Looking for info: Book Hotel with Rapid Rewards

[Jmh0523]

Good morning,

I'd like to book a hotel with my rewards points but for over a week when I try to navigate to the website, it says it's down for maintenance (https://hotels.redeemrapidrewards.com/). Does anyone know when this went down and how long it'll be before it's brought back up? This isn't a new feature, right?

Thanks!

[DancingDavidE]

If you navigate to the regular hotels booking section does it offer a points option there?

[DancingDavidE]

This is the post I was referring to @CarlyeThornton - didn't recognize the URL at first but it does link from Southwest.com

[SoCalFlyer97 · Accepted solution]

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@Jmh0523 wrote:

Good morning,

I'd like to book a hotel with my rewards points but for over a week when I try to navigate to the website, it says it's down for maintenance (https://hotels.redeemrapidrewards.com/). Does anyone know when this went down and how long it'll be before it's brought back up? This isn't a new feature, right?

Thanks!

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Greetings:

Try this...Log in to your Rapid Rewards account and go here:

https://www.southwest.com/rapid-rewards/points/how-to-redeem/

Scroll down to "How to Redeem More Rewards with Points" and click on "Explore Rewards". Note that when I clicked on this link, it went through a number of redirects before taking me to the awardhq.com host which I assume is hosting this service on behalf of Southwest Rapid Rewards.

Next, go to "Travel", then "Hotel". After a few more redirects, you're taken to another host under the qrttravel.com URL on behalf of Southwest Rapid Rewards. From there you should be able to book a hotel with points. However, before you do this, I would consider my opinion...

My take on qrttravel.com: I have an upcoming hotel stay next weekend for job training and did a demo booking to check the value of this booking portal. The hotel that I'm staying at was not listed; thus I checked pricing for a nearby Holiday Inn which I stayed at last week:

Rates include taxes and fees:

QrtTravel.com: -38,895 Points (Refundable less $35 Cancellation Fee if made > 72 hours)

Southwest Hotels/Rocket Miles: $190 (Free Cancelation > 72 hours; +2,000 CP-Eligible Points)

Trivago Lowest Price: $184 (Free Cancelation)

Direct: $174 w/ Loyalty Membership (Free Cancelation)

For the market in my specific area, spending nearly 39,000 points for this hotel would not be worth it for me as the points value is about $580. In contrast, using Southwest Hotels, paying $190 cash, and earning 2,000 CP-Eligible points would be far more worth it as the mark up from booking direct in return for the points is only $16. I would use the points toward a flight or something else with a better trade-off value. I can't speak for other markets (maybe my area is expensive) but just a heads up...

[Jmh0523]

You're fantastic, thank you!

[Jmh0523]

Whoa, yeah the amount of points for a stay is way too inflated. Darn it.

[DancingDavidE]

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@Jmh0523 wrote:

Whoa, yeah the amount of points for a stay is way too inflated. Darn it.

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See another post earlier today - the points on WGA fares are like getting up to 12% back if they are redeemed at $0.015/point value which would be primarily for flights, other redemption methods are likely to be less valuable.