Hotels.com's popular free night rewards program is officially 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 booked through Hotels.com, you'd get a free night's stay. That free night reward was worth the average of your 10 previous stays.
But now, the “buy 10, get one free” program is over as Hotels.com officially merges loyalty programs with Expedia and home-rental platform VRBO. All three sites began switching over to the new, combined program called One Key on July 6. The companies note that members will start earning One Key points (at a much slower rate) throughout July.
This easy-to-use rewards program is what had put Hotels.com near the top of the list of our best hotel booking sites. It was useful for all travelers, whether they simply avoid the big-box hotel chains or wanted to get something out of a boutique hotel stay that doesn't have its own rewards program.
Hotels.com and the other One Key sites have been touting the change as an even simpler, faster way to earn and redeem rewards on travel. That may be true: You'll rack up rewards with all three booking platforms in the same pot, plus there's no need to wait to rack up 10 stays with this new program in order to redeem a free night. But here's the downside…
One Key members get just 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.
Earning just 2% back on your travel expenses offers significantly less value than Hotels.com's current free night program, which was redeemable for the average of your previous 10 stays. Plus, those free nights have no cap, so booking expensive stays through Hotels.com could get you outsized value. The only hitch with the current rewards program is that while you could kick in extra cash to cover a hotel stay that costs more than your free night reward, you'd forfeit the difference when booking a cheaper stay.
Here's a clear example of how this is a major downgrade for Hotels.com fans:
- Booking 10 hotel nights for $100 apiece through the previous Hotels.com program would get you a free night worth up to $100
- Under the new OneKey program, the same 10 nights at $100 per night would net you just $20 in rewards
So what can you do with OneKeyCash? It can be redeemed for money off “Pay Now” bookings through Hotels.com and Expedia as well as select bookings on VRBO – the website notes it will only work on “participating vacation rentals.” OneKeyCash can also be redeemed for flights through Expedia, but you'll need enough to cover the entire cost of the flight, including taxes and fees.
At just 2% back for every $1 spent, you'll need to rack up a lot of OneKeyCash to make that worth it.
What Happens to Your Hotels.com Stamps?
Worried about losing your progress toward a free night with Hotels.com with this changeover? Or maybe you've already earned a free night and haven't put it to use?
Fortunately, you'll still come out even: Any reward nights in your Hotels.com loyalty program account will be converted to rewards at their full value and automatically transferred to your One Key account. So if you have a $200 reward night to redeem, it will still be worth $200 OneKeyCash.
And if you were still working your way toward a free Hotels.com reward but hadn't collected 10 stamps yet, you're not out of luck, either. Hotels.com says members who were on their way toward 10 stays will get 10% of the value of each of those nights in OneKeyCash, which will be automatically transferred into your One Key account.
Shortly after July 6, Hotels.com accounts began converting any existing stamps to OneKeyCash. And any hotel reservations going forward should now earn OneKeyCash at a rate of 2% back on every $1 spent.
Bottom Line
It's official: Hotels.com is doing away with its “free night” rewards as it merges its loyalty program with Expedia and VRBO.
It's a big bummer for travelers who were fans of Hotels.com's simple and straightforward rewards program. The new program, called One Key, gives members 2% back in points on all bookings. That's nothing compared to the value of a free night at any hotel – and it sure seems like the rewards won't be as easy to use, either.
Super disappointed to hear this. Are there hotel chain programs that offer good incentives? I’m not interested in this new OneKey BS but would entertain being loyal elsewhere. Thanks!
Done with hotels.com then. I only used for free night. I’ll just book direct.
That’s the sole reason why I used them.
I have 7 nights, I’m going to try to get 3 more by July 6, use that free night, then I am done.
Ditto.
I am doing the same. I had redeemed several nights over the years, but this new program sucks. I will not use Hotels.com again or the other Expedia program affiliated with it. I will just use a Marriott from Rewards and Hilton Rewards. hell, those are a lot better than this new stupid program.
I’m out , gold member for.many many years….. Bye!!
I loved the Hotels.com program, so simple. The guys I work with all recommend Hilton Honors. They say once you build up to higher tiers you earn free nights faster than 10 nights. I guess I’ll try.
That’s good to know, thank you.
Sad. I loved the 10 night system. Hotels.com was the only site I used, they lost my business.
