Online travel giant Expedia will now allow loyalty program members to redeem points directly for online hotel bookings.
Previously, Expedia members were required to turn their points into a coupon before applying it to the cost of a new booking.
Now when arriving at the checkout page, qualifying points available to redeem will be displayed and can be used directly to pay in part or full for the booking.
"The concept is that we want to allow our Expedia+ rewards members to ‘travel with points’," said David Doctorow, Expedia’s chief marketing and strategy officer.
"We introduced this first in our hotel checkout, so our rewards members shopping for a standalone hotel have the opportunity to apply their points directly to their hotel balance.
Doctorow said Expedia will look to extend the option in the near future for flight bookings as well.
"Travellers tell us they want booking, earning, and redeeming travel to be simple. This new functionality embraces that notion. Today customers can ‘stay with points’, and we look forward to expanding this capability so they can ‘fly with points’, ‘go on excursions with points’ and a range of other options in the future."
