If you collect points and miles, you probably try to use the best credit card for every purchase. In theory, that sounds easy enough. In practice, it can get a little messy.
One of those gray areas comes up at hotel bars and restaurants. If you eat at a restaurant inside a hotel, should you use a card that earns bonus points on dining, or one that earns bonus points on travel? Depending on how the charge is processed, the answer could be either one.
That matters because the difference could mean earning just 1X point instead of 3X, 4X or even 5X on the same purchase.
Here’s how it usually works in the real world.
General Principles
- Charges at hotel-affiliated restaurants and bars may code as either hotel/travel or dining, depending on how the transaction is processed.
- When in doubt, use a card that offers bonus points for both dining and travel.
- Checking how similar past purchases were coded can help you avoid surprises.
What Happens In Different Situations?
1. Charging The Meal To Your Room
If you’re staying at the hotel and charge your meal or drinks to your room, the expense will usually code as hotel spending.
For example, during a stay at the Park Hyatt Saigon, a meal we charged to our room showed up as a hotel expense.
If you want the safest play while staying at a hotel, this is usually it.
2. Paying Directly At The Restaurant Or Bar
When you pay the restaurant or bar directly instead of charging the bill to your room, coding can be inconsistent.
During our stay at the Hyatt Regency Danang, drinks at the lobby bar were paid for with a World of Hyatt card, coded as a hotel charge.
But lunch at the Pool House the next afternoon, also paid directly, coded as a restaurant purchase.
In that case, it didn’t really matter because our World of Hyatt card earns 4X points at Hyatt properties regardless of how the charge codes. But that won’t always be true for other cards, which is why this category can be so frustrating to figure out.
3. Sometimes Charges Make No Sense At All
And then there are the charges that seem to ignore all logic.
I once had a meal at a stand-alone restaurant in Hanoi show up on my Sapphire Reserve as a hotel charge, even though there was no hotel attached to it at all.
That’s the wild card with merchant coding. Sometimes the way a business is set up behind the scenes matters more than what the place actually is. It’s also why it pays to check your statement instead of assuming a purchase coded the way you expected.
So Which Card Should You Use?
If you’re staying at the hotel, charging the bill to your room is usually the best option. That gives you the best chance of having the purchase code as hotel or travel spending.
If you’re paying directly at a hotel restaurant or bar, the safest move is to use a card that earns bonus points on both dining and travel. Cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or American Express Green Card can be especially helpful here. That way, even if the merchant coding goes one way or the other, you’re still in good shape.
Unfortunately, there’s no rule that always applies. The way the charge is processed often matters more than where you’re eating.
Actionable Tips
- Charge to your room when possible: That usually gives you the most consistent result.
- Use flexible cards: A card that rewards both dining and travel can protect you from inconsistent coding.
- Check past purchases: Your previous transactions may give you a clue how a hotel’s bar or restaurant usually codes.
- Don’t assume: Even stand-alone restaurants can sometimes post in unexpected ways.
Final Thought
Hotel restaurants seem like they should be easy to categorize, but credit card merchant coding doesn’t always follow common sense. Sometimes a meal inside a hotel codes as dining, sometimes it codes as travel, and sometimes a charge makes no sense at all.
If you want to maximize points, the best strategy is to understand the possibilities before you pay. And if you’re still not sure, use a card that covers both bases.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
