Last Updated on 10 June 2026 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! We were always frequent users of the old Hotels.Com Rewards loyalty scheme, but since then parent company Expedia has created a single combined loyalty scheme in the form of OneKey for their Expedia and Vrbo brands. So today we’re conducting a review of OneKey and asking our classic question – is it worth it?
Looking for Hotels.com? – Important 2026 Update: Hotels.com has officially broken away from the unified Expedia OneKey ecosystem and returned to its traditional 10-stamp rewards structure. If you are looking for hotel-specific loyalty rewards, we suggest checking out our fully updated Hotels.com Rewards 2026 Review. If you book flights, car hires, or villa rentals via Expedia and Vrbo, read on for our full OneKey breakdown below!
(Please note: The Financial Wilderness may also receive a small payout if you make a purchase through a link on this site. It won’t affect the service you receive and we recommend only what we honestly believe to be the best available, not what gives us commission. You can read more about our affiliate policy on our disclaimers page.)
Quick Verdict on Expedia OneKey:
Expedia OneKey is an ok scheme but only gives more serious cashback with higher status tiers. Those who are just booking a hotel will find sister scheme Hotels.Com Rewards will generally offer better rewards, but OneKey does offer value to those who want to book a package with flight, activities and transfers in one (as the Hotels.com scheme literally only covers your hotel, where OneKey covers everything.
How we tested OneKey
I was previously a user of the old Hotels.com Rewards and was migrated across to OneKey when Expedia migrated the schemes, and already had quite a bit of familiarity as much of Hotels.com old tier system was baked in, actually becoming a Platinum Tier user after a heavy year of travel!
I had some old bookings that then made use of OneKey and took the benefits of my OneKey cash to redeem against some further travel, and made use of OneKey as part of this.
What is OneKey?
OneKey is a collect and spend loyalty reward scheme, where you’ll earn a percentage of your spend back in the form of OneKey cash on any:
- Room bookings
- Flights
- Car Hire
- Airport Transfers
- Activity Bookings
So long as they are booked on the Expedia or Vrbo platforms.
The specific percentage you get back as OneKey Cash depends on your loyalty tier status in the scheme, which we will explain in more detail below.
You may also get some additional benefits with OneKey when staying at a VIP access hotel.
What is a VIP Access Hotel on Expedia?
A VIP Access Hotel has a higher level of partnership with the Expedia Group and you’ll find yourselves slightly encouraged towards these properties on their platforms.
If you’re at the higher tiers of the OneKey reward scheme, staying at these will give you higher rates of reward cashback and some hotel specific extras.
What is OneKey Cash?
When you get the cashback this will be credited into your account as OneKey cash, which can be redeemed on any future purchase at any of the brands.
Does OneKey Cash expire?
Yes, OneKey cash will expire if you haven’t either made a redemption or a new booking on the platforms in an 18 month period.
How do I use OneKey cash?
Once you’ve earned OneKey cash, you’ll see a tickbox will appear at the checkout allowing you to automatically apply any OneKey cash you have to your final price.
What is OneKey Tier Status?
As you book and travel more with any of the Expedia and Vrbo brands the more you’ll earn stamps (trip elements in Expedia language!) which will improve your status in the programme.
Higher status brings with it more rewards, which we’ve assessed below. We’ll start by talking about how you can earn tier status and then evaluate each level of the programme.
How do I earn OneKey trip elements / tier stamps?
- For every night you stay in a Hotel or Guesthouse booked via Expedia or Vrbo you’ll earn 1 trip element.
- For every day you have a hire car you’ll earn 1 trip element.
- For every return airport transfer you’ll earn 1 trip element
- For every activity ticket booked you’ll earn 1 trip element.
- For every flight booked you’ll earn 1 trip element per person.
(A stamp is only applied in cases where the value is greater than £20 after taxes).
Trip elements are clearly not created equal.
Whilst we’d always advise running a comparison elsewhere to see if there’s cheaper options available, or booking direct you’re going to earn trip elements much more quickly and easily on activity bookings and hire cars rather than flights.
Will I earn OneKey Stamps and OneKey cash when at all hotels?
Yes you will, but as you’ll see below some of the additional rewards you’ll get as you move up the status tiers apply more generously at VIP access hotels only.
