by PointsGuru | Apr 22, 2017 | Retail
Sam’s Wholesale Club is a place I have shopped with my Dad since I was a kid. We would go there and pile up the cart full of a week’s worth of food and it was always exciting to me! My Dad uses his Sam’s Credit Card for all of his purchases. He swears by it as it gives him 2% cash back on his purchases but that card is no longer available and their current card offering is a 1% back card for purchases at Sam’s Club.
Normally Warehouse clubs do not earn your category 5% cash back or higher cash back. They are normally in the fine print to not earn anything and most clubs would not take all of the credit cards as they were exclusive. So warehouse clubs used to be where I would go to meet minimum spending requirements for a sign-up bonus and not really expect big cash back on a card but that has changed. This past year there has been a huge marketing ploy to get cardholders to switch over to Chase and Discover after the American Express shakeup at Costco. This is when Costco decided to partner with Citi Cards instead. Discover and Chase have been giving huge 5% back incentives for warehouse shoppers.
Sam’s Club is also offering a generous Cash Back Program on top of the cash back you can earn using a credit card. Sam’s Plus Members earn $10 in Cash Rewards for every $500 in qualifying pre-tax purchases during a membership year with a maximum reward of $500 per 12-month period. Cash Rewards are loaded onto the Sam’s Plus Member account about two months before the end of the membership year (award date).
If you are not yet a member of Sam’s Club you can join using this link and get a $20 e-gift card.
1. Discover it
Go Here: Discover it
Wholesale clubs are included in the 5X categories through June 30, 2017. It’s been this way for several months now so this has been our top card used at Sam’s Club. You can also get cash at the register up to $60 interest free. Yes, it works just like an ATM Machine but no fees.
With the 5X bonus categories, you can earn $75 cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter after you activate the bonus.
For new cardmembers Discover will match the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first 12 billing cycles. So any purchases you made in the 5% bonus categories will get you 10% cash back!
2. Bank of America Cash Rewards
There are 2 no annual fee Bank of America cash back cards which include wholesale clubs as a bonus category. With the BankAmericard Cash Rewards Visa and MLB BankAmericard Cash Rewards card, you can earn 2% cash back at wholesale clubs on up to $2,500 in spending each quarter. You’ll also get a 10% bonus if you deposit your cash back into a Bank of America checking or savings account. If you redeem $50 cash back, you’ll get $55 in your bank account.
3. AMEX Starwood Cards
Go Here: Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
With the AMEX Starwood card, you’ll earn 1 point per $1 spent at Sam’s Club. But for every 20,000 Starwood points you transfer to airline partners (with a 1:1 transfer ratio), you’ll earn 5,000 bonus miles. That means every $1 spent on the AMEX Starwood cards is worth up to 1.25 airline miles!
Plus, AMEX Starwood cards give you access to AMEX Offers. I recently got an amazing deal on my American Express Blue Cash card where the AMEX Offer was 20% back on purchases of $100+. I purchased $500 in Sam’s Gift Cards with this offer and got $100 back.
4. Citi Double Cash
You can earn up to 2% cash back at Sam’s Club with the no annual fee Citi Double Cash card. You’ll earn 1% cash back on every purchase, and another 1% cash back when you make payments, as long you meet the minimum payment on your monthly statement. You can redeem cash back rewards for a mailed check, a statement credit, or for gift cards, when you reach $25 in rewards.
5. Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Freedom Card
Go Here: Chase Freedom
With the Chase Freedom Unlimited, you’ll earn 1.5X Chase Ultimate Rewards points (1.5% cash back) per $1 you spend on all purchases with NO limit. Chase Freedom Visa also ran a 5% back category for warehouse clubs during the Holiday season and we bet they will again soon because Discover Card is continuing their promotion of this.
by PointsGuru | Apr 22, 2017 | International Travel, Travel
Below is a guide to all the mainstream and niche vacation rental websites complete with guest fees, host fees and listing costs.
Top Vacation Rental Websites
Airbnb
Founded in 2008 from a San Francisco bedroom, Airbnb has grown to be one of the biggest vacation rental websites in existence. Airbnb worth over $30 Billion now boasts more than 100 million users, including over 650,000 hosts. Airbnb is now the world’s second-ranked website in the accommodation and hotels category just barely losing out to Booking.com.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Guests pay a service fee of 6-12% of the booking total, to cover costs of keeping Airbnb up and running. |
Approximately 3% to cover transaction fees, but it may vary depending on the total booking amount. |
Free to join and list entire property, private room or shared room. |
HomeAway
HomeAway has over a million listings in more than 190 countries. HomeAway’s companies including HomeAway, VRBO, VacationRentals.com to name a few are some of the biggest players. HomeAway vacation rental owners and managers will have exposure to over 44 million travelers each month.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Guest service fee is usually between 5-12%of the booking total. |
Dependent on listing plan – pay-per-booking subscriptions will pay a percentage (starting from 8%) on each reservation total.
Annual subscription owners will not incur any additional host charges. |
Pay-per-booking
If renting for less than 6 weeks per year, this option is suitable. Just pay a commission on the bookings you take, starting at 8%.
