Gondola Cash

Earning Gondola Cash

Gondola Cash is a rewards currency where $1 in Gondola Cash equals $1 toward your next hotel booking.

Members earn rewards through hotel bookings, receiving 3-7% back in Gondola Cash for every hotel booking, based on your Gondola Status Tier. Rental car bookings earn Gondola Cash too, at 1% for Member, 2% for Silver, and 3% for Gold.

An additional earning method involves referrals. When you share your custom referral link, you'll both earn $50 after they complete their first stay. Your invite page highlights $1,000 as a goal because that is 20 friends at $50 each. See Referrals and Partnerships for the full breakdown.

Rewards become available in your Rewards Dashboard after a stay concludes, or after you return the car on a rental, and remain available indefinitely until redeemed.

Redeeming Gondola Cash

To use accumulated rewards, apply your Gondola Cash during checkout when booking another hotel. You'll need enough to cover the full price for now, but partial payments are coming soon. When your balance doesn't cover a rate's full price, the Gondola Cash rate still appears with its USD price for comparison, but the Book button is unavailable until you have enough.

When booking with Gondola Cash, the currency covers the full room rate and taxes.

At eligible chain hotels, your Gondola Cash is applied to a rate booked directly with the hotel rather than to partner inventory. The price is the same as paying that rate with a card, and booking direct is what preserves the loyalty earnings below.

Direct redemptions need a little notice. Gondola secures the reservation with the hotel before you arrive, so a directly booked Gondola Cash rate is only offered when check-in is at least two days away. For stays starting sooner, the hotel's regular rates are still shown but Gondola Cash can't be applied to them.

Additional expenses like resort fees must be paid separately at the hotel. You still provide a credit card at check-in to secure the reservation and cover any charges beyond the room rate and taxes.

What you earn on a Gondola Cash redemption

At eligible chain hotels, redemptions are booked directly with the hotel, the same as any other Gondola booking, so you still earn:

• Hotel loyalty points
• Elite status nights
• The on-property perks that come with your elite status

At independent properties, at chains we cannot yet book directly, and at hotels in a few regions where we can't secure the reservation ahead of arrival, a redemption goes through partner inventory instead and does not earn hotel loyalty.

You do not earn credit card points on the portion you pay with Gondola Cash, because there is no card charge to earn them on. Gondola Cash is the payment method.

This is a change from how redemptions used to work. They were previously booked through partner inventory and earned no hotel points or status nights either.