How do I pay for a room with Total Rewards Credits?

Going to Vegas in about a month.

Staying at Flamingo, love the pool.

The rooms are comped...but still have to pay the resort fee. But through Social Rewards, I have enough Total Reward Credits to pay for that.

But how does that work?

At check-in I will leave credit card number, which they do a hold on. But doesn't that card get automatically charged on my last night? Lots of hotels are going to that system where they automatically charge the card you left with them.

How do I let them know that I want to use my points?

 

I am pretty sure (don't recall 100%) you can actually ask at check-in for any TR credits to be applied against the final bill. I know you can do it at check out (although that means a check out line).

 

I'm pretty sure the only way is to go to the desk to check out and have them do it then. It's a hassle, but otherwise your credit card will get charged. There probably won't be much of a line at checkout time though.

 

Just tell them to pay your room balance from your reward credits at check in. You can also have them do it at checkout. If you are concerned about lines, you can setllte your balance that way the night before or at Total Rewards.

 

That's what I did the one time I paid for my room with points. Went to the front desk around 1am before going to bed on our last night.

 

Are you sure you have to pay the resort fee for a comped room?

 

Yes you have to pay resort fees on comped rooms unless you are Diamond or 7 Stars.

 

I was unsure also about that and I guess I still am. When I went to go pay my bill, I asked if I could apply my reward credits to the resort fees and the clerk was very nice and said yes. And I'm home now I just checked my reward credits and it appears my credits are the same. My room was comped for the whole week so my only charge to the bill was the resort fees of $162. During this stay I did attain diamond tier status so I attribute that's why my Resort credits have not changed. And it was not explained to me how they were going to take care of my resort fee charges but I'm sure it wasn't charged to my credit card.

 

Another way is to pay by cash(which I did last month), so you don't have the credit card on hold, mind you I was only there for 1 day so only the $28 to pay when I checked in which was reimbursed along with my $50 deposit fee upon checkout.

EDIT: Sorry, I should have added that the RF balance was taken from my Reward Credits upon checkout hence getting my cash back.

 

By default, yes. TR diamond and above can get it waived (but then don't get the amenities I believe). You can get it comped separately by a host, or pay it with TR credits.

The aggravating factor of this, to me, is that they will charge you one night's resort fee on booking. This has made it far less appealing for me to 'lock in' a future comp in the calendar before I know for sure if I can go.

 

Thanks, I didn't know that. I haven't been comped at a CET property. I'm comped in September at GVR and there are no resort fees (I'm the lowest tier with STN).

 

Not if the 1st night is comped...then there is no charge to secure a booking.

 

I've had an issue with that before because they told me that the last night's charges don''t actually get added to the bill until ________ (don''t remember the hour) but in the am.

 

Wow, in that case they changed it.

I distinctly remember being alerted to a first night's resort fee deposit being charged when trying this before. Does not seem to be the case right now. Did a test booking for my Jan trip.

Now my countdown timer is semi-accurate, although by my history those reservations are subject to change dramatically. And could be even more likely this time as we will be golfing and have MyVegas points to burn. Now that they can't be used for weekend rooms it limits the options a bit.

 

So you were able to confirm that they don't charge your card for a 1st nights comped booking?

I think even last year they didn't charge my card for a reservation that started on a comped night.

 

It doesn't look like I got charged anything. Went through the whole thing. My recollection when it was different was that it actually told me of the deposit required before prompting for cc info. Here it says resort fee will be assessed at check-in. So maybe they found out that this policy was hurting bookings.

 

I just booked a room on comp and they did not charge my CC anything. You can just ask them at checkout to apply your credits towards the balance and they will apply as many as you have and you cover the difference (if any).

 

This is why check out day is ALWAYS a gaming day.........regardless of whether you play on your card or not.

 

I don't pay a resort fee, but get all the benefits associated with it (I'm 7 Stars).

 

How does this work if you are not being comped? Can you still use your reward credits to book a hotel, or will you have to book it and be charged the first night's rate? Do they refund it to you after you check in so you can use your reward credits at checkout?