Deal of the day has to be the chance to win 25,000 Marriott Rewards points tomorrow just by leaving a comment on the Mashup Mom site. There were only 73 comments at the time I posted this piece. The entry deadline is Tuesday, June 22 at 11:59pm central time zone. Giveaway is limited to USA participants.
Happy first day of summer.
Congratulations to Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland for his win at the 110th U.S. Open on June 20th, 2010.
Pebble Beach Golf Links 18th Hole at The Lodge
The entry fee to the famed Pebble Beach 17-mile Drive is just short of $10 per car. Remember to take advantage of the car fee rebate opportunity at any of the Pebble Beach Resort restaurants or bars at The Lodge or Spanish Bay. You get a food and beverage credit equal to the cost of the entry fee by presenting your gate payment receipt with the bill.
You can enter Pebble Beach for free on a bicycle at the Pacific Grove gate by Asilomar Beach.
Select Carlson Hotels are offering triple point rates through July 31 at about 30% of the global properties.
Radisson and Park Plaza brands normally earn 20 base points per US$1 in the Americas or Asia-Pacific regions or 20 base points per 1€ for EMEA region of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Country Inn & Suites or Park Inn stays earn 15 base points per US$1 or 1€ for these same regions. Triple points mean 60 points per $/€ for Radisson/Park Plaza stays and 45 points for other brands.
The luxury Regent Hotel brand was sold by Carlson Hotels and left the goldpoints plus loyalty program as of June 15, 2010.
Analysis:
Triple points is a special rate offer and results in a higher nightly room rate than some other rate options. The member will need to decide if the points differential is worth the extra cost.
Triple points rates appear to be combinable with the stay two and earn one free night promotion.
Radisson Suite Hotel, Huntsville, Alabama
Triple Points rate net gain is 4,539 points for $24.92.
(3x earn rate = $5.49 per 1,000 points)
Radisson Suite Hotel Huntsville is a category 2 goldpoints plus hotel redemption for 25,000 points per night. The extra points earned are equivalent to $137 cost for a free night at the Radisson Huntsville. This is not a good value for this hotel compared to the current prevailing rates, but the use of the extra points for a Points + Cash Award Night or another hotel might give a better value for points.
Country Inn & Suites, Sunnyvale, California
5,814 additional points with Triple Points rate for $41.42.
(3x earn rate = $7.12 per 1,000 points)
Loyalty Traveler Triple Points Offer Conclusion: Triple points is a route to accelerated goldpoints earning, however, the higher rates for earning triple points mitigates the value of this offer. This is a good offer if the earning rate is less than $5.00 per 1,000 points when paying higher triple points rates.
Overall, the triple points offer is not particularly lucrative unless you have an immediate specific plan for using points or you plan to hold points until the next offer for 50% off hotel awards which seems to be a regular periodic offer of goldpoints plus.
Loyalty traveler key rank for goldpoints plus triple points = 2 of 5 keys.
Keep in mind the two stays for one free night promotion from June 1 – August 31 is a 5-key offer and one of the best opportunities available these next few months for frequent travelers in the hotel loyalty program world.
Sounds like an incredible deal to get a $50 certificate and a free companion ticket for completing a single Friday or Saturday night stay at a Renaissance Hotel in the USA or Canada between June 18 and September 6, 2010. Stays must be booked between June 11 and July 23, 2010.
Is this the deal of summer?
Unlikely for the vast majority of travelers.
The $50 certificate is valid at any Renaissance Hotel worldwide, but requires a minimum two-night stay and the stay must be on a weekend consisting of two nights between Thursday and Sunday.
The certificate is a decent value. When used at an international hotel the US$50 value may be reduced due to potentially awful hotel exchange rates, but you can probably count on at least $40 to $45 equivalent value wherever you use the certificate in locations having room rates in a different currency.
Analysis of airline companion ticket voucher
The companion ticket voucher may provide some savings, but unlikely to save a great deal and the convoluted booking procedure may not be worth your time.
The companion ticket is processed through a company called CompanionBooking.com. This agency has been around for a few years and a quick Google search will list several results where you can read complaints about the availability of airline tickets.
