If you are wondering why hotel loyalty programs like IHG Priority Club and Starwood Preferred Guest are giving away free room nights I think the basic answer can be seen in the hotel industry data.  STR measured average hotel occupancy across the USA for March 2009 at just over 55% compared to 62.5% in March 2008.

Hotels are sitting half empty on average, and some hotels are far less than half full on certain nights. Hotels need bodies, hence free night promotions. Pay and stay nights now to earn future free nights and spend your free nights over this summer.

Advantages of Priority Club Free Nights promotion over SPG

1.    No need to hotel hop.  A single two night stay at one hotel will earn a free night with Priority Club. A single 8-night stay at one hotel will earn 4 free nights.  SPG’s promotion is based on hotel stays and not hotel nights. A free night with the Starwood promotion requires at least one night at two different hotels or two nonconsecutive nights at a single hotel to earn a free night.

2.    Free night can be used any day of the week with Priority Club. SPG limits free night redemption to Friday, Saturday, or Sunday weekend nights.

3.    Priority Club Redemption period is from July 3 through December 26, 2009. SPG free nights must be redeemed by Sep 27, 2009.

Advantages of SPG Free Nights promotion

1.    Member earns normal SPG points for hotel stays during promotion. Priority Club suspends normal points earning for duration of promotion through July 3 if member registers for Free Nights promotion. A Priority Club member has the choice to register for an alternate promotion for Double Points or Miles.

2.    SPG promotion for earning free nights lasts longer. SPG stays from May 1 through July 31^st count towards free nights. Priority Club paid nights from May 4 through July 3 earn up to 4 free nights.

3.    SPG free nights appear in account within three days of qualifying stay and may be redeemed throughout the promotional period through September 27. Priority Club members may start making reservations around May 22, but free nights can’t be used until July 3.

4.    Starwood Free nights earned are unlimited (there is actually a technical limit of 46 free nights that can be earned within the free night qualifying period and the member would need to be redeeming free nights while earning free nights to actually use them all since redemption is limited to three weekend nights per week).  A Priority Club member may earn only 4 free nights.

InterContinental Hotels Group Free Nights Promotion link: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/c/10/content/dec/teaser/pc/0/en/lp/promolp/screaming/promo.html?_promoCode=9663

Starwood Hotels Free Night Promotion link: https://www.spgpromos.com/weekends/index.cfm

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I have spent some time this past week making spreadsheets to track hotel rates for the Starwood Preferred Guest free nights promotion starting Friday May 1.

I am following hotel rates throughout California. The good news is that generally the lowest hotel rates are in my part of the state around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The shock to me was the prices of Holiday Inn Express hotels for the IHG free nights promotion running concurrently with Starwood’s free night promotion.  I would love a 4-night stay at a good InterContinental Hotel in Europe later this year. 

So the shock was seeing most Holiday Inn Express hotels with rates from $100 to $140 per night. I can stay at the InterContinental San Francisco for the same price as most HI Express hotels I checked in California in little gas station villages along the freeway exits of Interstate-5.

I plan to earn my first Starwood free night by the end of this week. I lined up two Best Rate Guarantee hotel claims for next weekend. The hotel room rates actually come out to be the same price I would have paid if I booked the rooms last week on StarwoodHotels.com, but Starwood raised their rates. Some online travel agencies did not.

So in addition to the low rate I will earn an extra 4,000 Starpoints for my first two stays in this free night promotion.  Wouldn’t it be something special to book 20 Best Rate Guarantee stays and earn 40,000 bonus Starpoints on top of the 10 free nights?

My trend analysis shows the hotel rates in San Francisco went up on average $10 to $30 per night for the lowest priced popular hotels over the past week.  Here are some changes I saw in room rates over just the past six days. I am not putting dates, but these are room rate changes I’ve documented for a specific Starwood hotel on a specific date in May.

·         The Palace Hotel, San Francisco rate of $118 went up to $169.

·         Westin Market Street, San Francisco, $99 rate 4-21 went up to $139 on 4-25

·         Le Meridien San Francisco, $139 went up to $159

·         Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, $125 went up to $179.

·         Sheraton Petaluma, $109 went up to $129.

·         Sheraton Palo Alto, $199 up to $239.

Loyalty Traveler post on IC Hotels Group free night promotion

Loyalty Traveler post on Starwood Preferred Guest free night promotion

Offer: Stay two nights at any IC Hotels Group brand hotel from Tuesday, May 4 to July 3, 2009 and earn one free night. Nights do not need to be consecutive nights or even at the same hotel.

