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A single point made in a posting on one of the major travel/miles/points blogs yesterday gave me pause for thought. The reason for the pause was because the point that was being made was fundamentally flawed.
The author was writing a blog about visiting London using miles and points and, in one section of the blog, recommended staying at the W Leicester Square, using SPG Starpoints, on the basis that it’s possible to get a 2.9 cents/point return on your SPG balance. The maths behind this is quite simple: According to the blog in question nightly rates at the W Leicester Square are around “£380 ($585) per night” this fall and, as a Category 6 hotel, a one night redemption would cost between 20,000 and 25,000 Starpoints – that gives you a redemption rate of between 2.3 and 2.9 cents per point. So there’s nothing wrong with the math.
But here’s my issue with using this particular metric as a guide to where you should stay – it’s nonsense! The redemption rate is entirely based on the price of the hotel and has absolutely no bearing on whether the hotel is any good or not. I could advertize a dog kennel for $1,000 or 20,000 Starpoints per night (which would give you a great redemption rate of 5 cents per point) but that doesn’t mean you should book it! It’s still a dog kennel!
As it happens I truly abhor the W Leicester Square. To me it’s the perfect example of too much styling and absolutely no substance (an accusation that can be levelled at a lot of W Hotels around the world). The location is great if you want a very central base but that’s pretty much where the redeeming features end. It’s noisy, dark and you can’t get a drink at the bar because it’s permanently overcrowded. The basic rooms (which are the ones that cost $585/night) are small and very poorly designed – the shower cubicles leak into the sleeping area – and the staff are too “cool” for their own good. Oh, and it’s vastly overpriced.
The entrance to the W Leicester Square in London.
Solely using a metric that relies heavily on the price of the hotel to decide if something is a good redemption or not is fundamentally wrong and something that travel bloggers shouldn’t be doing. Sure, if the redemption rate is good and the hotel gets reviews that warrant the prices being charged then an argument can be made for it being a good redemption – but it takes a combination of things to make something a good redemption and not one simple, meaningless metric.
The cynic in me would suggest that some bloggers are pushing the “look how good Starpoint redemptions are right now” idea because there’s an increased signup bonus on the US SPG Amex credit card and they’d love people to use their affiliate links to sign up for it. But the optimist in me would like to think that it’s just lazy writing. You decide which you think it is.
The moral to all this is simple: when you read a travel blogger telling you that something is a good redemption or a good idea don’t just take their word for it – do your own research (I include myself in this). There are any number of better redemption options in London that the blog in question didn’t mention and it wouldn’t take much work to figure out which ones those are (Starwood’s Park Tower in Knightsbridge is just one example if you’re set on redeeming Starpoints).
Building up healthy miles & points balances can be hard work (especially true in the case of Starpoints) so don’t fritter them all away on the say-so of a blogger.
Featured image: Jason Devaun via Flickr