Pure garbage the change to one Key Cash. With hotels.com merger PURE cheapness set in. ye bye hotels.com
As a platinum member, I am done – the only reason I used it was for the straight forward rewards. The new program doesnt even compare in value- bye bye hotels.com,Expedia and vrbo – back to booking old school directly.
Canada still uses the free night program – as of March 2024
I’m 6 nights into working towards the 10. Don’t have any travel plans until late summer in which I still won’t make the 10. That’s alright. Been wanting to be Done with Them anyways.
Sadly the golden days of travel ‘value’ from cheap international flights that actually included a bag and a basic seat to great incentives like the stay 10 get one free appear to be gone forever. Hotels.com used to be my primary booking site but will be no longer after this change. It seems all the travel sites are pretty much owned by one or two companies now. Value for the customer is always highly touted in these consolidations, but what we usually end up with is exactly what you would expect with less competition. Higher cost and lower value.
So disappointed. Will no longer use hotels.com. Right now I have $887 to use and if I read it right, those dollars will be zeroed out on Dec 31. Now I need to go back and delete my hotel stays and then rebook using all my points. I guess I will get a hyatt credit card or the like and just use that. Bummer.
Wait- we have to spend all the one key cash by Dec 31st?! Do we have to book by then or spend by then?
And if you are holding $2K+ worth of hotels.com gift cards?? Can they be traded in for anything? This really is a bummer.
Truly appreciate the heads up from Thriftytraveler and very disappointed to see Hotels.com make this shift. Hopefully Thriftytraveler will point us in a new direction as we will be leaving Hotels.com after 15+ years.
Yes, I’d love to see an article that helps Hotels.com com users into a new strategy outlining the benefits of different loyalty programs.
I would love to see this too.
I used to use them a lot, but lost interest this year. I went over the year of my last stay by about three weeks and they would not extend it. Lost six nights I had saved up. Good riddance. Hope they go out of business.
What a shame. Oh well I think I get better rates booking with the hotel direct but used Hotels.com so I could build up the points.
So disappointed. Bigger is not always better and this is a case in point. Instead of getting 10%, one night after ten free with Hotels.com, the OneKeyCash program will be offering a measly 2% on dollars spent on travel. How is this an improvement for the customer? After each hotel stay, Hotels.com would ask my reason for loyalty to the program and I always checked off the box for the one night after ten nights reward. It’s time to listen to your customer base. Now I have no reason to stick with Hotels.com and I’m sure many others feel the same way.
For sure. Been a long time customer of hotels.com and always crossed my fingers that nothing went wrong. When things did go wrong, the customer service was horrible but the free night kept me loyal. Not happy to see it go but I’m a word way I’m relieved because now I have nothing holding me back from booking direct. Good riddance!
Bottom line, the old program gave you back 10% of your hotel charges. The new program gives you 2%! Goodbye Hotels.com.
I book at least 60 and more like 80 rooms a year. I stayed loyal to hotels.com because of the 1 in 10 program. Now, I am looking around at other locations and booking with whatever ends up the cheapest for the same hotel/rooms. Before I would have just automatically booked with hotels.com
A 2% is a bonus will never ever persuade me to book with a particular booking service. The 1 in 10 had 95% of my business.
Agreed. I book around 80 nights per year for business and pleasure. I’m Gold level with Hilton Honors, but a lot of my travels take me into rural areas where Hilton brands are limited. So, I loved Hotels.com because I could almost always find decent last minute hotel options no matter where I was. I loved the 1 night for every 10 stays for this reason.
Unless I can find a better alternative, I’ll be forced to use my Hilton Honors as my primary and then Google for when I can’t find a Hilton branded option.
I’ve been taking advantage of hotels.com rewards since 2014, and have remained a Gold member since 2015. I loved the free night after 10 nights. I even signed up for their credit card last summer, issued by Wells Fargo. I will now likely book direct with hotels as it’s usually cheaper depending on the chain, like Best Western. This change is highly disappointing!
Disappointed here as well. We’ve used hotels.com for years (gold since 2018) and this change will have us switching after we get 10th stamp & free room in June. We will most likely start booking directly with the hotels. It was such a good program and kept us loyal for the last 5+ years.
Yea, the reduction in value is significant. As a gold member I would get 4% but still nowhere near the 10. Time to look elsewhere. What are they thinking?
I wouldnt be so sure as a platinum member I still only get 2%!
I am done with them. The rewards program was the only reason I used them. I referred them to others because of rewards. Now I will use hotel rewards programs.
