SanDiego1K

Starwood is doing a fun thing. For those who have earned free nights, we are being given the opportunity to get a free electronic travel guide courtesy of Offbeat Guides. It appears that we can get one free guide for each free night earned. You are asked a few basic questions, such as dates of travel. Then the guide is organized electronically. You can chose to delete chapters if you like. You then get an email with a link to it. When you look at the guide, it is a .pdf, so easy to download and save.

To help you make the most of your Free Weekends experience, we'd like to provide you a complimentary, customized travel guide from Offbeat Guides for each of your Free Weekend Nights. Select from 30,000 travel destinations around the world, then download and print your travel guide, featuring the most up-to-date information on local events, festivals, concerts and other fun things to do while you're at your destination.

https://www.spgpromos.com/OffBeatGui..._earned_ENG_US

I expect that Starwood has only begun to roll out the emails; I haven't gotten my own, but got the info from a friend. I was able to successfully use the link above to build a guide.

I think it is very creative and a fun gift from Starwood.

sc flier

www.offbeatguides.com

mahasamatman

I got the email yesterday, and generated guides for Bangkok and Rome. It also looks like it's not really limited to one per FWN either.

aanswer

Very cool! I've been meaning to try this for a while.

Forstbetrieb

Step 4 don't work for me

SanDiego1K

A unique thing about the guide is that when you enter your travel dates, you are given all the events during that window of time. It's nice to learn of special museum exhibits or who is playing in various concert venues.

sc flier

So it might be advantageous to put in a broad range of dates in case your exact plans are not certain.

I left the optional hotel field blank since my specific hotel is undetermined so far. I thought the guide might have then included all of the Starwood hotels in the city, but it instead included no hotels at all.

sdcarver

Does anyone know if there is an expiration on the Guide itself, I will qualify for the guide next week but was wanting to use it for a trip to London in Oct. 2011. I checked the FAQs and did not see anything pertaining to dates and could not find the Terms and Conditions.

Thanks,
sdcarver

JFKSFOLAX_friend

I shudder to think how Starwood is going to botch the execution on this one (thereby turning an act of goodwill into one of ill-will, something Starwood has mastered at this point).

masskrug

Thanks for the info!^

This is a pretty nice treat to have.

jjbc

This actually came in handy for our family trip to South America at the end of the year. While I have not gone through the guides in any detail, the content I reviewed thusfar appears to be pretty good.

JB5150

Just got one for Shanghai....pretty cool. I think there is a way to send .pdf's to the Kindle....might try to send it over to read on the plane.

Flews

It worked perfectly for me.

I didn't get the email, but I believe that's due to some kind of glitch I am sorting out separately from this.

The link worked, I filled it out, and I now have a great guide for our upcoming trip to Rome in Sepember.

Cheers,

snufl

I have to be more observant, received the email but didn't take much notice. Thanks SanDiego1K, after reading this thread I downloaded a few for stays in Europe later this year.

Particularly like the common words/phrases section, always nice to be able to say a few words in another language (or at least try to).
Thanks SPG ^

Downunder girl

Agreed ^. I havent seen the email yet either, but I have made a wonderful guide for Oahu ^.

Thanks to Starwood, this is a lovely idea.

Now can we get more than one location? I would like to do Maui as well .