Update: Hotels.com and/or CashStar might have been really shady with this promotion, but it’s not entirely clear. Everything about the offer suggests that the $25 and $40 gift cards are regular gift cards as the terms and conditions don’t mention an expiry date, nor is there an expiry date displayed when they’re added to your cart. It’s only after buying them that it looks like the bonus cards expire on January 2, 2026. That makes them much less useful because a) you can only use one per booking, and b) you can’t merge the cards with gift cards – in theory.
However, that would be a bizarre situation. The promotion ends on January 1, 2026 at 3am ET. If someone bought them in the final hours of the offer, they’d only have one day to redeem the bonus cards. It’s also been confirmed that the $25 and $40 gift cards can be merged to the regular gift card which I wouldn’t have thought would be possible if they do expire.
I therefore suspect that the $25 and $40 gift cards are indeed gift cards that don’t expire, but it might be worth having a plan to redeem them before January 2, 2026 just in case.
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Hotels.com is running a pretty good gift card deal through the end of the year. If you buy a $150 gift card, you’ll get a $25 bonus card free, while if you buy a $250 gift card, you’ll get a $40 bonus card free.
The Deal
- Hotels.com is offering a two tiered gift card deal:
- Buy $150 gift card & get $25 bonus card free
- Buy $250 gift card & get $40 bonus card free
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Expires January 1, 2026 at 3am EST.
- $25 & $40 bonus cards expire January 2, 2026.
- Limit of one bonus promotional Hotels.com gift card per customer, regardless of the number of purchases made.
- Within 48 hours following customer’s eligible purchase of Hotels.com gift card, Hotels.com will send customer the bonus promotional Hotels.com gift card to customer via email using the e-mail address on file for customer.
- Quantities are limited. Offer is valid while supplies last.
Quick Thoughts
Deals on Hotels.com gift cards tend to be few and far between nowadays, so getting a $25 or $40 bonus card free when buying a $150 or $250 gift card respectively is a decent bonus.
Be sure to do the math correctly when calculating the effective discount seeing as these are bonus gift cards rather than an instant discount. Getting a $25 bonus when spending $150 is a 14.29% discount on $175 worth of gift cards, not a 16.67% discount. Getting a $40 gift card free when buying a $250 gift card is a 13.79% discount rather than a 16% discount.
That latter deal is a little curious because normally you get a better overall discount the more you spend. With this promo though, the $150 gift card gets a better bonus in percentage terms. However, given the limit of one (if that’s actually enforced), many would understandably prefer to still get the higher bonus of $40 when spending $250.
Payment is processed by CashStar, so this won’t code as a travel or hotel purchase. We sometimes do see Amex Offers for buying Hotels.com gift cards, so hopefully one of those appears in the next few weeks before this gift card deal is scheduled to end.
That said, the terms do state that supplies are limited, so there’s no guarantee that it will run through the New Year. Before buying, make sure this banner is displayed at the top of the page…
…and that the $25 or $40 bonus gift card is added to your cart.
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The promo cards aren’t supposed to expire according to the terms, but they are arriving with expiration dates
Yep, I’ve just been given the heads up about that and updated the post as you were commenting! Thanks for letting me know about that; it’s really annoying that it’s working that way seeing as there’s nothing indicating that they’d be bonus cards.