As frequent travelers, we love our Chase Sapphire Preferred card, not just for the $100 travel credit that negates the $95 annual fee, but for the many other travel perks it provides. The value of the Chase travel portal, on the other hand, is more enigmatic to me.
Chase Sapphire - like most premium travel credit cards - uses the promise of “points” to lure travelers into their digital den. Those points can be worth at least $0.01 (often more) each upon redemption. The perpetual quandary is whether it’s worth booking hotels (or other travel) through the Chase Travel portal versus booking directly with the hotel or sites like Booking.com or Hotels.com.
NOTE: We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card but do not receive any referral commissions or bonus points from Chase for this article. You’ll see why later. :-)
Chase Travel vs Direct: How we compared them
In September 2026, I compared 50 hotels (you can spend time doing stupid stuff like this when you’re retired) to see if there was any meaningful difference in hotel prices using the Chase Travel portal vs booking direct. The full detail of our methodology can be found at the bottom* of this article.
50 randomly chosen hotels
10 large cities* in US/Canada and Europe
Priced a 4 night stay, checked 30 days in advance
Refundable room rate only
Most mid-range hotels (no super luxury brands)
Booking direct was cheaper 62% of the time, with caveats
If you use price alone as a comparison, booking directly with a hotel was cheaper for 31 of the 50 hotels (62%) we checked. Chase was cheaper for 12 of the 50 hotels (24%) and there was no difference in price for the remaining 7 hotels. In doing this analysis, one thing really surprised me: the price difference between the US/Canada and European hotels.
US/Canada hotels
We looked at 25 hotels in 5 cities total: New York City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Chicago and Toronto.
Booking a US/Canada hotel room directly was cheaper 48% of the time (12 of 25)
Average discount for the 25 US/Canada hotels booked directly was only 4%
European hotels
We looked at 25 hotels in 5 cities total: Paris, Rome, London, Berlin and Barcelona.
Booking a European hotel directly was cheaper 76% of the time (19 of 25 hotels)
Average discount for the 25 European hotels booked directly was 12%
NOTE: We are comparing the Chase Sapphire PREFERRED card in this article which is $95 per year. The Chase Sapphire RESERVE card gets you 8x points on hotels booked on the Chase portal (and 4x for general travel) but has a hefty $795 annual fee.
But wait: What about the points???!!
So this is where the mental gymnastics get tricky. By booking directly with a hotel brand that is part of a larger chain of hotels (Marriott, Choice, Hilton, IHG etc.), loyalty program members earn points for future visits. Similarly, when you book a hotel using the Chase travel portal and your Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, you earn points on your stay.
Let’s say you wanted to book a four-night stay in mid-October at the W Hotel in New York City Times Square.
Chase Travel
Cost of stay: $2,272
Value of points earned for using Chase travel portal ($2,272 x 5x points x $0.01 each) = $113 (or more)
Extra points for using Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card: $0 (you already received 5x points)
Final cost of hotel stay: ($2,272 - $113) = $2,159
Booked Direct with Hotel
Cost of stay: $2,208
Value of points earned for booked direct ($2,208 x 10x points x $0.007 each) = $154
Extra points for using Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card: ($2,208 x 2x points x $0.01 each) = $44
Final cost of hotel stay: ($2,208 - $154 - $44) = $2,010
In this example, joining the free Marriott Bonvoy program and booking directly is a better deal - enough to pay for a nice lunch for two in NYC. And who knows, you might get a room upgrade!
TRAVEL TIP: When you use the Chase portal to book hotels, you earn 5x points total IF you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. If you book directly with the hotel and pay using your Chase card, you’ll still earn 2x on all “travel” purchases. Savvy points pros (not me) will also tell you that Chase points can be worth far more than $0.01 each and can be transferred to airlines or other travel partners at an even higher value.
Booking hotels using Chase Travel vs booking directly
* Chase often shows hotel properties that offer a “Points Boost” which can magnify the value of points well beyond $0.01 each.
GOOD TO KNOW: If you are (somewhat) loyal to a hotel chain, points accumulated and nights stayed really do matter. For example, we have an IHG Premier card from Chase and it automatically grants us Platinum Elite status with the IHG family of hotels. For every 3 nights we book using points, we get a fourth night free and may also qualify for early/late check in/out and room upgrades. That’s a pretty compelling offer if you are willing to stick to a few chains.
What I’m doing
I went into this research with the preconceived notion that Chase would be more expensive overall. In many cases that’s true when the value of points and other perks of booking directly are factored in. However, I’m Dutch and finding a good value is part of my DNA. My “go to” formula going forward will be to:
Do an initial search on Booking.com where I have achieved a wildly inappropriate status of “Genius” Level 3. (I like their filters best). Narrow to 2-3 hotels.
Check the price of those 2-3 hotels on the Chase travel portal
If the hotels are part of a chain I use often (example: IHG), I will check the direct price on the hotel website then call them.
Hotels will usually match or beat a posted price elsewhere. Even if you are not a loyalty member, sometimes you can get a room upgrade or some other perk if you call a hotel and tell them the other prices you have found online. The hotels would prefer not to pay that commission to Chase Travel or other online travel agencies like Booking.com, Hotels.com or Expedia. Many also offer age 55+ discounts (such as AARP) so make sure you ask about that.
Believe me, even though I’m Dutch I’m not going to be doing all this to save $19 for a one night stay at a Super 8 Motel. I generally only put in this effort when booking 3+ nights.
What do you think?
Do you use the Chase travel portal for booking hotels? What is your strategy for getting the best overall deal in a hotel? Let us know in the comments.
* Global Travel Lifestyle research methodology: In September 2026, we randomly selected 50 hotels in 10 popular cities in the US & Canada (Los Angeles, NYC, Orlando, Chicago, Toronto), Europe (Barcelona, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin). We checked prices on the Chase portal, and hotel websites (without logging in), within minutes of one another. We chose dates one month in advance (mid-October 2026) using a 4 night stay. All fees and taxes were included and we chose refundable fares. If the hotel offered a special rate for their loyalty club members, we chose that rate if membership was free and simple to enroll in. This evaluation does not account for other perks (room upgrades, free breakfast, early/late check in, elite status points, etc) that may be offered to you by a hotel for booking directly. Please note that we did not include Online Travel Agency websites (Booking, Hotels, Expedia etc) because - well - I love to spend time away from my screen too. :-) - Chris
About Chris
In 2026, after 25 years in Austin, Chris and Julie sold most of their possessions and decided to travel globally full time. Chris started focusing on travel writing after retiring from a long career as a copywriter and marketing executive. He specifically focuses on what it takes to plan, sustain and love life as a long-term traveler, and associated practicalities for people over 50. Although new to travel writing, he is certainly not new to travel, with 100+ border crossings on 6 continents since 1997. Chris has won no writing awards, has no fancy bylines to tout, but is pretty good at sharing insights that inspire and inform. Come along for the ride!
This is very helpful! I have a Sapphire Preferred card and am planning a trip to Europe in the near future. Thank you the great info
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