OneKey Rewards Tiers
Let’s take a look at the Tiers themselves to see what’s worth it. I’m going to start off with a quick table summary showing what’s needed for each tier and the benefits you get at each level, and then go into more detail on assessing each level further down.
| Loyalty Tier | Trip Elements Required / Year | Base OneKeyCash Earned | Standout Expedia & Vrbo Perks |
| Blue | 0 to 4 Elements | 2% on eligible bookings | Access to 10% off member prices |
| Silver | 5 to 14 Elements | 2% (3% at VIP Access hotels) | 15% off member prices, free perks at VIP Access properties (e.g., free sparkling wine) |
| Gold | 15 to 29 Elements | 2% (4% at VIP Access hotels) | 20% off member prices, Free room upgrades where available, late check-out |
| Platinum | 30+ Elements | 2% (6% at VIP Access hotels) | Priority customer support, access to exclusive partner upgrades |
OneKey Blue Tier
OneKeyBlue is the basic tier which you’ll be on until you’ve earned 5 trip elements.
At this entry level, you will book and earn the basic 2% rate of OneKeyCash, alongside getting access to member prices of up to 10% off at select hotels.
Beyond that, you’re only getting the basics here rather than anything additional, so let’s move on quickly.
OneKey Silver Tier
Between 5 and 14 trip elements you’ll be on OneKey’s Silver Tier.
At this level, the member price discount you get increases to 15%.
The benefits are still pretty limited here, but when staying at a VIP Access hotel you’ll earn 3% cashback rather than the 2%.
OneKey Gold Tier
Between 15 and 29 trip elements you’ll be on OneKey’s Gold Tier.
Here, the member price discount increases further to 20%, and you’ll earn 4% cashback at a VIP access hotel.
However, here a couple of other perks also kick in when staying at VIP access hotels. What specifically is dependent on the hotel, but you’ll often find you’ll get a free extra on top. The specific offering will be detailed on the booking page for the hotel under a VIP offering.
These range quite considerably, but I’ve seen three broad categories:
- A percentage discount on food and drinks at the Hotel. (I think the value of this very much depends on you – I rarely eat/drink at the hotel so rarely an attraction for me).
- A free bottle of sparkling wine. (A little extra but always a nice one).
- Free breakfast (If breakfast isn’t included, this is one which really is worth having and can save a bit of money on longer stays).
You’ll also get a free room upgrade, with the caveat that this is “where available”.
In fairness, whilst I have had some inconsistency an upgrade generally has happened for me. The extent of this has varied – in some cases a marginally better view, in some cases a significant upgrade to a suite.
You can see specifically which VIP access benefits are included for a hotel by going to the hotel page on Expedia and scrolling down to the section of “About your One Key Rewards.” I’ve shown an example of how this looks below.
OneKey Platinum Tier
There’s actually relatively few additional benefits at the Platinum Tier stage – your VIP access cashback goes up at 6% at this level, which becomes reasonably significant at this point.
Is OneKey Tier Status worth it?
There’s clearly additional benefits with each Tier, but we’d say the Gold level is really where you get the peak of the benefits.
Where I’ve seen the most benefits is the member prices. I’ve managed to get Platinum status and with the extra percentage discount I found I was able to get some significantly better prices even over booking directly with the hotel.
I would generally say treat the tier extra as a nice extra benefit when you’re staying anyhow rather than being worth specifically targeting, but if you’re 1/2 stamps short of Gold it might be worth topping up with some cheap activities.
How long does OneKey Tier Status and Stamps last?
OneKey Status lasts over a calendar year, from the first day to last day of the year.
At this point your status will be reassessed based on how many stamps you’ve earned in the previous year.
Is OneKey Rewards free?
Yes, it’s completely free to sign up for OneKey Rewards!
How can I sign up for OneKey Rewards?
You can sign up for OneKey Rewards at the offical pages of either Expedia or Vrbo.
Are there any disadvantages to OneKey Rewards?
There’s only really one.
Expedia is considered a third party booking platform. As a result if you’re staying at a Hotel group with it’s own loyalty scheme, such as IHG One, Accor Live Limitless or Marriott Bonvoy Rewards you won’t also get credit within these schemes.
