New Details Revealed for Expedia’s Upcoming Loyalty Program [Hotels.com, Orbitz & More]

Expedia Group announced last year that it would establish a new loyalty program that encompassed all of its brands. Now, we have more details, including a name and a firm(er) launch date.

Here’s everything you need to know!

Program Details

The upcoming program will be called One Key and will launch in 2023.

The Expedia Group owns a variety of well-known travel sites, and while some of these brands have existing loyalty programs, many don’t, so One Key will be their first venture into this space.

All of Expedia Group’s brands (listed below) will be included in One Key:

There’s a wide variety of travel represented here, including flights, hotels, cruises, activities, and car rentals. Expedia’s One Key will allow you to earn and redeem rewards for all of these different purchases. However, as of now, there’s no information on how it’ll be structured.

Expedia’s Existing Loyalty Programs

As we mentioned above, Expedia Group has a few different providers that already have loyalty programs. Probably the most lucrative of these is Hotels.com, which offers a free night after spending 10 nights (booked through the site) anywhere.

While not the best for those seeking elite status, it’s easy to earn and redeem these rewards for free hotel stays. Hotels.com also has its own elite status program, with 3 levels of membership that are based on how many nights you’ve stayed each year. You’ll see familiar perks as a top-tier Gold member, including early check-in, late check-out, and room upgrades.

Expedia Rewards also features a 3-tier system with the ability to earn up to 3 points per $1 spent on all eligible bookings. You’ll also get elite-like benefits at hotels such as free food and beverage credits and room upgrades.

However, plenty of Expedia’s other brands, such as VRBO and CarRentals.com, don’t have loyalty programs, which means you end up missing out when compared to booking directly (though obviously, a cheaper price would help mitigate this).

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What Does This Mean for Travelers?

It’s not clear what Expedia’s new One Key program will look like, so it’s hard to say — at this point — how it will affect travelers. It’s going to have to merge many different types of bookings into a single reward system, which means unique perks like Hotels.com’s 11th night free could fall by the wayside.

If we had to guess, it’ll probably be something similar to the Expedia Rewards program, which rewards you a fixed number of points per dollar. While this is certainly nice, especially for those brands without any existing perks, it would be a shame to see something like the Hotels.com free night disappear, if our assumptions come to pass.

However, this is especially good news for those who prefer home-sharing rather than hotels. Right, neither Airbnb nor VRBO offers any kind of rewards or loyalty program, so VRBO will soon have an edge over Airbnb once One Key launches. Will it be enough to sway Airbnb loyalists? We’ll see.

Final Thoughts

We now have some more information about Expedia Group’s upcoming loyalty program, which will unify all of the group’s brands — including sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, CarRentals.com, and VRBO — into a single system.

We still don’t know everything yet, though, including how it’ll actually work, so it remains to be seen if it will be a strong program. For now, though, keep an eye out for One Key launching next year, and we’ll be sure to update you when we have more information!