I own the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) as well. Amex seems to use Expedia as travel booking engine on their Amex Travel website.

If I book a hotel directly with Expedia, I get 4.5% cash back (CSR) + 1.4% CB (Expedia loyalty) + any cashback portal (e.g, 6% on hotels from TopCashback or Rakuten). This comes out to a healthy ~10%+.

If I book at same price using Amex Travel, I will earn 5% in Membership Rewards points. I value these at 1-1.25x at best since I fly economy, so that is maybe 5-6% in terms of true returns.

I also get better travel protection with Amex Platinum than I do with CSR (I think, but I have not researched this in detail). Other than that one factor, is there any actual benefit to using Amex Travel for hotels? Am I missing something with my math?

Thanks!