Hotels.com was always my go to. Was always easy to manage bookings and loved the reward night. Very disappointed in this change. We will also be looking to other programs or booking directly with hotels. I hope management hears all the comments from loyal customers. Can’t imagine the company won’t take some kind of hit monetarily.
I almost exclusively use Hotels.com because of their rewards program so this is so disappointing. I don’t like to be tied to one chain because I like to shop for the best value using one search engine, and I’ve made good use of their rewards program over the years.
I’m bummed to hear this and will likely discontinue using them after I use up my current rewards. Now I’ll have to figure out a new hotel booking strategy. Perhaps become more loyal to Marriott Bonvoy and booking directly.
I think they’re going to lose a lot of business.
Why am l not able to no longer see how many nights l have towards a free night in the hotels.com app? I hate the changes. I thought that l had 6 nights do far but when l click on rewards nothing appears. Please help.
Like many, I’m done with Hotels.com. I anticipate they will loose a lot of buiseness
Same. I wish they had made this more clear. Plan to cancel my account to send a message.
Hotels.com did not convert my 1K plus from my 13 reward hotel nights and won’t let me use them either. They literally told me I can maybe use them if I stay in Macedonia but nowhere else. Scam ripoff!
Hotels.com did not convert my 1K plus from my 13 reward hotel nights and won’t let me use them either. They literally told me I can maybe use them if I stay in Macedonia but nowhere else.
Definitely going to quit the “just going to hotels.com and book” process. Very disappointed. Now, I may use them as a search engine and price check, but then switch to the hotel site directly to book there, aiming for better value. As a Gold Member for many years I have NEVER gotten a room upgrade because of hotels.com VIP status and it seems that Hotels purposely ignored “Expedia bookings” in this regard. Booking directly, in contrast, hotels have been more generous, including amazing upgrades.
But now booking a room will go from 5-10 min to 10-20 min to get a good value and checking multiple sites. I like booking at Hotels directly if they give you some value in return and you helping the business and not the soulless middlemen. 2% is a joke.
What new process what you propose?
Book directly with the hotel site. Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, etc. at least will offer rewards and better flexibility by booking direct. This is so dissapointing, and I’m done with hotels.com.
I book for several people at my work so I have 8 nights saved up and have redeemed about 20. It was always great to keep all the guys bookings in one place which made it convenient but really it’s the points I stayed for. I am sure lots of people who do bookings for work will look elsewhere. Even if they had gone to 5%, I could have stomached that.
I agree completely! It’s insulting to your intelligence, them making out like “One Key is an amazingly more convenient, rewarding & more suiting towards all your booking needs” program.
Unfortunatelly they did the changes already in my account , so today June 10th they changed my free night of $180 to $50 reward key, I’ve been client of hotels.com for 12+ years (maybe more) , and the free night was the only reason I used them , because why pay extra if you can book directly with the hotel?
so long hotels.com you won’t see my money anymore
Does anyone know if existing reward nights will expire on the 6th of July or get converted?
It will get converted.
What is really upsetting is how Hotels.com is trying to sell this as a “better” option. I find their marketing to be very disrespectful and insulting. I’ve been a loyal mber for years..worked and traveled during Covid when hotels were empty. Loved getting a free room after collecting 10 stays. I was shocked when i saw all of my rewards cganged.
I guess this is my thank you from them for my loyalty.
I’ll look for other options.
Loved the platform and have used it for years. Now they have lost my future business. I was wondering, all the recent bookings I have made and paid for my up comming trip in September 2023, will I get stamps or a OneKey credit.
Just to mention AirMiles tried to cheat their members out of their accumulated value about 5 years ago. So much anger, the platform reversed their stratagy. Hope Expeida comes to understand that they will loose all those potential client they were counting on whent they made this deal. Hotel.com members are going to drop like flyes!
Booking was always simple..
Hotels.com – rates are like most websites but you stayed loyal and refrained from using other sites BECAUSE you knew you’d get something back in the end…
It was a good way for them to keep their loyal customers…. But now- what’s the point anymore? Just booked a $500 flight through Expedia (which is supposed to be one of the new benefits) and I earned a couple of dollars… Laughable!
Bye hotels.com, it was nice while it lasted!
I like many others are very disappointed with the change. The value they are giving to their customers is ridiculous. Staying at a high end resort is not valued the same anymore. I can spend $500+ a night for 10 nights and only get back a value of $167 when before it would equal the average night of stays. After being a loyal fan of hotels.com, I will be looking elsewhere to get my money’s worth.
