Restaurant.com has dining certificates on sale today until 11:59pm Pacific time. Restaurant.com sells certificates for dining discounts, mostly at $10, $25, or $50 face value. Several of the participating restaurants in the program are located in major hotels or near major hotels.

This sale has been going on for several days and I have been planning to write an article about the opportunities for hotel dining discounts, but I just noticed this morning that the sale is time-limited and ends tonight.

Restaurant.com 70% Savings link: http://www.restaurant.com/consumer-promotion/lp_5a.asp

Here is the Restaurant.com deal:

1.       Sign up at Restaurant.com for an account if you are not a member.

2.       Look for hotel restaurants in places you plan to visit in the next couple of months.

3.       Buy a certificate at 70% savings in the value amount you can reasonably use for your dining. Restaurant menus can be accessed through links on the Restaurant.com website to help plan your certificate value.

4.       $25 dining certificate is regularly $10, but only $3 with this special offer. Usage rules are variable and posted on the site, but generally require either a $35 or $50 minimum tab, or two entrée order. $22 savings on a $35 to $50 tab.

5.       $50 dining certificate usually requires minimum $100 spending, but the cost for a $50 certificate is only $6 with today’s special offer. $44 savings on a $100+ tab.

6. Use Discount Code TREAT when ordering to receive 70% discount on certificate.

Some Gift Certificate Terms & Conditions:

• limit of one certificate redemption per party, per month, per restaurant. (You can’t use a restaurant.com certificate for every meal of your week-long stay!)

• Only one gift certifcate can be used per party even if seated at separate tables. (You can’t hang out with your FlyerTalk buddies eating dinner and then both of you whip out a restaurant.com certificate even though you asked for separate checks.)

• No cash back on redemption value of certificate.

• Valid for parties of two or more unless otherwise stated.

• Valid for dine-in only unless otherwise stated.

• Use of gift certificate for alcoholic beverages is at sole discretion of restaurant. (Always wise to ask first before finding out that $80 bottle of wine doesn’t get you to the $150 minimum purchase for your $75 certificate.)

• Gift certificates can be exchanged for Restaurant.com Gift Certificates within 90 days of purchase date.

• Gift certificate expires 1 year from date of issue, except in California. (Where I assume consumer protection regulations mean the expiration is a longer date??)

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

When I search 93940 using my Monterey, California zip code I see there are certificates for the two restaurants at the Hyatt Highlands Inn in Carmel: Pacific’s Edge and California Market.

I anticipate staying at the Highlands Inn using some of the Faster Free Nights I will earn over the next few months. As a Gold Passport Diamond member I will likely get complimentary breakfast, but with the dining certificate I can go all out on the menu order or get a dinner dining discount.

The Highlands Inn restaurants only come in $25 certificates for $10. This is unfortunate since a $100 dining tab at Pacific’s Edge is fairly easy to rack up and most upscale restaurants offer a $50 certificate for $20.

California Market certificate at Hyatt Highlands Inn

Pacific’s Edge requires a two entrée order. Assume the meal is $60 all-in. Your $25 Restaurant.com certificate only cost $3 so your net cost for a $60 tab is $38.

California Market is the breakfast restaurant at the Highlands Inn. In the past my tab has run about $45 for breakfast. The certificate requires a minimum of $35 in dining spend which is fairly easy to do with two diners. Assume you have a $45 breakfast tab all-in. The purchase of a $3 restaurant.com certificate for California Market will reduce your hefty breakfast tab from $45 to $23 for a hearty breakfast without leaving the Highlands Inn property.  

Restaurant.com 70% off dining certificates make extravagantly priced hotel restaurants merely high-priced.

Restaurant.com 70% Savings on Dining Certificates

Other Hotel (or near hotel) restaurants I saw available on Restaurant.com:

Scottsdale, AZ

Starwood Hotels The Phoenician – Il Terrazzo (This property offers up to $100 certificates)

San Francisco, CA

Elephant & Castle Pub is across the street from Le Meridien San Francisco.

San Francisco Airport (SFO)

Hyatt Regency SFO – Scalini Italian Restaurant

View from California Market restaurant patio, Hyatt Highlands Inn, Carmel, CA

Starwood Hotels reached a statistical milestone in 2009 of 500 hotels in North America with the opening of the St. Regis Atlanta. An article last week in HotelsMag.com provided some interesting growth patterns for Starwood Hotels achieved in 2009.

                W Ft. Lauderdale is the 30^th W Hotel worldwide.

                Element Denver Park Meadows is the 5^th Element Hotel in North America (and worldwide).

