expedia.com's rewards program

when i book hotels that are not a part of the starwood group, like days inn (the wyndham rewards program does not have an elite program) or other independent hotels, i normally book via hotels.com. hotels.com uses practically the same search engine as expedia.com, except there are a few differences:

1. hotels.com gives a 4.55% rebate via big crumbs. this was discussed in my previous post. 
2. hotels.com allows you to pay in canadian currency, thereby eliminating the 2.5% forex fee
3. hotels.com has the welcome rewards program, where after 10 nights, you get a free one based on the average pre-tax cost of the previous 10 nights. you pay the difference if the new night is more.

overall, it's not a bad program. you essentially get a 14.55% rebate if you use the program right.

however, expedia.com (which i've heard is owned by the same people), have a different value proposition for me. it comes mainly in the form of their best price guarantee. if i can find a hotel cheaper on a competing site, i get an additional $50 voucher for the future. however, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. expedia.com gives a 5.6% rebate via big crumbs.
2. expedia.com only charges in US funds, which means that there will be a 2.5% forex fee (unless you have a no forex fee credit card.

if i have a best price guarantee, it makes sense to book on expedia.com. note that bookings made via either hotels.com or expedia.com (or any online travel agency, really), do not count towards elite status or point accrual for most hotel chains.

when booking on expedia.com, something that stands out for me is expedia's rewards program. ultimately, it doesn't offset the larger rebates that you can get from the welcome rewards program by hotels.com. however if you're going to book on expedia anyway, you might as well collect.

expedia rewards: an introduction to earning

this is a free program to enroll in. points are earned from various purchases on the site. the points earning potential is as below. note that by throwing in a cheap car rental into the reservation that includes a hotel, you earn double the points. and if you're an american with frequent airline bookings, booking via expedia makes sense as flights purchased on expedia.com still do qualify for airline miles and status.

of note: a package is considered any combination of two or more of the above items where at least one item is a hotel.

points do not expire unless there is no activity in the account in the preceding 18 months. and unlike airline programs, you don't actually have to be the one consuming the travel in order to book. the points go to whoever make the booking.

expedia points redemptions
there are three main redemption options:
1. redeem for a hotel certificate

 7,000 pts = $50

13,000 pts = $100

18,000 pts = $150

20,000 pts = $200

25,000 pts = $250

29,000 pts = $300

37,000 pts = $400

44,000 pts = $500

46,000 pts = $600

47,000 pts = $700

48,000 pts = $800

49,000 pts = $900

50,000 pts = $1,000

in other words, after you spend between $25,000 to $50,000 in bookings, you can get up to a 2% return in hotel credits.

2. redeem for flight credit
i attempted a dummy booking for yyc-yvr on may 31 to jun 1. prices using westjet indicated a revenue ticket price of $418.16 CAD. using points, they wanted 53,900 points. in other words, if you have 53,900 points available, you might as well use them for a hotel redemption as you would get over twice the value like this.

3. donate to st. jude's, a children's hospital charity that expedia supports.

bonus earning opportunities
like most rewards programs, there are various bonus point opportunities. there have been double points awarded for booking expedia v.i.p. hotels, for using mastercard, or just for booking. sometimes, they randomly throw points into your account as a "top up" reward. it's kind of a nice treat when that happens.

conclusion
expedia rewards offers another 0.71 - 4.00% return (standalone hotel at lowest redemption value vs. hotel package at highest redemption value) on your bookings for hotels. i consider it a bonus and only if you're booking an expedia best price guarantee hotel as i would rather use hotel.com's welcome rewards instead.

they've also made some significant changes to the program since it last came out. the redemption chart has weakened. furthermore, it was once possible to get more than 2pts/$. if you booked a hotel with two other items (e.g., flight + car), you would get 3 pts/$. if you booked a hotel with three other items (e.g., flight + car + activities), you would get 4 pts/$. so really, capping the maximum earnings to 2 pts/$ makes the overall value of the program slightly weaker. there are more changes to the program to come over the next year, and we will have to see if the value of these points stay the same.