We had a brief discussion a few months ago about trying to redeem Wyndham Rewards points for Melia hotel stays. I've tried to do it again, and can share some more information. Hopefully, somebody here can help me solve my redemption problem. It seems like the folks who answer the phone at Wyndham Rewards can't solve anything.
If you go to the WR website, you'll see that Melia is supposedly a redemption option and there are apparently some great deals:
https://www.wyndhamrewards.com/trec/...ction?variant=
Now they say you can redeem at "one of 300 hotels in 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America," but they only list a few dozen hotels in 8 countries. They also tell you to call Melia first, book the hotel, and then call WR for the voucher.
The problem is that when you call Melia for one of the listed hotels, the answer you'll receive (or at least that I've received a half dozen times) is that there's no availability. When this happened again to me today, I called WR and pressed the issue. Basically, how can there never be any availability?
The WR agent spoke to her supervisor and then told me to call Melia back and ask about blackout days at the hotel I was interested in -- which was the Melia Barcelona.
I did so, and was told by the Melia agent that the Melia Barcelona doesn't participate at all (even though they are on the WR list!). The agent helpfully suggested that a nearby Tryp hotel (in the Melia group) did. He made the reservation for me. The problem is that he had no idea how many WR points I needed for the rez, and suggested I call WR back.
So, of course, I did. The problem is that WR has no record of this Tryp hotel participating, so they can't tell me how many points it is, or issue me a voucher! After I pressed the issue with the agent, she spoke with a supervisor who told her "they were working on developing a new list with more Tryp hotels. Maybe by April."
I asked if I could somehow get in contact with the person in charge of administering the WR relationship with Melia, and was given the name "NAME REDACTED BY MODERATOR" They have a P.O. Box for her in South Dakota -- no other contact information. I think she is just a general program administrator. I doubt that writing a letter to her will get me anywhere, but I suppose I could try.
Does anyone have any suggestion on what to do here? Obviously, what I need -- and what all WR members need -- is a accurate list of participating Melia hotels and the means to order the vouchers for these hotels. Common sense, right? But there doesn't seem to be much intelligent life at WR working toward that goal.
Meanwhile, the Tyrp hotel that I booked (but can't get a voucher for) has helpfully sent me a confirmation email with detailed rate information! It says the price of my room is 41.58 Euros (about a third of the lowest published rate) and seems to indicate that I'll owe that if I don't bring a voucher:
Payment Method: PAYMENT ON SPOT
*** Remarks & Special Requests ***
**RES. WITH WYNDHAM POINTS**WYNDHAM NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxx**
**AWR OF CHARGES IF POINTS ARE NOT ENOUGH**AWR CXL POL.**
I'm tempted to contact the hotel, tell them I'm having troubles getting a voucher, and offering to pay them in Euros. This would be fine -- I'll save my points for another hotel. I'm wondering if it would work! Crazy stuff.