Several months ago, Wyndham Rewards revealed plans to make changes to its award pricing. The updates are live as of today, so I’d like to take a look at how these changes work in practice.
We’ve seen the program move from having an award chart with three tiers to having one with four tiers — the cheapest properties have decreased in price by up to 33%, while the most expensive properties have increased in price by up to 50%
Wyndham Rewards rolls out award chart changes
Up until now, Wyndham Rewards has had three tiers of award pricing when it comes to redeeming for free night awards, where properties cost either 7,500 points, 15,000 points, or 30,000 points per night.
That’s no longer the case. For bookings as of September 15, 2026, we’ve seen the introduction of four tiers of pricing, as hotels cost either 5,000 points, 15,000 points, 30,000 points, or 45,000 points per night.
As you can see, two tiers have remained unchanged, properties in the cheapest tier have decreased in cost by 33%, and properties in the most expensive tier have increased in price by 50%.
With the new pricing now being live, what are we seeing? Well, I think the changes are more or less what one would expect. The Wyndham properties that are generally considered among the better ones, and which have reasonably high cash costs, now retail for 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points per night.
What I perhaps find most interesting is the relative jumps between the tiers. 15,000 is 3x as many points as 5,000. 30,000 is 2x as many points as 15,000. 45,000 is 1.5x as many points as 30,000. So in terms of relative pricing, what’s most remarkable is the jump from the lowest tier to the second lowest tier.
For example, take the two below hotels. The property that costs 5,000 points per night retails for $58, while the property that costs 15,000 points per night retails for $74. So the more “premium” property costs 200% more if redeeming points, but only 25% more if paying cash. That’s something to keep in mind as you consider the program’s new sweet spots.
By the way, the below is the more premium of the two properties, which has a rating of 4.1 stars, while the less premium property has a rating of 1.4 stars. YIKES.
Obviously this is bad news, but I’m not surprised
To Wyndham Rewards’ credit, I appreciate that the program provided advance notice of pricing changes, and that it continues to have an award chart, as those are two things that not many hotel loyalty programs offer nowadays (World of Hyatt is basically the only other one). Furthermore, this is Wyndham’s first introduction of a new award category since 2019, so that’s pretty remarkable.
Wyndham Rewards is also the only major hotel loyalty program to not have any sort of dynamic award pricing, so you pay the same regardless of the time of year you redeem. I appreciate that conceptually, in terms of potentially offering the most outsized value.
Wyndham Rewards emphasizes how these changes are part of its “commitment to simplicity and helping members get the most out of their points.” It goes without saying that these changes are overwhelmingly negative:
- The properties going for 5,000 points per night are of course an amazing deal on points, even if they’re not particularly nice
- It seems like we’ve seen a lot of hotels go from costing 7,500 points per night to 15,000 points per night, so that’s a pretty big price increase
- Wyndham doesn’t exactly have a huge number of aspirational properties, so seeing a 50% increase in award pricing at top properties limits the ability to get great value
When it comes to my valuation of Wyndham Rewards points, I used to value them at 0.7 cents each, though recently lowered my valuation to 0.6 cents each. With these changes, that might still be a bit too high, unless you’re primarily redeeming at properties costing 5,000 points per night.
Bottom line
Wyndham Rewards has updated its award pricing for bookings as of September 15, 2026. On the plus side, the program is maintaining an award chart, with non-dynamic pricing.
We’ve seen Wyndham move from three categories to four categories — while redemptions used to cost 7,500, 15,000, or 30,000 points per night, we’re now seeing costs of 5,000, 15,000, 30,000, or 45,000 points. Of course it sucks to see top properties increase in price by 50%, but I also can’t say I’m surprised to see this.
What do you make of these Wyndham Rewards award pricing updates?
The changes are unfortunately a lot more brutal than the top properties going up 50%. Thousands of hotels have doubled (or more) in price, with over 200 hotels going up 4x in price. I wrote an article on this here: https://www.seat31b.com/2026/09/wyndham-just-quadrupled-the-points-price-of-237-hotels/
I know that for a lot of people they discriminate against Wyndham properties, but the Clearwater Beach property listed in this article is arguably nicer than the Hyatt next door, which Hyatt lists as a Category 6 property.
