Hotels.com Rewards
The Hotels.com rewards program is the equivalent of the local coffee shop that hands out punch cards where you earn a free cup of coffee after getting your card punched ten times…
It’s the simplicity of this model that makes Hotels.com so appealing. For every ten hotel stays you book through Hotels.com, you earn a “free night” to use on your next booking. The value of your free night is equal to the average price of your previous ten bookings, so you can’t stay at a roadside motel ten nights in a row and expect to cash in your free night at the Four Seasons.
Important Details
- Free nights do not cover taxes and fees. For example, if you earned a $200 free night and you want to use it on a $150 stay, you will still have to pay for the taxes and fees associated with that stay.
- As long as you book and stay within 12 months of your last completed booking, your free nights won’t expire.
- You can have multiple free nights in your account at one time.
- The free night is essentially a credit, so if you don’t redeem the entire value of the free night, the balance remains on your account.
- You are not able to combine multiple free nights to redeem for one more expensive night. For example, if you have two free nights in your account and both are equal to $150, you are not allowed to redeem both of your nights for a $300 one-night stay.
- Occasionally you will be given the opportunity to write a review of your stay in exchange for a bonus night code. You enter the code when booking your next stay and you will earn one additional night that counts towards your free night.
Elite Status
Hotels.com has created a two-tiered elite status program where you can reach either Silver or Gold status as you book more stays through the website or app. You earn silver status if you book ten stays within a “membership year” (beginning of the year is based on when you create your account), and you earn gold status after booking 30 nights in a membership year. Here’s how Hotels.com describes the benefits of silver status:
We’ve had silver status for the last several months and have not found it to be particularly beneficial. I suppose that having “priority customer service” would be nice, but we have not been in a situation that warranted us taking advantage of this perk. Overall, silver status seems like a clever way to keep people engaged but it is ultimately nothing to get excited about. Gold status seems slightly more appealing, particularly because of the potential for free room upgrades. That being said, these benefits pale in comparison to the perks you get if you have elite status with some of the major hotel brands like Marriott. The beauty of Hotels.com is the ability to earn free nights, not the elite status program.
Double Dip
We are always looking to maximize points and miles when we book travel, so we book stays through Hotels.com with our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. This way we collect stays that get us closer to earning a free night while also receiving 3x points for every dollar spent on travel through Chase. The combined benefit of Hotels.com and Chase Sapphire Reserve is pretty impressive. Assuming you will continue to use Hotels.com until you earn a free night, each night you book is effectively 10% off because your free night is equal to the average of your prior 10 stays. And assuming you will ultimately redeem your chase points to book travel (flight, hotel, rental car, etc.) you end up receiving the equivalent of 4.5% of the amount you spent on Hotels.com in the form of Chase points. By way of example, if you booked a $100 night through Hotels.com, you would effectively earn $10 towards your next free night and you would earn $4.50 worth of Chase points (for travel). That’s a combined total of 14.5% of the total value of your stay that can eventually be used for future travel. Obviously you can double dip with whatever credit card you want, but we think the Reserve card is still the best option.
Conclusion
The simplicity of the Hotels.com rewards program makes it an attractive option for anyone who does not have elite status at one of the major hotel brands. Purely in terms of the dollar value you earn with each stay, it is a better option than any of the other online booking websites like Expedia or Booking.com. While the ability to earn free nights is the reason we always book hotels through Hotels.com, we have not found the benefits of silver status to be particularly useful. The perks you get from having elite status with a major hotel brand will almost always be far superior and you are not able to double dip with Hotels.com and a specific hotel loyalty program. If you’re someone who does not have allegiance to one hotel brand, Hotels.com is probably your best bet for booking hotels. If, however, you spend enough nights with one brand to earn elite status through their loyalty program, you might find that those benefits outweigh the ability to earn free nights through Hotels.com.