Starwood Preferred Guest - SPG Free Night Promotion Analysis

Hi All,

I think we can all agree that SPG's Free Night promotions is one of the best in the industry!:D I'm holding on to my vacation days right now so that I could see if *wood does it again this year.

I thought it'd be fun to compile SPG FRN/FHN promotions from past years in order to see what SPG comes up with this year.

2011
Promotion: Stay three stays, get one resort night free
Earning period: 5/1/11-7/31/11
Redemption deadline: 12/21/11
Redemption restrictions: any day of the week, at any *wood resort

2010
Promotion: Stay three stays, get one free weekend night
Earning period: 5/1/10-7/31/10
Redemption deadline: 12/19/10
Redemption restrictions: cat 1-6, on Fri, Sat, or Sun nights

2009
Promotion: Stay two stays, get one free weekend night
Earning period: 5/1/09-7/31/09
Redemption deadline: 9/30/09
Redemption restrictions: cat 1-6, on Fri, Sat, or Sun nights

I think 2011's promotion is probably the most generous in terms of the length of time you can use the accumulated nights, not limiting to weekends (which limits out of pocket or points costs) and the normal price per room at the redemption property. This was how I used them:

2011:
4 nights at Equinox Golf Resort & Spa, Manchester, VT
3 nights at Hotel Marques de Riscal, Elciego, Spain

2010:
Don't remember going anywhere!

2009:
2 nights at Park Lane Hotel, London
2 nights at Prince de Galles, Paris

Let me know if I'm missing anything! Thoughts welcomed!:D

so the Q1 promo ends April 9th if i am correct so..... there is almost the entire month of April with no promo if the next starts May 1st??

Thats dumb

Thats dumb
Why? Having a promotion is not an entitlement!

It is simply an "over and above" incidental benefit, that the business may offer at its discretion, but is certainly not obliged to.

Is there anywhere in the SPG T&C's that says that every single day of every year must have a promotion?

Hi All,

2011
Promotion: Stay three nights, get one resort night free
Earning period: 5/1/11-7/31/11
Redemption deadline: 12/21/11
Redemption restrictions: any day of the week, at any *wood resort

2010
Promotion: Stay three nights, get one free weekend night
Earning period: 5/1/10-7/31/10
Redemption deadline: 12/19/10
Redemption restrictions: cat 1-6, on Fri, Sat, or Sun nights


Just to give you a heads up, these two promotions were stay-based (three stays = free night), not night based.

Thanks jdawg! Updated!

I'm hoping for a night-based promotion again next quarter, I'm getting too old to hotel hop daily. :rolleyes:

Hi All,

I think 2011's promotion is probably the most generous in terms of the length of time you can use the accumulated nights, not limiting to weekends (which limits out of pocket or points costs) and the normal price per room at the redemption property. This was how I used them:

2011:
4 nights at Equinox Golf Resort & Spa, Manchester, VT
3 nights at Hotel Marques de Riscal, Elciego, Spain


Best Promo ever! Also one of the best vacations I've had - 4 nights at Sheraton Full Moon Resort and Spa, Maldives :-)

Hoping for a 2009/11 hybrid promo this year - 2 stays, 1 FRN/FHN redeemable any day of the week :D

I think 2011's promotion is probably the most generous in terms of the length of time you can use the accumulated nights, not limiting to weekends (which limits out of pocket or points costs) and the normal price per room at the redemption property. This was how I used them:

Personally, I feel the Free Resort Nights in 2011 continues a trend of reduced generosity.

A lot of places don't have 'resorts' and I'm willing to bet that the total number of nights 'wasted' (left un-redeemed) would be highest compared to previous years.

Maybe Starwood's business is improving compared to previous years that they don't feel necessary to provide generous or any promos.

Best Promo ever! Also one of the best vacations I've had - 4 nights at Sheraton Full Moon Resort and Spa, Maldives :-)Snap! I did exactly the same. :)

I'm hoping for a night-based promotion again next quarter, I'm getting too old to hotel hop daily. :rolleyes:

Same here, but only cause I've booked a few long stays as far forward as May, plus most of my trips are for at least a week or two. Something like a "Stay 4 nights, get one night free any day of the week" would be most ideal!

