Marriott has their booking platform for short-term rental stays. They rebate part of the commission they’re generating in the form of points and elite credit. Hyatt is getting into this game as well.

Capital One now has an interesting play in the space. You can already redeem Capital One Venture and Venture X (and equivalent business card) points to pay for short-term rental stays (such as Airbnb). But they’ve got their own STR ‘collections’ now that come with enhanced earning and benefits.

There are (2) levels of short-term rental portfolios:

• Premier Collection: available to Venture X and Venture X Business cardholders
  
• Lifestyle Collection: available to cardholders with a Venture X, Venture X Business, Venture and Spark Miles cardholders

And there are (3) additional benefits to booking through these programs, besides the ability to redeem points at a penny apiece towards stays.

1. Enhanced points-earning: 5x earn on vacation rental bookings with the Premier and Lifestyle Collections
   
2. Experience credits: Premier Collection stays come with a $100 experience credit, and Lifestyle Collection stays come with a $50 experience credit, to be used towards amenities like “in-home chef meals, pre-arrival groceries, mid-stay property cleanings and more.”
   
3. Stay benefits: including free wifi, early check-in and late check-out subject to availability.

I usually find that early check-in and late check-out are available on short-term rental stays when the home or unit isn’t booked the night before I arrive or the day that I am leaving. Whether that’s the case isn’t something I’ll know until the day-of. I’m not sure that saying this is free, along with wifi, is a huge benefit but good to put it in writing I suppose.

However I really like the experience credits. Since these are professionally-managed units from rental companies like AvantStay and Boutiq, they’re able to organize things like groceries on property when you arrive or an extra cleaning. That’s nice!

At launch only North America is available, but that will be expanded. They will also start sourcing inventory from Inspirato and Key.co. Some of these in the Premier Collection are pretty high-end, which will appeal to some and of course not to others.

I find short-term rentals are useful (1) in places where there just aren’t a lot of hotel options, and (2) where you’re staying as a large group and a whole home is a better option than a hotel suite.

For instance, as much as I’m frustrated by Airbnb, I book STRs on Martha’s Vineyard and when visiting family in a town outside Gold Coast, Australia. (One benefit to Airbnb, though, is many hotels – I’ve found this especially common in the past with Marriott – will sell rooms cheaper through that platform than through Marriott.com.) When visiting family I’ll add them to the booking, and they’re kind enough to pick up groceries for us.

I don’t know whether these properties are going to work out for me on any given stay, but I like the deals that seem to amount to rebating booking commissions to the customer as a benefit of their card. It’ll be one more place to check to get the best deal.