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Wyndham Rewards is the loyalty program for the Wyndham Hotel Group. Covering 16 brands and encompassing roughly 7,800 hotels across 66 countries, Wyndham Rewards is one of the largest hotel loyalty programs in the world and is growing at more than double the pace of its nearest rival.
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Wyndham Rewards Redemption Rates
The rapid growth of Wyndham Rewards can be attributed to its unique approach to earning and redeeming rewards points. In May 2015, Wyndham Rewards switched to a three-tier redemption program. go free, go fast, go get ‘em program offers a flat redemption rate across all hotels that come under the Wyndham Rewards umbrella.
- go free – A go free award will allow you to use Wyndham Rewards points for a free night stay. Free nights are 15,000 points across all hotels in any category
- go fast – You can use 3,000 Wyndham Rewards points as partial payment to pay for a room at participating hotels
- go get ‘em – Members will earn 10 points per dollar or a minimum of 1,000 points, whichever is more
In May 2016, Wyndham Rewards introduced 4 new elite tiers, Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond level, in addition to adding experiences called Plus Awards in select cities. These offer a voucher towards a unique activity at the destination, or in the case of Diamond Level members, 2 free passes to a local experience.
Most recently, Wyndham added over 15,000 vacation homes and condos as redeemable options, meaning loyalty members have over 25,000 properties to choose from when redeeming Wyndham Rewards points for accommodation.
Wyndham Hotel Group Brands
With the addition of Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Wyndham Rewards now has 16 brands under its umbrella at which members can redeem rewards points.
- Baymont Inn & Suites
- Days Inn
- Dolce
- Hawthorn Suites
- Howard Johnson’s
- Knights Inn
- Microtel Inn & Suites
- Ramada
- Super 8
- Travelodge
- TRYP by Wyndham
- Wingate By Wyndham
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
- Wyndham Garden Hotels
- Wyndham Grand Collection
- Wyndham Vacation Rentals
Earning Wyndham Rewards Elite Status
Wyndham Rewards has four elite tiers:
- Blue — Awarded when you join Wyndham Rewards
- Gold — Requires 5 nights
- Platinum — Requires 15 nights
- Diamond — Requires 40 nights
The perks at Blue and Gold are not overly valuable, although Gold level members do receive late check-out when available.
When reaching Platinum level, members will receive early check-in, an annual points bonus of 3,000 points, and also car rental upgrades with Budget and Avis.
Members that achieve Diamond level status can expect an annual points bonus of 6,000 points, similar rental upgrades to Platinum members, a welcome amenity, suite upgrades (including award nights), and they can give Gold elite to a friend or family member each year.
Additionally, both the Wyndham Rewards Visa co-branded credit card's receive elite status, the $75 annual fee version earning Platinum, and the no annual fee version earning Gold.
Earning Wyndham Rewards Points
If you primarily earn points through hotel stays, Wyndham Rewards offers the highest return on spend out of all hotel loyalty programs covered in a recent report by IdeaWorks, returning 13.6% of every dollar spent (Marriott, which is the next highest on the chart, returns bang on 9%).
The high return on spend can be attributed to the revamp of Wyndham Rewards in 2015, which introduced go get ‘em rewards. Members earn a minimum of 1,000 points per qualifying stay, or 10 points per dollar spent, whichever is highest at the end of your stay.
Members do not currently earn points on Wyndham Vacation Rental properties, but Wyndham has indicated that it will be introducing this earning method for members in early 2017.
Wyndham Rewards Credit Cards
Wyndham offers two co-branded credit cards through Barclays.
Wyndham Rewards Earner® Card
- Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days
- Earn 5x points on Hotels By Wyndham and gas purchases
- Earn 2x points on eligible dining and grocery purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®)
- Earn 1X points on all other purchases
- Automatically receive Wyndham Rewards Gold Membership
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 annual fee
Wyndham Rewards Earner® Plus Card
- Earn 45,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days
- Earn 6X points on Hotels By Wyndham and gas purchases
- Earn 4x points on eligible dining and grocery purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®)
- Earn 1X points on all other purchases
- Automatically receive Wyndham Rewards Platinum status
- No foreign transaction fees
- $75 annual fee
Wyndham Rewards for Meeting Planners
Wyndham Rewards also offers a generous rewards program for meeting planners called go meet. The program has no minimum spend requirement and no maximum point cap, and planners will earn 1 point per dollar on all qualifying revenue including:
- Guest rooms, when there are ten or more rooms on at least one night
- Meeting room rental fees
- Food and beverage charges
The 1 point per dollar on room spend is in addition to each paying guest earning 10 points per dollar on stays at Wyndham Rewards hotels.