I have stayed at the Wyndham Grand in PR on four or five occasions and run into celebrities and athletes alike at the resort. If it's good enough for Lin Manuel Miranda to lay his head on...
I know that for a lot of people they discriminate against Wyndham properties, but the Clearwater Beach property listed in this article is arguably nicer than the Hyatt next door, which Hyatt lists as a Category 6 property.
I have stayed at the Wyndham Grand in PR on four or five occasions and run into celebrities and athletes alike at the resort. If it's good enough for Lin Manuel Miranda to lay his head on Wyndham pillows then it's good enough for me. This past January when the caribbean airspace was shut down due to the Venezuela President being captured I was able to quickly move Capital One points each day to cover my stay until I was able to get off the island, saving nearly $1,000 per night (the hotel was offering guests a special nightly rate of $800 plus taxes and fees for anyone stranded due to the airport closure). Since I have the Wydham credit card the nightly rate was only 27k points per night at the time.
Some really good deals available.
Hawthorn Suites Abuja is $210 revenue rate or 5000 pts.
Ramada Colombo is $115 or 5000 pts.
Ramada Motera NaMo Stadium is 5000 pts which is a steal when there's a game or concert.
"Top hotel" and Wyndham. Seriously?
I’m confused. Wyndham has at least one “aspirational” property?
Now don't be an a-hole and discriminate people.
Aspirational is subjective.
But jokes on you, with all other program devaluation to the point of useless. Soon, there wouldn't be any aspirational redemptions left besides Wyndham.
The issue with WR is price relative to points.
This change is a huge devaluation.
Let's start with 7500 going down to 5000.
People who welcome this has never stayed at budget locations. There is really no decent properties even at 7500.
Then the 15k most are mixed bags.
The decent ones would be at 30k will now be 45k. Only a handful would be worth 45k. But most of them is not...
The issue with WR is price relative to points.
This change is a huge devaluation.
Let's start with 7500 going down to 5000.
People who welcome this has never stayed at budget locations. There is really no decent properties even at 7500.
Then the 15k most are mixed bags.
The decent ones would be at 30k will now be 45k. Only a handful would be worth 45k. But most of them is not worth comparing with the cash price, even at 0.6 app. Just look at Ben's example.
There used to be a few sweet spot properties at 15k. But now I suspect that would move into 30k.
One very significant missing part since Ben isn't pushing their cards so he probably forgot about it and he obviously would pick Capella or Aman over Days Inn or Super 8 so WR is probably his last resort.
But cardholders get upto 25% off. That's what makes WR actually worth something.
Looking at some of the changes, they're just sort of dumb - the 5k/15k example Lucky pointed out is one example. Yes, I understand that the all-inclusives and others were bound to be adjusted upwards, but removing the 7.5k tier doesn't seem to make sense.
The category changes are pretty brutal, and much worse than I expected. I expected nicer all inclusive resorts to go up to 45k. But I was surprised to see the amount of unremarkable hotels costing 30k now. I even noticed some budget hotels in Mexico City that jumped from 7.5k to 30k.
I looked at the same budget hotels in Mexico City. However, I noticed that half of them have been marked as unavailable now...
As Wyndham has acquired more mid to slightly premium properties, e.g., Registry Collection all inclusives, I do not think a 30K was sustainable. I do not like it, but I get it.
Has anyone noticed how half the hotels that used to be bookable on points are now unable to be booked?
Ben - In your two hotel point comparison, you didn't use the actual cash price. What you listed as the cash price is actually the some cash+some miles price.
Wyndham is by far the worst hotel "chain." It's not even a "chain" because Wyndham owns exactly zero hotels and manages exactly zero hotels, at least as of the end of 2024. Wyndham is merely a booking platform. It also has the worst RevPAR of any hotel "chain."
With 100% bonus, a 45K room costs 292.50 and 30K room is 195.
With present 80% bonus, 45K = 325 and 30K = 216.67.
The math will work for many 45K props. 30K tbd.
