VOILÀ Hotel Rewards (VHR) have launched a credit card with Commerce Bank. For those that don’t know VOILÀ Hotel Rewards is a rewards program for independent hotels. In this review we will discuss if it’s worth signing up for this card or not.
Card Basics
- Sign up bonus of 20,000 points when you make $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 5x points per $1 spent at VOILÀ Participating Hotels
- 1x points per $1 everywhere else
- Earn an additional 50% bonus on your purchases at VOILÀ Participating Hotels when you make $10,000 in purchases each year (basically making it 7.5x points per $1 spent)
- Standard Visa Signature benefits
- Free FICO Score
How Much Are VOILÀ Points Worth?
Points can be redeemed for the following:
- Airline partners.
- Award nights
The airline partners have horrible redemption rates for example:
- 26,250 VOILÀ points will be exchanged for 1,750 Flying Blue – AIR FRANCE and KLM Miles
- 33,333 VOILÀ points will be exchanged for 100 American Advantage – Gift Card Dollars
When redeeming for award nights points seem to be tied to the room rate of a hotel. Redemption start at 10,000 points and that seems to be where you get the best value (near 1¢ per point). I think the lowest I saw in a very quick look was about 0.7¢ per point. They also seem to be currently offering a 25% discount on award nights, not sure if this is frequent or not.
Our Verdict
Bonus is worth less than $200 and even then you’re restricted to very specific hotels. Personally I’d just recommend one of the cards with a higher cash sign up bonus. I realistically can’t see anybody spending $10,000 on their hotels with this card given the limited footprint, but obviously if you do then this card makes a lot of sense to pick up.
Also as we just posted, you can get 1,000 points for free by signing up to their rewards program.
What are your thoughts on this card? Please let us know in the comments below. Thanks to Mighty Travels for making us aware of it.
I almost spit out my coffee when I read the 33,000 to 100 AA [presumably miles] conversion… then I realized it was 100 dollars.
I did the same thing if it makes you feel any better.
Commerce Bank….the craziest bank of them all! I commend them on offering me my first real credit card years ago with a 2k limit…. used to give points on interest paid (which yes I believe 99% of the time is bad for folks to incentivize them carrying a balance (but for the responsible ones it was a slight APR reduction).
I was just in a branch trying to deal with issues. They are one odd duck. They have rates as low as 5.99% plus prime https://www.commercebank.com/personal/cards/credit/cardholder-agreements-disclosures/ whereas their other cards are prime plus 6.99-16.99%. In branch get told everything I have been informed of is incorrect. Was told the only way to get apr reductions or credit line increases is to wait for the 2 annual computerized audits (feb and august) and if its just an increase to reapply for another card. They completely erased my entire old card, all its payment history, etc, and moved everything to the new visa signature. Then for the first 2 weeks after having the card for a year and applying for increase, they moved the limit from the new card to the old one so I was getting declines left and right. And from january this year to last month none of my balance info or payment reported to the bureaus. Then poof old card vanishes, and new card is finally updated with correct limit.
At least bank of america AND citi offer APR reductions every 3-4 months and are not mandated to a 6 month timer like amex or cap1 for increases. Lets face it, our needs change, we get more income, etc, and outgrow our products. Companies like capital one that hit folks with triple inquiries to open just one card,and encourage carrying 3-4 cards from them are ridiculous.
HOWEVER there was a brief period of time this year where you could incur the triple hit and grab two cards at once (quicksilver and venture) and in 6 months combine limits into the qs. That was slightly more acceptable. They need to do what citi and chase do. If they are hesitant to approve, then pull a dang second report! It should be on a sliding scale, right?
BUT capital one does have great rewards, and they stick with folks through thick and thin. I just think their link for their QS WEMC should only be 13.24% and 1-2 HPs.
Back to commerce bank, their rewards system slightly sucks. You are limited to a maximum of 2500 bonus points per quarter. That means if you were lucky on the 3% categories you could do a little over $800. For cash rewards its minimum $50 redemption and applied as an account credit. They do offer gift card sales can do 1.04cpp in return but are often available for less at giftcardgranny (as you already know!).
You’re a reader of this blog and you have a credit card you described above? Didn’t pay much attention in school?
Curious why the economics of these cards never make sense. Thinking also of Stash Hotels Rewards. You’d think they’d be *more* generous given no one’s ever heard of them.
haha…