Buying and Gifting Wyndham Rewards Points
You can buy or gift up to 5,000 Wyndham Rewards points per calendar year at $11 per 1,000 points. When compared to other hotel loyalty programs that doesn’t appear to be a lot of points. Due to the low redemption rate, however, it is enough for a go fast points and cash award which cost 3,000 points plus cash.
Wyndham Rewards points purchases are processed by Points.com and will not count towards bonus categories for credit card spend, so be sure to use a good daily spend card.
In addition to the methods above, you can earn 100 Wyndham Rewards points per day on Avis and Budget car rentals, and also earn points at LifeLock and onlinerewardspanel.com; you can find the details on Wyndham’s website.
Redeeming Wyndham Rewards Points for Free Nights
Wyndham Rewards offers two different options for redeeming points.
With the addition of Wyndham Vacation Rentals to Wyndham Rewards redemption options, members now have over 25,000 properties at which they can redeem points.
- go free – For a flat rate of 15,000 points per bedroom, members can now redeem points for across go free, go free home, and go free condo awards. The standard go free awards for hotels have no blackout dates across any participating hotel, but both home and condo rentals will have blackout dates that apply when the cash price of the property rises above a certain rate.
- go fast – For 3,000 points plus the required cash per bedroom, members can redeem go fast rates across go free, go free home, and go free condo awards. The amount of cash needed for a go fast award varies by hotel and can be found on the Wyndham website. Again, go fast home and go fast condo awards are subject to blackout dates and rates.
Wyndham’s flat 15,000 point rate is unique amongst hotel loyalty programs and means the hotels at the top of Wyndham’s list of brands such as Wyndham Grand offer significant redemption value, whereas you would get much better bang for your buck using cash for brands like Days Inn and Super8.
Note: Wyndham doesn’t allow points to be shared between members accounts which also means you cannot combine balances from accounts, even within households, for hotel redemptions.
Final Thoughts
If you primarily stay at low-cost hotels, Wyndham Rewards offers fantastic value with the 1,000 point minimum points received for paid stays. Points which can then be redeemed for a flat rate of 15,000 points across any of Wyndham Hotel Group’s hotels, including premium options like the Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach, which can fetch between $300/$700 per night if paying cash.
The best value that comes to mind for Wyndham Rewards is the go fast awards. While they may not offer the best cent-per-point value, they can offer significant discounts on transit hotels, when all you are chasing is a bed for the night before moving on again early the next day.
If you’re a member of Wyndham Rewards with experience of the new earning and redemption options, we’d love you to share your experiences below in the comments.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
If i gift Gold status to a friend do they recieve free points to equal 3 nights. 21,500 points?
I don’t believe so. Gifting status generally doesn’t come with free points, but I could be wrong. Is there a specific offer you’re looking at?
Be aware though. I have had very bad experience with the Wyndham Rewards card. The anniversary bonus was missing after the annual fee was paid after 2 months. The customer service couldn’t do anything about it. They just kept me waiting month after month. Horrible customer service. Oh, availability for redemption for higher end hotel stays was very limited. I ended up with a bunch of useless Wyndham points that I couldn’t use for good value. It’s a rip off.
Great article! Thanks for all the info.
I’ve been considering getting a Wyndham card from r the benefits. Thanks for the assessment of the different levels.
some of their upper end properties even include suites for the same 15k points
Wyndham’s program has been a bit better than expected. A lot of their properties are lower end but are cheap for short overnights.
Great summary – keep them coming!
I am missing something, though: Wyndham Rewards allows to opt for earning miles in an airline partner instead of Windham points. Can you comment on that? It would be great to know from the experts which choice is the best or how it compares to other loyalty programs.
If you’re not staying enough to earn a free night or elite status your best bet is to earn miles (https://www.wyndhamrewards.com/trec/consumer/earnAirlines.action?variant=) A great way to add a few miles and keep an airline loyalty account active