Hotels.com reward nights expire in April

BiggaThanBen

Obviously I won't be able to book and stay now, is there any way to prevent them from expiring ?
There is no related information on their website and you can't speak to CS unless you have an existing booking.

fifeken

Do you get any joy from the phone numbers on the website or is it them saying they won't help without a booking?

Sharon87

You can book a future night beyond April, book a free cancellation room and if you cancel it later it'll still appear in your account (at least it did with me once). If you have any plans for the next year you can use it.

Or you can ask hotels.com if they can extend it. Would you have used it before April expiry even if we weren't on lockdown?

BiggaThanBen

Do you get any joy from the phone numbers on the website or is it them saying they won't help without a booking?

"Please only call if you are within 72 hours of check-in so we can prioritise immediate bookings. Thank you."

BiggaThanBen

Sharon87 said:

You can book a future night beyond April, book a free cancellation room and if you cancel it later it'll still appear in your account (at least it did with me once). If you have any plans for the next year you can use it.

Or you can ask hotels.com if they can extend it. Would you have used it before April expiry even if we weren't on lockdown?

Was it long time ago, I think they had the "must book and stay by .." policy for a while, free cancellation would definitely not work now.
I can't ask them to extend it as there is no way to contact them without an existing booking at the moment.
I think I will just follow someone's advice here and book a night in Vietnam at £2 per room.

Sharon87

Ah I see what you mean, you've not booked in a while. Yes the £2 room will help keep them from expiring.

scragend

BiggaThanBen said:

Obviously I won't be able to book and stay now, is there any way to prevent them from expiring ?
There is no related information on their website and you can't speak to CS unless you have an existing booking.

My Hotels.com account says "(Due to COVID-19 we will be extending nights and reward* nights due to expire between April 2020 and September 2020 by 6 months. Please allow up to a few weeks for this to reflect in your account)."

So if yours expire in April this should become October. Mine were due to expire on 21 Sep 2020, so in theory they should extend that until March 2021. It isn't showing up yet but I'll keep checking.

Shelldean

Just got the following in an email!...

We know that you are unlikely to be thinking about booking travel in the near term, but we want to make sure you are able to take full advantage of your Hotels.com Rewards membership when you are able to travel again. To ensure that you don’t lose your Hotels.com Rewards benefits and status during this COVID-19 crisis, we have made some updates to our normal policies.

Your Hotels.com Rewards membership

• We have paused the expiration of any collected nights or reward1 nights due to expire between 1 Apr 2020 and 31 Dec 2020.

• We’ll extend all Gold and Silver memberships that are up for renewal between 1 Feb 2020 – 31 Jan 2021 for an additional year.

• Plus, we’re giving you more time to qualify for Gold or Silver membership. We’ll assess nights stayed in the previous 24 months to see whether you qualify for the next level of membership by your new renewal date.

You don’t need to do anything. Remember, you can check your Hotels.com Rewards activity anytime, anywhere on our website or mobile app. Please note that, for now, your Hotels.com Rewards account will still display the original expiry date for any nights collected.

Supporting your travel needs

• As well as offering free cancellation on most properties*, we have simplified the cancellation process by building self-serve options for certain types of bookings. See more information

• For those with existing bookings, we’re continuously working with our travel partners to do everything we can to offer refunds or vouchers on non-refundable bookings.

• We are truly sorry if you experienced long wait times to speak to our call centre as we’re dealing with unprecedented demand. Rest assured that we’re working diligently to give our customers the best possible service for each booking and provide a resolution for every situation. If you still need to contact us, please only call us within 10 days of check-in, so we can prioritise the most urgent cases.

We’ll continue to monitor the evolving situation and communicate any additional updates to our policies. We’re committed to keeping you informed and taking care of you as a valued Hotels.com Rewards member.

Stay safe and well.

BiggaThanBen

Yeah I got it too, but too late. Anyway £1.50 booking for a night on Vietnam did the trick and extended it for one year.