Best Credit Cards for Budget and Luxury Hotel Bookings

Hotel bookings split into two very different spending patterns — frequent budget stays booked through OTAs like MakeMyTrip or Booking.com, and occasional high-value luxury bookings often made directly with the hotel. The right card differs meaningfully between the two.

Budget and frequent bookings via OTAs

For regular budget travel, what matters most is a reliable cashback or reward rate on OTA bookings plus any live bank discount codes, similar to the dynamics covered in our hotel and flight rewards guide. SBI Card's travel-oriented cards and general cashback cards both perform reasonably here, since OTA transactions are usually coded as standard online spending and earn at whatever rate your card gives on that category.

Luxury and direct hotel bookings

Booking directly with a luxury hotel chain — bypassing the OTA — often unlocks better room rates and hotel loyalty points, but it can earn differently on your credit card since some premium cards offer accelerated rewards specifically on hotel merchant category codes. Premium travel cards from Axis Bank, particularly in their upper tiers, often reward this category well and pair it with milestone benefits tied to annual travel spend.

Stacking hotel loyalty with card rewards

Where possible, booking directly with the hotel and paying with a strong travel rewards card lets you stack two loyalty systems at once — hotel points plus card rewards — versus an OTA booking that usually only earns the card side. This is worth the extra ten minutes of comparing OTA discount pricing against the direct-booking rate before deciding which route nets more total value.

Occasional traveler vs frequent stayer

If hotel stays are rare for you, a solid all-purpose cashback card handles this category fine without needing a dedicated travel card annual fee. Frequent business or leisure travelers, though, benefit more from a premium card's hotel-specific multipliers and any complimentary hotel loyalty tier that comes bundled with top-tier travel cards — worth checking directly with the issuer, since these tie-ups change periodically.

The bottom line

Match your booking channel to your card: OTA-heavy bookers do fine with a strong cashback card, while direct luxury bookers get more mileage from a premium travel card's hotel category rewards and any bundled loyalty tier upgrades.