Starwood has been sending out targeted offers for free nights and/or points, which I find incredibly lucrative for those targeted yet penalizing on non-targeted members.
Starwood Exclusive Rewards Promotion
I received this in an SPG email for one of the accounts I manage.
Exclusive Rewards
That led me to the Exclusive Rewards Promotion website. Loyalty Lobby says that there’s three version of the offer, which is targeted and thus not public.
Starwood Exclusive Rewards Offers
1. Free Night Cat 1-6 Certificate After A Stay (Max 3 Certs After 3 Stays)
Eligible member must register by August 31, 2014, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Members can earn one (1) Free Night Award after they book and complete one (1) eligible stay, a second Free Night Award after they complete their second (2nd) eligible stay, and a third Free Night Award after their third (3rd) eligible stay from July 15, 2014, through October 15, 2014 (the “promotion period”). This promotion is not transferable. Bookings made prior to the promotion period are eligible, but only eligible stays consumed during the promotion period will earn a bonus.
An eligible stay is a stay with at least 1 eligible paid night at any of the over 1,100 participating Starwood hotels and resorts paying an eligible paid rate during the promotion period.
2. Free Night Cat 1-6 Certificate After Two Stays & Additional Certificate After 3rd And 4th Stays (Max 3 Free Night Certs After 4 Stays)
Eligible member must register by August 31, 2014, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Members can earn one (1) Free Night Award after they book and complete two (2) eligible stays, a second Free Night Award after they complete their third (3rd) eligible stay, and a third Free Night after they complete their fourth (4th) eligible stay from July 15, 2014, through October 15, 2014 (the “promotion period”). This promotion is not transferable. Bookings made prior to the promotion period are eligible, but only eligible stays consumed during the promotion period will earn a bonus.
An eligible stay is a stay with at least 1 eligible paid night at any of the over 1,100 participating Starwood hotels and resorts paying an eligible paid rate during the promotion period.
3.Maximum Of 7,500 Bonus Starpoints After 3 Stays
Eligible member must register by August 31, 2014, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Member can earn 1,500 bonus Starpoints® after one (1) eligible paid stay, 2,500 bonus Starpoints after the second (2nd) eligible paid stay, and 3,500 bonus Starpoints after the third (3rd) eligible paid stay. As part of this promotion, member may earn a maximum of 7,500 total bonus Starpoints for three eligible stays from July 15, 2014, through October 15, 2014 (the “promotion period”). This promotion is not transferable. Bookings made prior to the promotion period are eligible, but only eligible stays consumed during the promotion period will earn a bonus.
The above offers were originally on Loyalty Lobby’s post.
My Thoughts
If you are targeted for the first two offers, that is an amazing deal, and in my opinion, worth mattress running. It has been a long time since a promotion has been “mattress runnable” where the benefits from completing an promotion will be worth more than the value of the hotels. Most likely, this is a promotion to target inactive members or those that may consider SPG (and don’t use it as their primary chain). It’s highly unlikely that elite members who earn their status from stays will receive this offer, unfortunately.
A Category 6 hotel goes for 20,000 SPG points or 25,000 SPG points in the peak season. Most people would value a Starwood Point at a minimum of 1.5 cents per mile, so this means each night you stay gets you a return of at least $300. Even if you don’t normally pay that much, for a hotel night, I’m fairly sure that’d there’s no other offer where you can pay around $100 for a cheap hotel near you (or if you head down for a weekend trip somewhere), and get a free hotel night to use in Paris, Sinagpore, Mauritius, and many other outstanding locations.
For example, the Westin Paris is going for over 550 euros for some dates later this year.
Westin Paris
If you were targeted for the third offer, it’s a nice bonus if you were planning travel and might be worth switching chains for, but doesn’t justify mattress running as much. This offer should also stack with the Earn Away double/triple points promotion that SPG is also running as their Q2 chain-wide promotion.
The best credit card to accrue SPG points in Canada is the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express which offers 1 point per general spend plus a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer 20,000 SPG points to airline partners. Currently the card also offers 10,000 bonus points after $500 spend within the first three months, at an annual fee of $120.
Check if you are targeted here. (I hope you are!)
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Not targeted. /sad
Friends at SPG suggest that if you already have booked SPG stays in the period or if you already have booked many stays in the period ahead of this promotion, you won’t be targeted. It sounds like they are targeting people who haven’t stayed with SPG in a while.
My wife has been dormant ever since she signed up SPG in Jan and she got a similiar version of your offer 1: Free Night Cat 1-6 Certificate After A Stay (Max 2 Certs After 2 Stays).
I have been plat for 3 years and did not receive anything. So, I plan to keep away from SPG this year, and plan to stay intensively in Jan and Fe 2015 to resume my plat status.
Not targeted 🙁