In the fall Wyndham Rewards added 17,000 properties for you to redeem points at, allowing redemptions at timeshare and managed vacation rentals.
It’s one of several improvements they’ve made over the past two years.
- First they launched a new program that gave members a single award chart price of 15,000 points per night. That was an increase for the cheapest hotels, and a decrease for the most expensive hotels. (They also introduced cash and points awards that are capacity controlled costing 3000 points plus a variable amount of cash.)
- Then last year Wyndham Rewards rolled out elite status levels and improved benefits on reward stays (indeed, making redemption stays more valuable than paid stays).
They’ve kept the 15,000 point per room requirement in tact. However the biggest knock on Wyndham is the vast number of low end properties, and limited number of high end ones. With managed vacation rentals though they bring in a lot of high-end inventory. And they price those at 15,000 points per bedroom.
However they’re running a 72-hour flash sale where 15,000 homes across Europe are 15,000 points per night, instead of 15,000 points per bedroom.
The catch? The terms and conditions limit you to telephone booking of these properties, and they will pull the promotion after 50 redemptions have been made. Shades of the Starwood account balance match debacle that was pulled early. Or maybe it’s shades of the US Travel Association Daily Getaways offers, great deals but only a handful to go around.
Still, there aren’t that many people with big Wyndham balances, or that many people who will jump on this quickly, so if you are inclined you have a decent enough chance to be one of fifty.
They’re highlighting some incredible values. They can afford to do this because they’re getting coverage of their aspirational redemptions, and don’t have to give very many (50) of them away.
- St. Blanes House a 9-Bedroom Oceanfront Estate and Former Hotel on Scotland’s Isle of Bute
Nine bedrooms is normally 135,000 points per night. That’s 945,000 points for a week. Here it costs 15,000 points per night or — since you can redeem 2 to 7 nights — just 105,000 points for a week at a property that goes for $4000 a week in high season.
- La Contea a 10-bedroom 16th century villa in the Italian countryside, once owned by the Medicis
Ten bedrooms is normally 150,000 points per night, or 1,050,000 points for a week. Here it costs 15,000 points per night… again 105,000 points for a week for a property that rents out in high season at over $8000 a week.
- Villefranche-sur-Mer Villa a 5 bedroom villa on the French Riviera that normally costs 75,000 points per night but with this sale just 15,000, or again 105,000 for a week.
Offer details:
• Sale is limited specifically to our Cottages by Wyndham Vacation Rentals inventory and runs from 10 a.m. ET on 2/28 to 9:59 a.m. ET on 3/3 @ www.wyndhamrewards.com/cottages• Any Cottages property that participates in the program—over 15,000—will be available for booking for just 15k points per night during the sale—members can browse online but must call to book
• Members must book before the sale ends on 3/3 and stay by January 7, 2018
• Sale is limited to the first 50 Wyndham Rewards members who book with a minimum of 2 nights and a maximum of 7
• Members have the option of booking a combination of points + cash, if they don’t have enough points to cover all nights of their stay
Is there a currency that transfers to Wyndham?
You can transfer erewards (from an account not linked to a single program only) but that’s about it that i can think of, you can buy 5k points a year, and you can redeem cash and points with this it seems.
I think you are limited to properties that cost GBP 350 or less per night, so some of these outsized values won’t be available. When I called the woman said they had to be under USD 300 but the Wyndham web page says GBP 350.
Fine print
At certain properties, linens & fuel not included. Go Free Home awards not available at cottages where the room rate exceeds L350 per night. Cancellation policies vary by property
Assuming max is 350GBP a night, that excludes all of those properties.
Wyndham reminds me of Club Carlson & US Bank – mostly useless for hotels despite a rare nugget. The villas are great but predictability is the single most important component for a rewards program. So I think I’ll pass on Wyndham rewards.
I just called in and was told only properties with a cost of 246 GBP per night or less were included in this promotion. So none of the high end properties!
It appears the properties in the article are not available with the promotion, too high a night, dang.
I also called and told max nightly rate was 246 GbP or $305USD a night.
I booked a place in sienna Italy hope I can make it work…
But why go to Europe when you can all stay at my mansion in Vegas ?
(you are required to feed and monitor 10 cloned copies of my dog, plus the original dog)
For folks that were denied bookings, told there was a cap, here’s what Wyndham says:
“Thanks for flagging. After researching, it appears there was misinformation on our website, which led to confusion around the promotion.
To clarify, there is no cap and all properties listed are available for booking, including those I shared ahead of time.
We’re in the process of updating our website, but in the meantime, for any readers who may have experienced problems booking earlier, please have them reach out to us at 866-232-8628 and we’ll be happy to assist.”
I don’t have Wyndham as a transfer partner on my eRewards account, but I do have about 20-30 partners.