La Quinta "summer" bonus points
 

I just got an email about laquinta offering 8,000 bonus points per stay up to 24,000 bonus points maximum from July 12th,2007 to October 10th, 2007. So those of us doing the choice hotels bonus deal can continue the points accumulation at laquinta after August 16th that is when the choice promotion ends. Then you can convert your points to your airlines accounts, if that is your preference.
Here is the T/C:
Members can earn 8,000 bonus points per stay, up to a maximum of 24,000 bonus points with this offer during the promotion period of July 12 through October 10, 2007. Check-in must occur within the promotion period to earn bonus points. Member must pay a qualifying rate to earn bonus points. A stay is defined as one or more consecutive nights, even if intermittent check-in/check-out events occur. Not valid with any other offers, discounts or promotions. Bonus points will be posted to your member account within 72 hours after check-out.

Any idea if this is a straight up 8000 points? Or do they give you enough points for the amount you earned for the stay plus the bonus to equal 8000?

These offers are usually on top of the normal amount of points and any other double or triple point offers in place. This makes it really easy to pile up free nights at LQ hotels.

Is there a link to the 8000 point offer mentioned above? I couldn't find the offer in my email.

is this for anyone
 

Is this offer available to anyone?

That would be me. :)

Anyhow, I looked into this:

1. I had thought LaQuinta had been absorbed into Priority Club, but I guess not, They're not associated with any other chains like TripRewards or anything -- it's a standalone program, yes?

2. The website was pretty slow, and kept returning blank pages, so I wasn't able to get too far into it.

3. They domestic properties apparently have only three tiers; 6000, 8000, and 11,000 points/night. Not too bad.

4. The Luxury Hotel connection is interesting to me, especially overseas. However, the only info I could get was that, for the resorts, they were running a 20,000 point off sale, and the properties normally are either 40,000 or 50,000/night. Couldn't get any info on the other-than-resort properties.

5. They mention you can earn airline miles instead of points, but they never say how many miles you get per stay. Also, the conversion rates (6000 points -> 1000 miles) doesn't seem that good, but I don't know what it takes to get points, so I can't really judge.

In any event, the nearest LaQuinta to me is a good hour's drive away, and there's only one of them. This would require me to "stutter-hop"; i.e., Monday, stay at LeQuinta, Tuesday, stay somewhere else, Wednesday, back at LaQuinta, etc. It would max out at 2 stays/week which is pretty slow.

So, when the Choice promo ends, I guess I'll go back to fill in my remaining stays with Marriott to maintain my Platinum there.

And me. (I was psyched about the last "extra" night on the road that popped up, because it made my expected number of stays by August 16th come out to a multiple of three. Now I have another "extra" night, and I'm annoyed-- gotta squeeze in two more.)

Yeah, but you only have to do it three times, because the OP said the max is 24,000 bonus points, total-- unlike the Choice awesomeness.

Yep, Choice really lays it on when they run a promo.

I'm going to come close to maxing the thing out with their current "gas card" promo -- I'm on track to score about a quarter-million points with the bonuses, my Diamond kicker, and the credit card.

If your situation is right, it's no problem to rack up about a half-million points a year with them. OK, the Sleep Inn in Peoria is not high on my list of vacation spots, but with the connection to the Preferred Hotels (and the annual sale), it's really a sweet deal.

I've been with Priority Club for several years, and I've never heard any mention of La Quinta being co-owned or co-programmed during that time. During that time I've seen Canclewood join, I've seen them start Indigo, but nothing about La Quinta.)

Then recently Hilton's been in the news about being acquired by Blackstone Group, and the news mentioned that Blackstone already owns La Quiinta. So there you go. But what Blackstone plans to do with them all (whether it would put La Quinta in with HHonors, or take Hampton out of HHonors and put it with La Quinta, or whatever) is not at all known at this point.

I just called LQ Returns, rep said she never heard of this offer. :td: