How to Redeem Best Western Rewards Points

Best Western is a massive hotel chain featuring 19 brands and more than 4,500 properties in over 100 countries worldwide. Despite this, you don’t often hear much about its loyalty program, Best Western Rewards. It may not be the most glamorous program around, but it can offer solid value and easy redemptions, especially when you’re abroad.

Let’s look at all the different ways you can redeem Best Western Rewards points.

How to redeem Best Western Rewards points

From hotel stays to airline points transfers and gift cards, there are a several ways to use your Best Western Rewards points. Depending on your preferences, some options are better deals than others.

Hotel stays

Your best bet for using your Best Western points is for hotel stays. That’s because you’ll get the most value from your Best Western points this way. NerdWallet values Best Western rewards points at 0.6 cents each, which means you’ll want to get at least this much value from your points. Any better, and it’s a good redemption.

Best Western charges varying amounts of points per night based on the hotel's cash rate for the night. This means that the cheaper the hotel, the fewer points you’ll need to use.

Redemptions can vary, but you’ll want to do your best to use fewer points whenever possible. For example, a one-night stay in April at the Best Western Plus Dana Point Inn-by-the-Sea in California will cost you 32,000 points for a room with two beds or $225. This nets you a redemption value of 0.7 cents each, which aligns with our valuations.

Note that it can be a bit of a headache to find Best Western hotels that offer especially good value. Because redemption rates are tied to the property's nightly cash rate, it's not often that you'll find something considered a sweet spot.

To find values higher than 0.7 cents each, try looking for hotels that cost 5,000 points per night (as low as they go) or 70,000 points per night (as high as they go) with very high cash rates.

» Learn more: Best Western Rewards Card: Status and perks for no annual fee

Donations

If you’re not interested in using your points for a hotel stay, you can donate them. Best Western partners with different organizations to make this possible. These include the American Red Cross, Hotels for Heroes, Best Friends Animal Society and The National Children’s Cancer Society.

For every 500 points you donate, $2 will be sent to these charities. This gives you a value of 0.4 cents per point, or just over half what they’re actually worth.

» Learn more: The best hotel credit cards right now

Free night awards

If you want to give your Best Western points to someone else as a gift, consider going for a free night award. Available at Best Western’s redemption mall, these awards range in value from 5,000 points per night to 70,000 points per night.

These free night awards can be redeemed for stays at Best Western properties worldwide, making them an excellent gift for anyone you know who needs a vacation.

Airline miles

Best Western points can also be converted to airline miles if that’s something you’re interested in. There are eight airlines with which Best Western partners:

• Aeromexico.

• Air Canada.

• Air France/KLM.

• Alaska Airlines.

• Asiana Airlines.

• Avianca.

• Cathay Pacific.

• Southwest Airlines.

You can generally transfer 5,000 Best Western points to get 1,000 airline miles. This results in a value of 0.2 cents per point. However, if you want Air France/KLM miles, you’ll need 6,000 Best Western points to get 1,000 Flying Blue miles, a redemption value of just 0.17 cents each.

Rates for Southwest and Aeromexico are slightly better, giving you 1,200 and 1,600 miles for 5,000 points, respectively.

As you can see, this is an extraordinarily poor option for using your points and should be avoided at all costs. The only exception is if you never foresee a time at which you’ll want to stay at a Best Western hotel and you need a few extra airline miles to top off your account.

» Learn more: The guide to Best Western elite status

Gift cards

Best Western points can be used for online shopping, but this is another redemption that falls short. There are three main options for this.

The first is to purchase an Amazon gift card using your points. 16,000 Best Western points will get you a $50 Amazon gift card, netting you a per-point value of 0.3 cents each.

You can also opt for a Mastercard gift card that can be used anywhere Mastercards are accepted. While this is more flexible than an Amazon card, the poor redemption rate remains at 16,000 points for a $50 gift card. These cards also have limitations: They must be activated within three months of issuance and you have just one year to spend the balance.

Your final option for redeeming Best Western points for gift cards allows you to get actual Best Western gift cards. This is the best value for gift cards: 20,000 points will get you a $100 gift card. This results in a redemption rate of 0.5 cents each, which is better than your other two options. However, it still falls below our valuation of 0.7 cents each.

» Learn more: How to earn points with Best Western Rewards

If you want to redeem Best Western Rewards points

Best Western Rewards points aren’t the most valuable reward currency around, but it’s possible to extract some decent value from them.

While there are many ways to redeem your points, your best bet is to use them for hotel stays. This will give you the most value for your points and give you the added bonus of enjoying a free hotel on your vacation.