CompanionBooking.com has the USA blocked into seven zones with select cities that can be seen on this webpage. Apparently there are 19 airlines who feed flights and fares with the company and they are available on a first come, first serve basis to customers. There are promotions from loads of companies, so this Renaissance offer is just one of the companies funneling customers (competitors for the ticket you desire) through CompanionBooking.com.
I was told that it actually takes about 6 weeks from the time a person receives a companion coupon to the ability to actually book a flight due to registration periods and whatever. The fine print states flights must be booked at least two weeks in advance so plan on about two months from the time of your stay to the first opportunity to actually fly on the coupon.
The Airline Companion Ticket Fares
I randomly picked San Francisco – New York to test a fare for August and the agent stated the fare listed at $637.80 + $69.90 for the paid ticket = $707.70. Then the companion also pays $69.90 in fees and taxes to bring the total to $777.60. There must be a $30 processing fee since the total for the paid and free ticket came out to $807.60.
$807.60 for two San Francisco-New York La Guardia tickets on Air Tran Airways for one-stop flights in mid-August 2010.
The fare listed on ATA for the same dates is $902.60 for this route on one-stop flights.
The companion certificate in this case saves $95.
But I can book the ATA tickets today online at $902.60. The Renaissance Hotel companion ticket offer sounds like I might have to wait until late July before I can try to book an August flight ticket. Who knows if the flights would still be available by then through CompanionBooking?
Conclusion
The $50 Renaissance voucher is a good rebate if you plan a future two-night weekend stay at a Renaissance hotel.
The airline companion voucher may offer a small savings, but you really need to consider if the hassle of going through an exclusive online travel agency to book your flight is worth the effort and your time. You can always use Hotwire and Priceline for crap shoot airfare savings on the fly.
The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University just released its latest report, “Building Customer Loyalty – Ten Principles for Designing a Customer Reward Program,” by Michael McCall, Ph.D., Clay Voorhees, Ph.D., and Roger Calantone, Ph.D. Report link – CHR registration required (free).
Here is my non-academic commentary to the ten principles outlined in the report as guidelines for hoteliers developing and managing hotel loyalty programs.
1. Foster customer engagement – this occurs from repeated positive interactions and experiences with a brand. The ability to get a complimentary room upgrade, nice bathroom and amenities, good TV and the opportunity to eat breakfast are big drivers of loyalty for me.
One suggestion from the report is giving a reward for annual updates to guest profile contact information. Hilton HHonors was a champion of this strategy years ago when members would receive 1,000 points every quarter for updating your email address. This could be done twice per quarter for 8,000 bonus points per year. That kept me attentive and returning to the HHonors website. HHonors inattention to other details of the loyalty program kind of left me seeking a better fit for my travel style.
2. Establish a Two-Way Value System – Here is where the CHR report shows its bias for the hotel industry. The report argues the use of hotel discounts or free nights has low customer value and high cost to the hotel if a free room or discount is given to a customer who would be willing to pay the full rate for a hotel room. As an alternative, the report states giving guests a free or discounted service during the hotel stay is a high customer value, low cost loyalty reward.
Fortunately complimentary upgrades also fall in the high customer value, low cost award category since an upgrade to an empty room that is a higher category than the customer paid is a value-added customer benefit and the paying guest already at the hotel is a low cost opportunity to give the customer value with an otherwise empty room. The customer leaves with a great memory.
Personally, when I am the customer I am more inclined to spend extra at the hotel in return for feeling I am getting more hotel room than I paid for, therefore I am feeling like I can add more cash to the hotel stay through a restaurant meal or drinks.
The problem for the loyalty program is knowing what a customer values. This is the objective of guest profiling and data collection.
Hey - hotel loyalty wiz-kids mining my data. In short, this Loyalty Traveler gives ultimate value to earning free hotel nights. Second is upgrade rooms. Third is breakfast.
3. Capitalize on Customer Data – this principle argues for the need to analyze customer data and compare the spend for loyalty member guests to non-loyalty member guests to determine the value of the program.