Annual subscription
For year-long rentals, paying annually makes sense. Prices start at $399 (with online booking) or $549(without). |
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor built its strong following based on trustable reviews on just about everything travel-related. That includes hotels, restaurants, activities, and vacation rentals. The latest figures show over 340 million travelers use TripAdvisor per month, and there are more than 800,000 vacation rental properties listed on the site. Active in over 190 countries, TripAdvisor automatically translates any property listings to appear on its 26 sister sites including FlipKey, HouseTrip, HolidayLettings and Niumba.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Travelers are charged a booking fee, which TripAdvisor uses to run the platform, and this varies from 8% to 14.5% depending on reservation total. |
Hosts pay a 3% fee to TripAdvisor on every booking they make, deducted from the guest’s booking total. |
No upfront subscription fees or contract. List any property type for free. |
Booking.com
Booking.com is undoubtedly the #1 fare website for travelers across the world. Every day, more than 1.2 million room nights are reserved on the online travel agency. Booking’s site is available in over 40 languages, and has almost 1.2 million properties in over 227 countries. It’s known mostly for a hotel booking site but the vacation rentals are growing.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| No reservation fees for guests. |
Hosts pay commission on a per-booking basis (usually around 15%). Invoiced and paid monthly. |
No sign-up or subscription fees. |
Roomorama
Roomorama is an online marketplace which allows guests to book vacation homes worldwide. This site is mostly for longer stays normally with a nine nights minimum and most Roomorama users spend around $1,000+ per reservation which is twice the vacation rental average.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| The guest fee is calculated depending on the length of stay and includes credit card processing fees. It’s usually 15%, but this decreases to 12% if the stay is one month or longer. |
Hosts on Roomorama don’t pay any fees. |
It’s free to list properties on Roomorama. |
Wimdu
Wimdu has been around since 2011. It has 350,000 properties ready to accept bookings in 150 countries and in 15 different languages.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Guests pay a processing fee which is automatically added on to the total amount of their booking. |
Wimdu hosts don’t pay any fees. |
It’s free to list accommodation offerings on Wimdu. |
Smaller & Niche Vacation Rentals
Accomable
Accomable is a vacation rental website which helps disabled travelers find and book accessible homes and apartments around the world. With over 1,000 wheelchair-friendly listings ranging from cottages to luxury spa retreats.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Guests do not pay any extra fees to use the Accommable platform. |
Accomable charges hosts 10% of the total booking cost, to be deducted from guest’s payment. Includes payment processing fees. |
Listing accessible properties is free on Accomable. |
BringFido.com
BringFido.com is a one-stop shop for all things necessary when it comes to planning dog-friendly vacays. Search their 10,000 pet-friendly vacation rentals by price, rating, pet policy, or region.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| No booking fees are charged when making a reservation. Plus, guests get a free gift (such as a t-shirt, sticker etc.) when they arrive home from the trip. |
BringFido.com usually takes a small commission from bookings made through the platform. |
If the owner already has their own website or listings on HomeAway, VRBO, Airbnb or TripAdvisor, BringFido.com will use the link to create a listing free of charge.Otherwise, individual property listings start at $249 per year. |
Clanventure
Kid-friendly vacation rentals and travel ideas thoroughly vetted and handpicked by parents to ensure the offerings are suitable for family friendly vacations. They guarantee the safety features and amenities of each property and that it will have family-friendly activities nearby.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| A flat $79 fee is charged to guests who book using the site, and includes accidental damage protection during trip. |
Clanventure charges a 10% host fee every time a booking is made through the site. This includes credit card fee.Discounts may be available if owners have multiple properties. |
It’s free, but homes must be approved by Clanventure before listing. |
misterb&b
Misterb&b is the largest gay travel or LGBTQ travel and vacation rental website with more than 60,000 hosts in over 135 countries.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| misterb&b charges a 12% guest fee on the gross amount of the rental (e.g. rent+cleaning fee). Cross-border transactions are subject to another 3%charge. |
misterb&b charges 5%commission on each booking taken on the platform for the processing of guest payments. |
Setting up your listing on misterb&b is completely free. |
Niche Escapes
The Niche Escapes vacation rental website allows owners to list and travelers to book unique destinations and properties worldwide. The site matches guests with a property that would be a perfect fit for their needs whether it be cycling or history or even rural retreats. For each property listed, owners can select up to three niches allowing the rental to be marketed in three different categories across the site.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| Niche Escapes charges a 10% guest fee on top of each booking. |
With Niche Escapes, owners can opt to pay a 3% fee on a per-booking basis which covers credit card fees. Otherwise, they can pay early. |
If paying yearly, there is an introductory offer of £49 for the first year (instead of £150!). |
9flats
9flats is a vacation rental listing website which offers over 250,000 properties worldwide.
| Guest fees |
Host fees |
Listing fees |
| The guest service fee tends to be around 10% per booking, but may vary depending on length of stay and total cost. |
9flats takes a 12-15% commission on the booking total. |
It’s free to list your property on 9flats. |
atraveo
Founded in 1997, atraveo is part of the TUI group and has over 300,000 properties from all over the world listed on its website, with a particular focus on Europe.
