribution from participating merchants are factored in.

Using My Fine Hotels & Resorts Credit At The Art Hotel Denver

The American Express Platinum $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel credit is an annual benefit based on calendar year. I hadn’t used mine yet. And I wasn’t going to let it just sit. (It can no longer be used on one night stays.)

I’ve been looking to use it on a one night stay, but each time I’ve had an opportunity to do so the Fine Hotels & Resort website was either pricing hotels hundreds of dollars more than the property website, or was simply offering properties that were outside my price range for the stay.

For Cardcon in Denver, where I was speaking, I finally had my chance. Hilton’s Curio Collection Art Hotel was pricing at ~ $219 all-in with taxes on the Fine Hotels & Resorts website as a prepaid (though cancellable) rate. The property joined Hilton in fall 2020, but still lists an iPrefer Hotel Rewards channel on its television menu.

• It came with early check-in and late check-out which I wouldn’t use
  
• And breakfast, as a $30 credit in the restaurant. Since Hilton is now doing a food and beverage credit in the U.S. instead of breakfast for my Gold status, I got $24 ($12×2).
  
• Plus a $100 food and beverage credit

I was out of pocket $20 for the stay with $156 to spend on food. And I was happy with the hotel, too, though not with the food credit at first, though I became happier later in the stay.

Experience At The Art Hotel Denver

The Art Hotel Denver has a ground floor entrance, but reception is on the fourth floor and so is their restaurant. I checked in, was assigned a 7th floor room next to the elevator (an ‘upgrade’) and the agent went through the benefits of my stay including providing a coupon for a $30 breakfast credit as part of Fine Hotels & Resorts. The hotel was at 60% occupancy.

They still do $30 for breakfast when booking through Amex, but a Hilton elite just gets $12 as a generic food and beverage credit. However it was explained to me that these were separate and stackable.

Ground Floor Entrance

Fourth Floor Lobby

Room Entryway

Bedroom

View Above Parking Lot From Room

Bathroom

Bee Kind Bath Amenities

Supposedly the hotel offers complimentary in-room non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. There was a refrigerator with small bottles of water and soft drinks, but no snacks. There was an in-room coffee machine.

Trying To Use My Food And Beverage Credit at The Art Hotel Denver

The $100 food and beverage credit was really attractive to me for a one night stay, figuring I’d use it for room service. Hilton’s website confirmed the hotel offered room service. It turns out they don’t, you can call down to the restaurant and order takeaway. I did that, and was told my food would be ready in 20 minutes but that they’d call me when it was done. They didn’t call after half an hour.

I went downstairs and found that they had never logged the order, so never made it. They offered to comp the meal. Well, a lot of good that does me… The restaurant does offer takeaway wine bottles, and I thought about that for use of my credit, but I was staying just one night and not checking a bag so I couldn’t take the bottle home anyway.

Restaurant In The Morning

They redeemed themselves in the morning, though. I went down to breakfast. My prior evening’s food was good, despite the service snafu. And my morning meal was excellent. The benedict – over hash browns rather than an english muffin – was outstanding. The Illy coffee was good.

Hash brown benedict

Since my breakfast was basically covered by the coupon, my dinner covered by not having prepared my order when I placed it, I went ahead and left a big tip at breakfast to use my F&B credit.