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Hotels.com Rewards has released some details on how it intends to help members during the COVID-19 situation.

Hotels.com Rewards Members

The changes to reward nights and elite status are more or less what you would expect:

• “We have paused the expiration of any collected nights or reward nights due to expire between 1 Apr 2020 and 31 Dec 2020.

• We’ll extend all Gold and Silver memberships that are up for renewal between 1 Feb 2020 – 31 Jan 2021 for an additional year.

• Plus, we’re giving you more time to qualify for Gold or Silver membership. We’ll assess nights stayed in the previous 24 months to see whether you qualify for the next level of membership by your new renewal date.

You don’t need to do anything. Remember, you can check your Hotels.com Rewards activity anytime, anywhere on our website or mobile app. Please note that, for now, your Hotels.com Rewards account will still display the original expiry date for any nights collected.”

Existing booking information

For existing bookings, Hotels.com is attempting to make the cancellation process easier (though there are still issues):

• “As well as offering free cancellation on most properties, we have simplified the cancellation process by building self-serve options for certain types of bookings. See more information

• For those with existing bookings, we’re continuously working with our travel partners to do everything we can to offer refunds or vouchers on non-refundable bookings.

• We are truly sorry if you experienced long wait times to speak to our call centre as we’re dealing with unprecedented demand. Rest assured that we’re working diligently to give our customers the best possible service for each booking and provide a resolution for every situation. If you still need to contact us, please only call us within 10 days of check-in, so we can prioritise the most urgent cases.

We’ll continue to monitor the evolving situation and communicate any additional updates to our policies. We’re committed to keeping you informed and taking care of you as a valued Hotels.com Rewards member.”

Bottom line

The policy changes are welcome, but are broadly in line with what you would expect to see given the current situation and the moves already made by other reward programmes.