Wyndham Rewards unveiled its latest iteration on April 3, 2019. The primary change is from all hotels worldwide available as GoFree rewards for 15,000 points to a three tier system at 30,000 points; 15,000 points and 7,500 points. The vast majority of hotels remain at 15,000 points. GoFast reward nights correspond to three tiers at 6,000 points, 3,000 points (unchanged) and 1,500 points + a cash copay equivalent to 70% of the Best Flexible Rate. This appears to be an increase from the 65% cash copay instituted in early 2018.
Loyalty Traveler - Program devaluation – Wyndham Rewards GoFast copay now pegged to room rate (March 26, 2018).
- Wyndham Rewards = 8,735 hotels worldwide.
- Wyndham Rewards 30,000 points hotels = 164 hotels.
- Wyndham Rewards 15,000 points hotels = 6,084 hotels.
- Wyndham Rewards 7,500 points hotels = 2,462 hotels.
One of the few improvements is to the website search function for Wyndham Rewards property locations. The search filter allows search by points category. This is a useful feature to me since my primary interest is 7,500 points hotels where there is still some good value to be found with Wyndham Rewards points.
The Rise and Fall of Wyndham Rewards
I have used Wyndham Rewards periodically over the past ten years. The heyday for the program was 2015 to 2018. This was the period when Wyndham Rewards went to a straight 15,000 points per night for any hotel worldwide. While that offered some great value at dozens of hotels, the real value I found in the program were GoFast rewards at 3,000 points + a fixed copay amount ($25 to $150) offered a good rate discount at hundreds of hotels around the world.
The other aspect of the Wyndham Rewards program that provided outsized value were some hotels offered higher category rooms, including suites, for standard reward rates.
Until last year GoFast reward rates had a fixed copay. Wyndham Rewards changed that in March 2018 to a floating copay amount equivalent to 65% (now 70%) of the Best Flexible Rate and that basically killed the value of the program for me.
I was regularly getting $30 to $50 per 1,000 points in redemption rate value using GoFast Rewards for hotels like Ramada Apollo Amsterdam booking stays in $250 per night Executive Panoramic rooms for 3,000 points + 62 EUR. That hotel is where I redeemed many thousands of points over the past four years.
Ramada Apollo Amsterdam 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points saved $500 (Feb 26, 2018).
Paying 70% of the Best Flexible Rate means this hotel is generally 2x-3x more expensive in copay than it was when I stayed there in February 2018.
Another change to Wyndham Rewards is there were far more hotels offering higher category rooms and suites on reward stays two to three years ago. There are still some gems, but you have to search for them.
Since there is now a 70% copay on GoFast reward nights, the GoFree reward night is the only real deal on high category room types. A $300 room night for $70 + 3,000 points was a steal. A $300 room night for $210 + 3,000 points is hardly worthwhile.
Wyndham Halcyon Resort La Souterraine, France
Presidential Suite for 15,000 points/night
Sure, there are still some fine deals at 15,000 points per night, but who actually has a large stash of Wyndham Rewards points to burn? I don’t put my effort into accumulating points in this program. And there are not many Wyndham brand properties that are best in class for a particular area. At least not since Ramada Vilnius Lithuania left the program.
Ramada Vilnius Lithuania Hotel Review – notably luxurious for brand (April 14, 2017).
My six figures account balance I burned through over the past four years was accumulated primarily when U.S. Travel Association Daily Getaways sold points for $2.50 to $6.00 per 1,000 points for a few years and it was possible to buy 100,000+ points.
In 2017 and 2018 Daily Getaways Wyndham Rewards points were $175 to buy 15,000 points.
Where are the Wyndham Rewards deals now?
Since I don’t know when or if I will ever have 15,000 Wyndham Rewards again, I looked at 7,500 points hotels to see if I can still find any worthwhile deals. I can definitely see earning 1,500 points for a GoFast night. Any $40 hotel night with Wyndham earns at least 1,000 points.
Ramada Constant, Romania
Sep 9-12, 2019
This hotel offers upgraded Efficiency King Room with Balcony for 3 nights at 1,447.20 RON = $342.19 USD or $114 per night.
Ramada Constanta GoFast rate is 1,500 points per night + 375.20 RON.
3 nights = 4,500 points + 1,125.60 RON ($266.15) or $89 per night.
For this hotel, 1,500 Wyndham Rewards points saves $25 per night on room rate. That is $16.67 per 1,000 points redemption value, which is probably near the higher end value for Wyndham Rewards points in the new Wyndham Rewards program. On the other hand, $89 per night will likely land an incredibly nice apartment in Constanta through other booking sources.
I have made several more rate analyses at other hotels, but the bottom line is Wyndham Rewards was a program that I found was good for several years for a very small subset of hotels, primarily where there were upgraded rooms available at standard reward points levels. Since the program now pegs the copay amount of GoFast Reward nights to 70% of Best Flexible Rate, there are far fewer hotels where Wyndham Rewards points provide good value at low points levels. The best deals now are found with GoFree 15,000 points reward nights.
I cleaned out my Wyndham Rewards account for New Year’s Eve at Ramada Apollo Amsterdam in an Executive Panoramic view with a mind blowing city fireworks display. There are so many hotel choices and I don’t think I will find much use for the new Wyndham Rewards given the current limitations of the program.
Happy New Year 2019 fireworks video from Amsterdam (Jan 1, 2019).
For me, the Wyndham Rewards party ended on New Year’s Day 2019. It was a phenomenally good time while it lasted.
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