point bonita lighthouse

William,
Once one successfully books the free room is it safe to assume that one's full SPG Plat privileges will be honored -- suite upgrade if possible, amenity, etc.?
Or is there anything about this particular promotion that prevents that?
Thanks!

uxb

I believe that was already answered earlier in this thread. Search "privileges" in this thread.

Your welcome.

unskinybop

Outside of trying to exchange a certificate reservation for a cash / points res, anyone have ideas on how to secure a res earlier?

I was thinking of booking at least a single day after I earn the first reward, and then trying to add on as the nights roll in.

IMHO, Starwood should allow transfers of certs for points/cash res... Might make the promo more appealing (still love it though)

vrundmc

Apologies if this has been answered but would someone mind confirming the following?

1. Hotel hopping is acceptable in the SAME city as long as nights aren't consecutive? My 3-night stays can be changed to something like this:
Night 1 @ Hotel A
Night 2 @ Hotel B
Night 3 @ Hotel A

2. What is the policy if I want to book a vacation for my family for 2 rooms? If I have 8 free nights and I want to use it for 2 rooms over 4 nights. Does that work? I would be there to check in for both rooms.

Thanks and really appreciate it.

mahasamatman

There really are none. To steal a quote from Buckaroo Banzai: "Lithium is no longer available on credit."

[QUOTE=unskinybop;16277367]I was thinking of booking at least a single day after I earn the first reward, and then trying to add on as the nights roll in.
That works.

If they allowed it for non-refundable rates, it might be fair. But otherwise, it would just lead to lots of speculative booking.

mahasamatman

1. Always.
2. As long as both rooms are booked in your name, and you're staying in one of the rooms, it's fine.

SanDiego1K

That's what I did last year. I tried to anticipate what nights might sell out first at a hotel. I think that Saturday is often the most popular night. I then booked Saturday at property A once I first earned an award. I then booked Saturday at property B with my second award. Then I began adding nights to each booking.

There are some resorts that have minimum stay requirements. The Westin in Napa is one that comes to mind. In that case you need to have that many award nights earned in order to book it.

Resort properties that have been historically difficult to book are the St Regis Monarch Beach and the Westin Napa. I expect that they will continue to be difficult to book, particularly for summer weekends at Monarch Beach and fall weekends at Napa. Fortunately, Starwood is allowing us to book any night of the week this year, which will help those of us with flexible schedules.

pinniped

+1. Starwood does a better job than some of the others rotating between nights-based and stay-based promos. And between points-earning and certificate-earning.

Q1 was great for me. This one is okay...I can hop and earn a few certs but all of my weekends and longer vacations when I might redeem the rewards are already booked through early 2012. So I'll probably use the next couple months to finish Crack the Case, maybe hit Hyatt a little, and throw Starwood 4-6 total nights. Two resort nights...I could probably find a place to use two...

But I can't complain too much about Starwood's promos. Marriott's Megabonuses are always the same bland thing. I end up with Cat 4 certificates...free Courtyard nights. Yay. Starwood has a lot of St. Regis on their resort list...I can't complain much about that, even if the nights aren't 100% free because of resort fees, the promo has a high overall value if you can use it properly.

mansh17

Originally Posted by vrundmc
1. Hotel hopping is acceptable in the SAME city as long as nights aren't consecutive?

I may have missed this but it doesn't appear to be in the T/C is this confirmed?

discostu

Been doing this all year so far, perfectly fine.

mahasamatman

Lots of things don't appear in the T&C.

mansh17

Apologies - what I meant to ask was can you stay one night at Hotel A, check out and check back into Hotel A. That restriction didn't appear in the T&C....any regulations against this?

bdraco

You can do this, however you will *probably* only get one stay credit.

el_tigre

Actually, it almost assuredly will post as one stay, and this does appear in the promo's t&c. Here's the quote:

ELIGIBLE STAY: An eligible stay toward earning a Free Resort Night Award is defined as one or more consecutive nights within the earning dates at any of the more than 1,000 hotels and resorts that participate in the SPG program, and must pay a qualifying rate in the same hotel regardless of the number of check-ins or checkouts that occur and post to the member's Starwood Preferred Guest® account.

mahasamatman

Yes it does. Though it's defined under the Gold section, it's referred to in lots of places: