Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals can be an excellent use for Wyndham points. For those interested in booking vacation rentals, this post has everything you need to know…
Intro to booking Vacasa rentals with Wyndham points
In 2019, Vacasa (a vacation rental management company) bought Wyndham Vacation Rentals. And in February 2021, Wyndham Rewards made it possible to redeem points for any of Vacasa’s more than 15,000 vacation rental properties.
Wyndham prices vacation rental free nights at 15,000 or 30,000 points per bedroom per night depending upon the cash rate of the stay. It’s possible to get up to 1.67 cents per point value when redeeming points this way. Actually, if you have one of the three Wyndham Earner cards which offer 10% award discounts, you could get up to 1.85 cents per point value. Either way, if you consider that Wyndham often sells their points for around 1 cent each, it’s clear that this can be a very good opportunity.
Point Price
Vacasa Vacation Rentals cost either 15,000 or 30,000 points per bedroom per night. The number of points required for your stay depends upon the average cost per bedroom per night for your stay, inclusive of fees:
- Up to $250 per bedroom per night: Pay 15,000 points per bedroom per night
- $250.01 to $500 per bedroom per night: Pay 30,000 points per bedroom per night
- Over $500 per bedroom per night: You cannot book these with Wyndham points.
- In most cases, there are no other taxes or fees to pay (but in certain situations you may be charged a pet fee or resort fee).
Wyndham Earner 10% Discount
If you have a Wyndham Earner card, you’ll automatically get a 10% discount on all award stays, including when booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals. With a card, therefore, the cost goes down to either 13,500 or 27,000 points per bedroom per night. You can read about Wyndham Earner cards here. My favorite Wyndham card is the $95 per year Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card. It offers 15,000 points each year when you renew (which more than offsets the annual fee), plus Wyndham Diamond status, plus the ability to earn 8 points per dollar at gas stations and at Wyndham properties (and 5x for marketing, advertising, and utilities).
Price Example 1A: 1 Bedroom, 6 Nights, $1,560 Cash Rate
Suppose you find a 1 bedroom unit that costs $1,560 after fees, for 6 Nights:
- Total cost: $1,560
- Cost per bedroom per night = $1,560 / 1 bedroom / 6 nights = $260 per bedroom per night.
- Since the cost per bedroom per night is over $250, you would pay 30,000 points per bedroom per night (boo!).
- Total point cost = 30,000 x 1 bedrooms x 6 nights = 180,000 points
- If you have any of the three Wyndham Earner cards, you’ll get a 10% discount and so the total price will be 180,000 x .9 = 162,000 points
- Your per point value for this stay would be $1,560.00 / 162,000 = less than 1 cent per point. That’s not good.
Price Example 1B: 1 Bedroom, 10 Nights, $2,450 Cash Rate
Longer stays usually result in lower average per night costs. So, lets suppose that’s true with the same unit from the first example above. Let’s say that a 10 night stay costs a total of $2,450 for this 1 bedroom unit:
- Total cost: $2,450
- Cost per bedroom per night = $2,450 / 1 bedroom / 10 nights = $245 per bedroom per night.
- Since the cost per bedroom per night is under $250, you would pay 15,000 points per bedroom per night.
- Total point cost = 15,000 x 1 bedrooms x 10 nights = 150,000 points
- If you have any of the three Wyndham Earner cards, you’ll get a 10% discount and so the total price will be 150,000 x .9 = 135,000 points
- Your per point value for this stay would be $2,450.00 / 135,000 points = 1.8 cents per point. That’s excellent.
Price Example 2: 2 Bedroom, 5 Nights, $2,300 cash rate
Suppose you find a 2 bedroom unit that costs $2,300 after fees, for 5 Nights:
- Total cost: $2,300
- Cost per bedroom per night = $2300 / 2 bedrooms / 5 nights = $230 per bedroom per night
- Since the cost per bedroom per night is under $250, you would pay 15,000 points per bedroom per night.