In my discussions with the corporate heads of a couple of hotel loyalty programs this past year I have been told unequivocally that hotel loyalty program members are highly profitable for the hotel chains.
The major loyalty programs have 5 million to 50 million members. Personally, I believe there is enough profitability among the programs as a whole to mitigate the impact of the few thousand point-hounds like me who maximize several aspects of the loyalty programs for high value on low spend.
4. Properly Segment across and within Tiers – the authors refer to elite status in this section and use Marriott Rewards (although not mentioned by name in report) as an example of elite tiers that are probably not differentiated effectively. Marriott Rewards confers Silver elite at 10 nights and the next elite tier is not reached until 50 nights.
Marriott Rewards has the greatest gap between tier levels among the major hotel loyalty programs and a much more difficult threshold for high elite levels than any other major hotel loyalty program. Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Starwood all have at least one other route besides hotel nights for obtaining elite status. Marriott Rewards only counts nights and 50 nights is a road warrior level of hotel nights for mid and top-tier elite attainment.
Currently HHonors is the only major program that has a route for earning elite status based on spending (HHonors Gold earned at 60,000 base points ($6,000 annual spend) or HHonors Diamond at 100,000 base points ($10,000 annual spend). Priority Club also gives status based on points earned, however, Hilton only counts base points with a direct correlation to hotel spend while Priority Club allows points earned from nearly all sources to count for elite qualification.
5. Develop Strategic Partnerships – corporate partnerships are common among hotel loyalty programs. The airline frequent flyer miles partnerships with hotel frequent guest programs are one of the primary corporate partnerships providing members with across travel industry sectors. Rental cars are another valuable partnership expanding reward options for hotel loyalty program members.
Most of the major hotel loyalty programs have shopping mall portals for earning hotel loyalty program points for online retail store purchases.
The authors also make the suggestion to hotel loyalty program managers to seek independent insight and analysis from companies specializing in design of hotel loyalty programs and educational researchers.
This is my Business Plug: Loyalty Traveler provides low cost independent evaluation of hotel loyalty programs. Contact me to discuss your needs ricgarrido@loyaltytraveler.com.
6. Develop Dynamic Tiers – Airlines have dealt with the problem of frequent fliers jumping ship by offering additional incentives like additional upgrades and benefits after reaching the highest elite tier. Hotel programs lag in this effort.
One of the interesting comments made in the report is a suggestion that undocumented small rewards be offered to elite members. The problem I find with undocumented offers is the benefits tend to actually be documented in forums like Flyertalk. The social media outlets make it difficult to keep any offers through loyalty programs undocumented from the frequent guest viewpoint. Personally I see (and have actually felt on occasion) some resentment towards a loyalty program when I see targeted offers others receive and wish I had received that same opportunity.
My discussions with hotel loyalty program corporate executives indicate that hotels are interested in developing targeted offers based on guest profile data, but in the consumer world of social media this is a two-edged sword. My feeling is targeted offers tend to alienate frequent guests who feel the benefits and offers being given to others are excluding them for whatever reason.
Marriott is a good example of a program that has regularly targeted offers. Some members feel their hotel spend is not commensurate with their loyalty. For example, some members get points bonuses based on a specific number of nights and some members may get a free night offer. Giving the member the opportunity to choose a different offer based on their own projected stay pattern is an easy remedy. Some members report success at getting their targeted offer (i.e. MegaBonus) switched to some other offer they learn about on FlyerTalk or elsewhere.
Rather than the hotel loyalty program seeking to drive my hotel stay behavior with a targeted promotion for my profile, my suggestion is to provide me, the frequent guest, the choice of an offer that will meet my projected hotel stay pattern during the promotion period. There is no problem sending me a targeted offer, but if I receive an offer “5 nights earns 10,000 bonus points” and I project 30 hotel nights for the quarter, then I might be looking somewhere else for hotels. Particularly when I have read on FlyerTalk that some other member in my same hotel loyalty program is getting 50,000 points for 25 nights.
