Expedia Launches One Key and Gives Vrbo Its First Loyalty Program (July 2023)

From the record. This is a look back at July 2023. The desk wrote it on 11 October 2026 from sources published at the time; Stay Gazette opened in July 2026 and did not report this as it happened.

On 17 July 2023, Seattle-based Expedia Group announced One Key, a single loyalty program across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, in a press release from New York that said the program was live in the United States. The Points Guy had reported on 6 July that One Key officially launched that Thursday. For the vacation rental business the news sat in one line of the release: Expedia said no major online vacation rental platform had run a loyalty program before.

A guest who booked an eligible Vrbo home earned 2% of the spend back in a currency called OneKeyCash and, Expedia said, could put it toward a later flight, hotel or rental on any of the three brands. Expedia put the membership of its existing loyalty programs, taken together, at more than 168 million and the travel savings they had delivered at more than $10 billion. Skift, reporting the announcement the same day, noted that Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy had run a loyalty program covering vacation rentals for several years.

How One Key worked

Members got back 2% of what they spent on eligible hotels, vacation rentals, car rentals, cruises, packages and activities, and 0.2% of what they spent on eligible flights, paid in OneKeyCash, The Points Guy reported. A dollar of OneKeyCash took a dollar off a later booking. It could pay part or all of a Pay Now booking at vacation rentals and hotels that took part, and it could not be turned into cash or transferred to another member.

Status came from what Expedia called trip elements: a flight, a hotel room night, a vacation rental night, a cruise night, a one-day car rental, a round-trip ground transportation ticket or an activity ticket, each worth $25 or more before taxes and fees. Everyone started at Blue, which was free to join. Five elements within a year made Silver, 15 made Gold and 30 made Platinum. The release gave the example of two hotel nights and a three-day car rental, which reached Silver in one trip.

Higher tiers earned more at what Expedia called VIP Access properties, The Points Guy reported: 50% more for Silver, two times for Gold and three times for Platinum.

Two details set Vrbo apart, by The Points Guy's account. Existing accounts moved to One Key automatically in most cases, but Vrbo account holders had to accept new terms and conditions. And while OneKeyCash from most Pay Now bookings arrived within three days of the end of the trip, the reward on every Vrbo booking, like Pay Later bookings, could take up to 90 days.

The program was live only in the United States. Expedia said it would roll out globally starting in 2024.

What it replaced

One Key took the place of Expedia Rewards and Hotels.com Rewards. Vrbo had no program to replace. Under Expedia Rewards a member generally earned 2 points per $1 on hotels, which The Points Guy valued at a 1.4% return. Hotels.com had given one reward night after every 10 nights, worth the average price of the 10 paid nights, which The Points Guy called a nearly 10% rebate. Partly filled Hotels.com cards converted at 10% of each stamp's value, so three stamps from $100 nights became $30 in OneKeyCash.

That made the change a cut for the heaviest Hotels.com users and a gain for Vrbo guests, who had earned nothing before. The Points Guy expected the heaviest users of the Hotels.com program to be the most disappointed. It said people who travel rarely, people who rent Vrbo homes and people who book a mix of trips could now collect their rewards in one place.

Why Expedia did it

Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands, pitched the program at the occasional traveler. “We designed One Key to reward every traveler — the road warriors, the frequent flyers, and the 83% of travelers who only take a few trips a year and never really benefit from other loyalty programs,” he said in the release.

Analysts at Wedbush read it as a way to win and keep customers. “The program is a key part of the company’s strategy to acquire and engage higher lifetime value customers,” they wrote in a report on 18 July that GeekWire quoted the next day. They called One Key purely incremental for Vrbo customers, since Vrbo had no loyalty program before, and noted that Airbnb did not offer one. Expedia told The Points Guy that Vrbo's inclusion was “a massive win for loyalty program enthusiasts looking to earn off their vacation rental bookings.”

The same analysts were cooler on the rest. They liked how simple the program was and how little stood in the way of redeeming rewards, but called it a step down from the old Hotels.com program, which by their count 5% of bookers used, and said One Key might struggle to set itself apart from the programs already on offer.

Where the Vrbo side stopped short

The release did not say which Vrbo listings would take OneKeyCash as payment. The Points Guy's wording was that it could be used at participating vacation rentals.

