OZJET

Wow what dates for $89?
its over 150 when I am there mid may!

TRAVELBABE

When we stayed a couple years ago, I thought the food was really reasonably priced. We stayed on the club floor, and the lounge included breakfast and enough appetizers/salad bar to be considered a light supper. Lunch at the poolside restaurant was pretty inexpensive. Unless the all inclusive includes alcoholic drinks and you will be drinking like fish, I can't imagine spending $1K in food for a 5 day stay. I would book the $89 rate and see if they will allow you to upgrade to the club level with points.

Okto

Heading over to PVR this summer and staying at the Westin. I have booked two rooms under my name (one King for two adults, and one Double for one adult and two kids). As a Platinum, I will have access to the RBC for one of the rooms, but if the other room doesn't get a complimentary upgrade at check in to the RBC level, I would like to upgrade it myself using points.

In post #224 in this thread, sbtinme indicates that the cost to gain RBC access is 1000 pts/night.

In post #230, Condition One indicates that the cost to upgrade the room to RBC level is 3750 pts/night.

I'm happy to pay the 1000 pts/nt, but not the 3750 pts/nt. I don't need the room upgrade, but would like the club access.

Can anybody confirm if/how these options are presented at check in? Is it better to arrange for club access through Plat concierge prior to arrival? Thanks.

DCF

Why waste your points on this?

I was there a few months ago and just paid for my kids to be booked into an RBC room at the time of booking. It cost $30 extra per night.

This is a great hotel to stay at at the published rates because rooms are so cheap.

sbtinme

Well, I think part of the discrepancy here is that this hotel has bounced back and forth with category levels now for years (Cat 2 -> Cat 3 -> Cat 2 -> Cat 3) and the points required to upgrade vary depending on Category.

But, with that said, this time of year is certainly not peak season. My guess is that you'll be able to work something out at check in for $30 or so a night for club access. It's a very nice lounge -- enjoy!

Okto

Thanks for your feedback. As I said in my original post, I was willing to spend 1000 pts/nt for access to the RBC lounge since the reported cash cost is $30 (or $40, as mentioned in earlier posts). This equates to a point redemption value of 3cpp or 4cpp, which I think most people here would agree is good value for Starpoints.

That said, I agree with you, and initially considered paying the additional $30 at the time of booking to guarantee an RBC room. The rates for my dates (prepaid, before tax) are:

Deluxe: $99
Royal Beach Club Room: $129

HOWEVER, after pricing the rooms with the Z3R code, I got the following rates:

Deluxe: $66 <--- (I booked this rate )
Royal Beach Club Room: $129

Amazingly enough, the "buy 2 get 1 free" rate discounted the original prepaid rate by 33%. Normally the Z3R code discounts the refundable, flexible or BAR rates, making it less compelling.

So now, the cost of the RBC room is almost twice the cost of the discounted standard room. Since this is Flyertalk, I'm trying to figure out if the best way to gain access to the lounge for the second room is points or cash. If I can get it for $30 or 1000 points, I'm perfectly fine with it, but I prefer not to pay $129/nt.


Great. Thanks. I'm looking forward to it!

TRAVELBABE

I like to have confirmation in advance, so I always email the hotel directly. They should be able to tell you how much it would be in either points or cash and change your reservation in the system to confirm the upgrade.

mintcilantro

I am very new to SPG. Wife and I signed up for the SPG card last week.

I'm thinking about staying at this hotel around xmas/NYE time. with the fifth night free discount it is coming to 5600/night while the prepaid rate would be ~$270 per night. I think the price is inflated due to the xmas/NYE peak season.

I know redemption values is a very subjective issue, but would you consider this a good use of SPG points? I have quite a bit of travel coming up in the next two years (vancouver, nyc, dc, europe, hawaii).

LovetoTravel83

5,600 points vs. $270. I'll take the points all the way.

bgriff

Everyone has their own opinions on this I'm sure, but if I'm considering staying at an SPG property I'll usually pay cash if I can't get at least 2 cents per point on my points redemption. This would be almost 5 cents per point so definitely a great value, and about as good as you're ever likely to see for using your points. Also always great when you are able to take advantage of the fifth night free discount.

I suppose the only counter-argument might be that you could consider moving your PVR trip to a less peak date and probably get a much lower cash rate. But if you definitely want to take the trip at peak dates, points are the way to go.

mintcilantro

thanks for your feedback..

I can get around 10 days for 4 vacation days from work. So I booked flights with 30k flexperks per person..


You guys are correct that if I was gonna spend the money to stay at a hotel like this then this would we a great redemption.

I did some research and this part of PVR isn't good for surfing. I'm primarily going to PVR to learn surfing so it makes more sense for me to stay in the sayulita area. There are lots of decent places on airbnb for $100/night. Since they will also have kitchen, the overall cost of staying there would come down.

Also the beach near westin isn't great. The hotel is not very new and we like really new hotels. The hotel isn't very close to the PVR restaurant scene.

So although this would have been a good place to burn points, I'm not gonna stay here.

Bravada04

hmmm......so you like new modern hotels but you are going to stay in a B&B.....seems like the totally opposite? If you are renting a car in PV then I don't think this location will hurt you, albeit it is nice to get up and go straight to the beach and do your thing. There are a lot of restaurants a short walk away in the Marina area?

mintcilantro

thanks for your feedback.. I jumped to conclusions from my limited research. I thought the marina restaurants were like the tourist trap restaurants of San Franicsco PIER 39. The PVR restaurant scene is like 15 minutes away if you drive?


i used the word modern incorrectly. What I meant is we like hotels like cosmopolitan las vegas, NEW coutyard marriotts, Andaz, radisson blu in europe. We stayed at fairmont in maui and it hasn't been brought to 21st century so we didn't quite enjoy the hotel despite all the rave reviews it gets. We would have been much happier at the andaz maui.

you can rent condos and apartments on airbnb.

tangey

I have a basic room booked on points for 7 nights in Nov, total points 42K. I'm gold

I just emailed for upgrade options

RBC upgrade is an added 5.4K a night
Grand deluxe + RBC is ad added 10870 night
Junior Suite is an added 13.5K a night

Given that reports here are somewhere between 1K-3.5K a night for RBC, is the hotel just trying it on with the email, and should I expect significantly cheaper points upgrade options at check-in ?

tangey

Just emailed a different contact today, a month after my previous contact above, and 3 weeks before stay commences. options this time are:-

RBC upgrade 4.4K a night extra
Grand deluxe + RBC 7.2K a night extra
Junior suite +RBC 13.8 K a night extra.

I don't know if they have some formula for these or what.