Hyatt Gold Passport is an example of a program that offers elites additional incentives. Platinum elite is reached with 5 stays or 15 nights in a calendar year and then the next tier for Diamond elites is not reached until 25 stays or 50 nights. This may seem like a hurdle as large as the Marriott Rewards Silver (10 nights) to Gold (50 nights), except for the fact that Gold Passport offers Platinum elites “Platinum Extra Awards” after every third stay until the member reaches Diamond level.
New Platinum members will receive their first Platinum Extras Award certificate in their membership materials.
Your Platinum Extras choices become richer after every third eligible stay. Options include your choice of:
Stay 3 & 6: 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, 1,500 bonus points for dining*, food & beverage welcome amenity*, or a complimentary beverage**
Stay 9 & 12: 1,500 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, 500 travel partner miles, 2,000 bonus points for dining*, food & beverage welcome amenity*, or a complimentary beverage**
Stay 15 & 18: 2,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, 1,000 travel partner miles, Regency Club upgrade*, $10 Starbucks gift card, or a complimentary beverage**
Stay 21 & 24: 2,500 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, 1,500 travel partner miles, Regency Club upgrade*, complimentary Continental breakfast*, or a complimentary beverage**
*Available only at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts™
**Available only at Hyatt Place™ and Hyatt Summerfield Suites™
Source: https://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/awards/platinum_extras_awards.jsp
7. Cater to Customers Desires to Choice and Fairness
The article talks about choice in redemption which is common in most programs. There are hotel award nights and the choice of miles in all programs. While there has been an extensive catalog of goods and services offered through hotel loyalty programs as points items, in my opinion, the more valuable effort would be developing more hotel reward options.
Priority Club has the great PointBreaks perennial limited time offer of 5,000 point nights for a selection of hotels that are as high as 25,000 and 30,000 points regularly.
Starwood Preferred Guest offers Cash & Points on a select availability basis. Cash & Points awards allow members with relatively few points the opportunity to use points for a hotel night with a cash supplement. Priority Club and goldpoints plus also offer the points and cash option for hotel nights.
The second part of this principle addresses elite status which the authors refer to as a “reward tier”.
The article states frequent guests want to feel their elite tier is a matter of distinction and needs to be earned. This sentiment is expressed on FlyerTalk every time there is a fast-track to elite status offered.
In 2010 this whole concept of earned status across hotel loyalty programs has been tossed out the hotel window. Hyatt Gold Passport gave away elite to anyone who asked up until a month ago. Best Western advertised a hotel elite match most of the year. Although elite status matches are a widespread practice in the loyalty industry, it is an uncommon tactic to announce it and recruit new members with an elite status match.
If you do not have hotel loyalty elite status in 2010, then you really just do not have enough interest. Hotel loyalty programs have been giving away elite status to any breathing human. Since my interest is hotel loyalty programs I have elite status in more hotel loyalty programs in 2010 than ever before. Despite the fact that I am not traveling anywhere near my average number of nights over the past decade (yeah, it’s the economy holding me down by the neck too).
I really do like the idea of requalification being easier than initial status. If it is 50 nights to be top level elite, then make the requalification threshold 20% less or 40 nights. This is a measure of compensation for loyal members who feel slightly betrayed when they put out the money and time to reach the elite level and someone else, by virtue of a good fast-track offer, gets in with a much lower threshold of hotel stays.
8. Avoid Commoditization through Differentiation – Find ways to differentiate your program.
The most astounding aspect to me as I have researched and compared hotel loyalty programs the past few years is the remarkable similarity between programs. There are differences, but they tend to be fewer than the similarities. It is obvious the hotel loyalty programs position themselves relatively close to their primary market segment competitors when creating something like a hotel night award chart or points-to-miles exchange rate.
The authors point out the tendency of hotel loyalty programs to copy each other. My viewpoint of the past year is Hyatt Gold Passport is the hotel chain that has tried to break out of this mold. The unprecedented offer of four confirmed complimentary suite upgrade certificates and the first large-scale hotel program to offer free internet to all elite members are features that set Gold Passport ahead of the hotel loyalty competition when these were introduced 14 months ago.
