Hotel Loyalty 2010 Summer Promotions Starwood Hotels Starwood Preferred Guest

SPG Rewarding Returns with 5 Stays by Dec 31, 2010

Starwood Preferred Guest Rewarding Returns promotion is a choice between the offers of 25% off an award stay or 4,000 points or a $50 certificate after completing 5 hotel stays from July 1 to Dec 31.

Registration for this offer is required at SPG.com/rewardingreturns.

I had no hesitation choosing the 25% off award. The discount award is potentially worth 12,000 points in savings compared to the choice of 4,000 bonus points. Points are potentially a much higher value than the $50 certificate. The limitation of the 25% award discount is the discount is only valid for category 1 to category 5 hotels and the stay is limited to five nights. The best aspect of the award discount is the redemption period is good for one hotel stay up to five nights through July 31, 2011.

Update: 7:00pm, July 14

Well it turns out that SPG changed the terms and conditions on this offer yesterday to allow 25% off a 5th night free award. The original terms excluded the 25% discount on the 5th night free offer. I missed that change posted by Starwood Lurker (official SPG representative)  on page 21 of the FlyerTalk thread from July 13. The 25% discount in points for an award is now even a better deal.

To redeem the 25% award discount you must call SPG Customer Service 1-888-625-4911 and request award ID 485.

a table with numbers and text
Blue colored cells are greater award discount than 4,000 points.

The best value for the 25% discount award is a four or five night Category 5 hotel stay for 36,000 points rather than 48,000 points – a savings of 12,000 points.

The 25% award discount is for one stay up to five nights, however, SPG normally discounts 20% points for any member booking a five night stay using points. There is only a slight savings using this discount for a five night stay since the discount is not combinable with the already discounted 5th night free award option for any SPG member.

For example, the 25% discount on a five night Category 5 hotel stay only saves 3,000 points, reducing the cost from 48,000 points (5th night free award) to 45,000 points (25% award discount). In this example the member is better off getting the 4,000 bonus points rather than the 25% award discount.

Basically any hotel stay of two to five nights at a category 4 or 5 hotel or a three to five night stay at a Category 3 hotel will save more than 4,000 points and is a better value than the 4,000 bonus points choice with this Rewarding Returns promotion offer.

The exclusion of category 6 and 7 is a relatively small number of properties. I can understand the restriction on category 7 hotels, but I sure would like to have seen category 6 hotels included for this offer.

In my opinion a nice touch by SPG would have been to offer SPG Gold elites up to Category 6 hotels in the 25% discount offer and SPG Platinum members the option of a discount on a category 7 award. There really has not been much from SPG this year to recognize SPG elite members with additional incentives. The SPG Platinum gift this year was a $25 hotel certificate when in the past there has been an offer of 50% off one award stay for Platinum members.

It is not too late SPG to recognize your elites with a distinctive offer.

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14 Comments

  • not_so_impress July 14, 2010

    yeah SPG, come on treat your loyal members or else..

  • Paul Ahn July 14, 2010

    Ric, in my opinion, the 4,000 points is a better choice than 25% off, with $50 being a distant third.
    1. The old saying states, “One bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. There is the potential to “save” between 5,250 and 12,000 points but that’s only if you redeem points by July 31 using one of the 8 ways you highlighted.
    2. The best use the points for hotel stays is the Cash & Points option. The 25% off does not apply to this option. In addition, having points gives more flexibility such as Nights & Flights (saving of 10,000 points), transfering to airlines, etc.
    3. The inability to combine 25% off and Fifth Night Free makes the “discount” less valuable.

  • Bradley July 14, 2010

    Did SPG give its Platinum members a $25 discount coupon this year? I didn’t even receive that, and I became Platinum last year! Hmmm…

  • Boraxo July 14, 2010

    Agree with Paul. The 25% does not work for those of us who won’t have enough points during the limited period to redeem for the higher value awards listed on the chart. But the 4000 points will go a long way on cash + points awards.

    OTOH if you already had plans to burn a 2-4 night Cat 4 or Cat 5 award during the first half of next year then the discount is a no brainer.

  • RAPC July 14, 2010

    Ric.

    One thing – you appear to have worked the numbers to the original promotion where the 25% off couldn’t be used along with the 5th night free award.

    After feedback on FT, they chose to reverse this and made the 25% off combinable with the 5th night free.

    So the 25% off combined with 5th night free should mean:

    Cat 3 – 21,000 points (7k saving)
    Cat 4 – 30,000 points (10k saving)
    Cat 5 – 36,000 points (12k saving)

    You may wish to update your tables accordingly.

    Hope it helps!

  • Scott July 14, 2010

    I thought the Platinum gift was the luggage tags. Never got a $25 off certificate!

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  • Ric Garrido July 14, 2010

    Bradley and Scott – I received the luggage tags from SPG this year. I like that gift. I also received a $25 award certificate expiring June 30, 2011. I really do not recall the details of when the $25 certificate offer was announced. I thought that was my annual Platinum choice for 2010. I’ll have to research the origin of the $25 Starwood certificate.

    RAPC – Thanks so much for the update on the SPG change to the 25% discount offer. The original terms specifically excluded combining the 25% discount with the 5th night free award. I see SPG announced that exclusion was dropped yesterday.

    The change was announced yesterday on page 21 of the FlyerTalk thread on Tuesday morning. My post was based on the terms and conditions I copied on Monday when I signed up for the offer.

    Thanks so much for the update. I really like that change since now four or five nights at a category 5 hotel is only 36,000 points.

    Paul Ahn – The 25% discount is valid for a stay through July 31, 2011. That is more than a year away. I would expect most SPG members can plan a stay in that lengthy timeframe.

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  • Erndog October 20, 2010

    Ric –

    Just wondering – but now that stays at Aloft, Element, & Four Points count double with the nights & stays count double (https://www.spgpromos.com/nightscountdouble/), is it possible that one could qualify for this promotion with just 3 stays at one of those properties?

    Just wondering – but seems like a great incentive when coupled with the “Fast-Track Gold Elite SPG Offer”.

    Thanks,

    Erndog

  • Ric Garrido October 21, 2010

    This is certainly a question better addressed to Starwood Lurker on FlyerTalk. Once Starwood Lurker responds, then you know it is corporate speak and that has much more value to SPG members than Loyalty Traveler speak.

    I actually hadn’t thought of the Double Stays promotion applied to the 25% discount award promotion since I am more focused on maintaining SPG Platinum for 2011, but I do not see why not. I need to recheck the T&C of the promotion.

    That will be a good double dip if we can combine double stays with getting a 25% discount on a category 5 hotel 5th night free award. That is some loyalty traveler discount.

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