Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Starwood, Priority Club and Marriott Rewards points

Tough economic times so hotels are coming up with new deals. Bill Marriott said his, ”business has been hit with a triple whammy. First, the global recession, and then an assault on business meetings by our government officials and the new flu virus, which is waning.”
Priority Club Rewards announced an offer for all members to earn a free night if you stay any 2 nights thru July 3rd 09. You can use your free night between July 3rd – Dec 26th. The InterContinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn) have made it simple: - 2 nights gets 1 free
Starwood’s promotion (Sheratons etc.) is -for every two stays through July 31, 2009, you earn one Free Weekend Night Award No earning limits and NO catch apparently.

Marriott’s offers are different for Platinum, Silver and Gold members. Marriott run their MegaBonus promotions periodically and now they have a similar offer but they have not called it the MegaBonus. It is the “Summer promotion” or ‘escape”
Some can earn: 25,000 points when you stay 20 nights : June 1 to Aug 31, 09 but I won’t get any points if I don’t make the 20 nights. Some Members got an offer to earn 5,000 points every other stay, starting with your 2nd stay up to 15,000 points max till Aug 09. I would rather have this offer so I don’t think I will even try to make the one they assigned to me.
Marriotts Global Rate Break offer IS simple and can save 20% off weekend stays between May 21st and September 7th, 2009, if you book by June 2nd

As one member put it, “After a while the promotions become tiresome, it is easier to stay at a non point hotel than to do the homework on the complicated points”. Last year some of the Marriott offers earned 2,500 Marriott Rewards points for every Visa®-paid stay, but none of the present programs stipulate the credit card to be used. It is tiresome to have to remember which program offers what and then to get the fine print right. You have to find out which of their brands participate. For example, with Residence Inn by Marriott - all locations participate except: Inn at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL and Participating redemption partners are The Ritz-Carlton, Ashford Castle but you can’t earn points at these locations.
Some needed 11 stays and some 15. Some members were eligible to starting earning points with a second stay. up to 25,000 points for 15 nights some got 35K pts for 20 nights
Marriott is introducing some good incentives. You can earn 5,000 points every other stay, starting with your 2nd stay and offering Double Nights till June 26, every night you stay counts twice!
I have to give credit where credit is due and that is that this past Megabonus offer was the better than previous Megabonus offers, but I was one night short.
The best new Marriott offer is that each night members stay with Marriott, you’ll earn credit for two nights instead of one, which will help you to reach your next Elite level twice as fast. I wish that I had known that this offer was on the way because I would have postponed my trips. As it turned out I was missing one night. If I had stayed one extra night I would have obtained the full 50,000 MegaBonus points
The offer was: a MegaBonus when you stay at Marriott February 1 through April 30, 2009, and this is what I got:


The moral of this story is that I have noticed that the offers get better towards the end of the year, so try to do all your travel in November.

See De Telegraaf reports that loyalty programs don't work.

2 comments:

  1. ye my boss does not like us staying at point bearing hotels because he thinks it makes us stay at expensive hotels. It is too complicated anyways

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  2. Elite, Also consider the Spring Megabonus from Feb to April because that is the "better" time to stay at Marriotts, at least for me.

    I try to hit 100k of megabonus a year, great deal, but I really like the 2 for 1 deal going on now. I believe that deal will be coming back later in the year.

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