Hotels.com Card: Discontinued; Customers Moving to One Key

Decent rewards rate

This card has a confusing rewards system (more on this below), but essentially you earn rewards equivalent to 2.2% of your spending, according to NerdWallet calculations:

• You’ll need to spend $5,000 to earn 10 “stamps” that can be redeemed for a "reward night."

• When earned with the credit card, 10 stamps have a value of $110.

• $110 worth of rewards divided by $5,000 in spending comes out to 0.022 or 2.2%.

That is a competitive rewards rate compared with some hotel cards. But, nowadays you can find credit cards that pay 2% in cash back with less complicated rewards systems. With the Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card, you get only an extra 0.2 percentage points to earn rewards that are far more restrictive than cash.

» MORE: Why you might consider switching loyalty to Hotels.com

Automatic elite status

You get automatic Silver status with Hotels.com. Silver status entitles you to free breakfast, spa vouchers, airport transfers, VIP access lines and more at eligible properties.

Note, however, if you already have status with a branded hotel chain like Marriott or Hyatt, you forgo your status benefits and elite night credits with that hotel chain if you book through a third party like Hotels.com.

Perks and travel protections

• No foreign transaction fee: The Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card is a great travel partner, since you won't have to pay a foreign transaction fee when you make purchases abroad.

• Cell phone protection: Pay your phone bill with this card and you’ll be covered in the event of damage to or theft of your phone, for up to $1,200 per year ($600 per claim), after a $25 deductible.

• Travel perks: The Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card comes with some travel protections, such as trip cancellation and interruption insurance, and rental car insurance, which is secondary, meaning your own car insurance applies first.

Baffling rewards

You can definitely figure out this card's rewards program. You can. But after this description, you might not want to try.

1. Earning:

• Even without the credit card, the Hotels.com loyalty program lets you earn a “stamp” for every night you stay at any eligible property booked on that site. That’s a stamp like you might get on a loyalty wallet-card at a sandwich or coffee shop.

• With the Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card, you earn a stamp for every $500 spent on purchases with the card. All spending counts the same. No bonus rewards for spending on restaurants or gas stations, for example — not even for booking at Hotels.com.

But what are the rewards stamps worth? You’ll have to remember the number $110. Here’s why.

2. Redeeming:

You need to accumulate 10 stamps for a “reward night.” No partial redemptions for, say, seven stamps.

So 10 stamps, and you can book any hotel room on Hotels.com? Uh, no. Not all stamps are created equal:

• Stamps you earn by racking up $500 in spending on the credit card are assigned a value of $110.

• But stamps you earn by booking through Hotels.com are worth whatever you paid for the room.

The value of your 10-stamp “reward night” is the average of your 10 stamps — again, with credit card-earned stamps worth $110. So, if you didn’t book any rooms through Hotels.com and earned your 10 stamps only with the credit card, then your reward is worth $110. But if you have a mix of bookings and credit card stamps, your reward could be more or less than $110, depending on how expensive your bookings were, which affects the average of the 10 stamps.

Whew.

» MORE: Credit cards with potentially confusing rewards programs

Want a simpler credit card that earns rewards you can use for hotel bookings? Try a general travel card that earns a flat rate back on all spending and lets you use your rewards for multiple forms of travel, including hotels. For example, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card earns 2 miles per $1 spent, and you can redeem rewards for any hotel or flight.

Weak sign-up bonus

With an annual fee of $0, you don’t expect a massive sign-up bonus. But even still, some might be a little disappointed with this one.

The current bonus: Get 2 reward nights worth $250 total (max $125 per night)*, when you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. *Excludes taxes and fees. If a night costs less than $125, you won’t get the difference. (The reward night excludes taxes and fees, which you'll have to pay.)

To maximize this bonus, you'd need to find a room that costs exactly $125 a night. If it costs more, you'll owe the difference. If it costs less, you don't get back the difference. That’s less than you get with most other major hotel credit cards, even ones with no annual fee.

A running theme here: The card's bonus, like its rewards, is not so much a "free night," but more like a dollar credit to use at Hotels.com.

Poor flexibility

Granted, you're able to book properties around the world with multiple different brands. So if you’re not chasing elite status with a particular brand, the Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card could help get you free or discounted reward nights across a wide variety of properties.

But unlike cards offering flexible rewards, the stamps you earn using this credit card are redeemable only for Hotels.com bookings. Plus, you can’t redeem the rewards you’ve earned until you earn 10 stamps.

Also, it has no travel partners to transfer rewards to.

For more flexibility, consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. It offers bonus rewards in several popular categories, including travel and dining. Those points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to several desirable hotel loyalty programs: Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn, Staybridge, Crowne Plaza, among others).

It also comes with a great sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The annual fee is $95.

No anniversary reward

Many co-branded hotel cards come with a free anniversary night. While those cards typically come with an annual fee in the $100 range, using the free night can easily make up for the fee.

An example: The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. With an annual fee of $95, it offers a Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every year after your account anniversary.

» MORE: Top hotel credit cards that offer free anniversary nights

No bonus categories

The rewards rate might be decent overall, but there’s no way to earn extra points, not even for Hotels.com bookings. Hotel cards typically offer bonus rewards for hotel bookings and often other spending, such as restaurant dining.

Rewards expire