Its really sad that these companies do not listen to the customers! This was probably some model a team cubicle nerds thought up and never once asked how the new program would affect our views! Im sure now someone will be making bigger bonuses while we get our crumbs! Absolute BS!!
Frequent traveler staying >60 nights per year saying goodbye to hotels.com!!!
Really sad day….corrected
Totally agree that 2% reward is no longer an incentive to book with Hotels.com. However, my main reason for using them was “ability to find a suitable hotel”. People should continue to use Hotels.com as a search engine and then book direct with the hotel chain, possibly under a different rewards program.
so long hotels .com I will use their price they give then call hotel and book direct for less bye bye looser……..
Can’t even use their prices anymore as the hotel fees are jacked up. $250 hotels being advertised as $500-600, so I could use up my $350 in rewards and still owe $250 for a hotel stay.
And the biggest bummer, regardless of any other changes, is that the booking must be made in US $ to get any One Key points. I don’t live in the United States, nor do I wish to pay in US currency (imagine the loss with exchange rates and currency conversion rates). So all One Key is for US citizens only essentially, or you end up paying more. Totally ridiculous to disinclude the rest of the world.
Oh wow!! 😮
Just tried to use the onekeycash they converted to book a flight. I had enough onekeycash to pay for it including taxes and fees only to find out that only SOME flights are eligible for onekeycash redemption. Supposedly there should be a onekey badge on eligible flights, but I checked different dates, cities, etc and wasn’t able to find any badges. I never used Expedia, but I used Hotels.com religiously…..those days are long gone.
To be fair, I have loved hotels.com over the years – all my reservations in one place, recourse if things do not go well, a great selection of hotels in all price ranges. But of course if Hotels.com is losing money on their loyalty program they have a right to change it. But preserve the simplicity. That was the appeal. If the discounts they get from hotels are being squeezed, ok, we understand that. Make it 15 nights, not ten. But I don’t have the patience to learn yet another program. The airlines are bad enough. I have five outstanding reservations with Hotels.com, plus a $123 carry over. When that is used up I’m done. The new benefits are simply not worth it.
Btw hotels often complain that I used “Expedia” which is how it comes through to them. They say “book directly with us next time and you’ll get a better room”. Hah!
I used Hotels.com on an as-I-went driving trip, coast-to almost-coast in summer 2022. Hotels.com was my saviour, to places that can’t spell Hilton. And several desk clerks mentioned the reservations coming from Expedia. But if I had a prob, Hotels.com agents were always there and excellent. Literally, NO problems in a month+ of mostly one-night stays. Two of the nights were freebies on the old program.
I’ll still use it, but the interface sucks now on the phone, too much screen real estate for too little info. This may change as I age, but right now, Marriott and Hilton aren’t usually local where I like to go.
Definitely shooting themselves in the foot here.
I hope enough people will vote with their feet for Expedia to see the results of their mistake.
I certainly won’t bother with them anymore and will book direct.
I booked 40+ stays in 2021 with hotel.com and another 49 in 2022. I used it for two reasons. 1. Ease of finding a hotel using the map feature, and 2. The rewards.
Will continue to use the map, but book directly with the hotel chain. 2% is a joke
I had $76 dollars saved up as value and now that its one key, i only have $22 dollars towards a night.
Should i call in, is this an error or i would see an increase once i book more nights?
I will not be booking with hotel.com any longer. I have truly enjoyed their 10th night free program but now that they got rid of it, I will be looking elsewhere. Goodbye hotel.com.
Sadly Priceline and others are even worse, there’s no where to else go that gives membership status increase , gold, etc and give good discounts or not a huge increase in taxes after booking. Hotel .com is honestly the best one, despite the new rewards program that seems really bad. It says if i book 3 nights i get a total of $4.26 lol. I sure hope this isn’t what it reads hahaa.
These companies might as well night offer any minuscule return. I had 9 reward nights, with one more to go, which my wife would have earned for us this week – they were TAKEN AWAY when the program transferred over. Not even a grandfather of those nights.
Have to be flexible. 2% is a joke, as everyone says. So now my backup (am hotels.com gold) will become my primary — Southwest is an overlooked hotels site. It is pretty easy if you are flexible on which hotel you use to rack up huge miles even on short stays, just look for properties with the bonus miles. Previously did this just enough to get a free SW companion pass each year; now I will use it as my primary. Such a shame after ten-plus years of always earning gold status on hotels.com.
