Hotels.com To Add $5 Redemption Fee On Free Night Certificates, Waived On App Bookings

Hotels.com is my favorite hotel booking website, mainly because it’s possible to buy gift cards at a discount and then also get a free night for every ten nights stayed. Unfortunately Hotels.com has announced that effective November 27th, 2019 when redeeming a free night certificate a $5 fee will be charged. This fee will be waived if that booking is made via the Hotels.com app. Personally I hate this change, I never like being forced into using an app and I can easily see Hotels.com increasing this fee in the future or removing the waiver. It looks like this will also be retroactively applied to certificates already earned as well which is a dangerous precedent to make. Obviously a $5 fee isn’t the end of the world, especially when it can be waived but I don’t like the direction Hotels.com seems intent on taking.