Hotels.com now pays you £100 back after staying 10 nights – how to get the most out of its new scheme

The new scheme, which launched on Friday 10 April, is more generous overall compared to the 'One Key' system it's replacing, letting you earn up to 13% of the value of your stays as credit (versus 2% to 6% previously).

How the new Hotels.com loyalty scheme works

Here are the key points:

• Stay 10 nights costing £75+ each and you'll earn £100 Hotels.com credit towards a future stay. It's the average nightly cost of your room(s) – including taxes and fees – that counts. Hotels.com says this is visible during the booking process, so you won't have to work it out yourself.
  
  The 10 nights can be split across multiple trips, but your progress will reset to zero if you don't make a booking in any 12-month period.

• You can use the £100 credit towards ANY stay on Hotels.com. There are no hotel exclusions or blackout dates, and it can be spent on a single stay or spread across multiple stays. The credit will be valid for at least 18 months.

• You WON'T earn more for spending more – so this works best for lower spenders. Provided each of your 10 qualifying nights costs an average of £75 each, you'll get a flat £100 reward. This is a major change compared to the previous Hotels.com loyalty scheme, which let you earn credit based on a percentage of your total spend (so the more you spent, the more you got back). See our comparison table for more detail.

On top of the credit you can earn, being a member lets you access discounts of "10% or more" on certain hotels – though it's always best to do a comparison to make sure you're getting the best price.

Use Hotels.com for cheaper stays to maximise your returns

Under the new scheme, the minimum you need to spend across 10 nights to get the £100 reward is £750, which amounts to a 13.3% return. Above that, the more you spend per night the smaller that £100 reward value becomes relative to your spending. This means:

• Lower spenders – booking hotels costing from £75 to £100ish a night – are best off under the new scheme. Under the standard earning rate on the old system, you'd need to spend an average of £500 a night over 10 nights to match the returns from new scheme.

• Prefer more expensive hotels? You're still likely to be better off. For example, spend £250 a night on average and the £100 reward is equivalent to a 4% return – still higher than the standard 2% you used to get with One Key.

• But the most frugal travellers will be worse off. Spend under £75 a night and you'll earn nothing. While you'd be lucky to find hotels that cheap in the UK or major European cities, those who prefer to use hostels or are exploring cheaper parts of the world like southeast Asia might miss out.

Below are some examples of how the new scheme compares to One Key, as well as its value depending on how much you spend per night.

Existing Hotels.com member? You're now on the new scheme

If you were already signed up to the One Key scheme on Hotels.com, here's what you need to know:

• Your account has been switched over automatically. There's nothing you need to do.

• Any existing credit you had ('One Key Cash') has been carried over. It'll have the same value and expiry dates as before – it's just called 'Hotels.com Cash' now.

• Existing bookings (made before your account was converted) DON'T count towards your 10-night stay total. Instead, you'll get whatever reward you were due under the old system (so, between 2% and 6% credit).
  
  If your booking can be cancelled for free, it's worth checking if the price has dropped since you first made it – if it has, you could potentially cancel and rebook to save. Plus, doing this after your account's been switched to the new scheme could mean your stay then counts towards the £100 reward (provided the average nightly cost is at least £75). See our table comparing Hotels.com Cash with One Key to check if it could work out better for you.