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With a market cap rapidly approaching $1 Trillion, a supreme court decision that may tax everyone but Amazon, a Seattle based Amazon Tax being passed, then voted down, there’s really no shortage of Amazon based news to read. But this is a travel blog, and I wanted to point you guys to an article I read this morning regarding the proposed economic impact of Amazon’s new HQ2. It was eye opening, especially regarding how many rooms Amazon rents in Seattle alone.
BizJournals investigates the impact of Amazon putting an HQ2 in the Washington D.C. metro area. If you aren’t familiar with HQ2, Amazon is opening a second headquarters and has narrowed down a list of 20 prospective cities to locate it in. Washington D.C. is on the list. What really stood out to me was the sheer volume of occupancy Amazon is responsible for in it’s hometown, Seattle. 330k rooms were rented by Amazon in 2017, up a 100k from 2016. That’s a staggering number. On any given night, Amazon is renting over 900 rooms in the city. I mean…why don’t they just buy a hotel chain? 🙂
I wonder if Amazon Affiliates would qualify for a corporate rate 😉
It’s no wonder cities are offering Billions in incentives to entice Amazon to root its HQ2 on their turf. New Jersey offered over $7B and Chicago $2B in order to get a favorable look. Those massive incentives aside…Business Insider had a thought provoking analysis as to why it pegged the D.C. area to be the favorite: a local Arlington news site saw a readership spike pertaining to one article. It was on green building in the area. The traffic almost entirely originated from Amazon servers. Quite interesting.
In case you’re wondering:
The list of 20 cities:
- Austin, Texas
- Boston
- Chicago
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas
- Denver
- Indianapolis
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Montgomery County, Maryland
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Newark, New Jersey
- New York City
- Northern Virginia
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Toronto
- Washington, DC
*feature image Grand Hyatt Seattle, courtesy of Hyatt.com
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
$300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- $300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel℠. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel℠ purchases within your first year
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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