Another aspect of this principle that I strongly believe in is flexible program management. The bottom line is that the program is not determined by a one-sided interpretation of terms and benefits. Listen to members who object about the way some aspect of a program is run and make alterations to meet guests needs and desires.
The other aspect of this principle reveals the hotel industry bias again. The case study of Jet Blue changing its loyalty program from a model of segments flown to dollars spent is a major adjustment that would fundamentally alter hotel loyalty programs if it became common practice.
In my opinion, the hotel loyalty program marketplace would drop substantially in value if the earn or burn sides of the loyalty points equation are placed on a strictly dollar spend scale.
9. Avoid the Price Sensitivity Trap
“Many reward programs are still based on a simple design that provides customers with future discounts as a reward for current spending.”
This is the fundamental part of the hotel loyalty program. In-hotel benefits are certainly a nice feature of hotel loyalty programs, however, the future discount is the primary competitive advantage for using a hotel loyalty program over just making all purchases on Priceline or Hotwire or at some funky boutique property with personalized service.
The hotel loyalty program rebates and value-added benefits are the features that provide the major chains with additional pricing power for their rooms.
10. Embrace New Technologies
Rather than following me around the world through a site like Four Square to instantly offer me an incentive on the spot, while nice it may be…
how about simple investments in primary website capabilities?
Hilton – Is it too much to ask that I can check AAA rates without typing my 16 digit membership number?
Priority Club – Is there some valid reason why you can’t make it easy to search for the free night redemption cost of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels at the 10, 15, and 25,000 points levels?
Hyatt – Do I have to call in for nearly every stay to get the G bonus or platinum amenity added?
Starwood – Can you allow me to see AAA rates for a group of hotels in San Francisco rather than needing to check each hotel individually?
Marriott – I guess you have most of your bases covered since I can’t think of any glaring website deficiencies at the moment. Anyone else have a complaint?
Customer research is stated as the most important strategic investment a hotel loyalty program manager can make.
My Loyalty Traveler opinion is members’ needs are relatively simple for the vast majority of frequent guests. A simple combination of value for money, a return on investment of loyalty through rewards and value-added benefits, and a hospitable hotel environment will keep the loyalty game going.
Keep loyalty simple for a win-win relationship.
Sure seems like AAdvantage is rubbing Marriott Rewards’ nose in a pile of miles with every other hotel loyalty program like 25K with Hyatt and 25K with Wyndham.
Also AAdvantage is making many hotel loyalty program members aware that Marriott Rewards will no longer be a points-to-miles exchange partner or earning partner after June 30, 2010 by offering up to 35% bonus miles on all hotel loyalty point transfers through June 30. When you click “Go” on that webpage it takes you to this page showing 70 hotel chain partners with AAdvantage. As you scroll down the list, all ten Marriott brand hotels display the message similar to this Marriott brand, “Effective July 1, 2010, TownePlace Suites® by Marriott will be leaving the AAdvantage program.”
The real story is behind closed doors, but sure looks to me like AA is playing offense in this game.
American Airlines-Marriott Rewards partnership termination links:
Wyndham and Hawthorn Suites normally earn 500 American Airlines miles per stay in Wyndham Rewards hotel loyalty program. Wingate Hotels normally earns 2 miles per $1 during your stay. This 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles promotion offers 3,000 bonus miles after the 3rd stay. An additional 7,500 miles bonus is earned after six stays. An additional 10,000 miles bonus is earned after the 9th stay at any of these three hotel brands between April 30 and September 30, 2010.
Wyndham Rewards 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles link
Here is an example of how these Wyndham Rewards hotel stays add up to miles.
Member must choose earning miles as preference for hotel stays and provide frequent flyer number. It is always a good idea to chat up the hotel check-in agent to get a note for miles entered on your record. Correcting and adding miles is possible after the fact through the phone or email, but inconvenient.
Total: 4,500 miles
Total: 13,400 miles
Total: 25,000 miles in American AAdvantage after 9 hotel stays by September 30, 2010.