Promotion Registration is required at www.priorityclub.com/register4FreeNights

and registration is necessary before making your paid hotel night reservations in order for them to be qualifying nights for the free night promotion. Qualifying nights are any InterContinental Hotels Group hotel in the brands: InterContinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites. Hotels in Japan are excluded from this offer.

Free night may be redeemed from July 3 through December 26, 2009 and free night is valid for any IC Hotels Group hotel, except for hotels in Japan. There are no other hotels specifically excluded from free night redemption, however, capacity controls may effectively limit some hotels from redemption once allotted rooms have been redeemed.

Maximum free nights a Priority Club member may earn is capped at 4 nights after 8 paid nights within the promotion period of May 4 and July 3. If you have a travel partner/spouse, then you can readily earn an additional 4 free nights and have 8 free nights for 2009 between the two of you.

The terms of the promotion state room upgrade benefits for elite members do not apply to free nights redeemed with this promotion so theoretically elite status should not result in a room upgrade. In practice I think this will depend on the specific hotel and guest. An elite guest who has stayed at a particular hotel numerous times in the past and been upgraded as an elite member will likely still receive hotel recognition. But the rules do state an upgrade does not have to be given to elites.

Free night notifications will begin around May 22.  You should receive notification of free night award around 14 days after qualifying activity.

My advice is to book free room nights as soon as possible if you are planning to stay at a high demand hotel such as New York City, Hawaii, a beach resort or expensive InterContinental hotel. Wait too long, like into July or August before booking your reservation and the allotment of free rooms at your desired hotel may already be gone for the year.  

Just remember that your free night reservation can’t be modified – only cancelled and forfeited. Be sure you book an ironclad reservation date.

Free Night may be redeemed only at www.priorityclub.com/bookfreenights.

Holiday Inn Santa Clara

Turn your hotel stay at the lower priced Holiday Inn into another hotel stay here at the higher priced InterContinental San Francisco.

InterContinental San Francisco

InterContinental Hotels Group 2 Nights Earn a Free Night Promotion Terms:

·         Promotion registration is required prior to stay for eligibility towards free nights. Reservations made within 48 hours prior to Free Nights promotion registration will count towards free nights.

·         Paid nights during promotional period earn elite qualification credit. Free nights do not.

·         Registration for the free nights promotion restricts the member’s earning of base and elite loyalty program points for the duration of the promotion even if the maximum number of free nights has already been earned. (For this reason some members planning numerous nights in May and June may choose to register for double points instead).

·         Members may still earn bonus points for hotel stays as part of room rate offers and paid nights will count towards Ambassador Accelerator for InterContinental Ambassador members. Ambassador Accelerator awards 20,000 points for 15 InterContinental Hotel nights during the calendar year.

·         Hotels in Japan are excluded from this offer.

·         Only one room per member per night is eligible for free night offer.

·         Member may redeem earned promotional free nights individually or for up to a 4-night consecutive nights stay

·         Warning: Hotel Reservations for free nights may not be modified. A reservation cancellation forfeits the free night. Free night credit will not be redeposited to account.

·         Free Nights are not transferable. Account Member must be guest on file.

 The trend this past month has been to soft launch hotel loyalty program promotions on FlyerTalk. SPG announced their promotion on FlyerTalk to rave responses. InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott Rewards released their promotions and hotel loyalty program members cried out for better terms. Marriott released a double elite nights promotion and then pulled it last week while it is still being fine tuned.

This IC Hotels Group promotion also disappeared for a few days and came back slightly altered. The promotion term of no base or elite points during the two month period of the free nights promotion received a negative response on FlyerTalk. IC Hotels Group added an alternate promotion of Double Points or Double Miles for the two month promotional period in lieu of the free nights offer.

You will have to make a choice between two promotions when you register for the free nights promotion. Your selection cancels out the other offer in your account during the May-June promotional period.

Free nights works out to a much better deal for most Priority Club members. A free night at an InterContinental Hotel  will cost either 30,000 or 40,000 points per night. Paris, London, or Amsterdam free nights are worth 40,000 points each. Bora Bora, if you can get a free room reservation, is a $500 to $800 per night hotel you might get for free after two nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Double Points would mean up to 25 points per $1 for a Platinum member. Two nights earns the equivalent of 40,000 points if used for an InterContinental Hotel free night.  The free nights promotion caps you at 4 free nights equivalent to 160,000 points.  A Priority Club platinum member who will spend over $6,400 during the two month promotional period will earn more in points using the double points promotion.

InterContinental Hotel stays earn 2,000 points per stay and a stay pattern with InterContinental stays needs to be evaluated separately.

Unless you have a track record of earning 60,000+ points per month, then you are better off going with free nights for the two months of this promotion as long as you have the ability to get good value from a hotel stay using the free nights in 2009.