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I’m a bit behind on this one as the details of this offer have been out for a few days – mea culpa, that’s the price I pay for a lot of travel days!
Anyway, on with the promotion:
Starwood has announced details of its “SPG Take Two” promotion which runs from 11 January through 30 April 2016 and I doubt it’s going to get too many people excited.
- Register through April 10, 2016, to earn double Starpoints on stays of two or more nights at any of Starwood’s properties worldwide.
- Earn 250 Starpoints for every night stayed at hotels and resorts in “popular destinations”, including New York, Rio, Hong Kong and Dubai.
The popular destinations are:
- Brazil
- China
- Egypt
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- Macau
- Maldives
- Peru
- Singapore
- Spain
- Turkey
- UAE
- USA
- California
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- Puerto Rico
The full list of hotels in “popular destinations” is set out here
Apart from the fact that this is an extremely limited list of destinations (and the list of hotels in those destinations is hardy extensive – all 10 of the participating California hotels are in the San Diego area) I’m probably not the only one who’s wondering what Starwood’s definition of “popular” is if they classify Egypt as a current popular destination.
It’s nice that all Starwood properties are eligible for the double points promotions but with just 2 European countries on the popular destinations list I don’t think much of their 250 Starpoints/night offer.
Registration is necessary
The FAQ for the promotion are here
Full terms and conditions are here
So How Many Points Will You Earn?
Note: Only stays of 2 nights or longer will count so you won’t be earning any bonuses on 1 night stays at airport hotels.
Providing you stay for two nights or more these will be the earning rates:
- Base level SPG member – 4 Starpoints/$
- SPG Gold/Platinum member – 6 Starpoints/$
- SPG 75-night+ Platinum member – 8 Starpoints/$
Clearly some bonus points are better than no bonus points but, while the earning rate for the 75+ night Platinum members should help them rack up a decent number of Starpoints, the rest of us aren’t exactly being tempted with that much by the SPG Take Two promotion.
The Palace Hotel San Francisco – SPG Category 6
A free night at one of Starwood’s better hotels (SPG Cat 6) will set you back at least 20,000 Starpoints so, assuming you didn’t stay at one of the “popular destination” hotels, a base level member would need to spend $5,000 at Starwood properties before he/she earned enough Starpoints for a free night. A Gold or regular Platinum member would need to spend $3,333 dollars while a 75+ night Platinum member would need to spend $2,500 on stays of 2 nights or more.
Admittedly SPG members could supplement their earnings if they paid with an SPG branded credit card which would earn them a further 2 Starpoints/$.
Bottom Line
The biggest issue with the SPG Take Two promotion, for me, is the 2 night minimum stay rule. I do a lot of 1 night stays unless I’m going somewhere on vacation and, if I’m going on vacation, I don’t pick my hotels based on the number of points I can earn – I pick them based on the benefits I’ll have access to.
If, on the other hand, you tend to book stays of at least 2 nights and find yourself able to stay at one of the popular destination properties then you’re in with a chance of earning a good number of Starpoints – especially if you’re a 75+ night Platinum member.
The thing is that most people who stay at hotels on a regular basis don’t spend $200-$300 per night and, as this promotion requires a good level of spend before you earn a top free night, that’s going to be an issue. It’s hard to earn enough Starpoints for a top-level free night if you’re not spending that much….which is presumably what Starwood are trying to achieve (and you can’t blame them for that).
Not only is this promotion probably not for low spenders but it’s also probably not the promotion to tempt guests from other hotel chains.
I have a number of Hyatt stays booked in 1Q 2016 (all are stays of 2-nights or more) but there’s nothing in this promotion that would tempt me to move my stays to Starwood. If I was to book $300/night rooms (which I wouldn’t) and pay for them with my SPG Amex credit card I’d earn around 17,000 Starpoints for my stays. Although that isn’t too bad a return, it isn’t enough to get me to give up the hotels I’ve already carefully chosen as well as all the benefits that I’d get as a Hyatt Diamond member.
I’m sure some people will do ok with the SPG Take Two promotion but I suspect they’ll be in a minority.