The frequent guest has the choice of many hotel loyalty promotions with little guidance to their relative value. Here is Loyalty Traveler’s summary of current hotel loyalty promotions and limited time rate offers for the frequent guest. Newly added offers since the last may 19 update are marked with an asterisk (*).
Loyalty Traveler ranks the consumer value of hotel loyalty promotions on a Five Key Scale.
Five Keys = one of the best hotel loyalty promotions of the year.
Four Keys = high value rebate on the cost of hotel stays.
Three Keys = good value hotel loyalty promotion or rate offer
Two Keys = a bonus value if you play, but not necessarily worth going out of your way.
One Key = There is limited or no value. You are likely paying more than the bonus value.
Accor A-Club
*Limited Time Offer: June 10-16 Hotel Rate Discount – Accor Hotels has a “Crazy Summer” 50% off sale for 800 hotels worldwide. There are no US hotels participating in this offer.
*Limited Time Offer: Motel 6 is accepting A-Club $60 vouchers at over 1,000 North America hotels for stays from June 1-October 31.
Best Western Rewards
*5-key Promotion One Free Night in US or Canada after two stays between June 20 and August 15, 2010. Limit of One free night during promotion unless Best Western rewards elite member, then limit is two free nights. (See elite status match offer.) Registration is required and limited to residents of USA, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands. Free night voucher expires December 25, 2010. (June 1)
Elite Status Match Offer (February 19, 2010)
Carlson Hotels – Goldpoints Plus
*5-Key promotion: June 1-August 31 Stay two times at any Carlson Hotel (Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, Country Inn & Suites) and earn one free night at any property. Earn limit is seven free nights. Redeem nights at any Carlson Hotel September 1 – February 28, 2011. Registration is required. (May 25)
3-Key promotion: Radisson Hotels – Earn 5,000 AAdvantage bonus miles and get a sixth night free with a five night stay at a Radisson Hotel in the Caribbean by June 15.
Choice Hotels – Choice Privileges
*3-key promotion Earn 8,000 points for two stays between May 20 and August 5, 2010. After two stays points will be added to your account up to 8,000 total points. Choice Privileges members normally earn 10 points per $1 at most brands. Spend $75 for each hotel night and the 1,500 base points ($150 @ 10 points /$1) will be boosted up to 8,000 points. This promotion favors the low spender. A general member who spends $400 for a five night stay will earn 4,000 points for the stay. Two stays like that and you do not earn a bonus at all. Keep this promotion in mind for those $50 one night stays.
The Choice Privileges advertisement is for a Chili’s card, but you will receive points in your account for spending on whatever you choose. And 8,000 points is good for a free night at over 1,000 Choice Hotel members.
Hilton HHonors
4-key promotion Nine bonus airline miles promotions that may be combined with free night promotion (April 13, 2010) [Note: most airline offers end June 30, some go to July 15 or 31, and some longer.]
4-key promotion Fast Ways to Free Stays (Earn a free night after every 4 stays or 10 nights through June 30) (April 7, 2010)
Hilton HHonors earn unlimited free nights through June 30 – Fast Ways to Free Stays promotion (April 4, 2010)
Hyatt Gold Passport
Alert: Hyatt Gold Passport hotel award categories went up for 25% of hotels as of June 4, 2010. Loyalty traveler post.
5-key promotion – Big Welcome Back promotion for one free night after every two stays March 26-June 30 (March 26, 2010)
4-Key promotion – Earn up to 25,000 American AAdvantage miles with 5 Hyatt stays May 3 – July 5 (May 3) – Earn 3,000 miles per Hyatt stay and 10,000 bonus miles after 5 Hyatt stays between May 3 and July 5. You must set earning preference to miles. This offer is combinable with the Big Welcome Back offer for one free night after every two stays or 5,000 points after every two stays.
3-key offer: $100 in Hyatt gift certificates for $80 at Costco. Many Costco stores carry these. Two $50 certificates cost $79.99. These certificates do not provide change. Effectively these certificates save up to 20% on room rates, but are not good on prepaid rates.
