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The revamped Omni Hotels loyalty program — Omni Select Guest — is now live. This is the first hotel rewards program to go revenue-based. So, what does this new revenue-based program look like, and how does it stack up compared to traditional hotel loyalty programs? Let's find out.
New Status Levels for Omni Select Guest
The new Omni Select Guest program has three membership levels beyond the entry-level tier: Insider, Champion, and Icon. To move between statuses, you need to earn Tier Dollars on your expenditure at Omni Hotel properties. Tier Dollars are earned at a rate of One Tier Dollar per $1 spent.
The Omni Select membership levels and their benefits are as follows:
Basic member
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- Earn 5 Omni Credits per room night.
- Earn 1 Omni Credit per $100 of purchases beyond your room.
- Receive complimentary basic Wi-Fi, free bottled water upon arrival, and a welcome drink.
- Receive access to on-property Loyalty Ambassadors.
Insider
To reach Insider status, you must spend a minimum of $1,000 on room charges, food and beverages, retail, golf, and other items charged to your room.
Insider members receive the following benefits beyond a basic member:
- Complimentary daily beverages.
- Receive two complimentary shoe shines or two items pressed.
Champion
To reach Champion status, you must spend a minimum of $4,000 on room charges, food and beverages, retail, golf, and other items charged to your room.
Champion members receive the following benefits:
- Earn 10 Omni Credits per room night.
- Free upgrade by one room type level (when available).
- Early check-in up to 1 p.m. (when available)
- Early check-out up to 3 p.m. (when available)
- Daily free bottled water and daily beverage delivered in the morning.
- Receive four complimentary shoe shines or four items pressed.
- Guaranteed room availability with 24 hours' notice.
- Receive a local market amenity upon arrival.
Icon
To reach Icon status, you must spend a minimum of $8,000 on room charges, food and beverages, retail, golf, and other items charged to your room.
Icon members receive the following benefits in addition to Champion benefits:
- Earn 2 Omni Credits per $100 of purchases beyond your room charge.
- Free upgrade of two room type levels (when available).
- Early check-in up to 9 p.m. (when available).
- Early check-out up to 6 p.m. (when available).
- Suite upgrade on free night redemptions (subject to availability).
- Guaranteed room availability up to 4 p.m. on the day of arrival (limited to one room per member).
- Evening housekeeping service, including turndown service.
- Chef-inspired amenity/snack and choice of beverage on the night of arrival.
- Ability to gift Champion status to one person.
- Complimentary premium Wi-Fi.
- Unlimited complimentary shoe shines and pressings.
Earning and Redeeming Omni Credits
Redeeming Omni Credits is incredibly straightforward since there are no categories or award charts. You redeem 100 Omni credits for a stay at any Omni Hotels property.
Earning Omni Credits, on the other hand, is complicated and depends on your status. However, a good indication of how generous and valuable the program is comes from working out roughly how much you would need to spend to earn one free night.
Before crunching the numbers and using the example Omni Hotels provided, let us assume you are a top-tier Icon member earning 10 credits per stay and two credits per $100 of eligible expenditure. If you stay one night and spend $90 at the restaurant and $220 at the spa for a total of $310 of additional charges, you will earn 16 credits as follows:
- 10 Omni credit for the room
- 6 Omni credits for the additional charges (at a rate of two credits per $100)
Earning Omni Credits for non-qualifying stays
Interestingly, you can earn partial Omni credits for non-qualifying bookings, like those made through third parties such as booking.com. In this situation, you'll still earn Omni Credits for the additional spending at the hotel. For instance, if you book a $300 room and spend $200 on ancillaries, you won't earn anything for the room rate but will earn 2 Omni Credits for the $200 spent on ancillaries.
How much do you need to spend for a free night?
To reach the magic number of 100 Omni credits, you would need to make seven stays to reach 112 Omni credits. This raises the question of how much you must spend to receive a free night — assuming in the above example that the room is $100 per night. Bear in mind this is massively cheaper than most Omni rooms we looked at. Spending $100 on the room and $310 on ancillary charges is $410. So, seven stays at that rate would work out to a massive $2,870 of spending to earn one free night.
Finally, one thing to remember is that the above example applies to someone who has already spent $8,000 with Omni Hotels and is a top-tier member. If you were starting your journey with Omni Select Guest, you would need nearly double the number of stays (up to 13) and have to spend $5,330 to earn a free night, which is ridiculous!
The problem with rounding down
Another thing to remember is that Omni is somewhat disingenuous with how it works out its additional credit: It rounds down to the nearest $100. Over time, this can add up to a substantial amount of spending that earns nothing. Consider the above example where the person spent $310. If they spent $399, they would still earn the same six Omni Credits. This is a massive incentive to ensure your spending is rounded to the closest $100. After all, why spend more when you will have nothing to show for it?
Beware blackout dates
One thing to remember is that a host of Omni Properties have blackout dates on award stays. These are not the same across hotels and vary by property and state. You can find the complete list of blackout dates here to see if a date at a property you want is affected.
Do Omni Credits expire?
Yes, your Omni Credits will expire at the end of the next month three years after they are issued. Their validity cannot be extended, and Omni Credits cannot be reinstated once they expire.
Related: How Loyalty Program Expiration Policies Work, and How You Can Avoid Your Miles Expiring
What Happens To Existing Status and Credits?
Members with current status will cross over to the new status levels as follows:
- Gold members will receive Insider status.
- Platinum members will receive Champion status.
- Black members will receive Icon status.
Also, your current balance of award credits will be converted to new Omni Credits at a ratio of 1:5. For instance:
- 1 award credit will be converted to 5 Omni Credits.
- 20 award credits will be converted to 100 Omni Credits.
Our Take
As a rule, it is never good news when a program shifts to a revenue-based model. It is a prelude to devaluation and is mainly done to strip a lot of value out of awards. From where we stand, it looks like you'll have to spend a lot of money to earn a free night with Omni Select Guest.
Are you an Omni Hotels member? What do you think about the new program? Let us know in the comments below.
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