The idea of a loyalty program is to give a member an incentive to choose your product over a competitor's.
That generally means you are looking for the occasional traveler and the more active traveler. You may be willing to compensate the more active traveler more, but you want to make ALL travelers loyal to your brand.
The issue with this promo is it not only targets the bulk of the incentive toward the most active travelers, but it does it at a time when the economy makes filling hotels with casual travelers even more important than normal.
It either wasn't well thought out or was planned before the economy went south.
__________________ UA Premier Executive, Hyatt Platinum, ICH Platinum
Spending $8,000 to get 129,000 points...no thank you. Last year in the first quarter you could have spent under $2,000 to get far more value. I got 2 nights at the Eden in Rome, two nights at the Le Meridien Fisherman's Cove in the Seychelles--a value of nearly that many points just for staying 7 nights at the Le Meridien San Francisco. In addition I earned the quarterly promo and the 1,000/2,000/3,000 promo, as well as 500 extra for the W stays I did in various cities. It was the same the year before. I did all these stays as a result of the promos. 500 points is not that exciting to me. I'm certainly not going to spend $8,000 to get a free week in New York. With rates going down, I could pay $1,500 or less for those 6 nights at a W in NYC without even joining SPG. Not to mention that spending 66 days in most any hotel in a three month period would be pure torture.
I booked 5 prepaid nights in January in anticipation of multiple promos. With only 500/night I have cancelled all of the nights I had booked that were not prepaid-everything past January 31st. I have zero incentive to go out of my way to stay at a Starwood hotel unless I really like that particular hotel.
As a W the card holder and a Platinum SPG member I had to wait until 8PM for them to get around to having a clean room available on a recent W stay. Doesn't do much to get me coming back for more.
For some of my co-workers who have to stay somewhere, they will get a few extra points but won't notice a difference. I make the travel decisions for my company and have booked people at Starwoods even if the price was higher based upon the fact that redemptions were easy and generous. Without the incentive, in these times, it is wise to go for best value. 500 points is really $5 to SPG so if you are paying more than $5 extra a night to get the 500 points, it is really not worth the effort.
In the past, the marketing department did a good job of hooking me into SPG. I went from one stay in one year in the past 10 to doing 35-50 stays per year. Not only that but I signed up all of my co-workers, got the SPG business Amex, recommended the SPG Amex card to friends and family and got several of them to be elite SPG members through their stays. So, it may have cost a little money to get me as a customer but now Starwood has many more nights coming in at a much higher pricing point that I might have paid on my own. SPG only had to target one person to get 100s of nights booked/year. Offering weak incentives to book a hotel room when it may be much more compelling to save the money, means less revenue for Starwood--so the savings in the marketing department is not so much of a savings in the end.
I get that this isn't a blockbuster promo.. nice, but not amazing. I'm not going out of my way (like in Q4) to hit thresholds to get mega points.
However, I did some research and the other chains promos seem lackluster at best. I was tempted to do FFN last year, but stayed with SPG because I got 50k points that I could redeem whenever (and use for C+P which stretches a long way).
I'm a plat. both at Marriott and SPG and can't decide if I want to get 50K Marriott points for 25 nights or 25K SPG points for 25 nights...(i know it's the 10th day but for ratio sake...) Or should I mix and match since in the period i'll have atleast 60 nights...
Programs: AA 0.94MM EXP, US CP, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, National Exec
Posts: 1,319
Quote:
Originally Posted by spsawant
I have 66 Nights scheduled from today untill April 30th ... 16 Stays ... Unfortunately it will take me 9 more stays this Year to maintain my Platinum Status
Actually, you get Platinum with 25 stays or 50 nights, so you should be set based on the nights.
Programs: AA Plat Delta Gold Hilton Gold Hyatt Gold Marriott Plat SPG Plat US Gold
Posts: 244
Quote:
Originally Posted by phatrabbitzz
I'm a plat. both at Marriott and SPG and can't decide if I want to get 50K Marriott points for 25 nights or 25K SPG points for 25 nights...(i know it's the 10th day but for ratio sake...) Or should I mix and match since in the period i'll have atleast 60 nights...
I am in the same predicament. Its a relatively tough decision. which is more valuable 1000 Starpoints or 2,000 Marriott Points...?
Keep in mind that the Marriott Megabonus does not begin until Feb 1st, a full 22 days after SPG's Night After Night... So up until Feb 1st, its a no brainer to stay with Starwood, after that I'm still undecided...
I, too, am disappointed when a promo is targeted and I am not one of the recipients. But any promo is better than none.
I'm surprised at how many whiners are posting that this promo is not good enough! Especially this one ..... "Embarrassingly so"???? Then don't sign up if it embarrasses you!
Every party has a pooper .......
Agreed! Instead of whining on SPG board, these folks should just sign up with other programs and their promotions if those earn them better bonus.
Promotion often can be a deal breaker for many, but in my case, it's just something that 'enhances' my stay at hotels as it will net me points that I would have not gotten otherwise.
I am aware of other programs with potentially better promotion, but in my situation, SPG hotels suit me best for my travels and I actually do prefer staying at SPG hotels thanks to nice Plat perks (and knock on the wood, I have been treated fairly well as Plat). IC hotels (except for ICs) do not have good inventory of mid-top tier hotels like Westin/Sheraton/Luxury collection, LM. CP pretty much can range from a pure dump to fairly decent, but below Westin, on-par with Sheratons. Hyatt has much too less inventory of hotels world wide... and Marriott is a program I have never used.
So, without Royal Ambassador status, lack of IC locations, lack of hotel collection/location with Hyatt, lack of promotions with Hilton (though they have just release double points promo), and lack of status with Marriott, I'd suit best with SPG... regardless of SPG's current promotion.
In the end, it's your personal preference that steers you to hotel programs and loyalty. Promotion is just another bonus for your loyalty.
Earn 500 bonus Starpoints every night and an additional 5,000 every 10th night!!
Here is a promotion I haven't seem on the forum yet. From now till end of April, you get 500 pts for every night, and 5000 pts for every 10th night. Enjoy!!
Then don't sign up if it embarrasses you! 
