UPDATE: With no warning or explanation, Hotels.com has terminated this offer, as follows: "We are no longer accepting new registrations for The Great Unloyaling." Site visitors are referred to their double points promotion.
Most hotel nights booked through OTAs (online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and the like) do not earn points in the hotels' own loyalty programs.
Here, for example, is the relevant section defining points-eligible stays in Starwood Preferred Guest's program rules:
An "Eligible Rate" is the rate you pay for your room, but excludes: (a) rooms where the booking is made by a third party and you pay for that booking either at the hotel or directly to such third party, such as tour operators, and third party channels, including, but not limited to priceline.com, expedia.com, hotels.com, hrn.com, hotwire.com, lastminute.com, site59.com, orbitz.com, travelocity.com, cheaptickets.com, quickbook.com, travelweb.com, lodging.com, yahootravel.com, and travel.msn.com.
So while the interests of OTAs and the hotels they sell are nominally aligned, they also compete against each other for the same customers, with the hotel chains retaining for themselves a competitive edge, at least as far as loyalty points go.
For its part, Hotels.com has addressed that shortcoming by operating its own frequent-stay program, welcomerewards, that rewards customers for booking any of the more than 65,000 hotels in Hotel.com's network.
When I first reviewed Hotels.com's welcomerewards program in 2008, it featured a simple and potentially generous proposition: Buy 10, get one free. It was possible to squeeze outsized value from the program by booking 10 low-priced nights and taking the free night at a pricey resort. That's exactly the sort of leverage that savvy travel consumers look for in loyalty programs.
The program still boasts the original "Buy 10, get one free" tagline. But last year, the company added new fine print to the award definition: "The maximum value of your free night is the average daily rate of your ten nights." In other words, if you qualify for the free night with cheap nights, your free night will also be a cheap one. No more room for leverage.
Nevertheless, the program still offers an effective 10 percent rebate on hotels across all major brands, as well as smaller hotel groups and individual properties in Hotels.com's network.
And there's a new-member promotion designed to call attention to the program's superiority over traditional hotel programs.
Offer Details
If you are not yet a welcomerewards member, or you're a member with no past account activity, you can earn a free night and instant elite status as follows:
- Register for the "Great Un-Loyaling" promotion.
- Provide proof that you have stays with three different hotel programs since January 1, 2010.
- Upon qualifying, you will be enrolled in Hotel.com's FIVESTAR program (elite status) and receive a coupon code for a free night.
- Free night must be taken by November 15, 2011.
- The maximum value of the free night will be the average price of the three qualifying nights, up to $400.
Deal or No Deal
The program offers neither spectacular value nor substantive elite perks (room upgrades, free Internet access, etc.).
But for those who can't or don't care to channel their hotel spend into a single chain, welcomerewards certainly offers decent value and the flexibility to earn free nights after paid stays at a spectacular range of hotels.
And the sign-up bonus, targeting active members of hotel-specific programs, is an attractive one.
In short: an option worth considering.
Reader Reality Check
Might this be an alternative to your traditional hotel loyalty program?
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