As of today, July 12, 2023 my 2 reward nights worth $300 and 5 additional hotel nights have disappeared and have not been converted to One Key cash as they promised. We lost them and we are very disappointed. We will not use Hotels.com any longer after being a loyal member for the past decade.
Since they converted everything, I can’t even log into my account anymore. When I enter my username, there is no longer a field for the password; instead they send me a 6 digit security code. However, when I enter the code, the screen on the website never changes. It just starts over wanting to send me another security code. I had like 6 stamps, so I called hotels.com to see how many reward points I have now. The Indian guy who I couldn’t understand very well just kept saying that he didn’t see any reward points on my account. Is anyone else having this issue accessing their account or rewards now?
It seems e en worse than people are saying. Hotels.com just quoted me a rate for a one night stay which seemed good. It when I saw the small print it was because they had automatically deducted my converted nights stays new cash value from the room rate. I never asked them to do that. IMHO really bad
I loved Hotels.com this is complete crap. I hope the service does not goes like the rewards program. Booking.com is horrible and un-ethical.
I feel like this is probably one of the worse financial decisions they probably have made. Similar to everyone above, I only use hotels.com because of the rewards rate. Gonna finish up the rest of my rewards money and head out.
I am done with this whole group. They can take their 2 percent and stuff it where the sun don’t shine. They screwed us over right after Covid started to the tune of $1,200. I have over 60 nights scheduled with them between now and Jan 31 and I am going to cancel every one where I can get the same (or better price). What a rip.
There is another glitch you need to watch for – when booking, Hotels-dot-com will default to one-key cash payment. If you are bookng on the app or even laptop, it was very easy to hit “book this stay” and before you know it, you just used those points. They want customer to spend those points ASAP becuase it is cash against the free-cash flow of the company. Be careful when booking otherwise it will default to onekey cash.
Come to think of it, I would rather spend those nights now, before they are taken away. Hotels dot com will find an excuse soon I am sure to make those points expire.
We were force-fed this crap
So???
Is hotels.com trying very hard to shut down their business, actually?
I have to agree…. They are DONE within one year. I think you are 100% correct .. They are oned by Expedia it appears
Awful rewards program relative to what it was. I saw my account was converted to the new program. I received credit for the four stays that were short of the free night, but I had two free nights pending from recent travel that had been “locked” and now they have disappeared. Their online chat isn’t working. Trying to track down a phone number and get ready for battle I’m sure.
I tried to reach the company. There is a virtual chat but no way of reaching a human being. I then called the toll free number and the only thing that I could do was confirm a hotel or cancel a reservation. I could not find any way of reaching a human being. I had accumulated several thousand dollars in rewards and nothing converted over to the new one key system. I am curious whether anyone else had this experience and lost everything that they had earned with hotels .com
Same here
They still have not converted anything on my account. I still show 2 stamps plus 6 nights toward my next stamp. In fact on my account it doesnt appear anything has changed. It even shows I if I book I will earn a night towards my next stamp.
I too want to use my credit before it dissapears.
Same… Good luck hotels.com I bet you’re done in one year…. Adios
Same here, I don’t no how to contact them.
After all these years…..Good bye Hotels.com. I’ll just book direct
I am with you Adios …. hotels.com
I guess I was expecting a magic change to the new program. My account still shows 2 stamps plus 6 nights toward my next stamp. It also still shows I can use one stamp at a time. I had assumed my stamps plus the amount accumulated towards my next stamp could be used as a credit. In fact while looking at some potential booking for a future stay it says stamps are not eligible. If i look at booking for cash it claims I will still earn nights towards stamps. I know what the articles have said about converting to the one key program but as of today my account is still showing the old program.
Also done with hotels.com that was my biggest reason why I would use them.
2% return? Going back to direct booking. EXPEDIA has way too much market share in the travel industry! They have bought up so many other properties in the past 20 years. They’ve just put a fork into hotels.com
One Key is trash. They have put my rewards to zero. I have contacted customer service 4 times over the last two weeks and they just send me canned messages that they are working on the problem and they will get back to me. It’s bad enough that they are reducing the reward percentage, but not allowing people to use the rewards they earned is worse. If I had known they were going to take away my rewards nights, I would have been sure to book and stay in a room before the transition.
