"Now Live": Capital One Premier Collection Luxury Hotel Program Overview (Similar to FHR)

【2023.1 update】This feature is now live. When searching, you can now see which rooms are marked as part of the premier collection, along with the various benefits listed.

About Premier Collection

Capital One today announced a new benefit for Venture X. When booking certain high-end hotels, cardholders can receive perks such as a $100 property credit, complimentary breakfast, room upgrades, and more, similar to FHR. We still do not know the full hotel list yet, but this benefit can offer excellent value when you are able to use it.

• Benefit details

Benefits

These benefits are quite solid and appear to have been designed with FHR as the model.

• $100 hotel property credit, likely usable for things like room service, spa, or dining;
• Breakfast for two is a very nice perk, since breakfast buffets at luxury hotels are often expensive;
• Room upgrades are not guaranteed, though it will depend on how generous the program is. FHR is usually quite strong in this area and upgrades are often available;
• Complimentary Wifi, though most luxury hotels already offer this for free anyway.
• Early check-in, which hotels will usually provide if a room is available; late checkout is also offered but not guaranteed, whereas FHR guarantees 4pm checkout.

Hotel List

There is not yet a complete hotel list, and only a partial preview has been released. According to Capital One, these hotels are selected and rated by Capital One itself, so the program appears to be aimed at the high-end, luxury segment.

• The Ned NoMad in New York City
• Montage Laguna Beach in California
• 1 Hotel South Beach in Florida
• COMO Castello Del Nero in Italy
• Le Pavillon de la Reine in Paris
• Sugar Beach, a Viceroy Resort in St. Lucia
• Euphoria Retreat in Greece
• Hotel Cafe Royal in London
• Majestic Hotel in Barcelona
• The Carlin Hotel in New Zealand
• The Plettenberg in South Africa”

Booking

This benefit is only available to Venture X cardholders. It will likely work similarly to FHR, with a dedicated booking page. There, you can see eligible hotels and the extra benefits that come with them. One advantage of Capital One is that booking hotels through its own travel portal earns 10x points. Valuing the points at 1.1c/p, that is roughly equivalent to getting about 10% back.

Summary

As a newer player in the premium card space, Capital One is clearly making a strong effort here and has essentially replicated many of the premium-card benefits offered by AMEX and Chase. The key point is that the annual fee is only $395, and it does not come with the kind of overly complicated coupon-book credits that AMEX is known for. In my opinion, it is still well worth holding.