If you’re planning to visit a major city or even want to enjoy a possible staycation, Virgin Red will now let you redeem rewards points for Virgin Hotels. Virgin Hotels currently operates in the following cities: Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans and New York, as well as two U.K. locations, Edinburgh and London.
However, award stays are not available at the Las Vegas (which you can already book with Hilton Honors points) and Edinburgh properties.
While you can now redeem Virgin points for most Virgin hotels, is it actually a good deal?
How to redeem Virgin points for Virgin Hotels
Before searching for award pricing and availability, register for Virgin Hotels’ loyalty program, “In The Know,” here. Once registered, link your Virgin Red profile to your In The Know account. If you have a balance of Virgin points in your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account, they will automatically show up in your Virgin Red account (which is essentially the same program).
Your Virgin points balance will be displayed in your In The Know account. You can book Virgin hotels with points by selecting “Pay With Virgin points” on the search page.
Note that, as of now, for award stays, you can only book base-level Chamber rooms with Virgin points. While Virgin hotel award redemptions start at 25,000 points per night, room rates are priced dynamically. Unfortunately, there is no award chart to help you determine how much your accommodation redemption will cost. Additionally, much like the new dynamic pricing for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club redemptions, rates aren’t tied to the cash price.
Our searches across various Virgin Hotels properties found redemption rates from 27,500 to 72,500 Virgin points per night compared with cash prices of $294 to $350 per night, obtaining a value of between 0.54 and 1.25 cents each.
The poorest value redemption rates we found were for the London-Shoreditch location, while booking a midweek stay at Virgin Hotels New York can obtain a more respectable value of 1 cent each.
We also found a few dates at Virgin Hotels New Orleans where you can obtain up to 1.25 cents in value per point, so it’s worth playing around with dates to see if you can maximize your Virgin points.
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Given that we value Virgin points at 1.4 cents in our November 2024 valuations, this is not a great way to redeem them, especially compared to Virgin Atlantic’s new excellent-value Saver redemption flights.
Fees and taxes are payable on top of each room rate and points redemption. These will vary by destination and depend on the city and state sales and occupancy taxes, but in New York, for example, you can expect to pay an additional $50 per night.
Related: The 24 best hotels in New York City
Bottom line
With Virgin points being one of the easiest currencies to earn due to the company’s partnerships with every transferable credit card currency, it’s always great to have another option to redeem your Virgin points, and it is long overdue that Virgin-branded hotels can be booked with Virgin points.
Unfortunately, the redemption values are mysterious and often not great, with most properties giving you a value well under 1 cent per point. However, if you have a stockpile of Virgin points or credit card rewards, this could be a sensible way of saving money on accommodations in pricey cities like New York.
To maximize your points, consider redeeming them for a Saver fare on Virgin Atlantic instead. You could book a one-way transatlantic economy flight starting at just 6,000 Virgin points.
