FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Great question.

No, your customers will never be required to attend any sales or timeshare presentation.

These are top quality resorts with no hidden fees or strings attached.

Our business partners own and operate several high-volume travel companies and are simply filling otherwise empty rooms.

The hotels and resorts aim to gain additional revenue from participating consumers spending money on the property, such as room service, spa, in-house restaurants, bar purchases, an extra day stay, etc. 

Our business partner (www.redeemvacations.com) has contracts with the world’s leading hotel chains and resorts to help them fill their otherwise empty rooms.

They’ve been helping hotels & resorts fill these empty rooms for many years – resulting in additional revenue for hotels from other areas of their property and through future bookings.

Hotels rarely experience full occupancy, yet they remain open, providing rooms and services at fixed costs.

So, when hotels provide rooms by partnering with our travel partner, they might forego the room fee, but they didn’t have that in the first place.

At least now they have the opportunity to gain a customer for their in-house restaurants, room service, an extra day stay & future bookings, etc.

The reason this program works so well is because it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

You win because you gain more business from using our incentives. Your customers win because they receive an awesome incentive gift from you.

And the resorts win because they gain additional revenue from other areas of their establishment that they otherwise would not have been able to get – and they also have a new client who may book with them in the future.

Redeem Vacations will also offer additional upgrades and incentives that your client can choose to accept or not.

The “Vacation Accommodation Certificates” have a 7 Day validity period – the Expiry Date is shown on the Certificate.

It’s therefore important that if you are giving your customer a “printed” Certificate, you should expedite handing it to them as soon as you download it from our Members’ Page (because the 7 day validity period starts when you download it).

IT’S AS SIMPLE AS 1,2,3:

1. Your customer needs to simply register their “Vacation Accommodation Voucher” online within these 7 days and select their preferred location.

2. Then after that, they’ll have a further 7 days to “activate their vacation” by paying the nightly taxes & fees.

3. After your customers activate their vacation (by paying the taxes & fees), they have 18 months to select their hotel & travel.

The activation must be paid in US Dollars.

It’s arguably best for all parties (the business, the customer & the hotels) if the customer “activates” their Vacation Voucher asap (ie: select their destination & pay the nightly booking fees), otherwise many people will forget they even received it.

Keep in mind the hotels WANT customers to fill empty rooms & businesses would no doubt prefer their customers to actually enjoy the break.

So once the customer (who has received the Vacation Voucher) chooses their destination, they have a 7 day window to pay the nightly booking fees.

Redeem Vacations will send them up to 3 emails during this 7 day period to remind them to activate their Voucher.

Redeem Vacations’ redemption rate is one of the highest in the industry because the 7-day expiration date provides a sense of urgency for people to activate the Voucher and use it.

After all, it’s in everyone’s best interest that the customer enjoys their vacation reward.

No. We do not market anything in the future to your recipient.

We respect our business partners and have no intention of spamming your clients with email.

Redeem Vacations will send up to 3 email reminders during the first 7 days prior to the incentive expiration - to remind them to activate.

You’ll be able to choose to provide your customers with their Vacation Accommodation Certificate by email or a printed version.

Should you choose to give a customer the “printed” Certificate, be mindful that once you download the Certificate from our Members’ Page, the Certificate will show a 7 Day validity period from THAT DATE.

So for example, if you were to download & “print” an Accommodation Certificate on 1 December, that Certificate will show an Expiry Date of 8 December.

This simply means that your customer needs to visit www.redeemvacations.com & select their preferred destination within the 7 day period.

And after having done that, they have 7 days thereafter to pay their taxes & fees (Redeem Vacations will remind them via up to 3 emails during this 7 day period).

Your customer then has 18 months to select their hotel & travel.

Keep in mind that the reason for requiring people to choose their destination within this timeframe is to encourage people to actually “take action”, rather than perhaps put the Certificate in the kitchen drawer & forget all about it.

Remember, the hotels & resorts are in this program because they WANT people to claim the complimentary rooms - & our experience shows that if the people are not given a validity date to choose their destination, many forget all about the free vacation.

It is a great idea to use them as incentives for employees to meet their goals, but keep in mind that they are not meant for group travel.

Our incentives are to be used for promotional use only and are not designed for group travel.

Please keep in mind that there is a limit of 1 vacation per household per year using the Vacation Accommodation Certificate.

So if you decided to reward staff with more than 1 Accommodation Certificate, your staff members need to be aware that there’s a limit of 1 vacation per household per year.

In other words, if a staff member earned 2 Certificates, they’d need to use the second one at least 12 months after using the first one.

Or alternatively the staff member could “gift” additional Accommodation Certificates to friends or acquaintances.

Yes, they will then be able to select from a number of “available” hotels & resorts.

Different hotels & resorts will have different availability depending on the times that your customer has selected.

Keep in mind that these are promotional offers to fill what would otherwise be an empty hotel room.

The properties that participate in these promotional offers release the unoccupied inventory to us just 30 days ahead of time.

Therefore, it requires the end user to provide a minimum of 30 days advance notice to book the dates they want.

We also recommend your customers choose weekdays vs weekends and avoid major school vacations for best hotel options and availability.

Yes, your customers do get to choose the destinations that they wish to travel to.

They will get to choose from multiple locations & they make the choice when they register their “Vacation Accommodation Voucher” at www.redeemvacations.com

Customers must book with a minimum of 30 days advance notice prior to preferred or selected check-in dates.

