The Complete Guide to Wyndham Rewards Elite Status

If Wyndham is your hotel of choice when traveling for business or pleasure, joining the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program can help you unlock some seriously valuable perks (if you’re in the highest tier of elite status, Diamond). With more than 9,000 hotels worldwide, it's one of the world's largest and most recognizable hotel brands.

Once you're enrolled in the program, you can work your way up to one of three elite rewards tiers, which are Gold, Platinum and Diamond. But just how hard is it to do, and it is worth your time? We break down everything you need to know about Wyndham Rewards elite status.

» Learn more: Your guide to the Wyndham rewards award chart

The higher your tier, the more benefits you'll receive as a Wyndham Rewards elite status member. Here's a look at some of the highlights of each status tier:

The most attractive benefit might be the accelerated rewards earnings on base points associated with each elite status tier. Normally on qualified stays, you'd earn 10 base points per $1 or 1,000 points — whichever is greater.

You'll need a minimum of 7,500 points to book a free Wyndham award night (unless you're booking points and cash rates, which start at 1,500 points). So landing a 10%-20% bonus each time you stay at Wyndham can help you rack up free award nights that much faster.

Wyndham Gold status

How to earn: Earn after staying 3 qualifying nights or automatically by holding the Wyndham Rewards® Earner℠ Credit Card, which has a $0 annual fee.

Estimated value per year of Gold status: $4

Accelerated earning rate: +10% points

Best benefit: Late checkout

Wyndham Platinum status

How to earn: Earn after staying 9 qualifying nights or automatically by holding the Wyndham Rewards® Earner℠ Plus Credit Card, which has a $75 annual fee.

Estimated value per year of Platinum status: $18

Accelerated earning rate: +15% points

Best benefit: Early check-in and Caesars Rewards status match.

Wyndham Diamond status

How to earn: Earn after staying 24 qualifying nights.

Estimated value per year of Diamond status: $823

Accelerated earning rate: +20% points

Best benefit: Suite upgrades and welcome amenity at check-in.

» Learn more: The sneaky ways hotel programs can restrict 'free' award nights

The Wyndham Rewards program has four status tiers: Blue, Gold, Platinum and Diamond (though there are just three 'elite' status tiers, as everyone automatically holds Blue status simply by joining). There are three ways to earn elite status with Wyndham Rewards:

• Staying at Wyndham properties and earning qualifying nights.

• Matching your status through another hotel loyalty rewards program.

• Opening certain Wyndham credit cards.

Here's a breakdown of each method of earning Wyndham Rewards elite status:

Earn Wyndham elite status by booking hotel nights

You can earn Gold, Platinum or Diamond status in Wyndham Rewards by booking a certain number of hotel nights in a calendar year.

Nights must be "qualifying nights," which basically means nights booked on employee discounts or certain promotions don't count. Additionally, nights booked through third-party websites and apps won't count toward elite status (only nights booked through WyndhamRewards.com count toward reaching the next status tier). In general, a qualifying night through Wyndham means a paid night during a qualified stay at a participating property, with an average daily rate of at least $25.

Here's how many nights you need to stay in a calendar year to earn each year of elite status:

Match your elite status

You can sometimes snag Wyndham Rewards elite status without booking any nights at all if you're an elite member in another participating hotel loyalty program.

Unfortunately, Wyndham does not have any new status match offers at the time, though past status match offers have been pretty good. Wyndham has offered hotel matching in the past (as recently as February 2020) through other hotel loyalty programs including Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt.

Check Wyndham's status match page to see if there are any current offers up for grabs.

If there are available status match offers, you'll typically have to request it through Wyndham by providing proof of status in another program. The equivalent status you'll receive from Wyndham Rewards depends on which tier of enrollment you have in the program you're matching from.

Earn status with certain Wyndham credit cards

If you don't have any hotel stays lined up in the near future, there's an easier way to qualify for elite status. You can open one of two co-branded Wyndham Rewards credit cards to enjoy complimentary elite status. It's a hassle-free way to get access to elite benefits even if you're booking your very first stay.

Wyndham Rewards® Earner℠ Credit Card

• Annual fee: $0

• Automatic Gold elite status.

• Intro offer: Earn 30,000 bonus points, enough for up to 4 free nights at participating properties after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. Free nights can require up to 30,000 points per bedroom at participating properties and are subject to availability. Resort fees may apply and cannot be paid with points.

Wyndham Rewards® Earner℠ Plus Credit Card

• Annual fee: $75

• Automatic Platinum elite status.

• Intro offer: Earn 45,000 bonus points, enough for up to 6 free nights at participating properties after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. Free nights can require up to 30,000 points per bedroom at participating properties and are subject to availability. Resort fees may apply and cannot be paid with points.

» Learn more: Wyndham Rewards Visa review: Decent rewards for no fee

Wyndham is not exactly the most dazzling elite status program out there. Silver status doesn’t really get you much except late checkout and marginally more points. That’ll help you get to Platinum status — though Platinum isn't all that much better.

The more valuable perks like suite upgrades and welcome amenities don’t kick in until Diamond status, which is why we concluded that Diamond status is worth so much more than the lower tiers of Gold and Platinum. To calculate how much Wyndham elite status is worth, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the aspects of hotel elite status that offer fairly quantifiable benefits. Here are our estimates:

But all the perks in the world aren’t all that great if it’s tough to earn them. You should always consider the cost to earn those benefits (or as we call it, the “elite earning rate”). By dividing the benefits by the cost, you can determine that elite earning rate for each level.

Pursuing the highest tier of Wyndham elite status, Diamond, could be worth the effort if you frequently stay at Wyndham hotels or already have elite status in a partner hotel loyalty program. But there’s no sense in working too hard for something like Gold and Platinum status, as they just aren’t all that valuable. Luckily, they aren't too hard to earn, especially compared to many other hotel loyalty programs that often require 50 or more days stayed per year to earn status. Staying three nights (which you need to earn Gold status) is simply a long weekend.

For what it’s worth, the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program generally offers flexibility when it comes to earning status as well as redeeming rewards, so it’s tough to knock it. Just keep in mind that Wyndham points do expire after four years, so redeem your rewards to avoid losing them.