I'm hoping for a night-based promotion again next quarter, I'm getting too old to hotel hop daily. :rolleyes:

Ditto. I'm still tired from last summer. Moved from Sheraton Arlington to Sheraton Ft. Worth every M/Tu/W for 3 months. After week one I should have realized that leaving my toiletries in a rental car in the 100 degree texas sun wasn't such a great idea...

Personally, I feel the Free Resort Nights in 2011 continues a trend of reduced generosity.

A lot of places don't have 'resorts' and I'm willing to bet that the total number of nights 'wasted' (left un-redeemed) would be highest compared to previous years.

Maybe Starwood's business is improving compared to previous years that they don't feel necessary to provide generous or any promos.

I couldn't disagree more. The primary benefit I want from my weekly travel is to be able to go someplace that I otherwise wouldn't choose to afford. Sure, it took a minimal level of planning, but I was able to spend 4 nights at the St. Regis Princeville and 4 more at the Westin Ka'anapali. If I had to go back and do it again, I would have spent all 8 in Princeville...

Used my two FRN last year at the Blue Palace Resort and Spa in Crete. They even upgraded me as a gold to a room with an infinity pool!

I'm hoping for a similar promo this year, especially when I'm traveling more.

Hi All,

I think we can all agree that SPG's Free Night promotions is one of the best in the industry!

Nope, I don't think that we can. Lots of threads have detailed this. Sure, we have lots of FTers who love the free night promos and lots of others (including myself) who have been vocal in preference of points based promos due to the latter having fewer restrictions and deadlines on when earnings can be redeemed.

2011
Promotion: Stay three stays, get one resort night free
Earning period: 5/1/11-7/31/11
Redemption deadline: 12/21/11
Redemption restrictions: any day of the week, at any *wood resort


S*cked for me

Never got to use a one of them, I was never in a location where there was a resort that I could use or even waste

luckily, none of my stays were just to earn promo credit but still.. i'm just sayin

Why? Having a promotion is not an entitlement!

It is simply an "over and above" incidental benefit, that the business may offer at its discretion, but is certainly not obliged to.

Is there anywhere in the SPG T&C's that says that every single day of every year must have a promotion?

If a hotel wants me to stay at its property it better have a promo going or I will be staying elsewhere.

Also I dont like this thread it reminds me of the Hyatt one that has past FFN dates on it. Then the dates stopped and people just speculate on when it will be back.

@vandalby: points are great, but I hardly think you can earn the equivalent of 5 nights and a category 6 hotel within a 3 month period. as azeckel said, this promotion allows me to able to go someplace that I otherwise wouldn't choose to afford, and that includes afford in terms of burning points.

@stallion114: i hardly think its speculation since they've done it in the last three consecutive years on the same dates 5/1-7/31.

hmm looks like we have a trend. i loved this promo last year.

anyone remember the date of announcements over the year? i seem to remember last year's promo wasn't announce until around 4/15. so we can have fun with about a month of speculation

@vandalby: points are great, but I hardly think you can earn the equivalent of 5 nights and a category 6 hotel within a 3 month period. as azeckel said, this promotion allows me to able to go someplace that I otherwise wouldn't choose to afford, and that includes afford in terms of burning points.

Perhaps for you, but not necessarily. Let's break down the math:

Utilizing the common 5th night free on points approach, a Cat 6 @ 20,000 points per night would cost you 80,000 points for a 5 night stay.

A solid road warrior (again, not necessarily you) may stay 3 nights per week, 13 weeks in the average quarter would yield 39 nights in a quarter. You'd need 2,051 points per night at 39 nights to hit your 80,000 points in a quarter.

There have been lots of reports over the years of FTers averaging 2,000 points per night during decent points based promos - between room rate, Platinum bonus points and other promotional points.

Your point is why the promo is good for you, but for me with my typical points earning power, points and point earning become a lot more attractive due to the lack of restrictions on the timeline in which to use. Instead of having a 3-4 month window for redemption (and historically, limited to weekend nights within that period) I can use at my discretion.

There have been lots of reports over the years of FTers averaging 2,000 points per night during decent points based promos - between room rate, Platinum bonus points and other promotional points.

2k/night seems high - especially given corporate expense policies.

