How Capital One Shopping Saved Me 20% on a Pricey Hotel

I’m a proud graduate of the historically Black school Howard University, and I try to attend homecoming every year. 2024 happened to be an extraordinary year for Howard’s homecoming, as the university’s 100th homecoming celebration brought a record number of attendees.

So much interest in (and around) Washington, D.C. for the weekend meant little hotel availability — and most lodging options were charging sky-high rates. But I saved some money using one of my favorite shopping rewards portals. 

Using the Capital One Shopping portal saved nearly 20% of my hotel stay during a busy travel period, like homecoming weekend. Here’s how.

Overview of Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping helps you save money online by finding the best deals or testing out various promotional codes. It’s different from other shopping tools, such as Rakuten, in that you can choose to earn cash-back in the form of a gift card.

One thing I love about Capital One Shopping is that it’s available to anyone — not just those with a Capital One credit card. You don’t need to be a Capital One customer or account holder.

If you aren’t familiar with it, you download the Capital One Shopping browser extension. It takes seconds to add Capital One Shopping, and you can use it with all major browsers. If you’re on the go, you can also download the free Capital One Shopping app (iOS, Android).

Capital One Shopping’s program works in the background, so there’s not much you need to do to find savings. The tool automatically searches for working promo codes when you shop at a merchant. If it finds one, it applies it to your booking. 

These aren’t the only things Capital One Shopping can do. The tool can also:

• Send price drop alerts: Capital One Shopping will let you know when a price drops.
• Compare prices on Amazon: If a better deal is out there, the tool lets you know.

Not only that, you earn Capital One Shopping Rewards, which you can redeem for gift cards at merchants like Walmart, Old Navy, and Bath & Body Works. There aren’t many travel options, but you can redeem rewards for gift cards at online travel agencies, or OTAs, such as Hotels.com. 

Do note that Capital One Offers is a separate platform from Capital One Shopping. Capital One Offers are card-linked offers that offer bonus miles or cash-back and require a Capital One account.

Using Capital One Shopping During a Peak Travel Weekend in D.C.

I travel to D.C. several times a year, so I’m familiar with the hotels in the nation’s capital. 

But I quickly learned that some of my reliable options when visiting D.C., such as the 5-star Conrad Washington, D.C., wasn’t even an option worth considering. Cash rates at the Conrad started at over $2,000 per night for a standard king room. And while I usually try to stick to World of Hyatt properties given my Explorist status, there was little to no availability in the city.

That meant I needed to get creative if I wanted to be in D.C. during homecoming weekend — and not spend a fortune. I researched and found a fantastic deal at the Eaton D.C. (a Brilliant by Langham property) for $628 for my 2-night stay when booking through Hotels.com. Given the Eaton’s favorable location in downtown D.C. and just 2 miles from campus, I was pleased to find availability at such a low cost.

But just before I hit checkout, I remembered I had a stash of Capital One Shopping Rewards. And I couldn’t think of a better way to redeem them than during one of the most expensive travel weekends in D.C. On your dashboard, your available rewards are listed at the top of the screen, as are the available gift cards you can purchase with your rewards.

As I mentioned above, the travel gift card options are pretty limited — in this case, they were Hotels.com and the Global Hotel Card Powered by Expedia. The redemption options for the latter were pretty limited: They could only be redeemed at globalhotelcard.com and were not redeemable at Expedia.com. That meant I couldn’t apply any Expedia OneKey benefits (more on that later), so I redeemed my rewards for a Hotels.com gift card instead.

While I didn’t have a ton of Capital One Shopping Rewards, I had enough to make a dent in the overall cost. With my mind made up, I redeemed $119 for a gift card at Hotels.com, dropping the total out-of-pocket cost to $509. For a 2-night stay, I found that price absolutely unbeatable. 

I received the gift card immediately in my email. I activated it directly on the Hotels.com website without having to call a toll-free number. After applying the gift card to my reservation, I paid the remaining balance by putting the purchase on my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card*×Information collected independently. Not reviewed by Capital One., earning 2 Capital One miles per $1 on all other purchases.

Earning More Rewards on my Hotel Stay

Another reason I applied my Capital One Shopping Rewards for a gift card at Hotels.com is the ability to double dip benefits. That’s because I’m a One Key Rewards Platinum member, which gives me even more benefits.

If you aren’t familiar with it, One Key Rewards is the shared loyalty program for Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo. Launched in summer 2023, One Key allows you to earn and redeem rewards (albeit at a poor value) across these OTAs within the Expedia Group family.

There are 4 tiers: Blue, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. You typically earn One Key Platinum by collecting 30 “trip elements” in a calendar year. With Platinum status, you earn the following benefits:

• 20% or more off with Platinum Member Prices on over 10,000 hotels worldwide
• 6% in OneKeyCash on stays at VIP Access properties
• An extra perk when you stay at select VIP Access properties, like food and beverages
• Platinum VIP support
• Room upgrades at VIP Access properties, when available

Those benefits were enough to sway me to book through an OTA instead of booking directly with Langham Hotels. (While OTAs can have their uses, we generally recommend booking directly with the hotel, as OTA are generally unhelpful if your travel plans change.)

However, in this instance, it made perfect sense.

My One Key Platinum status entitled me to complimentary breakfast (valued at around $14) daily. While this may not seem like a big deal, it helped shave off costs for a pricey homecoming trip. The Eaton also immediately acknowledged my One Key elite status, which is rare for OTA bookings. The hotel confirmed a space-available upgrade to a king room and offered early check-in and late checkout. 

I was able to skip the check-in queue altogether, which was pretty backed up thanks to the festivities happening in the city. Besides Howard’s homecoming, the nearby University of Maryland’s homecoming occurred the same weekend.

Final Thoughts

While less flexible than other portals such as Rakuten, Capital One Shopping offers great benefits, such as savings on merchants and redeemable rewards for gift cards for travel. I had honestly forgotten about the portal, which is a testament to how sneakily good it is. 

While I love to redeem points and miles for hotels, sometimes award availability is either out of reach or nonexistent. In this case, getting creative is key. Remembering that I had rewards from Capital One Shopping and then applying them to a gift card saved me a sizable amount of cash — and allowed me to have an unforgettable homecoming weekend.