- Total point cost = 15,000 x 2 bedrooms x 5 nights = 150,000 points
- If you have any of the three Wyndham Earner cards, you’ll get a 10% discount and so the total price will be 150,000 x .9 = 135,000 points
- Your per point value for this stay would be $2,300.00 / 135,000 points = 1.7 cents per point. That’s very good.
Price Example 3: 3 Bedroom, 7 Nights, $5,460 cash rate
Suppose you find a 3 bedroom unit that costs $5,460 after fees, for 7 Nights:
- Total cost: $5,460
- Cost per bedroom per night = $5,460 / 3 bedrooms / 7 nights = $260 per bedroom per night
- Since the cost per bedroom per night is over $250, you would pay 30,000 points per bedroom per night (boo!).
- Total point cost = 30,000 x 3 bedrooms x 7 nights = 630,000 points
- If you have any of the three Wyndham Earner cards, you’ll get a 10% discount and so the total price will be 630,000 x .9 = 567,000 points
- Your per point value for this stay would be $5,460.00 / 567,000 points = less than 1 cent per point. That’s not good.
Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals
Finding Rentals
You can use Vacasa’s website to find available rentals. Start your search here: www.vacasa.com/search?maxbeds=1&place=/usa/. This link filters to rentals in the U.S. with a maximum of 1 bedroom. If you want more than 1 bedroom, change the filter, but keep in mind that 2 bedroom units cost twice as many points. And, of course, change the location and dates to where you want to go and when you want to travel.
A trick for finding big units that are listed as 1 bedroom is to set the following filters:
- Max Bedrooms: 1
- Min Bathrooms: 2 (or whatever number you think you’ll need)
- Number of guests: 6 (put in a number slightly larger than the number of people in your party). This is the key to weeding out small units.
Which rentals are bookable with points?
Vacation rentals are bookable with points as long as they cost $500 per bedroom per night, or less. Once you find a rental of interest, input your desired dates and view the total cost of the stay. Divide that number by the number of bedrooms and also by the number of days. If the final number is less than $500, then it should be possible to book that unit with points.
For example, take a look at the four night stay shown above for $2,700. If this is a one bedroom unit, then you wouldn’t be able to use points to book it since $2,700 / 1 bedroom / 4 nights = $675. That’s more than $500 per bedroom per night. However, if its a 2 bedroom unit, it would be bookable with points since it comes to $337.50 per bedroom per night.
Call to book
Call: 1-800-441-1034.
Wyndham has a dedicated phone line for Vacasa reservations and no longer accepts reservations by email. In my experience it is very easy to book over the phone: a friendly agent picked up the phone immediately when I called.
Cancellation Policy
Cancel 30 or more days before your stay for a full refund of points. Within 30 days all of your points are forfeit.
Wyndham Vacasa booking process: step by step
Here’s the step by step process that I recommend:
- Start your search here: www.vacasa.com/search?maxbeds=1&place=/usa/
This link filters to a maximum of 1 bedroom. If you want more than 1 bedroom, change the filter, but keep in mind that 2 bedroom units cost twice as many points. - Use the Vacasa website to find properties that are available for cash rates for your dates of interest.
- Make sure that the average cost for your stay of interest is less than $500 per bedroom per night inclusive of taxes and fees.
- Call 1-800-441-1034 to book the stay (they no longer accept bookings via email)
- Put a reminder on your calendar 31 days or more before your stay to remind you to cancel if it doesn’t look like the stay will work out. Bookings are non-refundable within 30 days.
Wyndham Vacasa FAQ
Where are Vacasa Vacation Rentals located?
Vacasa offers rentals in the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica.
Is it possible to put an award stay on hold?
No.
Do I have to pay any taxes or fees when paying with points?
In most cases, no. All of those annoying fees, including cleaning fees, are included when you pay with points. That said, some readers have reported being charged resort fees or pet fees in some situations.
Is it possible to use points from multiple guests for a single stay?
