SPG announces Choice Rewards for India members
Late last week, SPG announced additional benefits to its affiliation with ITC Hotels in India, whereby SPG members can now redeem Starpoints for ITC Dining or Wills Lifestyle (retail) certificates. Also, members of the Club ITC program can convert their Club ITC Green Points into Starpoints. Now, SPG is looking to further enhance its India presence (though not necessarily just with ITC Hotels) with Your Choice Rewards exclusively for its members resident in India.
Now here's a new opportunity for SPG members resident in India, to take advantage of from stays at participating Starwood hotels in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives, for stays until 30 September 2016. Registration is mandatory (to be done by 15 August 2016), and only the stays after registration count for this promotion, so I suggest you register immediately, at this page.
You can get your choice of one of the following, after every 8 nights stayed at properties participating in this promotion:
The offer itself is repeatable up to 5 times, ie you can earn 5 rewards. You can read the T&Cs here.
Breakfast at the St Regis, Mumbai
Based on data for October 2016, the average paid room rate at SPG hotels in India is in the region of Rs 7,000 a night. Under this promotion, 8 nights' stay - or Rs 56,000 worth of spend (plus taxes) gets you benefits worth Rs 5000 (assuming you select a certificate as the reward). That's a payback of slightly less than 9%, which is quite actually really good.
On the other hand, a Rs 22,500-per-night stay at the ITC Grand Bharat will result in only a 2.8% payback!
So if you're the kind that can choose and plan your stays, do see if the above "hack" works for you. If you want a quick look at current (today's) prices for all SPG hotels in India, click here.
Now here's a new opportunity for SPG members resident in India, to take advantage of from stays at participating Starwood hotels in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives, for stays until 30 September 2016. Registration is mandatory (to be done by 15 August 2016), and only the stays after registration count for this promotion, so I suggest you register immediately, at this page.
You can get your choice of one of the following, after every 8 nights stayed at properties participating in this promotion:
- Rs 5,000 certificate from Wills Lifestyle
- Rs 5,000 certificate for ITC Dining
- 5,000 JP Miles.
The offer itself is repeatable up to 5 times, ie you can earn 5 rewards. You can read the T&Cs here.
The following hotels are participating in this promotion (pretty much all SPG hotels in these countries):
- INDIA
Aloft Ahmedabad SG Road, Aloft Bengaluru Cessna Business Park, Aloft Bengaluru Whitefield, Aloft Chandigarh Zirakpur, Aloft Chennai OMR – IT Expressway, Aloft Coimbatore Singanallur
Four Points by Sheraton Agra, Four Points by Sheraton Ahmedabad, Four Points by Sheraton Bengaluru, Whitefield, Four Points by Sheraton Dehradun, Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Serviced Apartments, Pune, Four Points by Sheraton Jaipur, City Square, Four Points by Sheraton Navi Mumbai, Vashi, Four Points by Sheraton New Delhi, Airport Highway, Four Points by Sheraton Vadodara, Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam
ITC Gardenia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bengaluru, ITC Grand Bharat, a Luxury Collection Retreat, Gurgaon, New Delhi Capital Region, ITC Grand Central, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Mumbai, ITC Grand Chola, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Chennai, ITC Kakatiya, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Hyderabad, ITC Maratha, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Mumbai, ITC Maurya, a Luxury Collection Hotel, New Delhi, ITC Mughal, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Agra, ITC Rajputana, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Jaipur, ITC Sonar, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kolkata, ITC Windsor, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bengaluru
Le Méridien Bangalore, Le Méridien Coimbatore, Le Méridien Gurgaon, Delhi NCR, Le Méridien Jaipur, Le Méridien Kochi, Le Méridien Mahabaleshwar Resort & Spa, Le Méridien Nagpur, Le Méridien New Delhi, Le Méridien Pune, Le Royal Méridien Chennai
The Anya Hotel, Gurgaon, a Member of Design Hotels, The Park Bangalore, a Member of Design Hotels, The Park Chennai, a Member of Design Hotels, The Park Hyderabad, a Member of Design Hotels, The Park Kolkata, a Member of Design Hotels, The Park New Delhi, a Member of Design Hotels
Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway, Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel, Sheraton New Delhi Hotel
The St. Regis Mumbai
The Westin Chennai Velachery, The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi, The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace, The Westin Mumbai Garden City, The Westin Pune Koregaon Park, The Westin Sohna Resort & Spa
- 20% discount at participating SPG hotels in India and Bangladesh (and Maldives, which doesn't count for this promotion)
- 40% off every 2nd night at Sheraton hotels when you pay with an Amex card
- SPG Gold with just 1 stay in Asia Pacific, when paid with a MasterCard or World MasterCard
- SPG Triple up, offering 3x points at Sheraton, 2x at other SPG hotels, and bonus for weekend stays.
The only drawback I see with this promotion, is that you need to select your preferred rewards at the time of registration. What's more, if you are able to earn more than 1 reward (ie, you have 16, 24, 32 or 40 nights with participating hotels), you will not be able to change the reward.
Value of returns on this promotion
First off, my take is that the best reward to select would be one of the Rs 5000 certificates (I'd personally take the ITC Dining Certificates), rather than 5000 JP miles. The reason is quite simple. The Rs 5000 certificates actually have a value of Rs 5000 each, whereas I value JP miles at Rs 0.72 apiece, which means that the 5000 JP miles have a value of only Rs 3,600. Of course, your mileage (and personal valuation for JP miles) may vary, so please select accordingly.
Breakfast at the St Regis, Mumbai
Based on data for October 2016, the average paid room rate at SPG hotels in India is in the region of Rs 7,000 a night. Under this promotion, 8 nights' stay - or Rs 56,000 worth of spend (plus taxes) gets you benefits worth Rs 5000 (assuming you select a certificate as the reward). That's a payback of slightly less than 9%, which is quite actually really good.
A hack of sorts
If you wanted to maximise the benefits out of this promotion, you should ideally be staying at hotels that offer the lowest paid rates. For instance, paid rates at most Aloft hotels (and some Four Points hotels) are the lowest among all SPG India hotels, often no higher than Rs 3500++ a night. At this price point, 8 nights would cost about Rs 28,000, which would yield a reward of Rs 5,000, or roughly 18% payback. You can potentially increase this payback value if you're able to book discounted stays from other SPG promotions currently open (I've listed these earlier in this post).On the other hand, a Rs 22,500-per-night stay at the ITC Grand Bharat will result in only a 2.8% payback!
So if you're the kind that can choose and plan your stays, do see if the above "hack" works for you. If you want a quick look at current (today's) prices for all SPG hotels in India, click here.
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