Booking Vacasa Rental Properties with Wyndham Rewards

For some families, hotel rooms just don’t provide enough space. Or, if you plan on staying at a vacation destination for more than a few days, staying in a cramped hotel room can be exhausting. Plus, for the same price as many hotel rooms, there are services through which you can book an entire home, such as Vacasa.

Vacasa is a vacation rental management company through which you can book vacation rental stays in North America, Belize and Costa Rica. The properties available range from affordably priced studio apartments to mega-mansions that cost thousands per night. So, whatever your budget or your preferences are, there’s a property on Vacasa that will suit your needs.

One of the best features of Vacasa is the company’s partnership with the Wyndham Rewards program, which allows you to book Vacasa stays with Wyndham points. And purchasing vacation rental stays is actually a solid way to maximize the value of your Wyndham points (as we’ll demonstrate later in this article).

So, let’s dive into everything you need to know about redeeming Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rental stays, including how to earn Wyndham points, how to book stays through Vacasa with Wyndham points, how to save points on your redemptions with Wyndham credit cards and how much value these Vacasa redemptions provide.

What Is Vacasa?

Many readers may not be familiar with what Vacasa is and how this platform works. In a nutshell, Vacasa works in a very similar way to other popular vacation rental platforms, such as Airbnb or VRBO. The main difference between these platforms is that, while Airbnb and VRBO are simply listing platforms, Vacasa actually manages the properties that are listed on its platform and even offers other services to homeowners such as maintenance, customer service and interior design.

But, from a booking standpoint, Vacasa works more or less the same as other vacation rental booking platforms. All you have to do is go to their website and enter your desired vacation destination, your check-in and check-out dates and the number of guests you’ll be traveling with. Then, click the “Search” button and you’ll be presented with a list of results that match your search query.

You can also filter the results by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, type of property and certain amenities.

Vacasa has been around since 2009 and has steadily increased the number of properties that you can book through its platform. Today, Vacasa manages over 44,000 properties, including properties in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica.

What Is Wyndham Rewards?

The Wyndham Rewards program is the loyalty program of Wyndham Hotels, the world’s largest hotel chain with more than 9,000 properties. The Wyndham portfolio includes budget-friendly brands such as Super 8 and Travelodge as well as luxury options like Wyndham Grand and Dolce.

Through the Wyndham Rewards program, members can earn Wyndham points in a wide variety of ways, including staying at Wyndham-owned properties, signing up for a Wyndham co-branded credit card, transferring miles from the Capital One Rewards program (at a 1:1 ratio), making purchases through the Wyndham Rewards Shopping portal, renting cars with Avis and more.

These points can then be redeemed in a variety of ways, including vacation rental stays through Vacasa.

In order to help you rack up enough Wyndham points to purchase a Vacasa vacation rental stay, let’s take a closer look at the best ways to earn Wyndham Rewards points quickly.

How to Earn Wyndham Rewards Points

As we mentioned, there are plenty of ways to earn Wyndham Rewards points. However, some ways to earn points are far more effective than others. For instance, you’ll only earn 50 Wyndham points for eligible car rentals through Avis, so this method isn’t really worth paying attention to.

On the other hand, some ways to earn Wyndham points are very effective. The best way to earn Wyndham points quickly is to sign up for a Wyndham Rewards co-branded credit card.

Wyndham Credit Cards

Wyndham offers several co-branded credit cards that can help you rack up Wyndham points very quickly.

The following chart includes all of the currently available Wyndham credit cards, their annual fees, spending bonuses and other benefits:

On top of these benefits, each of the Wyndham co-branded credit cards offers a sign-up bonus of tens of thousands of Wyndham points for new cardmembers who spend a certain amount on their card in a certain time period after account opening. For instance, here’s the current welcome bonus for the Wyndham Earner Business Card:

As you can see, signing up for one of these Wyndham co-branded credit cards can help you earn enough points for a Vacasa vacation rental very quickly.