Aloft Tallahassee Downtown is the 30^th Aloft Hotel worldwide. While nearly all Aloft Hotels currently open are located in the US, there is already an Aloft Hotel open in Beijing and the Aloft Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open in about six weeks. India is scheduled to open several Aloft brand hotels in the next two years and Brussels will be the first Europe location scheduled for opening September 2010. Aloft Hotels directory link.

Four Points, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada is the 100^th Four Points hotel in North America.

Starwood Hotels is poised to reach 1,000 hotels open worldwide in 2009.

Paul Sacco, Senior Vice President of Development for Starwood’s North America Division, points to hotel conversion as a major growth opportunity for Starwood Hotels. In this tough economic climate for hotel owners there will be plenty of hotel rebranding over the next couple of years.

The future holds plenty of potential for loyalty travelers as the major hotel chains grow and absorb more independent hotels and hotels organized in smaller associations.

Le Méridien Panama, the newest hotel in the brand, is Starwood’s first Le Méridien property in Central America. http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6698826.html

element by Westin, Summerlin, NV (Las Vegas)

Best Western Rewards in conjunction with MasterCard is offering double, triple, or quadruple points for 2, 3, or 4 nights from September 13 through November 22, 2009. Like many Best Western promotions this one is capped at bonus points for a maximum of four eligible nights during the promotion.

The nights do not need to be consecutive nights at same hotel. The hotel nights do need to be paid with MasterCard.

Registration is required before nights will count for promotion.

Promotion is valid for residents of North America, South America, Asia, and South Africa.

(Is there a different offer for Europeans or is Best Western Rewards mad at Europe?)

Promotion registration link: https://goldcrownclub.bestwestern.com/offers/seasonal.asp?cm_mmc=Email-_-August+09-_-Newsletter-_-Links&season=FALL&ptype=email

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Analysis

Here is the way I understand the terms for points earning with this promotion assuming a room rate of $80 per night for a maximum four eligible nights paid with a MasterCard.

Best Western Rewards will determine the eligible nights stayed during the promotion period. The member will earn at the normal rate of 10 points per dollar for the first eligible night.  The second night earns bonus points equal to 20 points per dollar and the bonus applies back to the first eligible night whether it is part of the same stay or a different hotel stay. Stay a 3^rd night during the promotion period and all three nights will be adjusted to earn 30 points per dollar. Four nights will earn 40 points per dollar.

Sample Earning:

October 10, Night 1

$80 rate = 800 Best Western Rewards points (10 points per $1)

Total points earned for $80 = 800 points

October 17, Night 2

$80 rate = 1,600 points

Total points earned for both nights 1 and 2 is based on $160 total spend = 3,200 points

October 24, Night 3

$80 rate = 2,400 points

Total points earned for $240 x 30 points per dollar (3 cumulative nights) = 7,200 points

October 31, Night 4

$80 rate = 3,200 points

Total points earned for $320 (4 cumulative nights) x 40 points per $1 = 12,800 points

The total promotional value of 4 nights is 12,800 points in this example using an average room rate of $80 per night. This is not a particularly valuable offer unless you already have Best Western points or you are willing to spend more per eligible night.

Best Western Rewards free nights start at 8,000 points and the next lowest level is 12,000 points per free night.  There are probably fewer than 15% of Best Western Hotels in the 8,000 or 12,000 points free night range. One website limitation of Best Western Rewards is the inability to look up hotels within each category point level for a free night. Each hotel must be checked individually.

Hotel free nights are based on categories starting at 8,000 points and increasing by incremental levels of 4,000 points. The highest category Best Western hotels located in most major cities and resort areas are 24,000 points, 28,000 points, 32,000 points, or 36,000 points for a free hotel night.

Another  example using a four night hotel stay at a higher cost Best Western hotel:

Assume you are in a major city (New York) with a Best Western rate of $150 per night for four consecutive nights from October 15-19.

The points earned will be based on $600 in base hotel spend x 40 points per $1.

24,000 points earned with just one hotel stay and four nights.

Conclusion: This is a promotion that is more valuable if you have high cost room nights. Since the promotion is maxed at only four nights worth of bonus points, the more you spend on the first four nights after registering for this promotion will give better promotion value.

Also, you could alternate your payment method and only pay your highest spend hotel nights with a MasterCard. This would allow you to use a different credit card brand to pay for lower spend nights and avoid these low spend nights being tabulated for this promotion.

At the 24,000 points level there are a number of hotel choices for a Best Western free night using points at a higher category hotel. The number of hotels in the 4,000 hotel Best Western chain available for 24,000 points is in the thousands, whereas 12,800 points will severely limit the hotels available for a free night to several hundred hotels at the lower end properties in the chain.

Best Western Monterey Inn