So as long as the guest is booking more than 30 days out, their reservation can be fulfilled, based on availability of course.

The properties that we work with release their unoccupied inventory to us daily, 30 days out, so there is no way around this.

Remember, we are filling otherwise empty rooms for the participating properties and this is the timeframe that they use to project what their occupancy will be.

Based on what their projection is, we’ll determine how many allotments they can provide to us for these promotions.

The nightly taxes & fees are a hospitality industry standard & entail, but are not limited to remuneration to a 3rd party booking engine (eg: Expedia, Booking.com etc), travel agency fees, local tourism & bed taxes, sales tax based on the full rack rate of the accommodation, maid service fees & federal, state, local or municipal taxes.

The recipient of one of these incentives will receive 4 days/3 nights luxury hotel accommodation room rate free of charge, which retail is valued at up to $250 per night in the US and up to $350 per night at many of the International destinations.

However, the recipient is responsible for all other expenses, including but not limited to: airfare, transfers, food & beverages, gratuities, resort fees if applicable, and any other personal or miscellaneous expenses.

Resort fees are commonplace in the travel industry. As a matter of fact, over 96% of tourists traveling to Orlando or Las Vegas now have to pay a resort fee when they check-in at the resort.

This is so common now that it’s just expected by any seasoned traveler.

When you award someone a complimentary Vacation Accommodation Certificate, you are giving them a vacation that is arguably valued between $750 & $1,000 for US destinations - and up to $1,750 internationally, depending on where and the time of year they travel.

Here are examples of resort fees for properties in the program:

Las Vegas at the hotels we use run from $16.00 to $38.00 per night.

Orlando at the hotels we use run from $5.00 to $12.00 per night depending on hotel and season.

Gatlinburg / Branson / Williamsburg run from zero to $12.00 depending on hotel and season.

Daytona Beach runs from $15 to $20 per night based on the season.

Myrtle Beach SC runs from $5 to $15 depending on the season.

Mexico hotels we use are from $10 to $14 per night based on the season.

The above are just examples of resort fees.

If there is a resort fee, it will be disclosed when the end-user chooses travel dates and the hotel.

Resort fees cover items like WiFi Internet Access, Local Calls, Resort Amenities,

Fitness Centers, In-room Safes, Beach Chairs, Umbrellas, Beach/pool towels, activities and more.

The short answer is YES…..for many of the hotels.

Whilst the Vacation Accommodation Certificate is for two people, most hotels allow 2 children up to 12 years of age to stay in the same room as 2 adults.

If traveling with extra adults or children, upgrades may be available at some resorts to accommodate this.

The upgrades require the purchase of additional rooms or larger suites. Prices for upgrade options and or additional children etc. depend on room availability and seasonality, so prices cannot be quoted until travel dates are selected.

All upgrade options will be online where the end-user can select the option to upgrade or continue to search for other participating properties.

These promotional incentives are designed mainly for couples – but as highlighted above, many hotels allow 2 children up to 12 years in the same room as 2 adults.

ONLY one incentive will be honoured per household or friends & relatives traveling together.

Group travel or combining these incentives to travel with friends and family is not allowed & there are extra costs for additional rooms or room nights.

No sorry, these vacation incentives cannot be used for groups of more than 1 room.

The hotels & resorts that are offering this promotion will honour only one package per family, friends, acquaintances, or known groups traveling on the same, similar, and/or adjoining arrival and departure dates.

There are additional costs associated with group travel. They also will not be available to use during conventions or other special events at the resort.

This incentive activation is FINAL & NON-REFUNDABLE.

Your customer will have 18 months to travel and can choose from all available destinations to find travel dates and vacation options.

Once dates are confirmed with the incentive, no changes will be allowed.

Cancellations after dates are confirmed will result in forfeiture of the activation fees. (The inventory used for these rooms are not as flexible as booking at retail rack rates - once confirmed, changes will not be allowed and cancellations or no-shows will result in forfeiture of fees paid)

No, the flights are not included.

The recipient of this incentive is responsible for all expenses including but not limited to: airfare, transfers, food, gratuities, and any other miscellaneous expenses. This incentive cannot be combined with any other promotional vacation offer.

With these promotional offers, the resorts are hoping that the “free accommodation guests” will spend on the property at the restaurants, spa, poolside cocktails, room service, etc.

For this reason and others, they are requiring that at least 1 person in the party be over the age of 21 for all the resorts – and hold a passport to travel if overseas.

They must also have a Major Credit or a Bank Debit Card with a Visa or Mastercard logo plus a valid government-issued ID to check-in.

(In other words, they must not be cash customers with no recourse for damage to rooms, etc.)

Your customers can choose from any of the locations as long as they reside at least 100 miles or 160 kilometers away from the participating resort.

Our travel partner, Redeem Vacations, needs to ensure that sufficient hotel rooms are available across multiple locations & dates.

To do so, it’s important to have a rolling indication of how many bookings there might be within the next 12-18 months for specific locations.

That way, Redeem Vacations can cater for any particular demand for a specific destination (ie: provide “more” hotels if needed).

The only way to do this is to ensure the location is chosen at the point of “activation” (when the nightly booking fees & taxes are paid).

This ensures our travel partner supplies sufficient hotels’ room availability, whilst still giving the customer 18 months to book.