Red Roof
 

Do not see anything very recent on Red Roof. Somewhat interesting with its 6000 point flat redemption rate per night.

They now have a credit card that gives 2x on gas. 5x on spend at Red Roof, and with 10 points per dollar for the stay itself, $400 in stays gets a free night anywhere. And right now they have stay-3-get-6000.

Chicago I know (often over $200 per night); what are some other Red Roofs in expensive locations where 6000 points would be a good redemption?

Hi -

Red Roof is becoming my "go-to" chain for low-end head-on-a-bed stays. Everyone I have been to was clean, decent bed, decent TV, good water pressure in the shower, no frills. For 1/2 of mid-market chains and 1/3 of 3.5-4 star prices.

I have used a free night instead of $150/night in NYC out by LaGuardia.

Also, they usually have a "stay 2, get 1 free" during the winter months.

And if you REALLY time it right, you get to 6000 points on your 2nd stay this summer, generating a cert, then get some points on your 3rd stay ... generating a cert.

Thanks. Nice strategy there at the end! Some judiciously timed CC spend I guess would be useful.

Can you repeat the "stay-2-get-1" promo? Do not see it in the T&C. Thanks.

I saw an ad for a $29 Red Roof in Detroit. Nice mattress run.

I stayed at a Red Roof a few weeks ago for the first time in years due to a confluence of events that jacked up MKE hotel prices.

As my cousin and I were checking out, he remarked "now I remember why i don't stay at Red Roof Inns any more..."

That being said, I thought the room itself once you got inside the door was acceptable for a one-nighter. The bed wasn't any worse than a Candlewood, for example. But the exterior hallways and the stairs, I'm just too old for that stuff unless there's a really compelling reason.

Hi -

We agree on most of it --- OK room, iffy exterior & corridor.

I would say Red Roof + property tend to be a little nicer.

They usually run two promotions yearly - a Jan/Feb "Stay 2x, get one free" promo and a June-August "Stay 3x, get one free" promo.

They both work the same way -- if you hit the prescribed # of stays (as opposed to nights), they automatically top up your account to 6000 points, thus generating a free night e-cert.

I was saying that if you can get to 6000 points before the last required stay, then that generates an e-cert. the next (final) stay for the promo would then generate yet another e-cert.

Certainly cc spend would make it much easier to time something like this.

Is the free night promo repeatable?

I haven't figured out any way to keep points active without a stay or their credit card. No transfer partners or way to purchase that I can find. Anyone know?

FWIW, pets stay free. Saving the $15 to $75 fee most other chains charge.

Do you mean that the trick is to max out at just over 6,000 points just BEFORE the third stay, have 6,000 points deducted (as it seems to automatically generate a cert) and then get a second cert for the third night? Otherwise, if you're close to (but under) 6,000 points going into the third stay, you get the cert, but they also take all of your points (up to 6,000)? That seems like a strange way of doing this in that if people don't game the system, on average they're getting only 3,000 extra points for the third stay, with the actual number varying between 1 and 6,000.

Hi -

The way they work their promos, if you hit the # of stays, they automatically top up your account to 6000 points, thus generating a free night cert.

At any time, if you hit 6000 points, the system automatically sends out a cert and zeroes out your point balance.

Last year, I hit 6000 points on the first night of their summer promo. I got a cert, point balance zeroed out. Then after two more stays (total three during the promo period), my point balance got topped up to 6000 points. Another cert was generated and my point balance zeroed out again.

They get a lot of my "in one night, out the next AM business".

Do they zero out the entire amount, or just decrement your balance by 6000?