Wyndham Rewards Annual Hotel Tier Adjustment Coming February 11 – Make Your Bookings Now

Wyndham Rewards will be changing redemption tiers at some of its hotels beginning February 11 (two weeks from today). This shift is part of Wyndham’s annual review process, and the hotel chain anticipates that this will continue to be a once a year process moving forward.

While Wyndham Rewards states that they are unable to share specifics about which hotels are moving to which tiers ahead of time, here’s what we do know:

• Wyndham Rewards reassures members that the majority of the hotels that are moving shifting down to either the 7,500 or 15,000 point tier and that most of the brand’s 9,200+ hotels (91%) will not change tiers and of those that will, the vast majority, just under 500 hotels, will move down.
• Just over 300 hotels will be moving up to either the 15,000 or 30,000 point tier, the majority of which will move to the 15,000 point tier. (Just over 80 hotels are moving to the 30,000 tier.)
• Members who book prior to February 11 will automatically have reservations adjusted in their favor with no action required on their part.
  • example: if you book a hotel that drops to a lower tier, the difference in points will be returned to your account. On the other hand, if you book a hotel that moves to a higher tier, the original booking, and original amount of required points, will be honored.

Bottom Line

While program changes are never something we look forward to, it’s nice when there’s some notice given so that travelers can finalize any upcoming travel plans they might have in mind. It’s also “risk-free” in a sense to secure your impending Wyndham Rewards bookings over the next two weeks since you’ll either have the lower price honored if your hotel moves up in tier, or an automatic refund of the difference in points if your hotel moves down a tier.

During last year’s tier change, I used my Wyndham Rewards points to book an upcoming March 2020 weekend stay at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach. Since I booked that at the lower rate, I don’t anticipate that property to move down a tier, but of course I’d be delighted if it does.

Do you have any Wyndham Rewards redemptions coming up?