Starwood’s Big Surprise For A Summer Promotion

We already knew part of what Starwood Preferred Guest was announcing for their summer promotion for 2015, I just assumed that was the only promotion they were releasing.  You could earn 1,000 bonus points for any stays 2 nights or longer that included a weekend night (Friday, Saturday or Sunday except in the Middle East where it’s Thursday, Friday or Saturday).

This didn’t blow the doors off, but it was the first promotion in a long time that included all SPG properties.  I’ve frequently been critical of how many SPG properties opt out of promotions, so it seems fitting to recognize when they change that behavior for the better.  That promo is now open for registration:

REGISTRATION LINK

Apparently, SPG wasn’t done.  Via Milepoint this morning, we learn of the other summer promotion, Sheraton Free Weekends:

We also wanted to give you advance notice of a promotion we’re working on to start July 9th – Sheraton Free Weekends. It’s the richest Sheraton focused SPG promotion in the history of the program. You’ll be able to earn a free Sheraton weekend night for every five Sheraton nights you stay from July 9th – Sept 30th. You can earn up to 3 free nights that can be combined, and can be used at any Sheraton hotel or resort (all Categories 1-7!) through December 13th. Just like our existing free night redemption, these Sheraton free nights don’t come with blackout dates or capacity controls. As long as the hotel has a standard room available – it’s your’s. Registration will open July 9th, but bookings can be made any time.

Wow!  The first time I read this I didn’t see the Sheraton part and thought it was any SPG property.  Still, a free weekend night at any Sheraton can be pretty rewarding when you consider some of these high category Sheraton hotels:

• Costa Smeralda Resort, Porto Cervo, Italy (it comes up as a Sheraton when you search the SPG site)
• Sheraton Steamboat Resort Villas, Steamboat Springs, CO
• Sheraton Waikiki
• Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa
• Sheraton Iguazu Resort & Spa (where I was supposed to stay earlier this year before plans went awry)

And, even some sleepier Sheratons like the one I stay at frequently when we take the kids to Hershey Park.

Depending on where you redeem the nights, this can be a screaming good value.  Let’s just use $150 as an average nightly rate during the promo.  If you were a Platinum member of SPG and stayed 5 nights, you’d normally earn 3,750 Starpoints (150 x 5 x 3 points earned per dollar spent).  Considering a free night goes for anywhere from 3,000 to 35,000 points a night, you could earn up to a 9X bonus if you’re redeeming at one of those category 7 properties.  Most people won’t be able to do so, but even a category 5 property goes for between 12,000 and 16,000 points a night.

And, since you have until December 13th to use up your free nights, you can consider sun and ski locations, and everything in between.

This may not be Hyatt Gold Passport’s Faster Free Nights of old, but I don’t think we’ll see anything that generous until the next global recession.  It strikes me that SPG must be having more trouble filling Sheratons than I thought, especially in the summer when business travelers can be enjoying vacations with families instead of filling high dollar rooms in metro markets.

It also strikes me this is likely to be the very best of the summer hotel promos even without all the others being announced.

How many Sheraton nights are you planning this summer?

The post Starwood’s Big Surprise For A Summer Promotion was published first on Pizza In Motion.

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