What is the new $250 Chase Sapphire Reserve® hotel credit?

With the new year comes a variety of credit resets, removals, and additions. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® introduced a new, special $250 credit just for 2026 that is likely to be extraordinarily useful for many travelers—and there's significant stacking opportunity.

What is this new $250 credit?

This new benefit for 2026 lets you get up to $250 in statement credits for prepaid stays (2 night minimum) booked through Chase Travel at the following hotel chains:

1. IHG Hotels & Resorts
2. Montage Hotels & Resorts
3. Pendry Hotels & Resorts
4. Omni Hotels & Resorts
5. Virgin Hotels
6. Minor Hotels
7. Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts

If you login to your Chase account and view your benefits, you'll see this new tracker:

Notably, no activation/enrollment is required to use this credit. Additionally, as noted above, there is a 2 night minimum & you must book a prepaid reservation. Prepaid reservations are where you "Pay Now" for the entire reservation at booking.

You get one per account—note that it says up to $250, good through 12/31/2026.

Is this the same/different as the up to $500 Edit Credit?

It is totally different. This "$250 select hotels credit" (as we'll call it) is a special 2026 benefit for Sapphire Reserve cardholders. In fact, you can see it explicitly separated from the Edit Credit:

Are there restrictions on the type of hotels I can book with this "$250 select hotels credit"?

Outside of the 2 night minimum + brand restriction + prepaid requirement, this question arises in the context of the type of hotels within a brand. For example, can you book 2 nights at a Holiday Inn (IHG) with this credit?

As far as we know, yes. It meets all of the requirements listed, so it should work, even though it's not a fancyseque "Edit" style hotel.

How can I maximize this new "$250 select hotels credit"?

The beauty of this credit is that it can be combined with The Edit credit. Again, they are separate credits, but there are overlaps.

As an example, using the NextCard Edit map, I first applied the Brand filter to see only IHG "Edit" hotels (about 100 worldwide):

Now that I had a list of hotels, I then went through a few cities that I know have historically low pricing (thanks to user submitted datapoint) and checked for some dates/prices that would be relevant for me.

Take the Kimpton Marlowe in Cambridge for instance. 2 nights on a random weekend in February costs a total of $567. Yet, this booking is eligible for two credits:

• $250 Edit Credit (since it's an Edit property)
• $250 Chase "select hotels" Credit (since it's IHG)

This makes the stay effectively $67, if you count credits as face value. Notably, this property's redeemable points are worth 2 cents each, meaning this is an extremely high value stay:

I found several IHG properties that also provided similar value:

• Kimpton Qiantan Shanghai
• Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City

Basically any IHG that has decent rates (check here for pricing data) will be an incredible use of the credit.

Can you stack this "select hotels credit" with anything else outside of the Edit?

If you're lucky, your Sapphire Reserve might also have this offer in your Chase Offers: Get $100 back when you spend $600+ through Chase Travel in a single transaction.

Once you activate this offer, you now have a "triple stack" opportunity at hand for a single 2 night, prepaid booking made via Chase Travel:

• $250 Edit Credit
• $250 Chase "select hotels" Credit
• $100 back when you spend $600+ through Chase Travel

Essentially, if you find a $600+ booking for an Edit hotel that is also part of the "select brands," you're about to make off pretty well. Example booking below:

Final Thoughts

Chase's decision to drop this additional $250 credit helps bolster the positioning of the Reserve. While (in my opinion) it still falls short of the <amex-platinum> in several aspects, for hotel bookings that work, the Reserve can deliver incredible value.

If you're able to use this new credit alongside at least one Edit credit, you'll pretty much well on your way to making good on the annual fee.