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It’s that time of the quarter where all the hotel promotion that have been running for a while are coming to and end and new ones being to appear….and Starwood has just launched its latest promotion (Great Weeks, Grand Weekends) for the first quarter of 2018.
I’m going to warn you now that you’re not going to have your socks blown off with this one but, nevertheless, a promotion is a promotion and if there are bonus points to be earned that’s better than nothing (just!)
The Headline T&Cs
- Register via this page by 31 March 2018
- Stay between 16 January and 15 April 2018
- Starting with your second stay earn:
- 2x Starpoints
- 500 Bonus Starpoints when the stay includes a weekend night
- “Weekend night” is defined as a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday in the Middle East)
- Not all properties are participating (link to list of participating properties)
Full terms and conditions can be viewed through this link
Thoughts
While I can’t pick out any specific properties that aren’t participating in this promotion the fact that we’ve been told that some aren’t devalues this promotion (and not in a good way).
I’ve long held the view that hotels should either have to fully embrace a loyalty/rewards program or not participate at all – cherry-picking which parts of a program to follow and which promotions to participate in shouldn’t be allowed.
Starwood/SPG is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to allowing properties to opt out and it’s something I hope Marriott deals with when the takeover/merger is complete.
Amusingly, Starwood is using the line “Here’s a great reason to return” to promote its latest offer and, to that, all I have to say is “no it’s not!”
The promotion itself is pretty pathetic and it doesn’t provide any real incentive for travelers to change their plans or to book new stays – the bonus is hardly amazing, not offering the bonus on the first stay is poor and apparently Sunday is now no longer a weekend night according to SPG (who knew?!)
I’m still undecided about where to stay on my upcoming Bangkok trip and I was hoping that the 1Q 2018 promotions may help sway my decision one way or another…but if this is the best Starwood can come up with that’s not going to push me to one of its properties.
Bottom Line
This is a poor promotion from Starwood and I would say that it probably reflects how easily hotels are filling rooms except that programs like IHG are still coming up with pretty decent offers….so why can’t Starwood/SPG do the same?
Having said all of that I would still encourage everyone to register for the promotion as it costs you nothing and you never know when plans change and you find yourself at a SPG property.
For the next few months the weather will be play havoc with flights on a pretty frequent basis so you never know when you’ll find yourself overnighting at a property you weren’t expect to stay at – it would be a shame to miss out on bonus points just because you couldn’t be bothered to register.
[…] little earlier I wrote about Starwood’s 1Q 2018 promotion so, considering they’re essentially the same entity now, it’s not surprising to find […]