Most travelers spend real effort chasing hotel points, then book a vacation rental and earn nothing. It doesn’t have to work that way.
When a Vacation Rental Makes More Sense
Hotel loyalty programs have expanded into the short-term rental space - Marriott Homes & Villas, Hyatt Homes & Hideaways, and the Apartment Collection by Hilton all let you earn program currency on select rentals. For trips where those options fit, they’re worth checking. But plenty of stays - a lakefront cabin that sleeps ten, a city apartment cheaper than any nearby hotel room, a remote property with no chain equivalent nearby - still land you on Airbnb or Vrbo. The rewards question then becomes: are you just accepting a dead booking, or is there a workaround?
There is. Several, in fact. The mechanics vary by platform and program, but the core idea is consistent: click through a partner link before you book, and the airline’s system registers your purchase.
Earning Miles on Airbnb
Four airline programs currently have direct earning partnerships with Airbnb. None of them require anything complicated - you start at the airline’s portal or partner page, click through to Airbnb, and complete your booking normally. Cookies need to be enabled in your browser, and your mileage account name must match the primary guest name on the reservation.
The programs and their rates break down as follows. ANA Mileage Club offers 1 mile per 200 Japanese yen spent - roughly 1 mile per $1.24 at current exchange rates. British Airways Executive Club pays 2 Avios per dollar spent on Airbnb stays and experiences. Delta SkyMiles gives 1 mile per dollar on stays and 3 miles per dollar on Airbnb services and experiences, but requires you to connect your SkyMiles and Airbnb accounts first, and the earning window closes after 10 days - you’ll need to reconnect to keep earning beyond that. Qantas Frequent Flyer earns 1 point per Australian dollar spent (approximately $0.69 USD), booked through the Qantas portal.
None of these programs credit miles on taxes and fees - only the base booking cost counts.
British Airways’ 2 Avios per dollar is the strongest earning rate among the four for most travelers who deal in transferable points currencies, particularly those who already use Avios for short-haul redemptions on American Airlines or Iberia flights. The ANA and Qantas rates are more useful for travelers already deep in those ecosystems, where the miles carry higher redemption value for their specific routes.
Earning Miles on Vrbo
Vrbo’s setup is slightly different, partly because it participates in the One Key rewards program - which means some stays already earn OneKeyCash - and partly because it connects to a wider range of shopping portals alongside its direct airline partnerships.
The shopping portal route works through programs like the American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping portal, the Delta SkyMiles Shopping portal, the Atmos Rewards Shopping portal, and the Rove Shopping portal. One advantage of going through a shopping portal is flexibility: you can often earn rewards even when booking a stay for someone else, which the direct airline partnerships typically don’t allow.
For direct partnerships where the booking must be in your own name, three programs currently work with Vrbo. United MileagePlus earns 3 miles per dollar spent - the strongest rate of the three. Delta SkyMiles earns 2 miles per dollar. JetBlue TrueBlue earns points and Tiles through TrueBlue Travel. As with Airbnb, the mileage account name needs to match the primary guest name on the reservation.
The One Key layer adds a potential second earning stream. Stays completed directly on the Vrbo website are more likely to qualify for OneKeyCash on top of airline miles, though eligibility varies by property. It’s worth checking before you book rather than assuming both will stack.
One practical note: the portal rates on Vrbo fluctuate. Shopping portals adjust their payouts regularly, and a program offering 3 miles per dollar one month may drop to 1 mile the next. Checking a portal aggregator before booking takes about 90 seconds and can meaningfully change which option is worth using.
The Credit Card Layer
Clicking through the right portal earns miles on the Airbnb or Vrbo side of the transaction. Your credit card earns on top of that - and for vacation rentals specifically, the card you use matters.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card earns 3 points per dollar on vacation home rentals booked through Airbnb, Vrbo, Plum Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com, and Vacasa. Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to a range of airline partners including United, Southwest, Air France/KLM, and British Airways, among others, which makes them flexible enough to complement whichever airline program you’re already earning toward.
Stack the right portal click with the right credit card, and a $1,000 Vrbo booking could yield 3,000 Chase points plus 3,000 United miles - a meaningful return on a transaction that would otherwise earn nothing.
The accounts and portal links involved aren’t complicated, but the setup is easy to skip when you’re mid-search and just want to confirm availability. Building the portal check into your booking routine before you lock in a property is where the habit pays off.
A $500 Airbnb stay clicked through the British Airways portal earns 1,000 Avios - enough, depending on the route, to cover a one-way short-haul flight when combined with existing balances.
