An Interesting Deal To Stretch Your Wyndham Rewards Points

Wyndham Rewards isn’t a loyalty program I spend a lot of time following.  However, they actually are the largest hotel chain by number of properties, with over 8,000 total.  There are some sweet spots in the program for value travelers as budget hotels make up a large part of the Wyndham chain.  Recently, I learned of a new way to stretch out a small amount of Wyndham Rewards points into something more valuable.

2 Nights For The Price Of 1

Wyndham Rewards made a bold change a few years ago, flattening their award chart to make all award redemptions 15,000 points per night.  Recently, they tweaked that format a bit.  Most properties stayed the same.  Some dropped to 7,500 per night while a small portion of properties increased to 30,000 points per night.

Now, 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points can get you 2 nights at some pretty awesome destinations.  I can’t vouch personally for the quality of the actual hotels, but I think most folks would agree Hawaii is a pretty awesome destination.  Cue my friend Mommy Points telling me how she can’t believe I still haven’t visited Hawaii (and why it’s so awesome).

Full disclosure: the deal involves Wyndham’s timeshare arm, Wyndham Destinations.  That means you’ll have to give up part of your vacation for a timeshare presentation.  If you’re trying to stretch your points to pay for a vacation, this deal just may make it worth your while.

The value comes from what I found on the ExtraHolidays website.  I picked the Waikiki Marina Resort at the Ilikai.  I found plenty of availability for the 2-night stay promotion.

However, on those same dates, I couldn’t find availability when I searched on the Wyndham Rewards site.

In fact, after searching more deeply, I found very little in the way of award inventory at this property.  I checked a few dozen date ranges and found exactly one instance where you could redeem points for a 2-night stay (the minimum the property allows).

Save Money With Kitchen And Extra Space

Families sometimes need to sacrifice on certain elements of vacations to be able to afford to take the whole gang on a trip.  In this instance, this property isn’t right on the beach.  Nor is it a 5-star hotel.  But, for 15,000 points you’ll get a room with a partial kitchen and a sofa bed.  That’s key for families to have extra space and be able to prepare a meal or two in their room to save some cash.

The Final Two Pennies

If you’re holding onto a small amount of Wyndham Rewards points, Extra Holidays may be a way to squeeze maximum value out of them.  You’ll need to sit through a 2-hour timeshare presentation.  For a 2-night vacation that’s a decent percentage of your time.  However, if you’re headed to Hawaii I’m guessing (hoping) you’re going for more than 2 nights.  Other destinations include San Francisco and Las Vegas.

If you were to just sit through a standard Wyndham Destinations timeshare presentation, 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points is one of the standard rewards you can get for the time you spend in the presentation.  At first blush, that might seem like a similar deal to booking one of these Extra Holidays vacations (since you’d generally need 30,000 points for 2 nights). But, the extra availability here is key, especially when I see some popular holiday weekends available for family travelers.

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