I’ve had Wyndham Rewards on the brain lately. Wyndham hotels often live in the background until one day when you need a safe place to lay your head- then Super 8, Days Inn or Ramada may be just the ticket…which leads me to The Little Engine that Could.
Wyndham Rewards is the The Little Engine that Could of Rewards Programs. I say this without snark- Wyndham deserves credit for its simplicity. The points are simple to earn: earn 10 points per dollar spent (or a min 1,000 per stay). They’re even simpler to use: 15,000, or 3,000 points + cash, for any room, worldwide.
Now I get that chains like Super 8, Ramada and Days Inn won’t excite those of you who only fly lie-flat. But you know what? If you’re on a road trip you can go states between Hyatts but can find either a Wyndham or a Choice property at every single exit. Visiting National Parks? I’ll place money a Wyndham is within 10 miles of every one you want to visit.
Deal Dad’s parents are on an extended road trip across the USA and Canada and have discovered that Wyndham hotels fit their needs: clean, affordable and reliable properties that are available on demand. Over the last month they’ve racked up a nice chunk of Wyndham Rewards points and asked for my advice in how to spend them.
I think it’s useful to go back to the basics every once in a while. Here’s one I like: when in doubt, use a penny per point. Now it doesn’t work all the time: IHG and Club Carlson are 1/2 cent by my math and Starwood are 1.5 cents, but the others? A penny.
What does that mean for Wyndham? Use cash and points rates if you’re getting more than a $30 discount per night or all points if the room is more than $150. Otherwise? Save em.
If you are looking for some specific property recs: after two recent visits the Wyndham and Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista have made my recommended Disney World resorts list. Wyndham also has a ton of properties in Hawaii that could offer great value at 15,000 points a night. And there’s always New York City…
And here’s my advice to Wyndham: you be you. Forget the silly stunts that are only going to get exploited by expert travel hackers. You’ll just get a black eye from boxing above your weight class. Just keep chugga-chugga ing along and you’ll get to the top of the hill.
The Deal Mommy is a proud member of the Saverocity network.
Yeah..you might want to rewrite this article in light of their yet another shady move to cancel the promo right before it started, citing supposed fraud. How on earth have they experienced fraud before they could even collect the first submissions? Sounds like they forgot to do the math and finally realized just how much it’ll cost them.
Actually, I was about to write a follow up post to all loyalty programs: “Why haven’t you hired a hacker yet?”. We all saw the mack truck sized loophole in the Wyndham promo (take screenshot, transfer to marriott, take screenshot) in about 10 seconds. The promotion was ripe for fraud and frankly I don’t blame them for cancelling it. I’d be more ticked if they had let it go on then abruptly pulled the plug a la Waldorf Astoria’s B1G1.
That’s all the explanation needed
I agree. Certainly can’t blame them for pulling such a dumb promo. Must have hired a new marketing “expert.”
I address this specifically in this post: https://saverocity.com/thedealmommy/2016/10/12/travel-hacker/
Wyndham’s program is about good as a lame pre-submitted question on climate change. It’s promo’s over the last few years are about like Hillary’s emails, disappearing and not trustworthy.
I think that’s unfair. I also think they need to stay in their lane.
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