I have booked many rooms on Hotels.com over the past several years. I’ve redeemed 51 nights which means I have booked 510 nights using their app. The old system was great because for every 10 nights, you got a free room. Their old rewards program meant that I got 10% of the cost (before taxes) of each night towards a free room. The new system is a joke. If you book a $300 room, you get about $5.00 in their One KeyCash program instead of $30.00 towards a free room. Time to start using another app to make reservations. Any suggestions?
I was 9 nights in when they converted. It was hard to determine what happened.. Zero notification.. Going from basically 10% to 2% ???? Buh Bye Hotels.com. Bad move.. Do you think we are stupid? You will lose customers bigtime and so you should.. Once my rewards $ are spent I will never visit your site again. As far as Expedia.. I quit them years ago… Take your 2% and ……………….
I had one more to go for my free night! Now I can’t even check my account. It’s like I’m starting from scratch! The one key says I have zero of anything.
Just to give you an idea of what a joke this new new one key rewards system is, I booked a hotel for $5068, and they gave me $91.69 “reward” for it. LOL!
Ugh, not only is One Key a complete joke with the 2% reward, the pricing and number of hotels makes this site no value at all! When looking for a hotel in Manhattan there is a total of ONE hotels listed as an option. Original Hotels.com had a great selection with a wide range of prices :-/
OneKey is a joke. Previously on Hotels.com, I got a free room rental after 10 stays. I just went to book a new room stay and according to the $334 booking, I will get $5.84 in OneKey cash. How is that worth ANYTHING when I used to get 1 free stay with 10 nights purchased? This stay previously would’ve benefited me 20% towards a free room night (2 nights booked). Now it gets me a whopping $5.84. It’ll take me 29 NIGHTS to get a free room…WAY TO RIP OFF YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS ONEKEY!!!
Redeeming OneKeyCash isn’t working. Trying to book a hotel, shows the discounted price after my rewards are used but when I hit reserve, room comes back at full price!! So basically I guess this program isn’t worth anything!
Sorry to see the changes to Hotels.com I was usually good for 40 plus rooms a year! Also to be told the 1.00-2.00 off the the price of the next stay is a great thing, really!!! I will now only use it when I have to !
Always used hotels.com. Will not use them again. This is pathetic on their part. Purely a money making racket
I was able to speak with a Hotels.com rep yesterday at this number: 800-246-8357 (just kept entering “0” through all prompts) and then short wait. I am asking for a breakdown of what was left in my account (free nights and stamps toward earning next free night) as I can only see a total OneKey Cash on my account and I am not sure if it is correct. Rep said my request had to be sent up to higher department and they are supposedly emailing this info to me within 4 days…
I have been a loyal rewards customer for years. Loved the stay 10, get one free. Also the search engine was so intuitively easy to use and I could usually trust the “guest ratings” sort. I am not the type to stay loyal to one brand of hotel as I have seen that can vary, plus I go by location more often than not. I had a $200+ free night earned, but when I try to look at my account, they send me a 6 digit code to enter. They say the code is good for 15 minutes, but by the time I enter it (less than a minute later), they say it has expired. Then they send me a new code and it expires! Like others, I will probably use for the search engine, then book directly with hotel.
I am NOT an attorney, but I’m fairly confident we have plenty of Hotels.com Loyal Customers feeling “Very Abused” by the “One Key Switch,” without any notice at all!!! I had been instructing my office manager to ONLY BOOK ON Hotels.com for over 5 years, due to the ability to “Redeem Rewards Points.” NOW, I cannot even log into my account to use any of my “accumulated 30 nights of rewards.” Absolutely Furious, as my elderly parents were in Dire Need of me helping them by using my “Rewards.” They had been driving 10 hours when “WAZE APP” redirected them 3 hours out of the way due to “SEVERE WEATHER Ahead,” so they were forced to go completely off the normal route, and out of the way. ***Is anyone else having these issues: “Please enter new password. THEN when I enter a new password, the “SYSTEM IS DOWN?” I’ve been trying for several hours now, as they cannot drive anywhere, and are sitting in front of a hotel waiting on me to “Simply Sign Into my Hotels.Com Account” to REDEEM MY AWARDS I LEGALLY ACCUMULATED!!! This is Incredibly Frustrating, and I Truly Believe WE MUST FIGHT BACK Against this Crooked Organization!!! Whatever that means, I am open to any & all ideas at this point. Only absolute Bottom of the Barrell Mentally Ill People would implement something so detrimental to Loyal Long-Term Customers. COMPLETE CROOKS, in my humble opinion. Feel free to comment/reply/tell me if I’m missing something/Etc.
