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
Last year, Vacasa announced plans to merge with another vacation rental management company, Casago. Reports suggest that this was at least partially a result of Vacasa’s poor financial situation. The combined entity will be known as Casago and we don’t yet know for certain what the impact will be on the ability to use Wyndham points
Reader Quinn tried booking a Vacasa property in Pigeon Forge, TN and was advised that wasn’t possible. After following up with Vacasa, they were advised “Following Casago’s acquisition of Vacasa, recent changes to their booking systems and processes are impacting availability, which is affecting our ability to book properties in some markets. Unfortunately, Pigeon Forge, TN is one of those destinations.” Based on that phrasing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Pigeon Forge and other regions won’t be bookable in the future. Hopefully it’s just some kind of temporary system limitation that’ll get resolved.
A potentially even more disappointing development is that it might not be possible to book properties as far in advance as in the past. Reader Jeff called Vacasa last week to book a property for July next year. However, they were informed that you now can’t book a Vacasa property with Wyndham points more than six months in advance and that this is a recent policy change. Assuming that phone rep is correct, that’s could be a massive issue for those who like to book accommodation far in advance and/or those who don’t have much flexibility with their travel dates. Properties in desirable areas can get booked up quickly, so if you’re looking to book somewhere far ahead of time for, say, a holiday period or during peak summer dates, not being able to do that more than six months in advance could lock you out of your preferred options.
Please let us know in the comments if you have similar issues, or if you have new data points countering what the agents informed these readers.
Vacasa / Wyndham Overview (and Casago merger)
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.
Last year, Vacasa announced plans to merge in Q2 2025 with another vacation rental management company, Casago. Reports suggest that this was at least partially a result of Vacasa’s poor financial situation. The combined entity post-merger will be known as Casago.
Vacasa has a much bigger portfolio of total properties that it manages, but Casago has a larger proportion of its footprint located in Mexico and the Caribbean. We don’t yet know for certain what the impact will be on the ability to use Wyndham points for these vacation rentals, but the additional choices from Casago would be welcome if they become bookable within Wyndham’s current pricing structure. Whatever long-term future the partnership holds, we anticipate that points reservations made before the merger is complete will likely still be honored post-merger.
Point Price
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.
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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Another DP to back up your update on 8/26, I too am trying to make a booking in the same Great Smoky Mountain area and tried giving a rep 8 different properties, they are all ineligibile for points reservations per the agent, following Casago’s acquisition of Vacasa certain geographical areas are blocked/not available.
Question please. A place I have my eye on is $1,274 total including tax for 5x nights. This comes up to $254.80 Does this mean it I cannot use 15,000 pts as its over $250 but rather 30k? Thanks
made a recent booking – but < 1 month out. No problems. West Coast. 13.5k/night
The easy-to-follow six month thing I can easily live with, but the “maybe you can book it, maybe you can’t” is more irritating as you have to deal with the phantom inventory problem (you do all the legwork to find the property but — surprise — you can’t actually book it).
Honestly, the Vacasa redemption option became much less useful to me once they imposed the $250/bedroom cap since: 1) US real estate is very expensive which makes home rentals and even hotel rooms usually exhorbitant; 2) in an expensive real estate world, Vacasa is even more expensive. Very few Vacasa rental properties are worth more than $250/bedroom, so I’m not willing to pay 2x that to get to the $500/bedroom cap. For that, you might as well use your points at a nice all inclusive, like the TRS Coral outside of Cancun (27,000 Wyndham points for 2 people at a 4 or 5 star resort with free food and drink). Club Wyndham (timeshare) resorts are also great to use your points at, but inventory is often non-existent at most properties.
Called yesterday to book a property on the central California coast and rep confirmed the max booking window was 6 months out. Also confirmed that the property I was interested in was bookable on points, but that others had become unavailable. When asked, rep said they didn’t have any “update” at the moment about future changes.
Successfully booked post-merger but dates were close in – not over 6months out. Rates per bedroom were typical (15k per bedroom in my case) and 10% discount on points still applied.
Can confirm the six month limitation as well based on an attempt to book a property this morning. Thankfully, it appears our existing reservation made greater than 6 months ago is still being honored.
We used Vacasa a couple of years ago to book an amazing rental on Kauai, Hawaii that’s no longer bookable under the current pricing. This program has been continually devalued to the point that its ongoing value is very questionable going forward based on our travel profile, as we tend to make reservations far in advance because we travel often during peak season.
I guess I really lucked out. We are going in January 2026 to Hawaii for 8 nights. I made the reservation on July 23rd. All the confirmations came right thru. Everything is included.
