What are Best Western Rewards points worth?

Best Western Rewards are worth about 0.5 cents/point at best. Join the program because of the points that do not expire and status match if you somehow have a reason to stay at a Best Western hotel despite being a loyal member of another major hotel chain.

Details

In my Best Western Rewards review I discussed the merits of the program. A summary of the program is below. In this blog post I will be valuing the points using 2 examples.

Example 1: Best Western Premier Gangnam Hotel, Seoul, Korea

This is an interesting one. See the prices I obtained in the table below:

At the rate of $107.66 or 28K points, Best Western points are valued at 0.38 cents/point or $3.85 for 1000 points. This is not a great deal with points. There are some other lessons here:

Lesson #1: Check both direct and search engine prices

While most people expect booking direct gets you the best price, booking via Trip.com is actually cheaper by a 10%+ margin.

Even after factoring in points at Blue tier (~1000 points) or Diamond Select tier (1500 points) Trip.com is still cheaper than booking direct.

Whether it is worth booking direct or not will come down to whether you have status such as Platinum or higher via Status Matching or not.

• If you have status or can get status, the potential for early check-in or late check-out makes booking direct worth it. Read my Best Western Rewards review for more details on status match.
• If you don't have status matching, then book via Trip.com which is cheaper and gets you Trip.com Rewards coins.

Lesson #2: Redeem points when you reach full room occupancy

To maximize the value of your points redemptions, you should be saving your points for redemptions. Note that for 2 adults, both the price and points are still the same at $107.66 and 28K points, whereas using a 3rd party OTA (Online Travel Agency) can cost $5 to $8 more for the second adult. While I'm not recommending using points in this situation, should you find a better points value at another hotel, use it when you have multiple travelers instead of during your solo travels.

Example 2: Orakai Daehakro Hotel, BW Signature Collection

Booking direct gets you the best price at $101.16 per night in this case, whether it is for 1 adult or 2 adults.

The same room can be redeemed for 20K points. $101.16/20K works out to ~0.5 cents per point or $5.06 per 1K points. This is a much better use of points than in example #1 above. The prices for booking direct are also cheaper than via 3rd party OTAs.

Do not trust Google hotel prices too much. From the screenshot below you see the lowest price is $109 from Agoda ...

... but the price is actually lower at "$105" once you click on the Visit site link. Regardless, it is rare to get a lower price than through direct via the hotel. If you click on the Book link, you will see the price is $105.08, which is over 3.8% higher than booking direct at $101.16.

Having Agoda VIP Platinum status has no advantage in this case. See my Agoda.com VIP loyalty program review on the benefits, or lack thereof. My go-to loyalty program when I'm not staying at a Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott is Trip.com Rewards.

Conclusion

While you may be earning Best Western Rewards at a higher rate, redemptions are only worth about 0.5 cents/point or $5 per 1000 points at best. If you desire a potential early check-in/late check-out, book direct if you have status (via matching). Book via Trip.com if you have no status. Redeem points when you are traveling with others instead of on a solo trip to get more out of the points.