VOILÀ Hotel Rewards (VHR) have launched a credit card with Commerce Bank. For those that don’t know VOILÀ Hotel Rewards is a rewards program for independent hotels. In this review we will discuss if it’s worth signing up for this card or not.
Card Basics
- Sign up bonus of 20,000 points when you make $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 5x points per $1 spent at VOILÀ Participating Hotels
- 1x points per $1 everywhere else
- Earn an additional 50% bonus on your purchases at VOILÀ Participating Hotels when you make $10,000 in purchases each year (basically making it 7.5x points per $1 spent)
- Standard Visa Signature benefits
- Free FICO Score
How Much Are VOILÀ Points Worth?
Points can be redeemed for the following:
- Airline partners.
- Award nights
The airline partners have horrible redemption rates for example:
- 26,250 VOILÀ points will be exchanged for 1,750 Flying Blue – AIR FRANCE and KLM Miles
- 33,333 VOILÀ points will be exchanged for 100 American Advantage – Gift Card Dollars
When redeeming for award nights points seem to be tied to the room rate of a hotel. Redemption start at 10,000 points and that seems to be where you get the best value (near 1¢ per point). I think the lowest I saw in a very quick look was about 0.7¢ per point. They also seem to be currently offering a 25% discount on award nights, not sure if this is frequent or not.
Our Verdict
Bonus is worth less than $200 and even then you’re restricted to very specific hotels. Personally I’d just recommend one of the cards with a higher cash sign up bonus. I realistically can’t see anybody spending $10,000 on their hotels with this card given the limited footprint, but obviously if you do then this card makes a lot of sense to pick up.
Also as we just posted, you can get 1,000 points for free by signing up to their rewards program.
What are your thoughts on this card? Please let us know in the comments below. Thanks to Mighty Travels for making us aware of it.