Goodbye Hotels.com, very sad change for customers who were loyal to this company.
Time to leave hotels.com- they’ve overly complicated their awards program. This new program is not worth it, I’ll be moving away from this service. I had just booked 9 hotels for an upcoming trip, specifically planning for the rewards night. 2% key cash for a stay is insulting and there is no longer any benefit to using hotels.com
I was Gold status with Hotels.com, now I am Blue on this new scheme and my reward night has not been transferred. I am currently at the start of a 20 night holiday and I cannot access any of my bookings on the new site. Effectively, I and my bookings seem to have been erased.
As is the sentiment from so many others here, I am very disappointed with this news and I won’t be using any of the companies associated with this merger from now on.
Hotels.com has completely eliminated any reason I had to use the site. The rewards are such a joke (and the prices aren’t great either) it’s almost always going to be more valuable to book direct.
Wow… at the moment the Hotels.com rewards still on at least here in UK, just last night collect another night, so I wonder when all this change make effect here as well, when that happen I will stop using Expedia/Hotels because the rewards program was the only reason I was using this company… 😕
We just booked and stayed using Hotels.com for eight nights in July and had NO IDEA until I checked my account today to make sure all my “moons” were on my acct, finding out after calling customer service to find that I will only receive 2 WHOLE DOLLARS for each of my $100 room nights! OUTRAGIOUS! We sure are done with Hotels.com!
same here 🙁
i am furious and basically heartbroken. I used to love and I mean LOVE the hotels.com rewards program. It was basically a major lever on travel and highly incentivized me to get into nicer properties. such a bad move — did the budlight marketing department come up with this one?
Very bizarre. I just received an email today from Hotels.com congratulating me on receiving a reward night after ten stays. It has all the usual info in the email. When I try to book a hotel room however, using their instructions in the email, it looks like no hotels are taking reward points. Not sure why Hotels.com is still sending out these emails when the information is no longer accurate. Ugh!!
We use to get essentially like 10% (10 nights/1 free). I just did a stay and not only this ridiculous $3.18 I got for my almost $200 stay, the hotel gave me a receipt and they were substantially lower than what Hotels.com had charged me. I booked on hotels.com with a tax and fees total of $183.24 but the invoice from the hotel is only $159.77. That is $23.47 that Hotels.com got from me let alone what they got from the hotel itself. I am going to use up my free nights and not use them anymore as that was the only reason I was loyal to them.
Funny how they try to spin this as something you should appreciate.
Who appreciates being screwed over?
I book an average of 20 days per month…..
Now I’ll book elsewhere, because Hotels.com removed all my incentive to be loyal.
I noticed also that if you don’t use the rewards money by Dec 31…… you go back to ZERO…… you lose it all…..
This seems to be a Bud Light move by some idiot at Hotels.com/Expedia
I’ll redeem my rewards but I am also done with the BS
I’ve been a platinum member for many years and book an average of 50+ nights per year with Hotels.com. Free nights are what we used for family vacations. As others have mentioned, time to give up on Hotels.com and start booking direct under a chain loyalty program. Accepting going from 10% to 2% is just a ridiculous assumption that Hotels.com is making if they’re thinking that their fanbase will stay with them.
Converting old Hotels.com stamps into new OneKeyCash is a myth. I just found out I lost more than $300 worth of stamps: 9 from London + 4 from Europe + 2 from USA, after they “politely” let me know that for some reason I couldn’t understood – it cannot be converted. So much for customer service.
Hotels.com can F**k themselves. Not only am I done with them, I am telling others to avoid using them. This is in NO WAY an improvement. The stamps were the reason I used them. Easy to use, consistent and often they led to me choose a more expensive hotel knowing that I would get a little more reward out of them. It was everything the OneKey is not.
I see no reason to use them ever again, especially after the betrayal – and I WILL NOT USE HOTELS.COM EVER AGAIN. Expedia can be added to that list. Whomever came up with this decision should be fired. They cost the company thousands of customers.
Does anyone have a good alternative?? I do not yet, but will not go back to these fools.
Yup, I think they may have lost another customer with me as well. That program helped a lot esp when you didn’t have to use all he rewards at once!