Agoda
Agoda started off in Asia in 2005 and was acquired by The Priceline Group and offers over 1,250,000 accommodations, ranging from luxury hotels to budget hostels and private rooms or entire properties. Listing your property on Agoda is free.
Vacationstayz
Vacationstayz is a vacation rental listing website letting travelers choose their perfect vacation pad from 20,000 destinations. Vacationstayz focuses on the traveler experience and is completely free for guests. Vacationstayz doesn’t charge any listing fees for the free membership. There is, however, the option to pay $199 a year for full membership, which includes SEO optimization, listing management and one featured listing.
Owner Direct
Owner Direct offers thousands of vacation rentals from all around the world. The company also prides itself on its usability, efficient customer service and transparent fees. Guests aren’t charged any fees on Owner Direct. Owner Direct takes a 10% commission on successful bookings. There is an additional $100 fee if you’ve received more than one booking during the financial year, to cover set-up, maintenance and marketing costs.
HomeEscape
HomeEscape makes it easy to find and compare vacation rentals worldwide, without booking fees or processing fees. HomeEscape is commission-free for both owners and guests, making vacation rentals more affordable for everyone.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals
Wyndham Vacation Rentals boasts over 10,000 rental properties in resort destination across North America, and over 90,000 properties across Europe. Wyndham Worldwide was recently ranked no. 1 on FORTUNE’s Most Admired List in the Hospitality Sector. Also see Hilton Vacation Timeshares.
by PointsGuru | Apr 22, 2017 | Sign-Up Bonus
Here is a list of some of the hottest credit card bonus offers out there for air travel and hotel stays.
#1 Hilton Visa – 80,000 Bonus Points after $2k spend in 3 months . 80,000 points is a great start but not enough for even one night at most of their top tier hotels but is enough for 3 nights in a Hilton Garden Inn or Hampton Inn. You still need to jump on this offer as it is one of the best they have had in the last few years. Also, the Hilton Visa does lots of promotions that are targeted such as a few I have right now. A few examples are spending $700 and getting 7,000 points and spending $10,000 for 10,000 points. Every bit helps you get towards your ultimate goal of a free night or two at a Hilton Resort. Also, make sure to grab the American Express version of the Hilton HHonors Rewards Card to the right. Apply Here.
#2 Citi Prestige Card (read here why this card is amazing) – 50,000 Bonus Points after $3k spend in 3 months. [creditcards.citicards.com] Tied with below:
#3 Citi Premier – 50,000 Bonus Points after $3k spend in 3 months. We applied for this card mostly because the annual fee of $95 is waived the first year. You could get both the Prestige and Premier cards to get up to $848 in American Airlines Flights.
#4 Marriott Visa – 80,000 Points after $3k spend in 3 months. You have until August 31, 2015 to take advantage of this offer but the annual fee is $85 is not waived. This is the best deal we have seen with Marriott Visa in some time and you can get another 80,000 with the business card for small business owners. If you do not plan on spending $3k and $2k instead there is also a 70,000 points offer available. It gives less miles but the $85 annual fee is waived and you get 1 free night (category 1-4) after you are approved. 80,000 is enough for 8+ free nights at category 1-2 hotels or 2 nights at the better hotels. Don’t forget about the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Sign-Up Bonus which was as high as 140,000 Points a few months ago and all of those points convert to Marriott Rewards if you use your Marriott number on the application.
80,000 Hilton HHonors Bonus Points! Most Ever!
#5 Citi Executive AAdvantage – 75,000 Mile Bonus after $7,500 spend in 3 months. While this card has a $450 annual fee that is(not waived it comes with several valuable benefits including but not limited to Admirals Club membership and 2 guests, credit up to $100 to pay for expedited Global Entry, priority check-in, and free 1st checked bag which more than pays for the card. Plus you get reimbursed on some charges when flying. You can score up to 3 domestic round trip tickets. If you do not mind paying the huge fee that you will get back and spending $7,500 then this works out to be one of the best cards on the market. [aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/beyondTravel/creditDebit/citi-executive.jsp]
See our Best Business Credit Cards for Free Travel and read why you should have an American Express card right now!!
by PointsGuru | Apr 15, 2017 | Free Stuff, Travel
The National Park Service just turned 100 years old! Celebrate the start of these national treasures’ second century by visiting a park in 2017. During ten days of the year, all National Park Service sites that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone. If you are planning on traveling up north across the border then you can also get free admission to Canada’s National Parks year-round.
Mark your calendar for these entrance fee–free dates in 2017:
January 16: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
February 20: Presidents’ Day
April 15-16 and 22-23: Easter and Weekends of National Park Week
August 25: National Park Service Birthday
September 30: National Public Lands Day
November 11-12: Veterans Day Weekend
Canada will be celebrating its 150th anniversary all year. To mark the occasion, Parks Canada wants visitors to explore the nation’s national parks. It’s offering free admission to all Canadian national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas for the entire year.