Competitive landscape

Vrbo - OneKey

Vrbo’s loyalty program is available only in selected markets (US and UK).

Their rewards program earns 2% back in travel currency (OneKeyCash) for each dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and vacation rentals. And actually, it’s not even that much. The rewards are based on the rental's base price, before taxes and fees, not the total cost. Add-on fees such as cleaning fees can be a big part of the final bill, so this can have a big impact on the effective rate of earned rewards. One-night stay on Vrbo, a $252 rental can only earn $2.58 in rewards — a little more than 1% of the total cost.

There are four tiers and status is earned on a calendar year basis (Jan-Dec) based on the number of trip elements user has collected during the year. Progress is reset as of Jan 1. Main problems with Vrbo’s loyalty scheme are that customers are finding it hard to understand, there are no meaningful elite status perks, it’s missing personalization and users are feeling it doesn’t offer much tangible value for vacation rental regulars. On the positive side, program covers Vrbo, as well as Expedia and

Hotels.com⁠

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Booking.com - Genius

On the other hand,

Booking.com⁠

and it’s Genius program has three tiers, with an entry-level tier that gives members instant access to a 10% discount on their stay. The other two tiers reward a discount of up to 15% and a discount of up to 20% alongside other perks on Booking.com promises that these properties that have joined the Genius program have a rating of at least 7.5/10, so customer can expect a quality property.

All of the stay, flight, rental car, taxi, and attraction bookings user completes count towards the progress in Genius and in order to reach top level, user needs to complete 15 bookings within the 2 years window. Program is easy to understand, thresholds for levels are relatively low and there are different benefits such as free airport shuttle, breakfast included.

Still, the discounts are only on a limited number of properties. Genius Level 2 additional benefits like room upgrades and free breakfasts are a bit misleading, as not every property actually offers them, so this should be looked at as an occasional perk.

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