With the SPG Amex, 4th point/night, green choice, plat bonus, and triple promo I'm earning 4500/week (3 nights). Last summer I was earning one night at the St Regis princeville every week (20k points) in ADDITION to all the normal points. The current promo only adds about 1500 points per week. Granted - points don't expire and have far less restrictions, but if you plan properly you can get a ton of value from a stay based promo.

so the Q1 promo ends April 9th if i am correct so..... there is almost the entire month of April with no promo if the next starts May 1st??

Thats dumb

not dumb at all....like others have said, a promo is not an entitlement....

infact, a couple of years ago there was a ft specific promo in the month of april to bridge the gap between the quarterly promos....

Same here, but only cause I've booked a few long stays as far forward as May, plus most of my trips are for at least a week or two. Something like a "Stay 4 nights, get one night free any day of the week" would be most ideal!

i have a feeling the next promo will be nights based rather than stay based....

something like stay 4-5 nights & get a free weekend night or resort night or a suite night certificate....

i have a feeling the next promo will be nights based rather than stay based....

something like stay 4-5 nights & get a free weekend night or resort night or a suite night certificate....

Although I think speculation is a bit silly, and accept promo benefits as they come, without expectations, I do think Starwood would be clever to offer Suite Night Upgrades in a promo. It's cheap, as it has no real cost to them. Hotels, in theory, only confirm the upgrade when they feel they wouldn't sell the suite and may otherwise offer it as a free upgrade to a plat, anyway.

It would disappoint me, as the SNUs don't offer anything concrete until a few days prior to stay, so they wouldn't affect my wallet beneficially, but it would be a clever marketing tactic.

Personally, I feel the Free Resort Nights in 2011 continues a trend of reduced generosity.

A lot of places don't have 'resorts' and I'm willing to bet that the total number of nights 'wasted' (left un-redeemed) would be highest compared to previous years.

Maybe Starwood's business is improving compared to previous years that they don't feel necessary to provide generous or any promos.

+1
I wasted both my free resort night awards.

Why? Having a promotion is not an entitlement!

It is simply an "over and above" incidental benefit, that the business may offer at its discretion, but is certainly not obliged to.

Is there anywhere in the SPG T&C's that says that every single day of every year must have a promotion?

You are totally right but after seeing promotions quarter after quarter for 3/4 years, if one chain does not offer something extra, customers take their business somewhere else.

Snap! I did exactly the same. :)

:) Maximum bang for the buck - $800 (in flight tickets) for a 4-night stay at a Cat-6! No way I could have afforded that even with all my points, leave alone by spending money.

It would disappoint me, as the SNUs don't offer anything concrete until a few days prior to stay

+1

Personally, I feel the Free Resort Nights in 2011 continues a trend of reduced generosity.

A lot of places don't have 'resorts' and I'm willing to bet that the total number of nights 'wasted' (left un-redeemed) would be highest compared to previous years.

Maybe Starwood's business is improving compared to previous years that they don't feel necessary to provide generous or any promos.

I strongly disagree. For me this was Starwood's best promotion ever. Most of the resorts participating were high end and, if used effectively, it was VERY generous. We had two outstanding vacations because of this promotion and I would love to see something similar again.

not dumb at all....like others have said, a promo is not an entitlement....

infact, a couple of years ago there was a ft specific promo in the month of april to bridge the gap between the quarterly promos....

Definitely agree.
Starwood should be thanked for their promotions, not condemned because there are several days without one. Promotions are a perk to be enjoyed, not an entitlement.

2011
Promotion: Stay three stays, get one resort night free
edemption restrictions: any day of the week, at any *wood resort

2010
Promotion: Stay three stays, get one free weekend night
Redemption restrictions: cat 1-6, on Fri, Sat, or Sun nights

2009
Promotion: Stay two stays, get one free weekend night
Redemption restrictions: cat 1-6, on Fri, Sat, or Sun nights

The 2011 worked me because I wanted to stay in a resort that fall anyway (for location reasons). But I don't know if that restriction would work for me each year.

The 2010 and 2009 versions wouldn't necessarily work totally for me, as I'm not sure I'd need an SPG property only on those days of the week.

