Last month I was contacted by Wyndham Hotel Group to see if we wanted to do a review of their rewards program and hotels.  They also gave away a 2 night stay to one of you guys.  Since I travel all the time for workshops, I really can’t pass up a free hotel stay.

They gave me 32,000 Wyndham Rewards points, which is enough for 2 nights at most of their hotels.  We were headed to La Grange GA, a place we had been many times to visit family, and the only hotel to stay at is a Wyndham so this was perfect timing.

Now, with traveling all the time you get a little loyal to brands.  It actually pays to do that because of the rewards programs.  I confess that we don’t usually stay in Wyndham hotels, but in La Grange there aren’t any of the brands we normally frequent.  I had to start from scratch to use our points, starting with creating an account.

I’m pretty familiar with using rewards points.  In 2012 we spent over 140 nights in a hotel… being loyal to one brand we ended that year with over 500,000 rewards points plus 10 free nights we earned through added promotions.  With all of that experience under my belt, I was slightly worried that trying to use these points to stay in one specific hotel on very specific dates, wasn’t going to be pretty.  Wyndham, however, surprised me.  I logged in, and had two rooms booked for the one night I needed them all in a matter of 5 minutes or less.  It was incredibly painless.  We even had choices of what type of room we wanted, and the nicer rooms cost the same points as regular rooms!

I had one more feat to accomplish before I could rest in our free hotel rooms though.  I needed those two rooms to be connecting.  Traveling with young kids I can’t put them in a room by themselves that I can’t get into.  Most hotels won’t guarantee this and actually can get super snotty at check in about it.  Seriously people you aren’t the one who just spent 5 hours in the car with 4 kids… please just try to make them connecting…

I walked in holding my breath and praying that this was going to go well.  The lady at the desk was super sweet and moved our rooms around, even changing what type they were, so that they connected.  Go her!  To make it even better she gave my kids a warm baked cookie.  Great… now the kids are wanting to know why the normal hotels we stay in don’t give cookies.

One last thing to mention was that you also get a gift being a rewards member on check in (as if the cookie wasn’t enough).  We got the room to find a small bag of water bottles, bagged snacks and chocolate.  My kids now think this is right up there with the fanciest hotel ever.

Overall we were very impressed with the hotel, the staff and the ease of booking our reward travel.  If you don’t have a loyalty to a brand, this is one to at least consider.  I mentioned earlier that it pays to have a loyalty, let me walk you through what I mean.

An Example:
You travel fairly regularly, let’s say once a month for two nights.  You spend on average $75 a night for a basic nice room.  With the Wyndham Rewards program you will earn 10 points for every dollar you spend at their hotels.  That’s 750 points a night.

• 750 points x 24 nights a year = 18,000 points
• You’ll also earn a free night stay for every 20 nights.

Total that equals 2 free nights, one from points and one from the bonus.

You can actually earn even more.  If you like to travel I highly recommend getting a credit card for the brand that you stay with frequently.  You’ll earn more points from all your purchases, plus higher points from your stays at their hotels.  Wyndham like many others has their own Visa card that gives you 2 Free nights for signing up, plus additional points with every purchase.  Now with every credit card the rewards are only worth it if you pay off the balance every month, so please use it wisely!

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