No. In the past it has been possible but recent reader reports suggest otherwise.
How can I get points quickly to cover a stay?
There are a couple of ways to add points to your Wyndham account quickly:
- Buy points. Wyndham usually charges 1.3 cents per point, but they frequently put points on sale for just under 1 cent per point. There is usually a cap to the number of points you can buy and so it may make sense for more than one person in your party to buy points to cover a stay. If you go that route, make sure that each point-buyer has enough points to cover 1 or more nights.
- Transfer points 1 to 1 from Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Miles, or Caesars Rewards (but this last option can take many weeks to complete).
If you have more time you can wait for a sale on points, or sign up for credit cards that offer big welcome bonuses. Wyndham cards that sometimes have big bonuses are: Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card, and Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card. Cards where points can be transferred to Wyndham and which often have big bonuses are: Citi Premier, Capital One Venture Rewards, Capital One Venture X, Capital One Spark Miles for Business, Capital One Venture X Business.
Do Wyndham Earner cardholders get a 10% discount?
Yes! Wyndham Earner cardholders get a 10% discount on award stays, including Vacasa Vacation Rentals. As a result, cardholders pay either 13,500 or 27,000 (instead of 15,000 or 30,000) points per bedroom per night. See: New Wyndham Earner credit cards review – Surprisingly strong.
Can I book a stay for someone else?
Yes, when booking the stay let the reservation agent know who’s name the stay should be in.
What is the cancellation policy for award bookings?
Cancel 30 or more days before your stay for a full refund of points. Within 30 days all of your points are forfeit.
How far in advance can I book a Vacasa stay with Wyndham points?
Stays booked with points can be booked up to 12 months in advance. H/T Brian.
The unit I’m interested in is listed as having 0 bedrooms. Does that mean it’s free with points?
I wish! No, 0 bedroom units are treated as 1 bedroom units for point awards.
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Just completed 2 bookings – each a 1 bedroom 1 bath Tier 2 (ski areas in ski season) and paid 27k points per night (I have the earner CC) which made sense as the average price per night was under $250. However, a third property at $325 per night was unbookable with points (for 2 nights it cost $1300 because of ridiculous fees). I certainly don’t feel like I got outsized value but vacasa is a way to book a home (with kitchen, laundry, space) with points.
I do encourage future FM discussions of vacasa to include the tiered levels as that information is not as readily accessible on the internet.
I recently booked a 30k point/night stay and just realized I didn’t get the 27k rate despite having the business earner cc. Did you have to ask for the discount?
Nancy – they acknowledged my platinum Wyndham status on the call proactively for discount.
Thanks for the quick reply, Mary! Looks like I have a phone call to make today. 🙂
I wonder why they would make the $250, and $500 tier levels to include taxes and fees when booking with points does not incur any taxes. What a massive devaluation and decreased usefulness of Wyndham points.
Was just about to post the same thing.
Here is my question. Can I book for, say a week and use my Wyndham reward Points for half the time and pay outright with regular funds for the other half?
I don’t know
Gents, my wife and I each have our own Wyndham account, for 2 player modes. Do you know, are wyndham points shareable between two accounts? If not, can I book a Vacasa trip (120k points total), by using 100k points from my wyndham account, and 20k from my wife’s account? This is the situation I’ll likely be in next summer
Unfortunately no. You can each separately make back to back reservations and they may be able to link them together for you (not sure about that part) but you’ll each need to have enough points in your own account for the reservation made with your points.
So do I take the total cost for all nights including resort fee, damage waiver, cleaning fee, booking fee, nightly fee and taxes, and then divide that total by number of nights to see if it is < $250 or > $250???
Thanks in advance!
Yes. Divide by both number of nights AND number of bedrooms
I did a few test bookings on the Vacasa website and the price they list before you click is about half the total price after you choose the dates and they add the fees and taxes. I couldn’t find any 1 bedroom units on Kauai that were under the $250 limit per bedroom. Am I doing something wrong?