An account of where the line fell came on 20 July, in a pinned post on the community forum of OwnerRez, which sells channel management and property management software. The post relayed an answer from Vrbo. A guest could earn One Key credit on any North American listing, it said, connected by API or not. But the credit could be redeemed only on what the post called platform properties, meaning those not connected by API. Redemption at API-connected properties was planned for the future.

The post drew the conclusion for managers who ran their Vrbo listings through software. One Key did not hurt the appeal of an API-connected property, it said, because guests still earned on the stay. They could not spend a balance there yet. A forum member replying the same day doubted that a balance would go far, reasoning that every point redeemed would come out of Expedia's profit.

The Gazette Verdict, looking back

For Vrbo hosts in July 2023, One Key was a guest rebate that somebody else paid for, with a hole in it. Expedia put 2% of the booking back in the guest's account on a platform that had offered nothing, and Wedbush called that purely incremental for Vrbo. The bill went to Hotels.com's best customers, whose return fell from nearly 10% to 2% by The Points Guy's reckoning, and to Expedia, which a Vrbo host page archived that September described as funding OneKeyCash. The hole was redemption. By the account relayed on the OwnerRez forum, a guest could earn at any North American listing and spend only at listings not connected by API, so a manager on software helped guests build a balance and could not accept it. The lesson for a host: when a platform launches a perk on your listing, find out if the listing can take it.

The other side

A loyalty program is judged over years, and in July 2023 One Key had only just gone live, in one country. Earning was the half that mattered for demand. A guest weighing an Airbnb against a Vrbo now got 2% back at the Vrbo, on any North American listing by the forum account, connected by API or not, and the same post said redemption at connected listings was planned. Wedbush praised the simplicity. The Hotels.com card that was lost served 5% of bookers by Wedbush's count, while programs that Expedia said had more than 168 million members moved onto one currency that could be spent on a vacation rental. Managers gave up nothing they had before.

What it meant for hosts

For someone running Vrbo listings in the United States in July 2023, One Key changed the guest's side of the booking first.

Guests earned on the stay. Eligible vacation rental bookings earned 2% in OneKeyCash, and each rental night worth $25 or more counted as a trip element toward the guest's tier.
The reward was slow. OneKeyCash on a Vrbo booking could take up to 90 days to reach the guest's account, The Points Guy reported.
By the forum account of 20 July, redemption depended on how the listing was connected: credit could be spent only at listings not connected to Vrbo by API. A manager on connected software could not promise a guest that a balance would work at the property.
Guest accounts changed. Vrbo account holders had to accept new terms and conditions to be moved into One Key.
It was a US launch. The global rollout was to start in 2024.
Airbnb had no equivalent. Wedbush noted that it did not offer a loyalty program.

Since then

A copy of Vrbo's page for hosts archived on 28 September 2023, which carries no date of its own, described OneKeyCash as Expedia Group-funded, said partners were enrolled without having to do anything, and said redemption was available only to properties using US dollars and not integrated with property management software. Skift reported on 28 February 2025 that customers could not redeem at Vrbo listings run by most property managers, because Vrbo required management companies, unlike individual hosts, to be the merchant of record, and that Expedia's Tim Rosolio said an optional program would let Vrbo take that role.

Sources

Expedia Group (press release via PR Newswire), EXPEDIA GROUP ANNOUNCES 'ONE KEY,' A GROUNDBREAKING NEW LOYALTY PROGRAM THAT REWARDS EVERY TRAVELER (17 July 2023).
The Points Guy, Everything you need to know about One Key, the new loyalty program for Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo (6 July 2023).
Skift (Wayback Machine capture of 30 November 2023), Expedia Plans AI Tweaks, Officially Launches ‘One Key’ Loyalty Program in U.S. (17 July 2023).
Short Term Rentalz, Expedia launches loyalty program One Key (18 July 2023).
GeekWire, Expedia Group rolls out new travel loyalty program that includes Vrbo, Hotels.com — here’s how it works (19 July 2023).
OwnerRez (community forum, pinned post of 20 July 2023), VRBO/Expedia joins One Key (20 July 2023).
Vrbo (undated host page; Wayback Machine capture of 28 September 2023), Introducing our travel rewards program: One Key (28 September 2023).
Skift, Vrbo Tries to Fix a Hole in OneKey Where Travelers Earn But Can’t Burn Rewards (28 February 2025).

Expedia Launches One Key and Gives Vrbo Its First Loyalty Program