This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
Credit card travel programs are becoming a more influential part of how travelers discover, evaluate, and book trips. Skift Research found that credit card rewards programs now match, and in some cases exceed, the perceived value of traditional airline and hotel loyalty programs across major travel markets. In the U.S., 34% of travelers surveyed said credit card programs offer the most rewarding benefits, compared with 22% for hotel programs and 21% for airlines.
That shift helps explain why leading travel credit cards have built curated hotel and lodging programs around more than points. For premium cardholders, the value is increasingly tied to access, benefits, guidance, and a more considered way to choose where to stay.
Inside the Premier and Lifestyle Collections
Capital One Travel has applied that thinking to its Premier and Lifestyle Collections, which launched in 2023 as a lodging extension of the company’s premium travel strategy. The collections give eligible cardholders access to handpicked hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals, with enhanced benefits such as experience credits and room upgrades. The Premier Collection focuses on luxury properties with elevated service and bespoke amenities, while the Lifestyle Collection emphasizes design-forward, locally rooted stays with a distinctive sense of place.
Since launch, the collections have expanded to more than 1,400 properties, reflecting Capital One Travel’s ambition to create a more discerning hotel portfolio that helps cardholders discover distinctive stays and design a trip tailored to their needs. The strategy builds on the premium foundation established with its Venture X card and first airport lounge in late 2021, extending the Capital One Travel experience for eligible cardholders through a vetted collection that adds more guidance and value to choosing where to stay.
“Luxury has become an individualized definition, and our role is to curate experiences that help travelers discover what luxury means to them,” said Phillip LaRue, head of luxury travel at Capital One. “By highlighting diverse properties, our curated portfolio delivers a powerful sense of discovery to cardholders.”
Redefining Premium Travel Through Curation
Curation gives structure to a category that has become increasingly personal. The Premier and Lifestyle Collections are designed to help cardholders move from a wide field of options to a more focused set of stays selected for service, character, and relevance to the trip.
“Today’s travelers are increasingly seeking experiences that feel authentic, memorable, and tailored to their interests rather than simply choosing the most expensive option available,” LaRue said. For Capital One Travel, that creates a role for the Premier and Lifestyle Collections that goes beyond access to inventory. “Our Premier and Lifestyle Collections act as an expert travel curator when planning trips,” he said.
The portfolios include distinctive independent and lifestyle properties, as well as partnerships with groups such as Small Luxury Hotels of the World and The Leading Hotels of the World, alongside established luxury brands such as Belmond, Peninsula, and Six Senses, as well as a growing set of Accor brands, including Fairmont and Raffles. The emphasis, though, is less on the length of the list than on its range. In Puerto Rico, for example, the Premier Collection includes Fairmont El San Juan, a heritage luxury property, while the Lifestyle Collection includes Hotel El Convento, an independent boutique hotel set in one of San Juan’s most historic buildings. Both are elevated stays, but each offers a different expression of the destination.
Building a More Bespoke Premium Portfolio
Behind the collections is a selection process that combines customer insight, partner evaluation, and ongoing quality control. The goal is not to apply a single definition of luxury across every market, but to identify properties that deliver strong hospitality while adding something distinctive to the portfolio.
“Our curation process combines data-driven analysis with a highly selective qualitative review,” said Hya Valdez, head of luxury travel business development and strategic partnerships at Capital One Travel. “We spend significant time understanding a property’s unique story and what distinguishes it within its market while evaluating whether it aligns with the type of experiences our cardholders are seeking.”
Capital One Travel considers guest satisfaction, service quality, amenities, location, operational consistency, and overall guest experience. Once a property joins the portfolio, the team continues to monitor performance and work with hotel and vacation rental partners to ensure the experience continues to meet its standards and the evolving needs of the premium traveler.
Scaling a Collection Built for Discovery
The Premier and Lifestyle Collections have scaled quickly, but the company frames that growth as intentional rather than volume-driven. As more hotels and travel suppliers compete for premium travelers, curated distribution can create new discovery pathways for properties with strong service models, clear stories, and a defined sense of place.
