The U.S. Travel Association’s Daily Getaways deal for today, May 8th, is for Wyndham Rewards points. There’s only one package up for sale so the math on the value of this deal is pretty straightforward.
Today’s Offer
Here’s the offer that will go on sale today on the Daily Getaways website at 1PM ET:
- $175 – 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points (Maximum purchase of 2)
I can’t help think that this offer was presented to Daily Getaways before the devaluation of Wyndham rewards points. The novelty of the Wyndham Rewards program was that you could book any hotel for 15,000 points a night. That was until the program changed on April 3rd, 2019 and introduced three levels of hotel redemptions (those of 7.500 points, 15,000 points and 30,000 points). Pretty much any hotel worth staying at for 15,000 points is now charging 30,000 points. Loyalty Lobby has compiled a list of the 167 hotels now in the top tier.
Given, that’s a small percentage of the Wyndham hotels. Over 6,000 hotels are still available for 15,000 points and 2,400+ hotels are now redeemable at 7,500 points a night.
For instance, take the Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive. Located right in the middle of touristy Orlando between Disney World, Sea World and Universal Orlando.
Rooms at this hotel still go for 15,000 points a night. You can also book a Go Fast Rate for 3,000 points and a cash copay, in this example $97.30
So what are rooms going for at the hotel this evening? $139.
Not nearly worth spending $175 for 15,000 points.
Actually, I think that buying Wyndham Rewards points may get the best value at the 7,500 point range. Wyndham has over 9,500 hotels and 2,400 of those price at 7,500 points a night. I’d imagine you can find a low price hotel at one of these brands charging over $100 a night if there’s little competition in the area. Two nights for $175 worth of points at a roadside hotel? Maybe that’s a deal which makes sense to you.
Final Thoughts
While I was never a big follower of Wyndham Rewards, I thought their approach of flat award pricing was innovative. They don’t have all that many aspirational hotels so pricing every hotel the same was an easy way to stand out amongst the other hotel chains. While this might have been a good promotional gimmick, it also made a large number of their properties, which cost sub-$100 a night, a horrible value to redeem points.
While the calibration of hotels may have alleviated this on the lower end, some of the hotels put into the 30,000 point band just don’t make sense. The LaQuinta on the Upper West Side on 71st St. in Manhattan, which sells for sub-$250 cash rates on busy weekends, should not cost 30,000 points a night, or $350 if you purchased points with this promotion.
If you’re going to be a buyer of Wyndham points, you better have a really good idea about where you’re going to redeem them and how much they’re worth.
I’m not a buyer at this price, but Your Mileage May Vary.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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