It seems that One Key Cash is only for US customers. Anyone living outside the US is still getting old rewards nights as usual. I am in Dubai and I am able to redeem and earn award nights even now. Just redeemed 1 out of 7 nights I have. I hope they don’t spread this scheme outside US.
Alas, they have lost me too, which I am sure is no surprise to anyone. One more trip and I’ll have close to $0 in my account. As I am tired of all of these other hotel sites claiming to save you money and tired of non-refundable “deals” also. I have signed up for a handful of hotel direct sites. I like the ones where points don’t expire or stays count toward my airline miles. Additionally, many have better prices than hotel.com.
Is there a page that describes the various direct sites, best way to manage them etc.? Thanks!
I have used ‘Hotels.com’ very regularly and liked this program as you could choose chains, smaller groups and independent hotels. As commenters mentioned it may force some down the route of signing up to a corporate chain program to get anywhere near similar rewards. This will be to the detriment of smaller groups or independent hotels resulting in reduced choice, increasing cost and poorer choice of location – unless to pay a premium and stay/travel less frequently.
Poor choice by parent company to boost share price/dividends – at the expense of those that matter customers and hotels !! NOT HAPPY.
Used their reward program for years. Had well over 20 free nights. This new 2% format is a joke. Looks like I have to dig out the old Hilton Honors and Marriott Rewards cards and go back to the old way. Such a bummer, but I already see the paltry $3.18 and $4.03 rewards ‘earned’ from August travel. At that rate my next free night will be in retirement. Goodbye Hotels.com
Who do you recommend as a replacement?
Huh? I use Hotels.com and am still getting stamps to my one free night. I just did another one this week. What am I missing?
I used hotels.com pretty much every time I needed a hotel, specifically due to their reward nights. Even after the app became glitch and the “find a place to stay tonight” feature disappeared. But then the app created a second account when I simply tried to change the email address on my account. Suddenly I had 2 accounts and only one earning free nights. When I realized what happened I called their customer service. They “weren’t able” to combine the accounts, even though it was due to the app glitch. So I had enough stamps for a free night, but couldn’t use them because they were divided. The only way I could have put them to use would be to book more nights thru BOTH accounts. Before I could appeal this, they converted to Onekey. I believe I had almost 20 nights between the two accounts. I ended up with $78 in Onekey cash. Previously, those nights would have earned me 2 free nights at over $100 value for EACH night. $200+ became $78. I’m done. I’ve started booking direct with IHG rewards. Once you reach Silver/Gold status the benefits are quite nice. That and HH are now my go-to. Yet, still inferior to previous rewards programs. They are ALL making these changes because Covid decimated their business, then staffing shortages brought horrid guest reviews. (What do they expect? Immigrants were the ones accepting ridiculous hours for lousy pay. Those days are gone.) Rather than explain the need for bigger staff budgets, they raise prices while asking consumers to lower their expectations, e.g. Signs everywhere saying “please be patient, we are currently understaffed.”
I’ve wandered OT, but this is all part of the reason why large companies need to feel the crunch. Not just consumers. I wonder if they ever will.
And boom just like that they lost about eighty percent of their customer base… me included…. I’m gonna use my last free night and delete my account
Wow, the 10 nights, one free was the ONLY reason I used hotels.com with my company as opposed to booking with other sites. The One Key rewards are absolutely worthless. They might as well give you a pack of gum instead. I will be switching to another site for my company to use. What a terrible mistake. They didn’t even scale down the rewards gradually, they essentially dropped the rewards altogether, overnight. This is a Bud Light management level error.
Pathetic. I’ll never use you again. Just bc you have a monopoly you could be mote gentle in how you treat long term customers. Such acdumb business move but others will come up with better programs.
Hotels.com was easily the greatest arbitrage for careful travelers. It was a straight 10% discount on what were already the most heavily discounted rates. Expedia, on the other hand, was (and remains) excrement. The de facto death of hotels.com is a tragic loss.
Hotels.com can shove the one key 🔑 and as many keys as they want, up their ARSES!!! This new BS system is a rip off. I just used my three free hotel nights on my last vacation and I’m done with them. I’m gonna delete my account
I’m done with using hotels.com to reserve hotel rooms. They pulled the plug on me.
Hotels.com was my go to booking site. I used to accumulate enough rewards to treat myself to a night at the Munich Airport Hilton or The Singapore Airport Crowne Plaza for under $100.00. Places I would never book with my own money. There is no reason to continue using Hotels.com without Rewards Nights. Adios amigos.