Booking an Airbnb? Earn Points or Use Points

Airbnb does not have a loyalty program. No matter how often you stay or how much you spend, there are no status rankings or earned rewards. However, there are a few tricks you can employ to earn miles or points when renting an Airbnb or use miles and points from another loyalty program to put toward the cost of an Airbnb.

Earning Points with a Travel Credit Card

The most obvious way to earn points on an Airbnb rental is by paying for it with a co-branded credit card. Depending on what card you carry, you will typically earn between 1X – 3X for each dollar spent. For example, if you carry the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card and book your Airbnb through their portal, you will earn 3X per dollar spent. Likewise the American Express Green® card also has a 3X per dollar spent. The Capital One Venture® card will get you 2X per dollar spent. Whatever travel related credit card you carry, check the fine print to see how many points you earn from Airbnb rentals.

Earning Points by Booking an Airbnb Through an Airline

Delta, British Airways and Quantis are partners with Airbnb. Delta and Quantis generate 1X SkyMiles or Quantis points per dollar spent on an Airbnb booked through their portal. If you book through British Airways you will earn 2X Avois miles per dollar spent. These points are in addition to any points you may earn by using a travel credit card.

Earn Points by Purchasing Airbnb Gift Cards

I spent a lot of years flying on American Airlines for work, so I carry the Aviator Mastercard® through Barclay’s. My Aviator card only earns 1X per dollar spent on Airbnb, but if I purchase a gift card through the American Airlines portal, I earn points both on the portal purchase and on the credit card activity. Depending on what vendor I choose through the portal I may even be able to save some money. For example, I can purchase a $500 Airbnb gift card through Sam’s Club for $484.80. Granted this isn’t a huge savings, but every little bit helps. This trick works with any gift card that you purchase through the shopping portal, Amtrak, Disney, Chevron, Grubhub, etc. So, if you are someone inclined to give gift cards as presents, stop picking them up at the drug store and order from an airline portal instead. You also want to keep in mind exactly how many points your credit card earns on different types of purchases. For example, if you carry the Chase Ink Business Cash® card a direct purchase with Airbnb will earn 3X per dollar spent, but if you purchase an Airbnb gift card at an office supply store the points earning are 5X per dollar spent.

Using Points to Book an Airbnb

While there are a lot of ways to earn points on Airbnb rentals, paying for an Airbnb with reward points is more limited. If you happen to have one of those “high-end” credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the US Bank Altitude Reserve® you receive an annual statement credit ($300 and $325 respectively) that can be used toward Airbnb rentals. Other credit cards may also include annual statement credits but check the fine print as those credits may only be eligible for specific types of travel purchases such as airlines or hotels.

Other general travel credit cards such as the Bank of America Travel Rewards® and Capital One Venture Rewards® allow you to redeem points for a variety of travel purchases and may include Airbnb rentals. It all depends on how the credit card classifies Airbnb. If its classified as real estate or travel agency then you may be out of luck, but these days Airbnb is most often considered a general travel purchase by credit card companies.

As a last resort, you can always use points to purchase Airbnb gift cards, but this can be tricky as well. For example, if you carry the Citi Premier® card, you can use your Thank You rewards to purchase gift cards. However, if your points are all hotel or airline specific you may not be able to exchange those points for gift cards and even if you can, it’s generally not the best to use of points if you want maximum value.

Yes, I know that these reward programs can be confusing. Too many loyalty programs and too many credit card options each with their own unique terms and conditions. It’s enough to make your head spin. Whenever I have a question about the specifics of travel rewards my two go-to sites are Nerd Wallet and The Points Guy. I can pretty much guarantee that for any miles/points/rewards related questions you have, these guys will have the answer.