Any Hotel Program Give Credit for Third Party Booking (hotels.com)?
 

Do any of the hotel frequent guest programs give credit for a booking made via hotels.com where the bill is paid by hotels.com? I know many don't, but are there any that do? I have a free night with hotels.com that I need to burn.

Any Hotel Program Give Credit for Third Party Booking (hotels.com)?
 

Don't think there is.

I don't understand. Do you already belong to most hotel programs? You just said "a" free night (singular, one). Just how much difference would one night credit make in a program you don't yet belong to?

How soon do you have to use up that free night credit? Don't you sometimes go to places where there are no points-earning hotels in the area (or at least none you can afford) and you need an "indie" hotel (one not participating in any program)? I would think that's the kind of hotel that third-party sites are best for, not for booking hotels with their own programs.

Officially, no, though strange things have been known to happen from time to time. Odds are the value of the free night is greater than the points or any other benefits you'd earn anyways.

No, but I've found that I generally do get Choice Hotels credit for bookings made through Expedia. Haven't booked through hotels.com in eons, so I'm not sure what the experience would be with them, though.

I have received IHG points through Expedia bookings (just the bonus points for checking in).

This is actually the real reason why I joined FTF today.

I do travel quite a bit, and had been IHG Priority member (by chance). I admit to not know anything about this hotel reward program, so when I was checked in to the Crowne Plaza few years ago, they offered me this membership form.

Had nothing better to do, I filled up the form and start using Priority to do all my bookings until early this year.

Because of things I need to do, my Priority status went down from Gold to nothing last year.

I know I will have plenty of traveling due this year, so early this year I start my bonus collecting again and planning to get at least back to my Gold status if not more by end of this year.

Alas, while in UK, I watch TV and get to see the Trivago add, and start looking into it. Into my surprise, Priority has higher prices to all hotels I wanted to stay while I am in USA. I still booked myself a HolidayInn while in USA, but not through Priority. I booked it through Booking.com. It was cheaper than the price they are charging me on Priority website.

It was my fault that I was not reading properly (informed myself better) about this program, I was just so sure that I will get the point as Priority has that Lowest Price guarantee thingy.

Needless to say, I was so upset to find out how wrong was I and was really really disappointed.

I still have over 57K points with Priority, but decided to leave the program and not want to be bothered ever again.

My question to the experts here is: Is any of this hotel reward programs really worthed?

Since the Priority disappointment, I went and educate myself and do more research on hotel reward programs, all seem to be selling more than other online booking companies out there; yet all having those fancy Lowest Price Guarantee thing on their website. Is not that misleading advertising?

Your honest opinion will be appreciated, as I really wonder why and how people can do and stick with it?

I personally do booking myself for all of my travels, and looking for a cheaper place to stay is sometime hard enough let alone to make comparison in each and every place I want to book?

Thanking you in advance.