Travel Portals Price Comparison: Citi Travel Portal Shines, Bilt Stumbles in AwardWallet Analysis

These days, almost every credit card issuer has a travel portal or slaps its branding on one powered by a major online agency. To push you toward using it, they often tie travel credits that only work through their portal to their cards, or they offer a healthy amount of bonus points to incentivize you to book through their portal.

The catch is that those credits only deliver their face value if the portal sells the same hotel or flight for the same price as directly with the travel provider. Bonus points aren't worth as much if you're paying more just to earn them. Since no two portals are the same, the real question is which ones are actually worth your time and which ones are best used sparingly — or avoided altogether.

To find out, we compared hotel rates across five different travel portals against booking directly. The results may surprise you in ways both good and bad.

How We Compared the Travel Portals

For this study, we compared two-night stays at four different properties across five major travel portals: American Express Travel, Bilt Travel, Capital One Travel, Chase Travel, and Citi Travel. Each property was priced out in four scenarios:

• One week out from the time of writing (August 26–28, 2025)
• Ninety days out (November 24–26, 2025)
• Roughly one year out (July 28–30, 2026). Note that most portals do not actually allow bookings a full year in advance, which we cover below.
• A major holiday (December 30, 2025–January 1, 2026, over New Year’s Eve)

The four properties were chosen at random to include a mix of domestic and international hotels, as well as high-end and more budget-friendly properties. They include:

• The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad (Marriott Bonvoy)
• Hyatt Place Orlando Airport (World of Hyatt)
• Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome (World of Hyatt)
• Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4 (IHG One Rewards)

Hyatt Place Orlando Airport. Credit: Hyatt

Related: The Best Hotel Credit Cards

Travel Portal Price Comparisons

To set the stage, all of the rates below are for two-night stays in the same room type, provided that the exact room was available through the portal being compared. Prices are shown inclusive of taxes and fees.

Rates for bookings one week out

The table below shows the total rate for a two-night stay just one week from the time of writing, August 26–28, 2025. The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome is not available through Capital One Travel, which is why it appears as unavailable.

Rates for bookings 90 days out

The table below shows the total rate for a two-night stay about 90 days from now, November 24–26, 2025. Again, the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome is not available through Capital One Travel. In addition, Bilt Travel does not offer the Club Room prepaid rate at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad.

Rates for bookings one year out

The table below shows the total rate for a two-night stay roughly one year from now, July 28–30, 2026. You will notice many “unavailable” entries, as most portals do not allow bookings this far in advance.

Rates for bookings on a major holiday

Hotel rates almost always spike around major holidays when demand surges, whether from people visiting family or traveling to popular destinations like New York City. Below are the rates for a two-night stay over New Year’s Eve, December 30, 2025–January 1, 2026.

Key Takeaways

Without getting into the specifics, the biggest takeaway is that rates are all over the place. More often than not, portal rates are higher than booking direct — sometimes much higher. But in certain cases, you can actually get a better deal through a portal.

Some portals, however, are consistently more expensive than booking directly. That becomes clear in the table below, which shows the average difference between portal rates and direct rates across different booking windows.

One interesting outlier is Citi Travel, which occasionally delivers decently better deals on close-in bookings. Even when it's not cheaper, Citi’s portal generally stays close to the direct rate.

That's good news if you want to make the most of the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees) $300 hotel savings benefit or the Citi Strata Premier^® Card (Rates & Fees) $100 hotel savings benefit. You generally won't have to pay much (if anything) extra to get those savings.

Of course, your mileage may vary. It's possible these numbers will not line up exactly with what you find in your own searches. Still, since this study looked at a mix of popular properties in high-traffic areas, there is a decent chance the trends will hold.

Related: Easy Ways to Use and Maximize the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card’s $300 Annual Hotel Credit

Additional findings

When you compare dozens of rates across different travel portals, a few other patterns start to stand out. Beyond just the dollar differences between portal rates and direct rates, here are some noteworthy takeaways about using each portal:

• Bilt Travel shows fewer room options. When pricing The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, Bilt displayed far fewer rate options than Marriott’s site or other portals. Room labels can also be inconsistent. For example, a Club Room may not be labeled as such, but the price will match the Club Room rate elsewhere.
• Capital One Travel does not always list every hotel. Some properties available on other portals are missing from Capital One Travel. The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, for example, isn't bookable through Capital One but is available everywhere else. This can be frustrating if you want to use your travel credit at a property that Capital One doesn't show.
• Capital One rates can be a lot higher than they should be. In some cases, Capital One Travel reflected rates that were more than 10% higher than those of other portals or booking directly. This is a prime example of why it always pays to compare prices before using your credit or booking through a portal for bonus points.
• Booking windows differ by portal. As of August 18, 2025, Citi and Capital One allow bookings up to a year in advance, while Chase and Bilt go about 330 days out (July 14, 2026) and Amex about 329 days out (July 13, 2026). The shorter windows can be inconvenient if you are planning far in advance and want to lock in rates or use your travel credits.
• The free breakfast conundrum. Some hotels, like the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4, include free breakfast for all guests. However, certain more expensive rates still highlight “breakfast included” while cheaper rates do not, which can mislead you into thinking you have to pay more for breakfast when it is already included. Rate structures can be confusing, so double-check what is actually covered.

Related: How Far in Advance Can You Book Hotel Reservations?

Bottom Line

Booking through a third-party travel portal comes with tradeoffs. On the plus side, you can use card travel credits and rack up bonus points. More often than not, though, you will pay a premium compared to booking direct — and you usually give up elite perks and status credits in the process.

While some portals charge more than others, there are times when booking through a portal can actually save you money. The key is to always compare costs before you book. Doing so can mean the difference between overspending and finding real value from the travel credits on the cards in your wallet.

For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees), and Citi Strata Premier^® Card (Rates & Fees)

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