One Key will offer only 2% discount vs. previous average 10% discount to its loyalty members
GLOHotels.com’s free night rewards program will soon 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 it’s officially on the chopping block. Sometime later this year, 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.
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.
It’s unclear exactly when this new loyalty program will launch. Hotels.com’s website says only that it will go live sometime in “mid-2023.”