“The growth has been driven by a combination of strong traveler demand, positive partner engagement, and a deliberate strategy to expand thoughtfully across destinations and travel styles,” LaRue said.
For hotel partners, the distinction is both commercial and editorial. A property does not only need to be bookable. It needs to be understandable within the context of the trip a traveler wants to take. A glamping retreat, for example, isn’t competing directly with a five-star city hotel. Each serves a different travel moment, and the role of curation is to help travelers find the property that best matches the experience they’re looking for.
How Lifestyle Stays Complement the Premium Portfolio
Lifestyle-driven hotels have become a bigger part of the premium travel landscape as travelers seek stronger design, deeper local context, and a clearer point of view. Skift Advisory research found that travelers are willing to pay a 40% premium for unique, distinctive local experiences over standard accommodation quality, helping explain why major hotel groups are investing more heavily in lifestyle brands.
For Capital One Travel, the Lifestyle Collection plays a different role inside the broader portfolio. It gives cardholders another way into a destination, one shaped less by traditional luxury cues and more by the culture, design, and neighborhood context around the stay.
“Independent and distinctive properties often provide the type of authentic, locally connected experiences that many travelers are increasingly seeking,” Valdez said. “These hotels frequently have a strong sense of place, unique design perspectives, and highly personalized service models that create memorable stays.”
Valdez pointed to the Lifestyle Collection as a place where local identity can become part of the guest experience rather than a decorative layer added after the fact. Brands such as Bunkhouse Hotels and Ash Hotels, she said, are examples of properties “embedding travelers directly into the neighborhood fabric by integrating local-favorite culinary, art, and music as part of the guest experience.”
More Ways to Experience In-Demand Destinations
As traveler expectations become more personal, destination strategy is becoming part of how Capital One Travel helps cardholders discover what luxury means to them. In markets with strong demand, the goal is to offer a range of stays that can support different trip occasions, from established resorts to lifestyle-led hotels and all-inclusive experiences.
For example, in Riviera Maya, Capital One Travel has expanded its portfolio with Accor and Ennismore properties, including Fairmont Mayakoba, Banyan Tree Mayakoba, and the all-inclusive SLS Playa Mujeres. Together, those additions show how one destination can support several expressions of luxury, giving cardholders more ways to choose a stay that fits the trip they want to take.
The hotel collections also sit within Capital One Travel’s connected travel experience, which spans booking, airport hospitality through Capital One Lounges and Landings, entertainment benefits, and other travel partnerships.
Expanding the Definition of Premium Stays
The strategy extends into experiential lodging, where Capital One Travel is adding properties that meet travelers in less conventional settings. Capital One Travel’s luxury trend research found that 93% of premium spenders are interested in non-traditional stays such as glamping, underscoring how far the definition of premium travel has expanded beyond traditional hotels and resorts.
Under Canvas is one example, bringing premium tent accommodations near national parks into the portfolio.
“Partnerships like Under Canvas, a leader in upscale outdoor hospitality, are a great example of how premium travel is expanding beyond the traditional definition,” Valdez said. “Experiential travel is no longer confined to luxury hotels — it can also be found in extraordinary settings that deliver comfort, service, and memorable experiences in a different way.”
Building a Trusted Filter for Luxury Travel
What distinguishes Capital One Travel’s approach is not only the size of the portfolio, but the work required to keep it relevant as premium travel evolves. As the Premier and Lifestyle Collections grow, the team continues to source the world for exceptional properties and work with hotel and vacation rental partners to ensure the collections continue to reflect what cardholders are looking for.
That makes curation an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time selection process. As traveler expectations evolve, Capital One Travel continues to assess where the collections can offer greater relevance across areas such as wellness, outdoor hospitality, culinary experiences, entertainment, and local connection.
For cardholders, that consistency is what turns a collection into something more useful than a long list of options. As premium travel becomes more varied, the Premier and Lifestyle Collections are designed to grow with a clear point of view and a continued focus on relevance. They become a trusted filter for helping travelers navigate an increasingly diverse premium market.
Explore curated stays in the Capital One Travel Premier Collection and Lifestyle Collection.
This sponsored content was created collaboratively by Capital One Travel and Skift Studio.
