Does anyone use hotels.com and know anything about this program?
While I stay exclusively at Marriott properties, the Hotels.com stay 10 nights get 1 free seems very interesting. On the website it says a free night at any hotels.com partner - no blackout dates, no restrictions whatsoever.
It seems very generous. If you book at cheap hotels for 10 nights, you still can get a four star hotel night.
To qualify for the promotion requires booking 10 hotel nights where the nightly rate is $40 or more at the property being booked.
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How It Works
1. Sign up for a hotels.com account and enroll in welcomerewards™ by clicking here or calling our customer care agents at 800-346-8357. Already have a hotels.com account? Simply log-in to your account and join welcomerewards™ from your "My Account" page.
2. Sign in to your account before booking a partner property priced at USD40 or more at hotels.com, or tell a customer care agent that you are a member of the welcomerewards™ program when making a booking at 800-346-8357.
3. After you complete your stay, your credits will automatically be added to your account. You can check your account balance by signing in into your account and checking your "welcomerewards™ Activity" page, or by calling customer care at 800-346-8357.
4. After you have stayed a total of 10 nights, we will automatically credit you with a free night at any partner property offered by hotels.com, up to USD400 in value. Simply log into your account before making a booking, and you will be given the option to use your free night. You can choose to use your free night on your very next booking, or save if for a future trip. You can also book your free night by calling customer care at 800-346-8357.
So, sign up today and start earning your free nights!
$400+ to earn a free hotel night with maximum value of $400 is what it comes out to before cashback-type programs enter into the picture to improve the picture a bit. Better games around town for me unless I am missing something here.
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This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
I had posted this from my experience in response to a question about getting HHonors points for rooms booked on Hotels.com (Generally you cannot. I have, but rarely, either by asking nicely at the hotel or if they make a mistake...)
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Hotels.com is advertising one free night anywhere for every 10 nights booked (at rate atleast $40/night to book, redeem for rate up to $400/night).
I have 14 nights completed on HH (Silver), and about 21,000 points. I went to look to book a reward stay, and the selection available to me for 21,000 points or less is pitiful.
Positives with HH as I see them:
- flexibility to use points for other things (not sure I would ever do that though)
- status / chance for upgraded rooms
- complimentary items / access at some hotels
Positives about Hotels.com program:
- flexibility to stay at any hotel chain wherever I travel
- earn free rooms quicker
- presumably easier to book a reward room (greater selection, plus each free stay earned is up to $400/night instead of on a points basis)
$400+ to earn a free hotel night with maximum value of $400 is what it comes out to before cashback-type programs enter into the picture to improve the picture a bit. Better games around town for me unless I am missing something here.
Wondering what hotel rewards program you are using that gives you the chance to earn better than $1 for $1 value on the money spent??????
Wondering what hotel rewards program you are using that gives you the chance to earn better than $1 for $1 value on the money spent??????
Primarily Gold Passport, Priority Club, and SPG. Using such programs and earning toward free stays on the cheaper hotel rates and then redeeming for rooms where/when room rates are expensive easily provides a chance to earn better than $1 for $1 value on the money spent.
__________________
This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
My daughter's boyfriend stays in hotels for his job a huge amount of time, in fact, he's only home every other weekend. Can't talk him into joining a particular brand's reward program (very exasperating). He does stay (or maybe I should say live) in places that are in the $70 range. So he was happy to find this reward program for hotels.com and books all his nights through them. Needless to say, he'll have lots and lots of free nights.
They are hoping to use the free nights for a stay in Hawaii in January. He told me that upon checking out the redemption possiblities he discovered there's a $65 fee. If that alone isn't bad enough, he says you can only book 1 night at a time, thus incurring a $65 fee for each night. Does this sound accurate to anyone who has redeemed nights?
Technically you have the potential to earn $1 for $1 spent but I wouldn't want to spend 10 nights staying in a $40/night hotel. Anywhere.
No-showing is an option under some circumstances when it comes to the frequent customer program of hotels.com, but even then this hotel.com's program isn't as competitive as what I can get out of various hotel frequent guest programs.
__________________
This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
They are hoping to use the free nights for a stay in Hawaii in January. He told me that upon checking out the redemption possiblities he discovered there's a $65 fee. If that alone isn't bad enough, he says you can only book 1 night at a time, thus incurring a $65 fee for each night. Does this sound accurate to anyone who has redeemed nights?
There is actually no booking fee for using the reward (I have done it).The standard hotel fees and taxes are still due, as noted in the T&Cs
The maximum value of the free night is $400 before taxes and fees. You are responsible for paying for taxes, fees, meals, incidentals and any other costs associated with the booking or stay.
but that would be the same if paying.
Also, since the taxes and fees are per-night anyway, booking multiple nights as multiple awards won't incur any additional fees. More of a pain to do it that way, but no more cost.
Does anyone use hotels.com and know anything about this program?
While I stay exclusively at Marriott properties, the Hotels.com stay 10 nights get 1 free seems very interesting. On the website it says a free night at any hotels.com partner - no blackout dates, no restrictions whatsoever.
It seems very generous. If you book at cheap hotels for 10 nights, you still can get a four star hotel night.
Anyone have any feedback on this program?
Yup. I've used it and it's exactly as advertised. Of course, it's hard to find $40 rooms that we want to stay in to get maximal benefit, but that's our issue, not theirs
Primarily Gold Passport, Priority Club, and SPG. Using such programs and earning toward free stays on the cheaper hotel rates and then redeeming for rooms where/when room rates are expensive easily provides a chance to earn better than $1 for $1 value on the money spent.
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Originally Posted by satori
The current Starwood promotion is allowing me to get about $5 in benefits, upgraded rooms, and free nights for every $1 spent.
Not the same. Yes, you can get $1 per dollar spent (or even $5 per dollar spent). Even in the latter case, $400 in spend yields 2000 points. Can you get the equivalent of a $400/night room for those 2000 points with SPG? Not even close. But, with hotels.com you can. Granted, finding enough $40 rooms is hard. But let's say $100 rooms- not that hard to find. That's $1000 in spend, or 5000 points at 5/$1. Still, no rooms for 5000 points. Although one can do pretty well with points plus cash and get a room for, say, 4800 points and maybe $50-$75. We've done this in Rome, for example. But it still was not a $400/night equivalent room.
We use hotels.com for paid bookings for the free night. I also charge everything on SPG Amex (including Bay Area property tax ) to get lots of SPG points to then use for other rooms. But I would no longer pay for a Starwood property directly for the points, but would use hotels.com for their program.
Just a quick "BEWARE" about using the WelcomeRewards program. In December I booked a 5 night stay at a BW in Naples, FL online using a coupon code on the hotels.com website. When I realized that the coupon code could not be combined with the WR bonus, I called the hotels.com number to cancel the reservation (My bad -- I should have done it online). After cancelling the res., I made the additional mistake of mentioning to the CSR (in Manila, IIRC) that I wanted to re-book online for the same hotel & dates, using the WR log-in. He said that he, of course, could re-book it for me and affirmed that I would get the WR credit for the 5 nights. Following the stay at BW, I had a lengthy correspondence with hotels.com because they refused to credit the 5 nights, saying I had used an affiliate for the booking. After some 8 mails back and forth with them, I finally gave up. They said they would send me a $50 voucher for a future booking for the misunderstanding -- I AM STILL WAITING.
