How does the Amex Gold ‘The Hotel Collection’ $100 credit benefit work?

A reader asked in the comments the other day about how ‘The Hotel Collection’ benefit for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders worked.

I searched through HfP to find an article to send him …. and it turned out we don’t have one.

I thought I’d correct that today by looking at ‘The Hotel Collection’.

The first thing to mention is that whilst ‘The Hotel Collection’ is promoted as a benefit for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders, it is also available to Platinum and Centurion cardholders.

In essence, it is a watered down version of the ‘Fine Hotels & Resorts’ benefit offered to holders of The Platinum Card. FHR gets you decent extra benefits (free breakfast, $100 hotel credit, guaranteed 4pm check-out) at a large number of luxury hotels.

‘The Hotel Collection’ offers lesser benefits at a (slightly) lesser quality of hotel, mainly in the four star market.

How does ‘The Hotel Collection’ work?

‘The Hotel Collection’ website is here. However, the deals will also pop up for qualifying cardholders when you search the main Amex Travel site, as long as you are logged in.

It’s a simple offer:

• there are 700 hotels globally which take part

• you must book for at least two nights

• you must book via the Amex Travel website

• you will receive a $100 credit to spend in the hotel (not valid off room rate)

• you will receive a room upgrade if available

‘If available’ can mean anything, of course, so I wouldn’t necessarily put any value on this benefit UNLESS the room is good value anyway.

Do the rates offer good value?

You need to do the sums.

For a start, many of the hotels in the programme are part of the big international chains. This means that they are likely to offer ‘member rates’ if you book via their own websites which may undercut ‘The Hotel Collection’.

Secondly, ‘The Hotel Collection’ only offers refundable rates. If you would be happy paying for a non-refundable room then, again, booking direct may be a better deal.

Here’s a pricing example

I picked The Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington as an example, because it isn’t part of a major chain – although it is in Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

For the weekend of 19th-21st January, ‘The Hotel Collection’ rate is £428 per night for a Deluxe Double.

This matches the Best Flexible Rate offered by the hotel. In fact, Amex is £10 cheaper – it charges £428 per night whilst the hotel wants £428 for Friday and £438 for Saturday.

However ….

The Ampersand Hotel offers VERY aggressive discounts for ‘members’, ie anyone who registers on its website. This brings the room rate down to £300 for Friday and £307 for Saturday – a saving of 30%. This rate is also fully flexible.

Clearly there is no value in using ‘The Hotel Collection’ here, even with the £100 credit.

Here’s a second example

I tried again with The Marylebone Hotel for the same dates.

A ‘Classic Room’ is £475 per night. Again, this matches the Best Flexible Rate online.

However, on the date I checked, the hotel had a ‘Cyber Week’ offer of £332 showing as well. This was also fully cancellable and included breakfast.

Do you get reward points if you book branded hotels via ‘The Hotel Collection’?

I don’t know, is the honest answer, but I suspect it works in the same way as ‘Fine Hotels & Resorts’:

• if you choose to pre-pay (and I don’t know why you would, as there is no cost saving) then you do NOT receive hotel loyalty points or any elite status benefits

• if you choose to pay at check-out, you WILL receive hotel loyalty points and any elite status benefits due

I know this approach makes little logical sense, but that’s how FHR works and I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘The Hotel Collection’ was the same.

Conclusion

‘The Hotel Collection’ is one of those card benefits which could come in handy but definitely isn’t something to rely on when deciding whether you should pay your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold annual fee for another year.

Basically ….. because it matches Best Flexible Rate, it IS worth using if you are booking a hotel where you need flexibility and where no special offers come with free cancellation. If you are happy with a non-refundable room or there is a good value flexible ‘member rate’ then ‘The Hotel Collection’ is unlikely to offer the best deal.

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