Alliteration aside, booking Vacasa properties with Wyndham properties is something you should be aware of as it provides exceptional value, such as our stay in Provincetown. Photo by: Evan Berman

During my review of the Wyndham Earner Business Card, I alluded to the amazing deal that is using Wyndham points to book Vacasa rentals. Recall that Wyndham is a transfer partner of Capital One and while transferring points to hotel brands (excluding Hyatt) is usually a bad idea, this can be a great use of Capital One points. I originally posted this article after my time staying in a Vacasa property, so I thought it would be prudent to share my experience booking and staying in this house. I have since stayed in Vacasa properties in Hawaii (both Kona and Honolulu) and Myrtle Beach and had great experiences in each. Unfortunately, I am updating this article as the maximum price for which points booking are eligible had decreased from $500 to $350. 🙁

What is Vacasa?

Vacasa is a competitor to Airbnb and Vrbo. They offer rentals in the US, Canada, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica, though most are in the Continental US. Wyndham has a partnership with Vacasa that allows people to redeem Wyndham points for a stay at a Vacasa property. A few things to note:

• Vacasa has high taxes and fees as do Airbnb and Vrbo. This is not an issue when booking with points.
• The points required for a stay are the only expenses. There is no cash payment required.
• The number of points per night is based on the number of bedrooms (15,000 points per bedroom per night).
  • However, the number of bedrooms are not always aligned with the number of beds. You will sometimes find a “1-bedroom” rental with 4 beds and bathrooms that sleeps 7.
• Not all properties are bookable using points every night. There is no set rule but the general guide is to stay under $500 $350 per night including taxes and fees.
  • This number is per bed. So, you’d want to be under $700 per night total for a 2-bed, $1,050 for a 3-bed, and so on.
  • To ensure the call goes well, I recommend you find a backup to your property so that if the agent tells you the property in unavailable for the night, you have another option ready to go.

Booking a Stay

Find the Properties Online

Before booking, you’ll need to search vacasa.com for the properties in your desired area. In this case, we were staying in Provincetown, MA for a wedding. As mentioned in point #3 above, not all “1-bedroom” properties have only 1 bed. Unfortunately, in this case, the best property for us was a true 2-bedroom and priced as such (30,000 points). I’m complaining but as evidenced above in the photo, we spent 90,000 points for a property that with all taxes and fees included would have been $2,334.80. That’s 2.59 cents per point (2,334.8/90,000*100=2.594)!

The reviews on Vacasa are usually not terribly helpful. As such, I cross-reference with reviews from booking.com or a similar site if they are available.

Call in to Book

If you’re like me, you want to do all of your booking/planning online. The fewer phone calls, the better! Unfortunately, you must call to book. However, the customer service agents are very competent in my experience and the calls are usually 20-30 minutes, including a short 5-15 minute wait time. Note that if you have a Wyndham credit card, your price will be only 13,500 points per bedroom per night. In any case, you must call in and give the agent the property number. This can be found at the bottom of the listing on vacasa.com.

The phone number for Vacasa bookings with Wyndham points is: 1-800-441-1034.

The agent will price it out and respond with one of two things:

• Ok great, I see this property is available. The price is x points for y night stay. Are you ready to book? Or…
• Unfortunately, we are not able to book this property for these nights. Would you like me to change the dates or find another property?

If you get the first answer, great! Either transfer the points from Capital One, buy the points online, or use the points already in your account to book. You may be able to place a hold but, in my experience, it’s best to have a plan to book before calling. The transfer from Capital One is instantaneous.

Data Points on Property Eligibility:

Unfortunately, this section is no longer relevant as the maximum price is now $350 including taxes and fees. I will keep the section for posterity. The point remains: you need to find the average price that is $350 or less per night on average.

If it’s the latter (property not available to book with points), that’s why I recommend having a backup plan in place. Either change the dates (if you are flexible) or give the agent the backup property. My data points were the following:

• For 3 nights, avg. price was $367. As expected, not available with points.
• For 4 nights Th-Mon, avg. price was $320. Available with points.
• For 4 nights Fri-Tu, avg. price was $348.25. Not available with points.

Once again, anything over $350/bedroom per night after taxes and fees is ineligible to to be booked with points.

Booking Confirmation:

After I transferred the 90,000 points from Capital One for our 3-night stay, the agent immediately saw them appear in my account. She booked the property, read me the agreement, and then told me it was confirmed. One thing I didn’t like was that I did not receive a confirmation email until several days after booking (find exact time).

New Property Needed:

All was well. I booked the stay back in November for our Memorial Day Weekend stay. The confirmation had arrived and we were ready to stay at the Mary Alden! Then, in February, I got a text and email saying that the property was no longer available for those dates. The owners were doing some sort of repair (and suspiciously, the property showed as booked on both Vacasa and booking.com even after we canceled. Not unavailable to rent but fully booked. Hmm…).

The Vacasa agent was gracious enough to offer us a free change to any other available property, regardless of price paid. Thankfully, another property had become available for rent and we were able to switch. It was frustrating that this occurred, especially for a Holiday weekend, but there’s not much to do and we ended up with a great property.

Experience with Stay:

I’ll be brief here and include a full review when discussing the Cape Cod Celebration. We had a nice stay. The day before, I received a text notifying me of the wi-fi password, lock code to get the house keys, and check-in time. At first, we were to arrive after 4pm. However, on the day of, I received another text at noon saying that I could check in any time I wished from that point onward.

The property was clean. While there was no AC, the windows allowed for a nice breeze. Both bedrooms were across from each other on the 2^nd floor, while everything else, including the bathroom, was on the 1^st floor. The main negative was having to go downstairs to use the bathroom when sleeping. The bedrooms were small but allowed for Queen sized beds. The kitchen was in good shape and there was even a little patio in the back with a grill, table, and fire pit. Overall, we were pleased with the property and if for some reason we had to return to Provincetown, this property would be a solid option.

Thoughts on Vacasa:

My first experience with using Wyndham points to book a Vacasa rental was solid. While there was an unpleasant surprise with being told 3 months out that we needed to find another rental, that seems more to be the owner’s fault rather than Vacasa. The value is great– 90,000 points for a 3-night stay over Memorial Day weekend is a solid deal (if I had gotten my Wyndham credit card prior to the booking, it would have been even cheaper at 81,000 points for 3 nights)! I have used this partnership several more times, in both Myrtle Beach and Hawaii. The discount from the Vacasa credit card means I will be staying for 13,500 points per night! You can’t beat that for a great property that’s much larger than a small hotel room!

Have you ever booked a Vacasa property before? If so, how was your experience?

Evan