Online Travel Agencies Roll Out the Rewards

published 4 October 2018

In an effort to compete with hotel loyalty programs, online travel sites are enhancing their own rewards programs. If you’re not committed to a particular brand, they’re worth a look.

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Expedia’s new rewards feature, Add-On Advantage, lets customers add a discounted hotel stay to their itinerary if they’ve booked a flight, car or vacation package through Expedia. You receive up to 43% off the room and can wait until the day of your trip to snag a bed.

Today’s Daily Drop from Hotel Tonight, available on its mobile app, is similar to Add-On Advantage but with a catch: Once you swipe to take the offer, you have 15 minutes to seal the deal. You can choose dates within a 100-day window. The feature is available in 300 markets so far, and you can swipe only once per day. If you don’t see a price drop, it could mean there are no deals in that location that day.

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Other travel sites are offering cash-back offers and credit card rewards. With Ebates Travel Thursdays, you can receive 10% cash back on hotels booked through Ebates’ hotel portal. Meanwhile, Capital One has partnered with Hotels.com to offer 10 miles per dollar to Capital One Venture Rewards and Capital One VentureOne Rewards cardholders. You must book through www.hotels.com/venture.

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Rivan joined Kiplinger on Leap Day 2016 as a reporter for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. A Michigan native, she graduated from the University of Michigan in 2014 and from there freelanced as a local copy editor and proofreader, and served as a research assistant to a local Detroit journalist. Her work has been featured in the Ann Arbor Observer and Sage Business Researcher. She is currently assistant editor, personal finance at The Washington Post.