Wyndham European city properties are often underrated and will revalue. Book soon at 15K.
The Wyndham program has saved me a few times in peak periods where nothing was less than $400/night and I could redeem 15K instead. Sure it's rarely anyone's favorite program but their points (and having the Earner+ card) can be very useful at times. The new 5K point level is a bit laughable as the 7,500 point properties are already few and usually the lowest-rated Travelodges. Hopefully we don't see too much 15K > 30K creep.
Would be fine…if it wasn’t motivated by greed. Because Wyndham has way too many properties priced at 30,000 and even 15,000 a night that should be that high!
Take me back to the pre-2019 award pricing change when ALL rewards nights were 15k points. The Wyndham brand catches a lot of hate, but there are a couple of very nice properties that I've always found plenty of reward availability. With the new Wyndham cc you can save 25% on award redemptions, so the top properties would come down to 33,750 per night. Not great, but it beats a sharp stick in the eye.
Wyndham has earned the hate. At least 50% of their properties are owned/managed by what would be considered slum lords by housing standards.
So i should be glad that I need to pay a couple hundred higher CC fee and use 33,750 instead of 27,000 points with the original biz card discount?
Not a fan of those upcoming changes.
Most likely a bunch of 30k-properties convert with 50% premium to 45k points per night.
Also most likely only handful will go down to 5k/nt.
And to make it even worse, Wyndham will devalue 15k-hotels to 30k category, without a good cause. They just getting more greedy, similar to Hyatt and Hilton.
Well, Marriott mostly crashed it’s loyalty program few years ago. Not many cares...
Not a fan of those upcoming changes.
Most likely a bunch of 30k-properties convert with 50% premium to 45k points per night.
Also most likely only handful will go down to 5k/nt.
And to make it even worse, Wyndham will devalue 15k-hotels to 30k category, without a good cause. They just getting more greedy, similar to Hyatt and Hilton.
Well, Marriott mostly crashed it’s loyalty program few years ago. Not many cares about them anymore (handful of Lifetime Plats possibly;))
Hyatt gutted it’s own chart this year.
Hilton keeps devaluing their Honor points with some properties costing a million points…
And Sonesta converted all branded credit cards – so people have no easier way to earn points.
The hotel loyalty world is getting less and less attractive…
Wyndham was staying a promising brand, but after quitting their AirBnB flick (expected, and they still have Cottages.com), they seem to turn to wrong direction. Hopefully not too drastic so people still can use their points system.
Happy travels!!
Nice synopsis. Does anyone else feel the whole air miles and hotel points game is dying a slow death as we move to dedicated CC for dedicated concerns like United Mileage Plus? The future seems revenue "saver" Polaris etc. With points being just for the odd airport stay or online shopping, even Wyndham is just best to pay for stays...sad was a great run while it lasted.
Ben, you need a slight correction to this sentence as the lowest tier will decrease: 'As you can see, two tiers will remain unchanged, properties in the cheapest tier will increase in cost by 33%...'.
Also, to their credit, the is the first change to the award chart since 2019, and, hopefully, not an every couple of year thing.
@ Robert Carmack -- Whoops, fixed, thank you!
My travel is skewed more toward the rural areas and business purposes. Therefore, I tend to stay in a lot of 5000-point Wyndhams and not the Nepo Baby Grand Egotism Resorts that most avbloggers concentrate on. I have a lot of Wyndham points, and if I didn't get reimbursed for my hotel stays, this re-evaluation would be absolutely perfect for me.
What makes you think they are going to 5000 and not 15000?
Unless you're 20 and living in a dormitory that's cleaned once a year, I would think you'll pay more to avoid these shady properties unless you're broke and can't afford the extra.
There's always a acceptable HIX or Fairfield or Hampton costing almost double nearby. And no Hyatt in sight. Their footprint sucks.
Or you're lying and never stayed at those places.
ngl 5000 points looks pretty good for quick road trip stops. When transfer bonuses go on that can be like 4K points for a night
Those properties are gross. If you don’t get unalived there, likely catch something.
yeah i dont live in that kind of bubble