If you’re regularly staying at one of these groups it may be more beneficial to book direct – if you want flexibility and also often stay at others then Expedia flexibility is better.
Is OneKey Rewards worth it? Our review
Verdict: OneKey is ok – it’s main advantage is it’s quite rare in the travel space in rewarding all elements of a package booking. However both sister Hotels.com Rewards and Hotel own brand schemes can be more rewarding for frequent travel.
The financial benefits tend to come out more with the Tier status in terms of representing discounts on the bookings, with the OneKey cash bonuses on top – however you really need to be at the Gold or Platinum tiers to earn the really worthwhile cashback benefits.
Also, in order to get the biggest benefits out of OneKey you often have to book with VIP Access Hotels. Whilst there’s some great choices in this range, they’re not always the cheapest and so this dilutes some of the benefits of the product. We also don’t particularly like that the scheme restricts your choice to maximise benefit, although understand Expedia are trying to benefit their partners.
We’ll also just call out that the ability to earn cashback with Vrbo is a real plus, as rival platforms like AirBnB do not have a loyalty platform.
Once you’ve earned OneKey Cash, it’s very easy to apply this to your booking and applies by default, which we liked. That acts to help you get the benefit of the scheme and minimises the risk of any unintentional expiry.
In conclusion, OneKey Rewards is a scheme that offers quite a bit of flexibility and breath, but isn’t quite rewarding enough to provide a compelling reason to book with Expedia over other choices.
Advantages
- Good cashback at Gold and Platinum Levels
- Good member discounts on initial bookings.
- Doesn’t tie you to a single hotel brand
- Cashback on rentals with Vrbo, not offered by rivals like AirBnB
- Ability to earn stamps on activity, flights and car hire provides flexibility.
- OneKey Cash automatically being applied is helpful and saves you money.
Disadvantages
- Cashback still relatively limited, especially when booking at non VIP Access Hotels
- Biggest benefits of scheme limited to VIP Access Properties
- Single-chain users may find chain loyalty schemes better.
Other UK Loyalty Schemes
If you’re interested in our pick of the other best loyalty schemes out there, why not look at our guide to the best UK Loyalty Cards and Apps?
Any questions?
Have you any questions about OneKey Rewards or have questions for us on the scheme? Just leave us a note in the comments below.
We’d also love to hear about your travel adventures if you’ve done well out of the programme!
And that’s it!
Thank you for reading! You can sign up below to get our new articles delivered to you on a range of financial topics, or remember you can follow our Facebook, X and Instagram pages.
I think this may the first post I’ve seen where someone is actually a diamond member with onekey. From what I read there is a good VIP membership discounts do to status. Have you had any issues with free breakfast or room upgrades with your status? I find the program very interesting.
Hi Richard, thanks for reading!
So I’ve never had anywhere dispute applying the benefits as an issue, but it’s been variable as to if I’ve had to politely ask for them or it’s been automatically recognised. Some general experiences below:
When travelling in Asia, I usually found they were consistently applied by default – in fact at one hotel in Japan I noticed at check in the Lady actually had a little leaflet of Expedia Group Platinum customer process she followed.
In Europe, sometimes applied, sometimes I’ve sometimes had to politely ask – I’ve always had the hotel page with the VIP access benefit listed to hand and once shown it’s never been a problem.
I haven’t travelled in the US since I’ve had Platinum/Gold.
Just to temper expectations – if it’s listed as a VIP access benefit it should be guaranteed, but upgrades have that ‘if available’ clause which gives the hotel plenty of discretion! My hit rate is very good but I can’t judge how much it’s the status vs. luck is driving this.
I have Hotels.com Gold status.
Will it be beneficial to switch to OneKey (starting at Buel tier I suppose)?
I am very happy for Hotels.com Gold and don’t want to go down to Blue tier and staring over to advance to Gold.
Hi Jakup,
Thank you for reading! So if you’re in a country with Hotels.com Gold still (lucky you) you’ll keep it for now but eventually Hotels.com will switch you automatically over to OneKey – you won’t have a choice to stay on the existing scheme. However, so long as you have your Gold status at the time you’ll retain this when moving to OneKey.
Unfortunately, OneKey Gold is not as good as Hotels.com Gold – but it’s still amongst the better travel loyalty deals out there.