Registration for Starwood’s “Take two” promotion for 2016 now open
Starwood has announced its promotion for the first quarter of 2016, called “Take two”.
In this promotion, SPG members earn 2x Starpoints (that's base points plus 1x bonus) on all stays of 2 or more nights, across all SPG properties worldwide. In addition, stays at specific properties earn an additional 250 Starpoints per night. This promotion is valid on stays between 11 January 2016 and 30 April 2016.
As with all SPG promotions, registration is required.
Bonus point earnings
You earn Starpoints at a normal rate of 2 Starpoints per eligible US$ of spend, plus a 50% bonus (1 Starpoint per $) for SPG Gold and Platinum members. So under this promotion, base level SPG members will earn 4 Starpoints per $ on stays of 2 or more nights, while Gold/Platinum members will earn 6 Starpoints per $ of spend. This excludes the 250 Starpoints per night for stays at select participating properties that are listed here – stays at these hotels earn 250 bonus points even on one-night stays.India perspective
From an Indian perspective, these are no properties where a stay would earn you 250 bonus Starpoints per night. So for stays with SPG in India, you'll earn only the 2x Starpoints on stays of 2+ nights.Analysis
Assuming an average room rate of US$100 (approx. Rs 6,500) a night for a 2-night sstay, this promotion will earn you 800 Starpoints as follows:- 100 x 2 Starpoints x 2 nights = 400 base points
- 1x bonus = 400 bonus points
A SPG Gold/Platinum member will earn a further 400 bonus points, making it a total of 1200 points for the stay. Additionally, if this stay is at a participating property for the 250 points promotion (none in India), you’d earn a further 500 Starpoints for a 2-night stay.
SPG’s category chart is here, and you can find the Indian SPG hotel categories below.
SPG free nights start at 3000 points at a category 1 hotel (2000 points on weekends). So ignoring the 250 bonus Starpoints offer, a non-Gold/Platinum member will need to stay 8 nights (in 2-night increments), to earn a free night’s stay at an SPG Category 1 property. In other words, that’s a 12.5% discount – not bad when you look at it that way, but I don’t see myself going out of my way (read: mattress runs) to earn these bonus points.
In my view, this is not a fantastic or exceptional promotion. Rather, as I’ve said earlier in this post, the 2x offer is getting to be the norm for promotions. But better this than nothing, I guess! And, it costs nothing to register, so I suggest you go ahead and register for this promotion. And who knows? Maybe the stars will align and a 2 nights (or more) stay could be in the offing, qualifying you for bonus points…at a participating property for the 250 bonus points offer, nothing less!
What do you think of this promotion? Will you stay extra nights just for the bonus?
Conclusion
Given that my stays are usually for one night rather than two or more, I’m personally not a big fan of promotions that require more than one night of minimum stay to earn bonus points. However, if the price is right (and can be claimed as a business expense!), I could be tempted to spend an extra night solely for the bonus points.In my view, this is not a fantastic or exceptional promotion. Rather, as I’ve said earlier in this post, the 2x offer is getting to be the norm for promotions. But better this than nothing, I guess! And, it costs nothing to register, so I suggest you go ahead and register for this promotion. And who knows? Maybe the stars will align and a 2 nights (or more) stay could be in the offing, qualifying you for bonus points…at a participating property for the 250 bonus points offer, nothing less!
What do you think of this promotion? Will you stay extra nights just for the bonus?
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