What I prefer is the type of promo that Hilton and Priority Club have done occasionally, where for (their choice) number of stays you get a free night certificate that's either good systemwide or at least systemwide up to a high category (equivalent to SPG's 6), on any day of the week.

I would prefer that the free night not be restricted to days of the week (or only resorts) in return for perhaps having to stay a bit more to earn one. (Though Hilton's stay count for a cert was always 4, in the one promo of this type Priority Club ran it was 2!)

Second choice would be a requirement that the stay include a Fri, Sat, or Sun night, but allow more certificates to extend the stay into other (adjacent) days of the week.

Definitely agree.
Starwood should be thanked for their promotions, not condemned because there are several days without one. Promotions are a perk to be enjoyed, not an entitlement.
Here! Here! I personally didn't have a need for the Resort Nights so did not participate last year but it was an unbelieveable deal if you had a need for them. I am hoping they offer it this year though as have a planned trip to Hawaii this fall. Hoping something is leaked soon...

This is my favorite promotion and I really hope it returns this year, stay based and not night based. In our two years as SPG members, we have yet to stay longer than 3 nights at any SPG property. We travel for leisure, not work so we just don't have the time to do 4 nights in one place - too many SPG hotels out there we have to hit up to spend 4 nights at just one!. We earned just 2 nights each year and stayed at a category 5 the first year and category 4 last year. That's worth at least 44K points!

I would prefer that the free night not be restricted to days of the week (or only resorts) in return for perhaps having to stay a bit more to earn one. (Though Hilton's stay count for a cert was always 4, in the one promo of this type Priority Club ran it was 2!)


Of course we all would, but let's look at it this way. You could only use during weekends or you can only use at resorts. This almost completely eliminates that one could use these for business stays, and I am sure that this is SPG's intention.

So I'm new to spg but I am a gold. I just booked 3 award nights in Hawaii cat 5. My question is, should I wait and see if they do the resort stay that you mention? I'm not familiar with maximizing hotel points etc. my husband has a 6 week stay in dc July and August and will stay at a Sheraton and do plat challenge. If they do a similar promo to the one mentioned may be I should save those points used on the cat 5 in Hawaii until the promo comes out. Any suggestions?

So I'm new to spg but I am a gold. I just booked 3 award nights in Hawaii cat 5. My question is, should I wait and see if they do the resort stay that you mention? I'm not familiar with maximizing hotel points etc. my husband has a 6 week stay in dc July and August and will stay at a Sheraton and do plat challenge. If they do a similar promo to the one mentioned may be I should save those points used on the cat 5 in Hawaii until the promo comes out. Any suggestions?

book the nights using points because there is no guarantee if spg will offer a similar promotion this year....if they do then you can swap the free nights for your points stay (provided there are rooms available at that time)....

I strongly disagree. For me this was Starwood's best promotion ever. Most of the resorts participating were high end and, if used effectively, it was VERY generous. We had two outstanding vacations because of this promotion and I would love to see something similar again.
Same here. We had some great vacations last year because of this promo. We also got upgraded to suites each time, so that was an added bonus.

All in all a great opportunity to spend quality time with family, thanks to my many one-night business trips.

While I'd love to see more of this, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something different this year, perhaps something in support of the new elite benefits introduced this year?

Cheers,

2011 free night promotion worked out great for me.

I used 3 nights at Category 7 St. Regis in Puerto Rico, and 2 nights at Category 5 (but expensive) Le Westin in Mt. Tremblant, Quebec during summer. The points needed for these 5 nights alone would have exceeded 100K SPG. I hope same promotion returns this year.

I had a somewhat interesting conversation with an SPG regional sales vp recently. Starwood doesn't mind offering up these night based promos because it costs them relatively little for the added bump in stays that member properties presumably get.

The redemption hotels (in almost all cases, NOT the place where you're earning freebies with paid stays) benefit as well. For the most part, they fill rooms with us that would otherwise be unsold. Even with a very small reimbursement from spg, they win because that room's marginal cost is nil. Also, we spend other dollars at the property on food and beverage, spa services, etc. that they would otherwise not receive.

That's why hotels are only obligated to offer rooms when the basic room type is available. When/if they hit the magic occupancy number, starwood's reimbursement to the hotel increases to something greater than the price of the basic room.

