SPG Is Out With Their Fall Promo

As announced on Milepoint a short while ago, SPG has given us a sneak peek at their final systemwide promo of the year:

We wanted Milepoint members to be among the first to know about SPG’s end of year global promotion, Stay for More.

With SPG Stay for More, members can earn double Starpoints® on eligible stays of two or more nights — plus 500 bonus Starpoints when eligible stays include three or more nights. For example, if your stay is two nights you will receive double Starpoints. If your stay is four nights you will receive double Starpoints plus 500 bonus Starpoints for that stay.

Registration is from September 23 through December 6, 2015, and earning is from October 1 through December 20, 2015. There is no limit to the number of bonus Starpoints that Members can earn. Promotional terms and conditions, FAQs, and a list of non-participating Starwood hotels and resorts will be available on September 23, 2015.

We don’t yet have confirmation on how many properties will be excluded, but since the last promo included everyone, I’m a bit disappointed to see this going back the other way.  There’s no surprise free night promo like this summer, but let’s analyze how members can earn on this promo:

• Double points on stays of 2 nights or more.  When you compare this to the summer promo where you earned 1,000 points for any stay 2 nights or longer, this promo looks worse for the average 2-night stay.  I’m assuming the double Starpoints is on the base spend, so that means an extra 2 points per dollar.  Under the current promo, you’d need to average $250 in base hotel rate on a 2-night stay to earn an extra 1,000 points on a 2-night stay.  So, anything under that rate (which is likely for a good number of travelers) would earn less than the summer promo.  Assuming, you know, I can do math right today.
• 500 bonus starpoints on stays of 3 nights or more.  If we take a 3-night stay under the summer promo, it’s a straight 1,000 points.  Here, you’re earning double points and you get the 500 bonus points.  So, an average rate of about $167 for the 3-night stay would net out the same.  That means stays of 3 nights or more are likely to be more lucrative with the fall promo.

So, where does that put us?

There’s certainly a clear line where this promo is better than the summer promo.  And, it’s probably a bit more lucrative than I would have expected given recent promos prior to this summer.  SPG had been focusing promos on building weekend business which shut out a lot of customers.  This promo will certainly have much wider appeal.

Hotel hopping is definitely not in your favor for this promo.  It encourages longer stays, so if you’re mattress running to finish up status this year on stays, you’ll be leaving some earning on the table.

I’m going to hold off on scoring this promo until I’ve had some time to look at the others, and we haven’t seen the Hyatt promo yet.  I wouldn’t expect to see another free night promo pop up after the announcement.  But, all in all, I think this is better than expected.