Best cards at Booking.com

Good to know at Booking.com

The Booking.com Genius Rewards Visa Signature Card leads its own page at 5%, but with a discount baked into the score. Its rewards come back as travel credit valued at about 0.9 cents, so a nominal 5% lands at 4.50 in our model. That is still the best answer here, and it is honest about why: the number is a little softer than the headline because the currency only spends one way.

The category call is the part most people get wrong. Booking.com bills as a travel agency, MCC 4722, not as a hotel. So a hotel-specific bonus — the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey's 5x on hotels is the cleanest example — generally does not apply to a stay you book through Booking.com, even though the thing you are buying is unmistakably a hotel room. If you want to trigger a hotel multiplier, book directly with the property.

That is why the runners-up here are travel cards rather than hotel cards. The U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card sits second at 4x on travel, and the AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature Card pays 3% on travel with no annual fee and no cap on that rate. Before you chase the 5%, price the same room direct: if booking with the hotel is within a few dollars, a hotel card's higher multiplier plus loyalty credit for the stay usually wins the total.

The math

Spend $150 a month at Booking.com and Booking.com Genius Rewards Visa Signature Card returns about $81 a year at our valuations — a flat 2% card returns $36.