Like many other travel-booking platforms, Expedia also has its rewards scheme which provides members exclusive discount, perks and point-earning opportunities when you book with them.
[Membership Tiers]
Expedia Rewards has three tiers:
- Blue: entry level; benefits include 10% extra discount on participating hotels
- Silver: 10 trip elements required; benefits include 100% bonus points, VIP Access at select hotels and special customer service line
- Gold: 25 trip elements required; benefits include 200% bonus points, enhanced VIP Access at select hotels and special customer service line
The partnership between a hotel and Expedia is very different to one between them and say, Hilton or Marriott. Expedia doesn’t add any branding value or management assistance to the hotel, therefore you can’t expect them to provide substantial benefits to Expedia customers.
One trip element could be a flight ticket, a hotel room night, a holiday rental night, a car hire or an activity ticket. It’s relatively easier to move up the tier ladder, as bookings made for other people also count.
For a family of three, one flight booking earns three trip elements (note that return flight counts as one trip element only), and same for three attraction tickets. Note that however, trip elements are subject to a minimum spend of £20 per element.
If you are an HSBC Premier customer, you can upgrade to Gold immediately.
[Earn and Spend Points]
Expedia’s earning scheme is quite simple – you earn 1 point per £1 spent on hotel, car-rental, activity and flight & hotel package bookings, and:
- Silver members earn 1 additional point
- Gold members earn 2 additional points
- Bookings made in the app earn 1 addition point
- VIP Access hotel bookings earn 1 addition point
1 point is equal to 1p when redeemed against your future bookings. Note that for flight-only bookings you only earn 1 point / £5, and no bonus is applicable.
The most a Gold member can earn is 5 points / £1, which is equivalent to 5% cashback. It’s not ludicrous, but is the icing on the cake if you have good coupon codes.
[VIP Access]
Expedia has a collection of VIP Access hotels, where Silver and Gold members can enjoy exclusive perks when staying with them. Watch out for the VIP Access logo when you browse the search results:
If you are a user of Hotels.com you are probably already familiar with the concept, as both of them belong to the same company. It’s unclear what each individual property offers, but generally you could expect one or more of the following:
- Free breakfast
- F&B discount
- Room upgrade
- Early check-in
- Late Check-out
Since benefits are not outlined on paper, your experience might vary even for staying at the same hotel.
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