Cash back portals are a good idea for your online shopping trips, but it can be easy to overlook that it works with some hotel stays too.

Cash back portals are (mostly) free money

As I mentioned in a prior post, cash back portals are a good idea for you to earn either cash or points. My preferred website to check out current portal rates is Cash Back Monitor. That site does a good job with compiling all the different portals offering a bonus. Note that these bonuses can change daily, as sometimes portals have random days when they offer a significant bump in earnings rates.

I’d like to think this is mostly free money. Yes, they require some effort on your part (signing in) but otherwise it’s there for the taking. There might be some concern that you would have on potentially putting cookies onto your machine that might track your habits. But honestly, it feels like who doesn’t do that these days?

Just try not to get too dazzled by the big potential savings you might get on Cash Back Monitor. Since it shows all sorts of portals, it might pick up some of the lesser-known ones too. Those lesser-known ones might also represent more risk of non-payment (or delayed payment). While I haven’t tried every portal, I will say that all the airline and credit card affiliated portals seem to work well. Additionally, I’ve had good luck with Rakuten, Top Cashback, Swagbucks, UPromise, and Mr. Rebates.

Importantly, Cash Back Monitor does not show anything on the two Capital One shopping portals. You’ll have to check those separately.

Hotels are an option too

I know that sometimes I tend to forget that you can earn a rebate not just on my online shopping but also hotel stays. If you’re interested in whether your hotel stay can offer up a rebate for you, just try entering the name of the chain into the search bar on Cash Back Monitor.

As a quick test, I easily found three of the largest hotel chains offering rebates (Marriott, Hilton, and IHG).

Not to be outdone, there are also two portals available for Airbnb as well.

Not looking to stay at a hotel chain? Well, hotels.com is also listed as a potential rebate option for you. Though I didn’t show the picture below, Expedia and Booking.com are available via many portals too.

Finally, you could potentially earn some extra money back on your purchase of hotel points. Take this Hyatt point rebate option as an example, but there are others.

Which hotels can you earn extra cash back from on portals in 2026?

Here’s a short list of all the hotel chains we found from our search that earn rewards:

And here is the set of hotel chains we couldn’t find cash back rewards for:

*Hyatt was very briefly available at the end of the 2025, but only lasted a couple of days before it was pulled.

On top of that. you’ll find major platforms like Expedia, Hotels.com, and Booking.com. Those could extend your savings to non-chain properties.

And then there are the home rentals like AirBnB, Vrbo, and onefinestay. These also appear on these portals, earning you some extra cash back.

Just remember that not all stays count

First and foremost, it should be obvious that stays booked with points aren’t going to earn you anything from these portals. We would all love the potential arbitrage opportunity, but these portals all work off the cash price paid for the stay. If you’re using points, there’s not much cash you’re spending.

On top of that, not all room rates are going to be eligible for cash back. Thankfully, hotels typically make it easier to tell when to expect a rebate. If you find the words “non-commissionable” listed in your rate, it won’t work.

Sounds simple enough, but how does one find that verbiage? Well let me use Marriott as the example. Simply run a quote for the nights and hotel you’re interested in. For fun, let’s pick on the JW Marriott Indianapolis and let’s say you want to book at the AAA rate. Just click on the “Rate Details” link for the rate that interests you.

You’ll then see the details of this particular rate, including the magical words “commissionable rate”. In layman’s terms, that means you can use a shopping portal and expect a rebate (commission) to be paid out.

Now let’s instead check out the government rate at the hotel. Making this change, we’ll quickly find that this rate is considered “Non-Commissionable” and thus we won’t make any money back from the stay.

These portal bonuses stack with other offers

You should always get into the habit of checking if there is an extra deal referenced in the portal that might apply for you. This admittedly is likely more relevant for when you’re shopping, but you never know what hotel deals might lurk in the shadows. Generally speaking, if the deal is mentioned in the portal you’re using, it should stack with the purchase you’re making. If you’re using a coupon that wasn’t from the portal (e.g., it was emailed to you), you’re at the mercy of the gods if it will work.

Merchant offers loaded onto your credit cards is another avenue where you can earn some extra cash back. Not only will this stack with the portal rebates but it will also stack with any promo codes from the portal too. This will give you an effective 1-2 punch that might help offset a decent portion of your cost.

One last quirk I should mention about shopping portals: buying and using gift cards. This is a little less relevant for hotel stays but nonetheless, it’s something that’s easy to get burned on if you’re not aware. Typically you won’t earn any cash back for the purchase of a gift card via portal. However, some sites also do not award any cash back if you use their gift card to make the purchase. That’s a bit of a double-whammy. As much as possible, I try not to use gift cards when I am making a shopping portal purchase to err on the side of caution.

You might need to fight for it to post

I wish this could be an easy story where you always get paid out shortly after you check out. But there will be times when this simply isn’t the case. This might be especially true if you’re using less-reputable portals. It might also be the case if there is a long delay between booking and staying. Not to mention of course that it might be easy to forget you signed up via a shopping portal in the first place.

So what’s the best approach that addresses these concerns? Documentation. You’ll want to have screenshots of a few key moments in your purchasing process. You’ll want a record of how many points you’re expected to earn and a record of your receipt. If you can show those screenshots with a timestamp, that might make it easier to defend. I’d also recommend taking a screenshot of the portal’s tracking record just in case.

Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but I haven’t had to fight for this in the past few years. I do recall having some trouble in the past, but generally speaking if you have good documentation, you should be able to get credited.

Do you always remember to earn some extra cash back on your paid hotel stays?

Suggested reading:

• Rove Makes It A Double: Pairing Hotel Rewards With Miles
• Don’t Wait on the Airline! Book Your Own Hotel When Travel Goes Sideways
• How Rewarding is a Night at Each Hotel Loyalty Program?