Didn't work well for me. Nights earned was not used cause of kids in school and work. Our main vacation is between Xmas and New Year.

Absolutely loved this promotion last year. Burned every single one of my 9 resort nights at Disney World last year over a weekend with my gf and a bunch of buddies with 3 rooms total.

@vandalby, there's a problem with your math. Using your 80,000 points in 13 weeks example, as someone else also has pointed out, is very difficult to do. But the other thing is, if we using your example of 3 nights/week stay using last year's promotion, that would net me 13 free resort nights accumulated within a 13 week period .... valued at 260,000 points based on a Cat 6 redemption vs your 5 nights if earned and redeemed by points at an equivalent Cat 6 property.

Now do the math for me in how one could accumulating 260,000 points in 13 weeks.

Didn't work well for me. Nights earned was not used cause of kids in school and work. Our main vacation is between Xmas and New Year.

Easy solution ... pull the kids out of school for a week. Understand the hesitancy, but something I'm glad we got past while our daughter was growing up. None the worse for wear in her education; had some quality time on OUR schedule, and didn't get boxed into inflexible high-season rates. Plus, the best skiing is when the kids would otherwise be in school :) ... and the slopes aren't crowded because most parents have the same self-imposed limitation on their schedule.

Life is too short for the school system to dictate enjoyment of life's experiences

Didn't work well for me. Nights earned was not used cause of kids in school and work. Our main vacation is between Xmas and New Year.

Agreed, this promotion doesn't work if you are inflexible. My parents imposed the same vacation slot on us when we were in school. Now as adults, we are DINKs so we have lots of flexibility to make FRNs work. And my parents, as empty-nesters, still on insist traveling between Xmas and New Years because my mother truly believes "the decorations are better and the crowds make it feel like the holidays." Go figure.

Of course we all would, but let's look at it this way. You could only use during weekends or you can only use at resorts. This almost completely eliminates that one could use these for business stays, and I am sure that this is SPG's intention.
That's why my suggestion to SPG (not that I expect them to listen :) ) that it would be more flexible if you could use them for non-weekend nights but only if you were extending a stay that already had (however many they wanted) weekend nights in it. Ie, the issue is that if you have 5 certs, and want to stay 5 days, you can't do it, even if you are quite willing to stay Fri/Sat/Sun nights as 3 of those 5.

Or how about at least adding holidays to it? No one does business stays (in the US) on Thanksgiving Day (or the night before), so why not at least allow Wed/Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun 5-night stay when the Thu is Thanksgiving Day (at least within the US)?

I didn't start using SPG until last year, so haven't had to deal with those yet. I did use my 5 resort certs last year for one 5-night stay (which btw was Thansgiving week!), which is why I bring up the issue that it's impossible to do a 5-night cert stay when the certs are restricted to weekends only with no exceptions.

we are DINKs

double income, no kids!

Easy solution ... pull the kids out of school for a week. Understand the hesitancy, but something I'm glad we got past while our daughter was growing up. None the worse for wear in her education; had some quality time on OUR schedule, and didn't get boxed into inflexible high-season rates. Plus, the best skiing is when the kids would otherwise be in school :) ... and the slopes aren't crowded because most parents have the same self-imposed limitation on their schedule.

Life is too short for the school system to dictate enjoyment of life's experiences

I'm not going to bring this off topic with a long reply but only say as a former teacher this is not advisable on many levels. The anecdotal evidence you supply isn't and shouldn't be taken as a good rationale for pulling kids out of school for a week. Most kids only get about 180 school days a year, which is 50% of the year. Why take away another 5? They have generous breaks, use them.

Now back to the thread.

I'm not going to bring this off topic with a long reply but only say as a former teacher this is not advisable on many levels. The anecdotal evidence you supply isn't and shouldn't be taken as a good rationale for pulling kids out of school for a week. Most kids only get about 180 school days a year, which is 50% of the year. Why take away another 5? They have generous breaks, use them.

Now back to the thread.
Well, since you raised it, I have to say I totally disagree with such a sweeping generalization. In my experience, there are all kinds of situations where it is very beneficial to take kids out of school. Each situation is different, and and has to be assessed on its own merits. You also need to consider factors such as age, grade, maturity, parental accountability, alternative experience, etc...

