Bad news for fans of the Hotels.com's free night rewards program: By this summer, it will officially be a thing of the past.
The hotel booking site's simple and straightforward loyalty program has long been a favorite among travelers who didn't want to chain themselves to one hotel chain or untangle confusing award charts to use points for free night stays. For years, Hotels.com's program worked like a punch card: For every 10 nights you book through Hotels.com, you'd get a free night's stay. That free night reward is worth the average of your 10 previous stays.
It's easy to understand and use, but its days are numbered. Hotels.com will sunset that “buy 10, get one free” program as the website merges loyalty programs with Expedia and home-rental platform VRBO. The free night punch card is on its way out; the new combined program called One Key will soon be in – and it's far less valuable.
The booking platforms announced the looming change last month, saying only that the new replacement program would go live sometime in “mid-2023.” But Hotels.com and Expedia both quietly updated their sites recently to note that their current rewards programs will make way for One Key starting July 6.
“Throughout July, members will start earning at the One Key rate and unlock new and exciting benefits across Hotels.com, Expedia and Vrbo,” the update reads.
That means the current Hotels.com reward system officially has an end date. That's hard to hear.
This easy-to-use rewards program is what has put Hotels.com near the top of the list of our best hotel booking sites . It was useful for all travelers, whether they simply avoid the big-box hotel chains or wanted to get something out of a boutique hotel stay that doesn't have its own rewards program.
Hotels.com and the other sites are touting the change as an even simpler, faster way to earn and redeem rewards on travel. That may be true: You'll rack up rewards with all three booking platforms and there's no need to wait to rack up 10 stays with this new program in order to redeem a free night.
Once it goes live, One Key members will get 2% back in OneKeyCash for every dollar spent on eligible hotels, vacation rentals, car rentals, cruises, and more. For example, if you spend $500, you'll earn $10 in OneKeyCash to put toward your next travel purchase. That doesn't include flights booked through Expedia – you'll only earn 0.2% for every dollar on airfare.
But earning just 2% back on your travel expenses offers significantly less value than Hotels.com's current free night program, which was redeemable for the average of your previous 10 stays. Plus, those free nights have no cap, so booking expensive stays through Hotels.com could get you outsized value. The only hitch with the current rewards program is that while you could kick in extra cash to cover a hotel stay that costs more than your free night reward, you'd forfeit the difference when booking a cheaper stay.
Here's a clear example of how this is a major downgrade for Hotels.com fans:
Booking 10 hotel nights for $100 apiece through Hotels.com currently gets you a free night worth up to $100
Under the new OneKey program, the same 10 nights at $100 per night would net you just $20 in rewards
So what can you do with OneKeyCash? It can be redeemed for money off “Pay Now” bookings through Hotels.com and Expedia as well as select bookings on VRBO – the website notes it will only work on “participating vacation rentals.” OneKeyCash can also be redeemed for flights through Expedia, but you'll need enough to cover the entire cost of the flight, including taxes and fees. At just 2% back for every $1 spent, you'll need to rack up a lot of OneKeyCash to make that worth it.
What to Do If You Have Hotels.com Stamps
Worried about losing your progress toward a free night with Hotels.com with this changeover? Or maybe you've already earned a free night and haven't put it to use?
Fortunately, you'll still come out even: Any reward nights in your Hotels.com loyalty program account will be converted to rewards at their full value and automatically transferred to your One Key account. So if you have a $200 reward night to redeem, it will still be worth $200 OneKeyCash.
And if you're still working your way toward a free Hotels.com reward but haven't collected 10 stamps yet, you're not out of luck, either. Hotels.com says members who were on their way toward 10 stays will get 10% of the value of each of those nights in OneKeyCash, which will be automatically transferred into your One Key account. Plus, you still have a few months to reach those 10 bookings and get the full value of your free night before Hotels.com's current rewards program is sunset.
But once this new One Key program goes live, it's undeniably a downgrade from the current Hotels.com program.
Bottom Line
We've known for a while but now it's official: Hotels.com will soon do away with “free night” rewards as it merges its loyalty program with Expedia and VRBO. And now we have a date: July 6, 2023.
It's a big bummer for travelers who were fans of Hotels.com's simple and straightforward rewards program. The new program, called One Key, will give members 2% back in points on all bookings. That's nothing compared to the value of a free night at any hotel – and it sure seems like the rewards won't be as easy to use, either.
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