Transferring Miles From Capital One Rewards or Citi ThankYou Rewards

If you don’t like the idea of signing up for a credit card that earns Wyndham points, you can also earn Wyndham points by transferring either Capital One miles or Citi ThankYou points to the Wyndham Rewards program.

Capital One miles always transfer at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that you’ll receive 10,000 Wyndham points if you transfer 10,000 Capital One miles, for example. In order to transfer Capital One miles to transfer partners (including Wyndham Rewards), you’ll need to have one of the following Capital One credit cards:

• Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card ($0 intro annual fee for 12 months; then $95)
• Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business Card ($0 annual fee)
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Business ($395 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card ($395 annual fee)

All of these cards earn Capital One miles for eligible spending and allow you to transfer those points to the Wyndham Rewards program, which is definitely one of the best ways to earn enough Wyndham points for a Vacasa vacation rental.

Citi ThankYou points transfer to the Wyndham Rewards program at a 1:1 ratio only if you have the Citi Prestige Card ($495 annual fee) or the Citi Strata Premier® Card ($95 annual fee). Your Citi ThankYou points will transfer to the Wyndham Rewards program at 1:0.8 ratio if you have one of the following Citi credit cards:

• Citi Rewards+® Card
• Citi Custom Cash® Card

Staying at Wyndham Hotels

Another great way to earn Wyndham points is the most obvious: staying at Wyndham-owned hotels. Here are all of the hotel brands in the Wyndham portfolio with which you can currently earn Wyndham points:

You can also earn Wyndham points for booking stays at certain Caesars Entertainment partner hotels and casinos. Here are the Caesars hotels and casinos at which you can earn Wyndham points:

In addition to staying at the hotel and casino brands listed above, you can earn Wyndham points by booking vacation rentals with certain brands:

As a Wyndham Rewards Blue member (the status tier that you’ll achieve just for signing up for the program), you’ll earn 10X points on stays with all of the brands listed above (or 1,000 points—whichever is more). You’ll earn 10% more points as a Gold member, 15% more as a Platinum member and 20% more as a Diamond member.

Plus, if you have a Wyndham co-branded credit card, you can stack the earnings from your credit card with the earnings from being a Wyndham Rewards member. For instance, if you had the Wyndham Earner Business Card, you’d earn 8X points on Wyndham hotel stays with that card on top of the 10X points you’d earn from being a Wyndham Rewards member for a total of 18X points.

How to Redeem Wyndham Points for Vacasa Vacation Rentals

Now that you’re aware of the best ways to earn Wyndham points, let’s talk about how you can redeem those points for vacation rentals through Vacasa. Unfortunately, at the current time, you can’t book Vacasa vacation rentals with Wyndham points online. The only way to redeem Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rentals is to call Wyndham’s dedicated phone line for Vacasa reservations at 800-441-1034.

Before you call this phone line, though, you should search the Vacasa website to find the property that you want to book and the dates that you want to book on. You should also write down the unit number to be as precise as possible. You may even want to write down a second property as a backup if your first-choice property isn’t available. This little bit of prep work will help ensure that the process will go smoothly once you’re on the phone.

How Many Points Per Night Do You Need?

When redeeming Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rentals, the number of points per night that you’ll need depends on the “Average Cost” (including taxes and fees) of the property that you’re trying to book per night (which is calculated on a yearly basis). Also be aware that rooms are priced per bedroom per night.

If the average cost per night at a property is $250 or less, the Wyndham points rate for that property will be 15,000 points per bedroom per night. If the average cost is between $250.01 and $500, the redemption will require 30,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night. If the average cost of a property per night is $500.01 or higher, that property will not be eligible for Wyndham points redemptions.

It’s worth noting that you won’t be required to pay taxes and fees in cash when booking Vacasa vacation rentals with Wyndham points.

Once you confirm your redemption with your Wyndham agent over the phone, you’ll receive a confirmation email, and the points will be immediately deducted from your account once you complete your booking.

Can I Get a Refund of Wyndham Points for Vacasa Rentals?

If you book a stay through Vacasa with Wyndham points and then cancel that stay more than 30 days before your check-in date, your points will be refunded in full. If you cancel your stay 30 days or fewer before your check-in, you won’t receive a refund.

