Update March 31: The 50% off hotel reward nights has been extended to April 30, 2011. (See comments for this post for announcement from Peter Gorla).
Voila Hotel Rewards has a new promotion for earning up to a maximum 10,000 bonus points for hotel stays from February 25 through May 31, 2011. Registration is required. There are 191 hotels globally participating in this promotion.
New enrollees in Voila Hotel Rewards will receive 1,000 bonus points upon registration in hotel loyalty program.
Voila Rewards normal earn rate is 10 points per US$1. The maximum 10,000 points bonus is equivalent to base points earned from $1,000 in hotel spend.
Earn 2,500 points for every stay of two nights or more.
- Stay 2 nights and earn 2,500 points
- Stay 4 nights and earn 5,000 points
- Stay 6 nights and earn 7,500 points
- Stay 8 nights and earn 10,000 points.
The wording for this promotion is not really clear. The promotion terms state bonus points are only for stays of two nights or more. What is unclear is if stays are cumulative? For example, if I stay two nights at Hotel A and then complete a three night stay at Hotel B and then another three night stay at Hotel C, then I have stayed 8 nights total. But it does not appear to me that the stays are cumulative. I think these three stays for 8 nights earn 3 x 2,500 points for 7,500 total bonus points. (See update below for clarification from Peter Gorla, Voila VP)
I have asked and I am waiting for clarification from Voila Rewards. The one rule that is clear is the maximum bonus per member is 10,000 points for the promotion period.
Update March 10: Peter Gorla, Vice President Voila Marketing, responded in the comments of this post that nights stayed during the promotion period are cumulative. This changes my example given above to 8 nights over 3 hotel stays earns 10,000 bonus points.
50% off Reward Nights
A second promotion of Voila Hotel Rewards offers a 50% discount on reward nights through March 31.
Voila Hotel Rewards are a monetary based redemption system. Points have a set range of value for redeeming free nights. This opportunity in March doubles the value of your points for free nights.
Link:Â http://www.vhr.com/default.aspx?p=79
Loyalty Traveler Analysis
Voila Hotel member The York Hotel in Sydney, Australia has its room rate posted as AUD$325.81 per night for March 15-17, 2011. The normal rate shown for this redemption should be 35,000 points for a room rate between $300 and $349.
The Voila Hotel Rewards website shows the hotel costs 15,750 points for each free night for a room that is US$330.22.
31,500 Voila points = US$660.
The value of Voila points is $20.95 per 1,000 points in this example.
Extrapolate this value to the promotion earning opportunity for 10,000 bonus points on 8 nights and the 10,000 bonus points are valued around US$210.
Several Voila hotel members I checked in Spain have room rates under $80 per night. Four stays of two nights could be achieved for about $650 in Spain.
$650 x 10 points/$1 = 6,500 Voila Rewards base points.
Four 2-night stays by May 31 earns 10,000 bonus points.
16,500 Voila Rewards points has a redemption value of $330 in the Australia hotel example.
Bottom line: The combination of the Voila Hotel Rewards bonus points promotion and discounted reward redemption makes a 50% rebate possible on hotel stays while these promotions overlap. Even members who are spending an average of $160 per night for Voila Hotel stays can expect to see up to 25% rebate in redemption value during the discounted reward promotion through March 31.
Of course the redemption discount ending March 31 while the earning bonus goes through May 31, 2011 creates time period difficulties for members who do not currently have a high points balance to tap for discounted rewards.
From my Loyalty Traveler analysis I see good potential value in Voila Hotel Rewards for members in Europe and other global regions where most of the hotels are located. Voila just recently signed its first two hotels in the U.S.
While you may not be able to earn points in time for this month’s discounted rewards, I see good potential for high value in Voila Hotel Rewards points in the future.
Related post: Loyalty Traveler review of Voila Hotel Rewards (Jan 11, 2011)
Stay tuned next week when I will post a special offer from Stash Hotel Rewards, a U.S. based  hotel loyalty program that is rapidly expanding its network of independent and boutique hotel members across the U.S.
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