3-key offer: Hyatt offers a COSTCO discount rate (use Group/Corporate # 13365) that is equivalent or even better than AAA rate for many hotels. The Costco discount rate is up to 25% for North America hotels. Bookings must be made between May 7 – September 9 for stays from May 7 through September 12.
There are several different codes being tossed around for this offer.
Inserting 13365 in the Group/Corporate # has worked best for me in retrieving the $25 per night credit rate and the rate tends to match the prepaid rate, but with cancellation policies equivalent to AAA rates. For a one night stay the AAA full breakfast rate may be a better deal. Compare prices.
InterContinental Hotels Group – Priority Club
*Europe IHG Rate Discount: 2 nights for the price of 1 for hotel stays through September 27, 2010. The InterContinental Budapest was available for $83 per night when I first posted this offer. These rates are prepaid and nonrefundable, but there are some fantastic savings if you want to prepay your hotel stay. (May 25)
*5-key offer Priority Club PointBreaks 5,000 points per night awards to August 30 (June 7, 2010)
*4-Key Promotion Priority Club $50 gift card for any IHG brand hotel stay worldwide including a Friday or Saturday night. Gift card offer is valid with second hotel stay between May 14 and July 31. There is a maximum earn limit of $500 in gift cards. Registration is required. This offer is mutually exclusive from the Double Points or Double Miles offer listed below. (May 21)
3-Key promotion Priority Club Double Points or Double Miles May 14-August 31 (April 15)
3-key promotion Ambassador members receive up to 10,000 points after stays in four different InterContinental Hotels. May 10-July 31. Registration required. (May 11)
2-key promotion: Ambassador members receive 25,000 points for a two-night stay at participating InterContinental Hotels (June 1-September 30). Unfortunately most hotels are asking a significantly higher rate ($50 to $100 per night over lowest available) for this offer. Bonus may be earned three times for 75,000 points. (May 11)
IHG Friend & Family Hotel Rates (Dec 26, 2010)
Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) – Leaders Club Rewards
3-key promotion – Earn 1 free night after every 5 hotel stays in 2010. Must stay in at least two different hotels. Bellagio in Las Vegas is LHW member. (April 13, 2010)
Marriott Rewards
5-Key promotion – May 1-July 31 New members of Marriott Rewards earn a free night after two stays (April 5, 2010)
4-key promotion – MegaBonus Offer: One free Marriott Category 1 to 4 hotel night after three stays June 1 – August 31. The main drawback of this offer is the lower category limit for the free night. Marriott has an 8 category award system. There are some nice Category 4 hotels, however, most major tourist cities have full scale hotel properties in the category 5 or 6 level.
The free night offer is targeted and available to most Marriott Rewards members. Marriott Rewards elite members are likely to have received a points offer based on nights for their MegaBonus.
Alternate Points offer #1: Earn 20,000 points after 15 nights or 30,000 points after 20 nights.
Alternate Points offer #2: Earn 25,000 points after 20 nights or 40,000 points after 25 nights.
4-key promotion – Up to 60,000 Delta Skymiles. Earn 5,000 Skymiles per stay beginning with your second stay from May 1 through September 6, 2010. Registration required. Note: Your Marriott Rewards account earning preference must be set to miles for this offer to load correctly on your web browser.
1-Key offer – Marriott Rewards Instant Redemption Awards (March 24, 2010)
Starwood Preferred Guest
5-key promotion – Earn a free weekend night after every three stays (May 1-July 31)
4-Key promotion – Earn 1,000 AAdvantage bonus miles for every stay with Sheraton Hotels in North America (US, Canada, and Caribbean) through July 31. No limit. This offer may be combined with the stay three earn a free weekend night.
3-key promotion SPG link: Pay Your Birthyear Rate (This promotion can be an incredible savings or no savings depending on the hotel and your birthyear.) LT post 4/28/2009
*Starwood Hotel Rate Discount Codes for Multiple Night Stays - Check out the rates using these Starwood Hotel discount links for stays from two to six nights and savings from 20% to 33%. These rates do not always offer the lowest rate option since the discount is based on the Best Available Rate and AAA rates often discount the BAR rate by more than 20 or 30%. Other times these rates save hundreds of dollars on otherwise lowest rate. This offer is particulalry good for booking hotel suites at a discount.