Is Redeeming Wyndham Points for Vacasa Bookings a Good Deal?

On average, Wyndham points are valued at around 1.2 cents apiece. By redeeming Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rentals, it’s possible to beat that average if you’re savvy. As mentioned above, if the average cost per night of a property is $250 or less, that property will be bookable for 15,000 per night.

So, if a property costs $250 per night on average and you can book it for 15,000 points, that redemption would provide a value of 1.7 cents per point.

Properties that cost between $250.01 and $500 on average per night are bookable for 30,000 Wyndham points per night. And, if you were to book a stay that was $500 on average per night for 30,000 points per night, you’d also get a value of about 1.7 cents per point.

So, 1.7 cents per point is the maximum value that you’ll get when redeeming Wyndham points for Vacasa vacation rentals. However, if you want to get this maximum value, you’ll have to search for properties for which the average price is at the very top of each threshold. The best value is for properties with an average price per night of exactly $250 (or $249.99) or $500 (or $499.99) and the worst values are for properties with very low average cash rates (such as $50 per night) or for properties that have an average cash rate of slightly above $250 per night (such as $251 per night).

Tips for Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals With Wyndham Points

Booking Vacasa vacation rentals with Wyndham points is pretty straightforward. However, there are a few tips that you should be aware of when redeeming Wyndham points through Vacasa.

Filter for Properties With an Average Nightly Rate of Exactly $250 or $500

To maximize the value of your Wyndham points when redeeming for Vacasa stays, you should look for properties with an average nightly rate of either exactly $250 or exactly $500.

Luckily, the Vacasa search engine has a feature where you can filter for price. Using this feature, you can find properties that hit these price points exactly. To do so, simply input $250 (or $500, whichever you’re looking for) as the minimum and maximum price and click the “Update” button.

Then, the Vacasa search engine will display only properties that are at that exact price point. Thus, you’ll be able to easily find properties that offer the maximum amount of value possible through the Vacasa-Wyndham partnership.

Transfer Points from Capital One or Citi While on the Phone With an Agent

One major mistake to avoid when transferring either Citi points or Capital One miles is completing your transfer before you’re certain that you can make your desired redemption.

For instance, imagine that you transfer 30,000 Citi points to Wyndham Rewards with the intention of purchasing a specific Vacasa vacation rental stay. However, once you complete your transfer, you call the dedicated Wyndham-Vacasa phone line and discover that the vacation rental property you wanted to book is no longer available. Then, you’re just stuck with 30,000 Wyndham points that you don’t know what to do with instead of 30,000 Citi points (which can be redeemed in a much wider variety of ways than Wyndham points).

To avoid such a situation, if you plan on transferring points or miles to Wyndham and then using them for Vacasa redemptions, we recommend making your transfer while on the phone with your Vacasa booking agent.

Once you confirm over the phone that your desired Vacasa redemption is available, you can initiate the transfer and then have your agent confirm when the transfer is complete and the points have landed in your Wyndham account. Then, they can immediately redeem those points for your desired Vacasa stay.

Using this tip, you should never find yourself in a situation where you’ve completed a points transfer and you can’t book your desired Vacasa award stay.

The Bottom Line

Redeeming Wyndham points for vacation rental stays through Vacasa is a solid way to get good value out of your points. Unfortunately, if you want to make these redemptions, the only way to do so is to call the dedicated Vacasa-Wyndham phone line at 800-441-1034 with information about your desired vacation rental property at the ready.

Vacasa vacation rental redemptions come at two price points: properties with an average cash price of between $0 and $250 per night, which require 15,000 Wyndham points per night and properties with an average cash price of between $250.01 and $500 per night, which require 30,000 Wyndham points per night. If you want to get the maximum value out of your Wyndham points, you should try to find stays that are on the upper ends of these cash price ranges (which is easy to do using the price filter feature on the Vacasa website). Vacasa properties with average cash prices of over $500 per night aren’t bookable with Wyndham points.