No. You aren’t going to find that price point on Kauai at least not anymore (at least for Vacasa). Wyndham was showing some 15K availability this summer at Bali Hai and other STR…ish properties. I just booked the Club Wyndham Ka Eo Kai near Princeville for 15K points per night this summer. Hotel was throwing off $350+ per night. Kauai has good options for Wyndham points.
Right. Even when the one-bedroom cap on Vacasa was $500/night last year, it was difficult to find condos on Maui. I eventually found a rather ordinary one, and got it just barely under $500 by staying 6 nights. I would think it hopeless to find ANY one-bedroom in Hawaii now for $250 on that platform. Maybe in Hilo if they have a listing there?
The Club Wyndhams can be booked for 15K if you can find them, but your odds are low. Not impossible, but you’ll probably need both flexibility and luck.I found two on Kauai this past winter, but I doubt I could get that lucky again. And, remember, while these properties were going for about $600/night, they were only good, not great. Hawaii is massively overpriced now, so if you want to use points for a “dream vacation,” go elsewhere.
There was a post in the Frequent miler facebook group that vacasa was charging 30,000 for a 1 bedroom booking that is less than $250 a night. Vacasa said it was some kind of odd okking fee. Can FM team expand on that a bit??
Wyndham confirmed to me that that shouldn’t have happened and they’re investigating. I asked the individuals involved if I could share their contact info with Wyndham for this investigation but neither has replied.
Here’s a link to my bad experience with Wyndham not honoring the new cap.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36182971-post31.html
Question about Pet Fees. If a Pet Fee takes the total price either >$250 or >$500/bdrm/nt, can we purposefully leave off the Pet Fee, then wait to get the Vacasa confirmation email, then call back in to amend the reservation and pay the Pet Fee via a credit card?
Isn’t Stephen Pepper traveling everywhere with a dog right now? This would be important for him to look into.
Thanks!
I’m not actually sure what happens in that particular scenario as we’ve never happened to have an instance where having our dog with us would’ve pushed us over the threshold for allowable amounts. We’ve therefore always advised that we’ll have a dog with us.
Having said that, I have a suspicion that the pet fee might not count towards the threshold, but I’m far from certain about that. When looking on the Vacasa website, it does incorporate the pet fee with all the other costs, but when booking a Vacasa stay with Wyndham points they redeem your points for the accommodation itself, then you get a separate email later that day with the cost of the pet fee and phone number to call in order to pay that separately.
All that said, if bringing a dog with you would push you over one of those thresholds, it could certainly be worth doing as you suggested – book without your pup and then call in later to add them.
Really disappointing that they slashed the redemption values in half in just 1 year.
I got some awesome value on a weekend trip to Martha’s Vineyard last year. Vacasa was the only option I could find that would allow me to book the stays with points. I managed to rebook at just under the $350/night threshold last month (13,500 pts/night), but it looks like I would only be able to do it at 30k points going forward.
Just got off a reservation booking and the agent gave me the “current” guidelines for point usage. They now divide properties into “Tier 1″ and Tier 2” properties. A Tier 1 property is defined as a price of $250/night and under (with all costs included) and Tier 2 is anything $251 or over per night. A Tier 1 property will be 15,000 points per night. A Tier 2 property uses 15,000 points per bedroom per night.
Do you mean:
” A Tier 2 property uses 30,000 points per bedroom per night.
I just called the reservation line and was told a $500 a night property with two bedrooms would be 60,000 points a night.
Looks like the new price is exactly as Greg described. Not sure we should use Wyndham points to book vacasa anymore. It seems we can’t get much value out of it.
new pricing is in force
have you called
Yes
does the earner business card also give the 10% bonus?
Yes (all earner cards get a 10% discount on Wyndham award bookings)
Anyone able to get to the page to buy points? I’m not able to.
I find it odd that only the business Wyndham card is now showing on the Barclays credit card page.