1-key promotion Four Points Breakfast for a Buck (April 12, 2010)
Starpoints Airline Direct Deposit is Better for United, Continental, and Singapore miles (March 25, 2010)
Wyndham Rewards
4-Key promotion: Earn up to 25,000 American AAdvantage miles after 9 stays from April 30 to September 30, 2010.
*Wyndham Hotels Game Prizes: Wyndham Mission: Save Summer campaign offering gift card prizes and a five night Wyndham Hotel stay. Register and play weekly for a chance to win prizes. There are also discount rate links for most Wyndham Hotel brands in this thread.
Hotel Points-to-Miles Conversion Tables for 9 hotel programs and 7 U.S. airlines (March 30, 2010)
Starwood Hotels has a special rates offer that has been in effect for several years. There are discounts for stays of two to six nights.
Starwood Hotels Discount Links for Two Night and Longer Stays
Not all hotels participate in these Starwood multiple night discount offers, but I’d estimate hundreds do participate. These rates are not always a good deal compared to other rates. And then sometimes these rates can save several hundred dollars.
Suite Deals
One of the best value opportunities with these rates is booking a high category room like a junior suite or suite where the nightly savings can be $100 to $200.
My advice is to call the hotel directly if you actually want to book a suite and try to talk a rate deal. See if you can beat all other online offers.
Hotel Rate Tricks for July 4 Weekend Follow-up
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s July 4 Hotel Rate Tricks. The real hotel rate trick (in a Halloween sense) is some hotels in San Francisco are charging more for a three night Friday to Monday, July 4 weekend stay than the cost to book three separate nights at the hotel.
Comparing yesterday’s search results for the Fourth of July weekend shows 4 of 6 hotels in downtown San Francisco are available with the Z3H third night free rate.
The savings at these four Starwood Hotels ranges from $28 for a three night stay at the W San Francisco to $150 for three nights at the Starwood Luxury Collection historic Palace Hotel which turned 100 years old in December 2009. The original Palace Hotel burned in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 after opening in 1875 as one of the largest hotels in the world. Great history at this hotel but I am not a fan of their beds (unless the hotel replaced them since last summer?). Anyway, the AAA rate for the Palace Hotel is actually $4 per night less than the third night free rate and has better rate terms for cancellation.
Le Meridien has the advantage of balcony rooms and at $146 per night is a decent deal. And the Le Meridien Penthouse Suite is available at $3000 per night (after the third night free discount)!
Accor Hotels has Crazy Prices, a limited time offer for 50% off hotel rates at 800 hotels in countries around the world with the notable exception of the USA. These discount rates are for bookings between June 10-16, 2010 for hotel stays from July 8 through September 6, 2010. A-Club members can book rooms as of June 8.
These discount room rates are prepaid, no changes, no cancellations, no refunds.
There are some great deals. Accor Participating Hotels link.
Accor Hotels is the largest hotel chain and loyalty program in the world that I do not write about frequently. Accor is the fifth largest hotel chain in the world by number of hotels. In the USA the name Accor is most associated with the Motel 6 brand, however, this economy hotel brand has severely limited participation in A-Club, the Accor Hotels global loyalty program. The Accor brands dominant around the world are Novotel, Mercure, and Ibis. Sofitel, Pullman, and M-Gallery are the upper-upscale brands of Accor. There are several economy brands in Accor including Etap, Formule1, and Motel 6 that do not participate in A-Club program.
Here is a Loyalty Traveler post from September 2009 describing Accor Hotels and A-Club.
A-Club loyalty program points redemption is basically a cash rebate. The leverage opportunities with A-Club come from hotels offering bonus points for stays. Redemption is 2,000 points for a 40€ or $60 credit. The dollar value Accor voucher is certainly the better deal these days.
Update June 9 – Motel 6 limited time offer for using A-Club points vouchers: A-Club Reward US$60 vouchers are valid at over 1,000 Motel 6 hotels in North America for a limited time from June 1 through October 31, 2010.
