Because we plan to stay for several weeks, we’ve found that renting an Airbnb will use far fewer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and put us in a better location than booking 17 nights at hotels in London, Bath, Windsor, and the Cotswolds. Plus, if you’ve been to England, you know most hotels only allow 2 per room. So, our family of 4 that usually books 1 room in US hotels, would have to book 2 hotel rooms and cost us double the points in England.
You may be thinking, “Points for an Airbnb stay? How is that possible?”
Usually points are redeemed for flights and hotel stays but the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal gives you the opportunity to “Pay Yourself Back” by redeeming points for a statement credit against a cash purchase in certain categories.
And, even better, Chase is currently running a special where you get 25% more value with the Sapphire Preferred card and 50% more value with the Sapphire Reserve when you use the points to cover an Airbnb cash purchase.
Here are the details from our recent Pay Yourself Back redemption:
- We booked a 7-night Airbnb for our first week in London for $1,876.18.
- I went to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal and exchanged 125,078 points for a statement credit of $1,876.18 (to reimburse myself for the Airbnb charge).
- We were able to get 50% more value for the points by using the Chase Sapphire Reserve card & taking advantage of the Airbnb special the Chase Portal was running.
- If I had used points for 2 hotel rooms per night for 7 nights in a similar location, I would’ve spent 616,000 points. In this case, I saved 490,922 points using the Chase Pay Yourself Back program and booking an Airbnb.
- I repeated this same process for the other Airbnbs we’re staying in.
Most of the time I use the Chase Portal to transfer points directly to flight & hotel partners, but there are other ways you can use the Chase Portal to redeem points as well.
Next time you stay at an Airbnb, consider using Pay Yourself Back to reimburse yourself for some or all of your Airbnb stay.
