Wyndham and Vacasa recently partnered up to expand the Wyndham Rewards program. This partnership opens up over 44,000+ Vacasa home rentals to Wyndham Rewards members. Vacasa is one of the world’s largest vacation home managers and hosts over 3 million guests a year while amassing over 500,000 5-star reviews.
As part of the partnership Wyndham Rewards members can redeem their points at Vacasa properties for 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom, per night. This means a studio or 1-bedroom costs 15k points a night while say a 3-bedroom house would be 45k points a night.
Vacasa redemptions can provide great value as certain stays can cost over $300+ a night per bedroom. Often allowing you to get over 2 cents per point in value, a terrific redemption rate!
Vacasa rentals can make for a great option on a golf trip with a bigger group that wants to stay all together. Or for courses that are a little more off the beaten path and don’t have hotels easily accessible.
Earning Wyndham Points
Now if you’re like me when I first heard about this deal you are probably thinking “That’s great, but I don’t have any Wyndham points!”. Fortunately, Wyndham points are pretty easy to acquire even if you have never stayed at a Wyndham hotel before.
My favorite way to acquire Wyndham Points is through Capital One. Wyndham Rewards is a transfer partner with Capital One Venture.
You can transfer points from Capital One to Wyndham 1:1. Be sure to check out our deep dive on Capital One and how to best acquire Capital One points.
Citi ThankYou points are also transferrable at either a 1:1 ratio or 1:0.8, depending on the card.
Wyndham Rewards also has 3 branded credit cards of their own through Barclays Bank:
| Wyndham Rewards Earner Card | Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card | Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Annual Fee |
$0 |
$75 |
$95 |
|
Sign-up Bonus |
30,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days. |
45,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days. |
45,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days. |
|
Earning on Wyndham Hotel & Gas purchases |
5x |
6x |
8x |
|
Earning on Restaurants & Grocery purchases |
2x |
4x |
1x |
|
All other purchases |
1x |
1x |
1x |
|
Anniversary Bonus Points |
7,500 bonus points if you spend $15k on eligible purchases |
7,500 bonus points |
15,000 bonus points |
|
Wyndham Elite Status |
Gold |
Platinum |
Diamond (Top Status) |
All three of these cards come with one other big perk. All nightly redemptions require 10% fewer Wyndham Rewards. This means a 1-bedroom Vacasa rental would cost only 13.5k points a night!
Other ways to earn Wyndham Rewards
- Earn Wyndham points at Caesars casinos: If you stay at a Caesars casino, you can earn 10 points per $1 thanks to Wyndham’s partnerships with more than 30 Caesars Entertainment casinos. Link your accounts and receive a status match as well.
- Host an event: Any event hosted at a Wyndham property earns 4 points per dollar spent. Event spaces, guest room blocks, and food and beverage all count.
- Budget car rentals: Add your Wyndham Rewards number to your Budget car rental account and save up to 30% on rentals and you can earn 100 Wyndham Rewards points per day on all qualifying rentals.
- Wyndham Experiences: Book tours and activities through Wyndham Experiences and earn 10 points per dollar spent.
- Wyndham Rewards Shopping: Through Wyndham’s shopping portal, you can earn bonus points for making online purchases at participating merchants.
- Purchase Wyndham Points: Buy Wyndham Rewards points in increments of 1,000 points (up to 100,000 per calendar year). Wyndham normally runs promotions throughout the year to purchase points at an even further discount.
Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals with Wyndham Points
As of the time of writing, you’re unable to make reservations on points through Vacasa’s website. You have to find what rental you want and then call the following number: 1-800-441-1034 to make your reservation.
To show you the power of this travel tip let’s look at some rentals at one of my favorite golf destinations, Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
Kiawah Island is home to 5 world-class golf courses. Including the Ocean Course which has hosted multiple majors, most recently the 2021 PGA Championship.
Kiawah Island is an awesome golf destination, but there is only one hotel on the island that you can book with on points. That’s the Charleston Kiawah Island / Andell Inn by Marriott. Which in peak golf season can run up to 68k Marriott points a night.
The only other options on the island are some pricey boutique hotels or renting a vacation home. This is where Wyndham and Vacasa’s partnership can shine!
First, will look at some 1-Bedroom options at 15k points a night.
Simply put in where you want to go, your dates, and search. I’ve found for a 1-BR that by bumping the guests up to 4 you can find some bigger homes. After a few minutes of searching, I was able to find Mariner’s Watch.
This is a very nice updated 1-bedroom villa just steps from the Atlantic Ocean. For our dates in May, 3 nights would cost just over $915. But by using Wyndham points (15k per bedroom per night) we can book this villa for just 45k points. That is over 2 cents per point ($915.45 / 45,000) which is a great value!
Another great benefit of booking on points is it covers all the Taxes and Fees as well. If you have ever stayed in an Airbnb you know how the fees can rack up quickly and make properties ridiculously expensive.
Booking with a group
Another great benefit of the Wyndham Vacasa partnership is being able to book a larger home for your entire golf trip crew. Hotels are nice, but sometimes it’s great to have one large space where the whole group can hang out. Let’s be honest most of the time hanging at the house is the highlight of the trip!
Now larger homes with 4 or more bedrooms require a lot of points. However, if you and some of the other members of your group have Capital One Venture or Spark cards there is a great workaround.
Capital One allows you to share Capital One miles with others and there is no limit to how much you can share. You just have to call Capital One and ask them to transfer the miles to another person’s account. Once all the points are combined in one person’s account they can transfer them to Wyndham at 1:1 and call to book.
I’m using this exact tactic on an upcoming trip to Kiawah with some of my golf buddies. We were able to book the Club Cottage just steps from the Osprey Point Golf Club.
As this is a 4-bedroom the nightly redemption rate is 60k points. However, one of my friends coming on the trip has a Wyndham Rewards Earner card so we’re able to take advantage of the 10% off, bringing our nightly rate down to 54k points.
Below is a typical rate for a 3-night stay. Redeeming Wyndham Rewards and with having an earners card allows us to get 2 cents per point, a great redemption rate. Capital One points are normally valued anywhere from 1.4 cents to 1.7 cents, so getting close to 2 cents is a great deal!
Other helpful tips
- Beware of blackout dates: Blackout dates are not posted anywhere and I have not personally run into them the two times I have used this service. But, I have read about people trying to book and finding their dates blackouted. You may run into issues with blackout dates during high-demand times or holidays, depending on the property. So be sure to call and check before transferring any points over!
- Cap on Bookings: There is a cap on the maximum cost for a Vacasa property that can be book with Wyndham Rewards. Initially it was always $500 per bedroom per night (if a 1-BR was $600 a night you could not use Wyndham Rewards to make the booking). I have not been able to confirm this but I have seen several things online that the limit has been lowered to $350. If true, this is not ideal for some of the top-end luxury properties but 99% of properties should be unaffected.
- Cancellation Policy: You will get a full refund of your points if you cancel 30 or more days before your stay. Within 30 days all points are forfeit!
- How far in advance can you book?: You can book up to 12 months in advance.
- Can you earn Wyndham points on Vacasa stays?: Unfortunately, the answer is no. Hopefully, this is something added in the future much like Marriott’s Homes and Villas program.
