Success: Using Wyndham Points to Book a Vacasa Property in Florida

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Like many of you, I was really excited when I got an email from Wyndham announcing new partnership with Vacasa.com At least in theory, we now have access to 15,000 more properties, for a relatively reasonable 15,000 points per bedroom/ per night. Well, if you can stomach dealing with Wyndham, that is…

So, I wasn’t surprised when I saw this post on Frequent Miler, detailing his “adventures” and ultimately getting nowhere. But as a self-respecting hobby masochist, I just had to give it a shot myself. And it worked!

Where is Vacasa city anyway?

I tried to call Vacasa company directly in order to bypass “famous” Wyndham customer service. No dice. I was directed to call 1-866-996-7937, which I did. But first, I went to Vacasa.com and did a search for a  property close to beach, located in my state of Florida.

Pretty straightforward, just type in a state or city

The post on Frequent Miler suggested that perhaps Wyndham will only let you book a  1-bedroom property via Vacasa.com that costs less than $175 per night, so I’ve decided to test that hypothesis (more on that later).

I found a rental that I liked with a rate of $174 per night, plus cleaning and booking fees. Many properties on Vacasa have a minimum stay requirement (4 nights in my case). Our stay will take place over Thanksgiving, unless we are able to fly to South America instead. I won’t share the listing because I would be giving away my address. Sorry!

The Wyndham rep was friendly, but had no clue what I was talking about. She kept asking me which state the city of Vacasa is located at. I told her it’s a company Wyndham partners with, and she finally got it. Someone on Flyertalk.com suggested asking for supervisor right away, and that might be a good strategy.

The booking process

Wyndham agents aren’t able to book Vacasa, at least not yet. Instead, they take down all the details of your stay and promise that someone will call within 24 hours to let you know if it’s available. So don’t get excited just yet.

Sure enough, I did get a call from Vacasa agent the following day. Interestingly,  the call center is located in Canada. She was friendly and told me the place is indeed available and she can book it for 60,000 points total. Here are the questions I asked that I’m sure many of you want to know the answers to:

1) Are you on the hook for cleaning and booking fees that Vacasa website shows when you do a cash reservation?

According to her, no. She did say that one might get charged for pet fees etc, but cleaning fee is baked into the 15,000 points per night rate. That’s great news!

2) Is there a limit on how much the rental can cost for it to qualify for redemption?

No, kind of. She said as long as it’s not subject to blackout dates, it can cost whatever. This is where it gets fuzzy.

3) Can you find out when the blackout dates apply to the destination you are interested in?

Unfortunately, no. You have to call Wyndham and go through the whole process. I recommend giving several dates if you have flexibility. For what it’s worth, Vacasa rep told me that Florida isn’t showing any blackout dates at the moment.

So, it stands to reason that it’s not up to individual property. But who knows? I have my eye on another rental for March of 2022, but won’t be able to book it until I get renewal points from our Wyndham credit cards.

4) Do all 1-bedroom properties cost 15,000 points per night?

According to this rep, yes. Now, it’s entirely possible and even likely that this will eventually change. After all, most nice Wyndham properties cost 30,000 points per night.

5) What is the cancellation policy?

As long as you cancel 30 days prior to your stay, you get the full refund of your points. No other fees of any kind. Not as flexible as hotels, but in line with AirBnB.

Bottom line

While the process wasn’t as straightforward as I would like it to be, I’m thrilled with my redemption. I got a sweet rental in a low-key beach destination with a separate bedroom that will give me and my husband some privacy. The cost in cash would be $995, factoring in fees. So, I can’t complain.

I was debating on whether I should cancel our Wyndham cards, but will definitely keep them now. Me and my husband each get 15,000 points after paying a renewal fee of $69 (old version). As you can see, a no-brainer, even after you factor in booking hassle.

Happy hunting.

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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.