One Key to replace Hotels.com and Expedia Rewards from 8th July – what you need to know
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Expedia Group has announced that One Key, the new rewards programme, will launch in the UK from 8th July.
It will be a staggered roll out, with all Expedia Rewards and Hotels.com Rewards accounts converted to the new structure by 16th September.
This means that you shouldn’t book a Hotels.com stay for check-out after 8th July if you don’t want to risk having your rewards cut from 10% to 2% of the pre-tax room rate. If you already have a non-refundable booking, you’re stuck.
For Expedia Rewards, which is already a weak scheme, the change is minimal.
For Hotels.com Rewards, it amounts to a gutting of the programme.
However, the change has one benefit – you can cash out the value of your accumulated Hotels.com Rewards now without having to wait until you hit 10 nights. You don’t even have to use the money for a hotel – you can redeem it against an Expedia flight booking instead. It’s a short term gain, but long term you will be worse off.
Why is (was) Hotels.com Rewards great?
We had been recommending Hotels.com Rewards to HfP readers for many years. You can see the details here.
For anyone who cannot commit to a specific hotel brand, or doesn’t do enough nights to earn a decent level of status or rewards, it is your best option.
It’s a very simple scheme. Whenever you complete 10 nights, you get a credit towards a future booking for the average ex-VAT cost of those 10 nights.
These means that you are receiving a 10% rebate on your ex-VAT spend.
Even better, the credit can be used as part payment if you prefer. You are not restricted, as you are with many hotel programmes, to booking a standard room as a reward. You can book a suite if you want, as long as you pay the difference.
Another benefit of Hotels.com Rewards is that you can book for anyone you want (with the bookings in their name) and earn the rewards for yourself. I have done this numerous times when booking hotel rooms for my in-laws.
One Key is far weaker than Hotels.com Rewards
One Key will give you a combined loyalty account account across Hotels.com, Expedia and vrbo.
You will receive 2% of your ex-VAT spending at Hotels.com as OneKeyCash. This means that rewards are being devalued by 80%.
You will also earn 2% on vacation rentals, activities, packages, car rentals and cruises booked via Expedia and vrbo. Flight bookings via Expedia will earn just 0.2% (£1 on a £500 booking).
What happens to my existing Hotels.com free nights?
The only bit of good news is that your existing free night awards are not going to be wiped out.
They will be converted into OneKeyCash at their existing value. If you have a free night worth $175 to use up, it will be swapped for $175 of One Key credit. The expiry date will remain the same.
What happens to part-earned Hotels.com free nights?
Don’t panic. You won’t lose the value of any existing stamps in your Hotels.com Rewards account.
The stamps you are currently collecting towards your next free night voucher will be turned into OneKeyCash based on their existing value, ie 10% of the ex-VAT cost of that particular night.
Let’s look at my own personal statement.
- I have achieved 7 of the 10 ‘stamps’ required towards my next free night
- the average spend to date across those six stays is $166.97
When One Key launches, I will receive a starting credit of ($166.97 / 10 * 7) $116.88.
As it turns out, I also have $1.50 in Expedia Rewards credit. This will be merged in, to give me an opening One Key balance of $118.38.
What happens to Hotels.com Rewards status?
One Key has its own status programme, which is based on your combined activity across Expedia, Hotels.com and vrbo. We will cover this in more detail once the programme has launched.
Your launch status in One Key will be based on your combined recent bookings at Expedia, vrbo and Hotels.com, as long as you used the same email address for all sites.
A switch date ‘between 8th July and 16th September’ is not helpful
To be honest, I was expecting a firm date to be announced for the One Key switch. Giving members a two month window is not hugely useful.
I suppose this is better than the original four month window though, which said that the switch would happen ‘between July and October’.
You can make Hotels.com bookings for stays up to 8th July with some certainly that you’ll get your 10% return via Hotels.com Rewards. (In fact, 5th July may be more realistic, because it may be that a stay which posts to your account after the switch date is treated at the new rate.)
You should NOT make a hotel booking for after 8th July if your main reason for making it is Hotels.com Rewards credit.
Let’s look at the upsides …..
To be fair, there are two upsides to changes:
- once your existing free night vouchers are converted into OneKeyCash, you will be able to spend them at Expedia (for flights – but you must pay for the ENTIRE flight in OneKeyCash) and vrbo (for rentals) – you are not restricted to hotel room redemptions
- anyone with a few Hotels.com Rewards ‘stamps’ who thought they would never hit 10 nights to trigger a free night voucher will release the value they have built up
Conclusion
I know many HfP readers are big fans of Hotels.com Rewards and put the bulk of their hotel bookings through it. I used it a lot myself, especially when making hotel bookings for family members.
Hotels.com is taking a gamble, hoping that the bookings it loses from ‘heavy stayers’ like our readers will be offset by occasional bookers who are attracted by a reward they can spend immediately. Let’s see if it works.
You can find out more on this page of the Hotels.com website.
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