Starwood Preferred Guest posted its latest promotion for double points at most Starwood hotels and triple points for stays including a Sunday or Thursday night from September 6 to December 18, 2011. There is a large exclusion list of 225 non-participating Starwood hotels; more than 20% of the global properties in the SPG program. This includes the majority of hotels in places like San Jose and San Diego California, Seattle, Germany, China and Sydney, Australia.
SPG Triple Up promotion registration is required by November 15, 2011. The registration link is scheduled to go live on September 6. Stays booked prior to promotion registration are eligible for bonus as long as member registers by November 15.
Any stay including a Sunday or Thursday night earns triple points.
Earning SPG points
- SPG base rate points = 2 points/US$1
- Double points = 4 points/US$1 (Total)
- Triple points = 6 points/US$1 (Total)
- Elite Gold or Platinum bonus = 1 point/US$1
- SPG American Express payment = 2 points/US$1
SPG Elite members earn 5 or 7 points per $1 at participating hotels for double or triple points. SPG American Express payment adds an additional 2 points per $1. SPG elites can earn as many as 9 points per $1 on up to three rooms per reservation. SPG rules allow a member to earn points on up to three rooms booked at same hotel on a single reservation as long as member personally settles all hotel charges. But three rooms count as only one eligible stay for the member’s SPG account for elite qualification.
Why Sunday and Thursday Nights?
There is a rationale for trying to boost Sunday and Thursday night hotel stays. According to recent STR statistics, a leading hotel industry data company, Sunday nights are the lowest occupancy night of the week for U.S. hotels at 47% while Saturday nights are the highest occupancy night of the week at 68.2%.
Encouraging business and leisure travelers to stay Sunday night for triple points boosts occupancy.
Friday night is the lowest room rate of the week. Encouraging leisure travelers to include a typically higher priced Thursday night for triple points may drive incremental revenue from vacationers and weekend travelers.
That is my hypothesis for why the promotion is set up for triple points bonus when these nights are included in your Starwood stay.
Other Fine Print Promotion Terms
Arriving before September 6 or staying after December 18.
The terms of this promotion state you will receive the bonus points for all nights in any eligible stay that includes September 6 or December 18 as one of the dates for your stay. This means you can be earning triple points for nights right now if your stay checkout date is after September 6. You can earn triple points for New Year’s if your stay includes December 18.
Extended Stays up to 90 days
SPG program terms and conditions state a member can receive Starpoints for a single extended stay up to 90 days. Go over 90 days on a single stay and you are not eligible for any Starpoints.
Combining award nights or Cash & Points with paid nights on a single stay makes the entire stay ineligble for points.
This seems like an odd promotion restriction, but the Triple Up promotion FAQ appear to state any combination of award nights or Cash & Points nights with paid nights on a single stay makes the entire stay ineligible for points.
If part of my stay has an Award Night or a night using Cash & Points, will my stay qualify?
No. Free Night Awards and Cash & Points are not Starpoints-eligible rates. Even if part of the stay is Award and part is paid, the member will not receive bonus credits for any part of the stay.
Non-Participating Starwood Properties
I complain about this regularly, yet major hotel promotions still tend to list nonparticipating hotels by brand rather than by geographical location using state and city. The 88 nonparticipating Starwood hotels in the U.S. are listed by brand rather than state and city making the list of nonparticipating hotels more difficult to assess for your travel plans in the USA.
While it would be much easier to read the list of nonparticipating hotels if they were organized by City and State in the USA, I am not spending an hour of my time to order the 88 hotels in the USA list geographically by state and city. Starwood Preferred Guest should have done this themselves to make the list user-friendly for members trying to determine which hotels are not participating in the locations they are planning to travel.
Starwood NonParticipating Hotels (225) for Triple Up promotion:
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