Cheers,

so the Q1 promo ends April 9th if i am correct so..... there is almost the entire month of April with no promo if the next starts May 1st??

Thats dumb

Let me guess...you come from the HHonors world where they tend to publish them aligned to the quarters with no gaps in between? Or Marriott, where there's occasionally a gap but the promos are completely predictable?

The trade-off? I rarely find HH or MR promotions nearly as rewarding as the Starwood FRN/FWN promos. Hell, the best HH ones are targeted and I'm never in the target. The MR promos cap out at 40,000 points for a ton of nights...that's nice, but really ends up just being a modest point bonus on that ton of nights you had to do to qualify.

MR Plats can downgrade themselves to the non-elite version of the Megabonus if they aren't traveling much, but that usually yields two Category 4 Free Nights. Again nice...I like those certificates...but a Marriott Cat 4 is roughly on par with a Starwood Category 3. Some nice hotels can be had at that level, but you're totally missing out on the kinds of properties people are describing in this thread.

Why? Having a promotion is not an entitlement!

It is simply an "over and above" incidental benefit, that the business may offer at its discretion, but is certainly not obliged to.

Is there anywhere in the SPG T&C's that says that every single day of every year must have a promotion?

No, but I do sort of see where Stoutman is coming from: all of the big chains have conditioned us to a promotion cadence. It's now firmly ingrained as an integral part of each loyalty program. If SPG went, say, 4 months with no promotions, I think we'd all be screaming here about how a benefit has been taken away.

See the Marriott EEO discussions. They didn't ever say "We'll have Elite Exclusive Offers forever", but when they took them away it greatly devalued Gold and Platinum to the point where many people moved to other programs.

Personally, I feel the Free Resort Nights in 2011 continues a trend of reduced generosity.

A lot of places don't have 'resorts' and I'm willing to bet that the total number of nights 'wasted' (left un-redeemed) would be highest compared to previous years.

Maybe Starwood's business is improving compared to previous years that they don't feel necessary to provide generous or any promos.

Obviously Starwood's business is a lot better today than it was in 3-4 years ago when most of the world was either in recession or on the edge of it. But I disagree that FRN was a less-generous promotion. I just think that it aligned more with different stay patterns than the previous promo.

Ditto. I'm still tired from last summer. Moved from Sheraton Arlington to Sheraton Ft. Worth every M/Tu/W for 3 months. After week one I should have realized that leaving my toiletries in a rental car in the 100 degree texas sun wasn't such a great idea...

LOL...I did a lot of hopping between Sheraton North Dallas and Le Meridien Galleria. LM Galleria is a wonderful property...I always had to convince myself that the nights spent at the Sheraton were for a very, very good cause. :)

If a hotel wants me to stay at its property it better have a promo going or I will be staying elsewhere.

Then you really should align with Hilton. All of the others have gaps.

Or maybe you could go with IHG...they always seem to have dozens of promos going at the same time. Stackable, too! :)

The redemption hotels (in almost all cases, NOT the place where you're earning freebies with paid stays) benefit as well. For the most part, they fill rooms with us that would otherwise be unsold. Even with a very small reimbursement from spg, they win because that room's marginal cost is nil. Also, we spend other dollars at the property on food and beverage, spa services, etc. that they would otherwise not receive.


That's the way we tend to behave. If I'm on an award stay, particularly at a resort, I'm a little more likely to use the spa or eat at the hotel. Sometimes it's subconscious...the room feels like it's "free", even though we all know that we have indirectly paid for it.

My 2011 FRN: Westin Villas in Avon, CO. Two units for a long summer weekend...both upgraded to huge 1-bedroom corner units on the top floor. ^ Off-peak season for their timeshare owners, and we spent quite a few bucks in the spa and on drinks by the pool. Win-win for both us and the hotel...

