Capital One Premier Collection Review: Elite-Like Perks & Top-End Hotels

Just over a year ago, Capital One launched a portfolio of top-rated hotels called the Premier Collection, hoping to coax cardholders with the *venture x* or the *venture x business* to book stays through the Capital One Travel portal for added perks like on-property dining credits, complimentary upgrades, and free daily breakfast.

Capital One didn't exactly reinvent the wheel with its collection of luxury and boutique hotel offerings – in fact, it's a near-carbon copy of the Fine Hotels + Resorts Program available to those with *amex platinum*. Many of the same properties are even available on both Amex and Capital One's booking platforms.

The only problem with Capital One's new Premier Collection? For the longest time, there just weren't that many hotels to choose from.

Slowly but surely that's changed as the bank built out its collection of hotels with some top-notch properties in many desirable locations. Thanks to a short-lived promotion last fall that allowed Venture X cardholders to save $200 on a Premier Collection reservation, I finally had the incentive I needed to give this new hotel offering a try.

Here's everything you need to know about Capital One's Premier Collection and what to expect with your next stay.

Related reading: A Full Review of the Capital One Venture X Card

Premier Collection Benefits Overview

Capital One's Premier Collection of hotels is exclusively available to those with the *venture x* or the *venture x business*, providing elite-like benefits at many luxury and boutique hotels around the world.

If you've got the *capital one venture card* or the *CapOne Spark Miles* instead, you'll have to settle for Capital One's Lifestyle Collection, which comes with a similar set of benefits but a less-premium portfolio of properties.

Every Premier Collection booking unlocks a handful of additional perks that match (or exceed) the top levels of status at hotel chains like Hyatt and Marriott, including:

• Free breakfast for two every morning
• A $100 credit for dining, the spa, or other experiences on the property
• Room upgrades based on availability
• Early check-in, and late check-out when available

Plus, you'll get 10x Venture Miles per dollar on every booking and you can use your Venture X Card's $300 annual travel credit even when booking a Premier Collection property.

Related reading: How to Get Hotel Elite Status From a Single Credit Card

Free Breakfast

There's no such thing as a free lunch – but with Capital One's Premier Collection benefits, you can get a free breakfast.

Each day of your stay you'll get free breakfast for two people for each room in your booking. Just what's included with the free breakfast will vary from property to property, but it's safe to assume that you'll get enough to tide you over.

In my experience staying at the Ocean's Edge Resort & Marina in Key West, breakfast included any entree from the menu, as well as coffee or juice. There was a bit of a discrepancy with this though, as we were mistakenly told the first day that only some items were included – even though the prices weren't any more expensive – so be sure to check with your server or inquire at check-in.

$100 Experience Credit

I know I said there's no such thing as a free lunch but that's not entirely true. With these Premier Collection bookings you'll get a $100 experience credit to use on dining, spa treatments, and other activities during your stay. This means that you could, in fact, get a free lunch (or dinner) with your $100 credit.

During our stay, we had no issue using up our credit on food and drinks by the pool. We were even able to stretch it a little further by getting in on a daily happy hour special. We probably wouldn't have spent $100 dining on-property otherwise but the credit made it a nice, convenient option.

The resort we stayed at didn't have a spa so using our experience credit on dining was the only real choice for this particular stay.

Room Upgrades

It's always a good idea to book the room you want instead of hoping for a room upgrade but when it happens, it's a really nice perk.

In my case, I booked the lowest category Partial Ocean View King room and was proactively upgraded to a Partial Ocean View King Suite at check-in. This was a nice upgrade as it nearly doubled our square footage and gave us a separate living space to relax and watch TV in the evenings.

It was clear at check-in that the staff knew I had booked through Capital One so I'm sure that they do their best to prioritize upgrades for these Premier Collection bookings – but at the end of the day, it all comes down to availability. Had I been staying at a peak time with fewer rooms vacant, I likely wouldn't gotten an upgrade at all.

Early Check-In and Late Check-Out

Much like room upgrades, this benefit depends on availability. We didn't get to the resort in time to need an early check-in for our stay but we did have an afternoon flight on our day of departure and were granted a late check-out.

We only needed an extra couple of hours but being able to stay in the room instead of packing up and trying to find a place to kill time was a nice perk.

Earn 10x Miles

Both the the *venture x* and the *venture x business* earn 10x miles on hotels booked through Capital One Travel and that's true for these Premier Collection properties as well.

Since Capital One miles can easily be used to cover any travel charge at a rate of 1 cent per mile (including your Premier Collection booking), you can think of this an easy 10% discount on your stay. Of course, you can get even greater value for your miles by transferring them to one of Capital One's slew of transfer partners for an award booking – but even if you're just getting 10%, that's still a pretty nice return on your spending.

Read more: Why You Shouldn't Redeem Miles Through the Capital One Travel Portal

Premier Collection Hotels

So, what kind of properties are bookable through the Capital One Premier Collection?

The luxury hotels and resorts included in the Premier Collection come from hotel portfolios like Small Luxury Hotels, Leading Hotels of the World, Six Senses, and more – including some boutique properties and resorts across the globe.

While Capital One has certainly expanded the number of offerings in its Premier Collection, it's still slim pickings in most major cities. For example, while Las Vegas is one of the most popular destinations within AMeyou still won't find a single Las Vegas resort in the Premier Collection. And in New York City, there are just six properties bookable though the Capital One Premier Collection, compared to nearly 30 Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts (and another 20 Hotel Collection properties).

Another thing to note: These are higher-end properties so it's not a huge surprise, but we haven't seen many locations bookable for less than $500 a night via Capital One.

How to Book

Booking these Premier Collection hotels is simple. So long as you've got a Venture X or Venture X Business Card, you'll see them in the hotel search results of the Capital One Travel portal. It'll be easy to tell which properties are included in the Premier Collection because of the dark blue color and the Premier Collection banner at the top.

Premier Collection and Lifestyle Collection properties are also prioritized in the search results so you'll likely see these first when searching for a given destination. Once you've zeroed in on a Premier Collection property that you like, you'll be able to select your room type and enter the primary traveler's information.

If you haven't used your card's annual $300 travel credit, you can even choose to apply that at checkout for a discount on your stay.

It's also worth noting that some of these properties charge resort fees that will be due at check-in. When you're looking at the price of your stay, be sure to factor that into the total price to ensure you're not surprised when you get there.

Are These Hotels a Good Deal?

Getting all those extra perks and elite-like treatment is great … but only if the price is right. Overpaying for a hotel just to get free breakfast and a room upgrade isn't a wise financial move. Like most travel purchases, it's important to price-shop and take all the Premier Collection benefits into account when booking one of these properties for yourself.

In my case, it ended up being well worth it – especially when accounting for the $200 savings Capital One was offering when I booked. Since my wife and I both have our own Venture X Cards, we were even able to split up our reservation for a total of $400 in savings from Capital One and get two $100 property credits to use during our stay.

Bottom Line

Capital One's Premier Collection offers elite-like perks at several top-end hotels around the world. With these bookings you'll get daily free breakfast, a $100 experience credit to use on things like dining and spa treatments, as well as room upgrades and late check-out, when available.

This collection of hotels is only available to those with the *venture x* and the *venture x business* – further adding to the long list of reasons why having one, or both, of these cards in your wallet makes good sense.