Case in Point: The Way I Value Wyndham Rewards Points

~ Chris Wada

Wyndham Rewards points can vary quite a bit between its brands and locations, suggesting you might do better if you cherry pick when you use points.

Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh

Updated December 2, 2025. The breakup of Wyndham and Vacasa has negatively impacted the value of Wyndham Rewards points, dropping the value from 1.1 cents to 1.0 cents each.

Everything has a value

I don’t need to reiterate what I’ve already stated previously, but it’s still worth mentioning. Travel using points isn’t free. Since it’s not free, there must be a value attached to it. You could then calculate the value of a point.

It’s important to also distinguish the value of a point from the cost of a point. The value is what the point can buy while the cost is what you spent to acquire the point. The difference, then, between the value and the cost can be thought of as the spread. Common sense would dictate that you don’t want the cost to exceed the value of the point (i.e., a negative spread) or you would have lost money in the transaction.

For the purposes of the below, I’m just going to define the value of the point and not the cost. Everyone’s cost will vary depending what avenues of acquiring points are available to them. I’ll save that cost calculation for you to do.

Key considerations for Wyndham Rewards points

It’s important to identify a few key considerations to this valuation so we can look at this in the proper framework.

Each point in the same program is not worth the same amount

This one is an odd one. If you open a loyalty account and only earn one point, what is that point worth? Well, assuming you can’t redeem just one point, that point has zero value to you. In fact, each point you earn before you can redeem any of them is worth zero. The point that enables you to then redeem for an award is the one that’s worth a significant amount.

If you were to theoretically plot this out on a graph, you’d see a chart that jumps all over the place. It’s not very useful to think of points as a function plotted on a graph. Instead, it’s better to think of points as an average value. I’d rather not think about calculus when spending time in this hobby.

How much do you cherry pick your awards?

Now that you’re thinking of points themselves bouncing around in value, you can also start thinking about cherry picking for the better awards. Do you spend 1,000 miles buying $10 off travel or do you wait for 2,000 miles when you can get $25 off? That’s a simplistic example but it does help demonstrate what this dynamic entails.

Your comfort level in cherry picking the best value will depend on your earn rate, your comfort level in the program not devaluing, and the spread you’re looking to get.

The cash price the award replaced isn’t always the proper valuation

Let’s say you find an award for two one-way international flights that together form a roundtrip journey. If you didn’t have access to points, you likely wouldn’t book these flights as one-ways. Generally international roundtrip flights are significantly cheaper than one-ways. Claiming your points have the value of the cash price of two one-ways would then be inflating the value of the points.

The proper valuation should consider opportunity cost. If you didn’t have points at your disposal, what would you have paid in cash? Sometimes the cash rate might be the proper metric (it could be the only hotel in town that works for your needs), but it might not be.

Everyone’s valuation will be different

It’s important to know that my valuation will be different from yours. That’s because the awards that I might be interested in aren’t the same awards you would be interested in. Valuing points is inherently a very personal calculation that considers what I would redeem for and when.

Within this concept is the truth that sometimes elite status affects the value of points. Take Hyatt’s program where Globalist status can offer free parking on award stays but no free parking on cash stays. That then means that Globalists might have a higher valuation of Hyatt points than non-Globalists. Another example might be Hilton’s fifth night free when booked with points but only for elite members.

What do you get out of my valuation? It’s more of the framework that matters, so that you can consider your own valuation.

The method of valuing Wyndham Rewards points

We’ve talked about how we built up the value for each of the following:

Wyndham is quite similar to Choice in that there is a lot of budget hotels to parse through and many of these hotels represent a poor value. However, unlike Choice, you’re not going to find the ability to jump into a suite at the same price as a base room. From what I’ve seen, many hotels might offer up a different number of beds or a better view.

Also, Wyndham does have a partnership with Vacasa, and I’ve chosen to handle that separately as you’ll see below.

The methodology

Let’s apply a similar approach as I did for IHG and Choice hotels to see if anything becomes transparent:

  • I picked three hotels in each brand at random, spread across the world.
  • I looked at the one-night cost of each hotel on the first of each month from May 2025 to January 2026. If the room required a minimum stay longer than one night, the average room rate over that span was used.
  • If the hotel did not have any points availability on any given night, it was omitted from the calculation.
  • The cost of taxes and fees is included in the cash price but the resort/destination fee is not. That’s because Wyndham assesses the fee on award nights, thus points won’t cover that price.
  • The cash price reflects the member-only refundable rate. While that makes the cash price more expensive than the non-refundable rate, points stays are typically refundable.
  • When points can book multiple room types, the room type with the cheapest cash rate is used.

Results and observations

(pricing for the base room, click to enlarge)

The table above shows the straight average of cash rates and the associated points value for each hotel. I didn’t see any strong biases by region. However, it did seem possible to get more value at some hotel brands (such as Wyndham Alltra, the all-inclusive brand). Since hotels didn’t change points price throughout the year, you get the best value when room rates are much higher than normal as the points price doesn’t change.

Vacasa — No longer a redemption option

How does Vacasa fit into this? The redemption rates for Vacasa are pretty straightforward. You’d need to look at the total cost of the room after taxes and fees:

  • Total room cost between $0.00 and $250.00 = 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points per night
  • Total room cost between $250.01 and $500 = 30,000 Wyndham Rewards points per night
  • Wyndham Rewards points cannot be used on room rates higher than $500

That means at best your Wyndham Rewards points are worth 1.67 cents each. While it’s certainly possible your stay ends up on the higher range, I’d wager you get closer to 1.5 cents of value from those stays.

Caveats

The obvious shortcoming of the study is sample size. I’d love to add more credibility by including more properties, but I don’t have the time or bandwidth to take that deep of a dive. This study will be improved when I have the ability to expand its scope but I don’t feel it inhibits the general conclusions of this study.

And the survey says…!

I think it’s important to look at the distribution of results rather than the straight average:

Given this distribution, what would you consider to be the value of the points? Personally, I feel comfortable getting at least 1.0 cents each. I’d need to hold off using my points on up to 75% of potential stays, but I would be rewarded with better value. Given how we use Wyndham Rewards–as a fourth or fifth option–we’re comfortable with taking our time to find the optimal redemption.

The thought process is the same as elsewhere

Unless you have an endless supply of points at your disposal, it would behoove you to cherry-pick your rewards. Don’t just use your points for every redemption out there because not every redemption is made equal. Of course, the far opposite isn’t good either: if you are afraid of using your points at any hotel that isn’t the absolute best redemption, you’ll never use them. Pick a price that works for you and have no regrets when you redeem above that threshold.

How much do you value Wyndham Rewards points?

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