Starwood Preferred Guest ‘More for You’ promotion is one we have seen before from SPG in past years. The deal is SPG members with stays of 2 nights or longer earn 3x triple points for Starwood Hotel stays September 12 – December 18 that include a Friday or Saturday night. Triple points = 6 points per dollar. Stays of 2 nights or more that do not include a Friday or Saturday weekend night earn 2x double points for Sunday-Thursday nights. Double points = 4 points per dollar. Elite bonuses and other bonus points are not doubled or tripled.
Some Middle Eastern countries define Thursday-Friday as weekend nights and Saturday-Wednesday as weeknights.
SPG More for You promotion registration required by November 30. Credit applies retroactively for eligible stays completed since September 12.
SPG More for You Terms and Conditions.
Most hotels worldwide participate.
Loyalty Traveler Analysis
In my opinion, SPG has pretty much moved their loyalty program incentives to the frequent stay loyalists and offer little points rebate incentive to the low frequency stay casual guest at Starwood Hotels. Double and triple points promotions are spend incentives and 2-night minimum to earn bonus points knocks out many members from earning any bonus points on their Starwood Hotel stays.
A traveler spending $1,000 to $2,000 on a 5-night to 7-night stay will pick up a good bonus of 2,000 to 8,000 Starpoints for a one week leisure vacation or city hotel. Business types with frequent multi-night stays, the loyalists who typically hold SPG Platinum elite can do well with this bonus.
Travelers like me who tend to stay one night at most hotels have no promotion incentive here. Actually, I stay 2 to 4 nights at many hotels, but it has been going on a couple years now since I visited a city and found a Starwood Hotel to be the best value for my stay.
I had a reservation at Luxury Collection Grand Hotel River Park in Bratislava, Slovakia this month for 5,000 Starpoints + $90 (after 20% tax on $75 Cash & Points rate). I decided to cancel the hotel stay in favor of a Hilton Points & Money 2-night stay at 4,000 HHonors points + 35 EUR per night. I have no status with SPG and Diamond elite win HHonors.
One of the reasons I find Starwood Preferred Guest and many of the major hotel loyalty programs less useful these past two years is the prevalence of truly lower rates through online travel agencies compared to years past. A European court ruling allows online travel agencies to sell rooms at lower prices than the hotel chain these days. Most of the time I can find a significantly lower room rate through an OTA site compared to the hotel chain’s rate. The difference in room rate often negates any loyalty benefits advantage like complimentary breakfast, loyalty points and hotel lounge access. And while I considered myself a savvy best rate guarantee claim frequent guest with several years of hotel stays in major chains primarily on approved best rate guarantee (BRG) discounts, those approved BRG claims have become much harder to obtain in the past two years.
All of these factors have meant that I place far lower value on SPG loyalty program than in the past when I held SPG Platinum elite status for many years. I have been sitting about 30 nights away from lifetime SPG Gold for around 5 years now. I seldom find Starwood Hotels to be the most compelling hotel value for locations I have traveled. Sure, Starwood Hotels have some exciting properties, however, room rates generally are commensurately high for me compared to other suitable hotel options in the places I travel.
Starwood Hotels are generally fine properties, but as someone who does not earn points via the SPG Amex credit card and does not want to pay more for a hotel solely due to its branding, this is a promotion that does not inspire me to seek out Starwood Hotels for bonus points.
This promotion is More for You, not more for me.
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