My corresponding Marriott Megabonus: 2 separate 1-night stays at the Marriott YUL. Standard, pleasant hotel that looks exactly like every other airport Marriott in the world. 10 years from now, I'll have forgotten about it...but I'll still remember the weekend in Colorado. @:-)

I'm not going to bring this off topic with a long reply but only say as a former teacher this is not advisable on many levels. The anecdotal evidence you supply isn't and shouldn't be taken as a good rationale for pulling kids out of school for a week. Most kids only get about 180 school days a year, which is 50% of the year. Why take away another 5? They have generous breaks, use them.

Now back to the thread.

I so 100% disagree with this, but I'm afraid if I write a real response here this entire thread will be sent to Puerto Rico.

I so 100% disagree with this, but I'm afraid if I write a real response here this entire thread will be sent to Puerto Rico.

I'll gladly accept any PM debate as I don't feel a need to recruit people to my viewpoint as it is rooted in the most basic rationale and common sense in its entirety; any attempt to shoot holes in it would certainly be way off topic. However this is a free country and board so PM me. If kids actually show up and attend they may learn something as many on this board say, "half of life is showing up."

@vandalby, there's a problem with your math. Using your 80,000 points in 13 weeks example, as someone else also has pointed out, is very difficult to do. But the other thing is, if we using your example of 3 nights/week stay using last year's promotion, that would net me 13 free resort nights accumulated within a 13 week period .... valued at 260,000 points based on a Cat 6 redemption vs your 5 nights if earned and redeemed by points at an equivalent Cat 6 property.

Now do the math for me in how one could accumulating 260,000 points in 13 weeks.

Couple of points:

1st - no it's not that hard to accumulate the number of nights I'm referencing, talk to any management consultant out there who is easily hitting 3 nights per week. In fact, 16 FTers reported over 150 nights with SPG last year meaning they averaged 3 nights per week for an entire 50 week work year: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starwood-preferred-guest/1293375-end-2011-stays-nights-rankings.html
not to mention that there were a number of other FTers on that list who could have easily averaged 3 nights per a quarterly promotion period.

2nd - it would be an extraordinary challenge to make 260,000 points in 13 weeks, but that doesn't matter because you're not holding 260,000 points worth of value in your equation. As explained earlier, the 13 nights accumulated in your example have significant restrictions in terms of:

- properties at which they can be redeemed
- nights of the week upon which they can be redeemed
- limited time of use before expiration

None of the above which factor into points earning (unless one were to let their account expire). So unfortunately, your math doesn't work as your valuation is off.

I suspect we won't see these promotions this year.

The expansion of benefits must be costing them a fair amount (especially the breakfast option).

I do love them though!

I suspect we won't see these promotions this year.

The expansion of benefits must be costing them a fair amount (especially the breakfast option).

I do love them though!

I agree with you. Combine that with the fact that Hyatt hasn't offered Faster Free Nights for almost two years now and seemingly doesn't have any plans for it in the near future; SPG's competitors are not as generous on the promo front either.

I hope we're wrong.

I agree with you. Combine that with the fact that Hyatt hasn't offered Faster Free Nights for almost two years now and seemingly doesn't have any plans for it in the near future; SPG's competitors are not as generous on the promo front either.


Hilton had a promo for a free night cert for every four stays in the fourth quarter of 2012. Those were/are valid at pretty much ANY Hilton family of hotels property for at least 6 months after earning them. Hilton has also had number of overlapping promos lately that one could have taken advantage of.

I agree with you. Combine that with the fact that Hyatt hasn't offered Faster Free Nights for almost two years now and seemingly doesn't have any plans for it in the near future; SPG's competitors are not as generous on the promo front either.

I hope we're wrong.

that is why i think spg will offer a stay x nights & get one suite night certificate....

Hilton had a promo for a free night cert for every four stays in the fourth quarter of 2012.

2012????predicting the future i see....:D

S*cked for me

Never got to use a one of them, I was never in a location where there was a resort that I could use or even waste

luckily, none of my stays were just to earn promo credit but still.. i'm just sayin

+1

2011's promotion was great. So great that I hotel hopped every night (in NYC, not that tough) to maximize my award. Then I couldn't take time off and had to forfeit the award nights. Still, great promotion SPG!

Hey we didn't have one of these this year in 2012. :td:

This is my favorite promotion that spg runs. Fun to look back on some FTer's opinions in this thread. Some were dead on.

Hopefully the fiscal cliff will result in some decent promo from all hotels.