Just rented our first Vacasa with points and were woefully disappointed in the property. Called to complain that all outdoor spaces were so dirty they were unusable – front porch, screened porch and patio/firepit/hot tub area. Their solution was to send a guy with a blower. He really needed to power wash from top down. Too many issues to list with inside the home. Once home, I found the listing of when this house sold is 2019 and photos were exactly the same! They have owned for 6 years and virtually updated NOTHING!
Getting a hold of anyone is beyond frustrating, but I want my points back. Has anyone has a similar experience?
Rented July 4 week 2024 and the private pool at the house was so murky, you could not see the bottom. Called daily and they sent people but it never got fixed. I complained and they gave me “some” points back. Maybe 10% – 20% of them. Think closer to 10%.
Yeah, this sucks. Our favorite redemptions are all going up in cost on January 1 and are getting significant minimum stay requirements. I wonder if booking with Wyndham points doesn’t end sometime next year
This is a disappointing development as I regularly book desirable Vacasa properties with Wyndham points 365 days in advance.
Moving forward, what would you think of this approach: book the desired property with cash 12+ months in advance and then, at the 6-month mark, cancel the cash booking and rebook with points (assuming the property is still priced for a points booking)? :-/
Problem is it would cost you a lot of money. You have only 24 hrs to get a full refund. Then, “cancel at least 30 days before check-in and receive a refund in your original form of payment, minus the booking fee and associated taxes.” Problem is the booking fee and taxes (which really should be refundable since they won’t be paid after a cancellation) and they are huge. I did a dummy booking to test this for a real-use scenario for myself at a condo in Kauai and for a final price of about $3k (good for 30k pts/night) the taxes and booking fee amounts to 283 in booking fees plus $474 in taxes. So the nonrefundable amoutn to hold this place comes out to $756!!! Not worth it, even if there were a guarantee that the condo would come back into inventory at the same price. Also there could well be an increase, I imagine, putting it out of price range. Based on my experiment, going this route is very costly, especially in a place like Kauai with lots of tourism taxes. Even without high taxes, the booking fee of almost $300 would be substantial on its own and not worth it.
Yikes! Having never booked a Vacasa with cash, I didn’t realize there was a nonrefundable part even outside of 30 days. Hmm. If the same property could be found on Airbnb or Vrbo and were fully refundable there, I suppose one could book it there 12+ months out and then cancel at the 6-month mark and rebook through Vacasa with Wyndham points. If that were possible, I do wonder, however, if there would be a negative impact on one’s Airbnb or Vrbo profile, potentially leading to hosts cancelling bookings that I *do* intend to keep (as I do occasionally use those platforms for cash bookings). I’ll have to research that a bit but would love if anyone has insights.
There are a lot of Airbnbs that don’t give full refunds. Beyond that there are a lot of ifs, including the very real possibility that even if it works as you plan the property will cost more by the time you book it bc there is scarce availability for that unit by then. I’ve notice that on Vacasa when looking at the same property the costs vary significantly week-to-week and day-to-day. They seem to use pricing formulas and those will probably work against you and make it tough to get those properties that rub near the (now lower) price limits. I don’t know and could be wrong, but I’m guessing that won’t work when you’re talking about getting desireable and tough-to-get properties, which is what you are talking about when you think you need to book more than 6 months ahead.
Yeah, I fear you may be right. Thanks for the reply. Hopefully this new 6-month restriction is only temporary. But I’m not holding my breath.
Others (above) noticed it is now in the published Terms and Conditions for Vacasa. It ain’t temporary.
Dang
Yes,this is my recent experience as well. Booked a Vacasa using points and got a confirmation from Vacasa as well, only to be told next day, that reservation is canceled and points refunded. Spoke with Customer Care and they couldn’t do much.
Just haven’t been able to find something on vacasa no matter how many times I’ve tried. The search feature is abysmal and when I finally land on something it’s never available.
I own a rental property managed by Vacasa/Casago. I recently had someone try to book it with prints, and the phone agent said it wasn’t eligible due to the merger.
I opened a support ticket, and about a week later the issue was corrected.
How does it work on setting rates? For example if you wanted to decrease or increase the price for a given week can you do that?
Just tried to call and cancel a booking we have in April and re-book it for June. We were told we could not book anything farther than 6 months out, and that yes, it was a new policy. I asked if they could move our reservation from April to June and was put on hold as she checked. When she came back, we were told yes, we could move it, but then when she tried to enter the dates in June into her system she was unable to bring up any availability even though I could clearly see the availability on the Vacasa website. So, it seems like they are still working out some issues on their end. I asked if we find another property would we be able to call back and try to move our April reservation to June and was told yes so, we will see if that works….. I’m skeptical.