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Hotels.com is terminating its lucrative ‘stay 10 get 1 free' rewards program later this year. It initially sounded like April’s fools joke but has turned out to be a sad reality. The program replacement is called One Key rewards. The new program will be shared between Hotels.com, Expedia, and Vrbo.
It's important to note that no exact dates for the change have been mentioned. However, Hotels.com has indicated that the switchover will happen in mid-2023.
What Happens To Existing Hotels.com Rewards?
The thosand-dollar question Hotels.com members will be asking is what happens to any free nights they accumulated or partial progress towards their goals?
- Members who have accumulated a free night will have its worth deposited in the new OneKeyCash. For instance, if you have a free night worth $150, it will be converted to $150 worth of OneKeyCash.
- Members who have not completed their full 10 nights will receive 10% of their stay total in OneKeyCash. For instance, if they stayed six nights and spent $500, they would receive $50 worth of OneKeyCash.
One Key Program Overview
The new One Key program is set to launch later in 2023 with the following features:
- One Key will be the new loyalty program for Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo.
- The program has four tiers of status, Blue, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
- You can earn rewards on a wide range of travel activities. This includes flights, hotel stays, car rentals, and more.
- The program earns you rewards on U.S. points of sale for Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo.
- Earn 2% OneKeyCash on every dollar spent on eligible hotels, packages, vacation rentals, car rentals, activities, and cruises.
- Eligible flights earn 0.2% OneKeyCash per dollar spent.
- Your OneKeyCash is redeemable toward a wide range of bookings. This includes hotel stays and flights.
How Does One Key Stack Up Against Hotel.com Rewards?
Unfortunately, there is no way to sugarcoat this. One Key is not good news for Hotels.com fans. In fact, it's a monster devaluation. Under the book 10 get 1 free Hotels.com Rewards program, you earn a free night for every 10 bookings. The average value of your bookings determines the value of the free night.
For instance, if your 10 nights cost $1,500 in total, you would receive a free night worth $150. That is essentially a return of 10%. With the new One Key program spending, the same $1,500 will yield a return of $30 worth of OneKeyCash. That is a massive devaluation of 80%.
And things are even more awful if you are booking a flight worth $1,500. In that case, the return would be a measly $3! Yes, you read that correctly: A three-dollar return on a $1,500 flight makes earning OneKeyCash on flights virtually useless.
Our Take
Devaluations are nothing new. However, most of the time, programs aim to ease the pain of major changes by breaking them down into several steps. Instead, Hotels.com seems to have gone full throttle with the ripping off the sticking plaster approach by frontloading the pain of switching programs.
In the long run, the only winners are probably other hotel loyalty programs. Crunching the numbers, it is more likely that booking directly with hotel loyalty programs will be more lucrative than using hotels.com and earning a 2% return.
Will you stay with Hotels.com? Or, are you planning to switch allegiances in light of the devaluation? Let us know in the comments below!
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