My hotel stay mistakes are relatively infrequent in recent years. The dumbest mistake I ever made was on our 1989 honeymoon in London and thinking a hotel mini-bar was free. Somehow free booze on the Pan Am flight translated in my jet-lagged head to free booze in our London St. James Court hotel room. We drank over 100£ of mini-booze for a major buzz before I finally asked a housekeeper if there was a charge for drinking all those little bottles of alcohol.

Possibly an equally big mistake occurred this week when I was pitched a Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare presentation on Christmas Day after checking in at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn.  There was a call to our room about an hour after arrival and my wife was told that I had a coupon waiting for me in the lobby. There was no mention of Hyatt Vacation Club in the phone call, but I knew that is where the desk for HVC is located when Kelley told me where to go for the coupon.

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An interesting email I received from Starwood Preferred Guest this week provided statistics on SPG members for 2011 with factoids like most Starwood Hotels visited by one SPG member in 2011 and most nights redeemed.

SPG AND YOU. A YEAR IN REVIEW.

In whichever time zone you ring in the start of the New Year, we’d like to extend our sincerest thanks to you for choosing SPG® during your travels.

Join us below to reflect back on 2011 with a glimpse of how you and your fellow SPG members experienced the world. From top destinations to moments shared with friends and family, we’ve included a variety of information that we hope you will find interesting.

Our New Year’s resolution is to continue to provide you with ever more personal experiences that reflect you and your unique world view. We look forward to welcoming you in 2012!

Starwood Preferred Guest Statistics for 2011

SPG Globetrotter = 22 countries visited.

SPG Hotel Hopper = 75 hotels experienced.

SPG Road Tripper = 91 nights redeemed.

Supreme Redeemer = 10,862,000 Starpoints.

Consummate Earner = 19,670,583 Starpoints.

Top Getaway Free Destinations

North America = St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, California

Europe = Schloss Fuschl, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Austria

Asia = W Retreat & Spa Bali – Seminyak, Indonesia

South America = Sheraton Rio Hotel & Resort, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Africa = Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove, Mahé, Seychelles

Australia = Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort

And one member redeemed 100,510 points for a meet & greet opportunity with Katy Perry along with premium concert seats.

The best news to come out of SPG in 2011 is the program change counting award stays for elite credit.

My last free night stay was at St. Regis Monarch Beach in November. I helped create one of the SPG statistics for North America.

There are more statistics given in the SPG email. You can access the full SPG pdf copy here.

Starwood Preferred Guest launches its “Better by the Night” 2012-Q1 promotion on January 9 with double points for two night stays and triple points for longer stays through April 8, 2012. There are no bonus points for one night stays. There is no limit to bonus points members may earn with this offer.

Registration is required by March 15, 2012.

Loyalty Traveler Update Dec 29, 2011 9:45am Pacific time: SPG is screwing around with this promotion since it first appeared five days ago. The links were all working this morning when I posted this article and the links are now all dead. This has happened before during the last few days and I thought SPG finally had their promotion ducks all in a row when I decided to post this offer today. I registered for the offer today. SPG apparently is still not ready for members to see this offer as posted in this FlyerTalk thread December 27  by Starwood Lurker, the official SPG voice. Seems odd to me that all the promotion pages were up this morning two days after Starwood Lurker’s post, however, the links may not be live again until January 9, 2012.

Registration confirmation page for SPG 2012 Q-1 promotion.

This promotion is valid for about 70% of Starwood Hotels worldwide with all Asia-Pacific hotels opting out of this offer. About 50 hotels in the USA are not participating, so check the hotel exclusion list carefully when planning your stays so you are not surprised when your $1,000 3-night stay does not earn an anticipated 4,000 extra bonus points with the triple points offer. Germany, Italy and Greece have many nonparticipating Starwood Hotels. Link to hotels excluded from this offer.

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Update January 31, 2012: Marriott extended the elite member $1,000 in gift cheques for 135,000 points on December 30, 2011 for the 2012 year. Sorry I neglected to correct this post with the news.

On December 30 Marriott extended the offer through 2012.

Here is the news about the offer extension on Marriott Rewards Insiders:
https://www.rewards-insiders.marriott.com/thread/9124

Here was the announcement on FlyerTalk:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-rewards/1293000-marriott-gift-cheques-going-way-all-inclusive-reward-5.html

I reported it in my Jan 6 thread on Marriott Elite Rollover Nights, but failed to update this post.

“Another piece of Marriott Rewards news is a reversal on the decision to discontinue $1,000 Marriott Gift Cheques December 31, 2011 as reported in this Loyalty Traveler thread from December 29, 2011. Marriott Rewards changed their minds and these Gift Cheques will continue for 2012 as reported on FlyerTalk by Marriott Concierge on Dec 30, 2011.”

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A current FlyerTalk thread indicates Marriott Rewards will no longer offer Gift Cheques in 2012 when they are replaced with gift cards. Marriott Rewards Gold and Platinum elite members currently can buy $1,000 of Marriott gift cheques for 135,000 points while other Marriott Rewards members must pay 190,000 points. There is uncertainty for Marriott Rewards Gold and Platinum members as to whether the elimination of $1,000 Marriott gift cheques for 135,000 points is a discount redemption benefit being eliminated or just a change to the equivalent discount for a $1,000 Marriott gift card in 2012.

Update December 29, 2011 5:10pm Pacific time: Marriott Concierge, the company representative on FlyerTalk, confirmed a few hours ago that Marriott Gift Cheques will retire December 31, 2011. There is no word whether the points discount will be applied to Marriott Gift Cards in 2012.

This is all the more reason to jump on this option if the certificates are a good value for you.

The FlyerTalk thread has been going since December 19, 2011 with no official response from Marriott to clarify if the discount for Marriott Rewards Gold and Platinum members will still be available on the redemption of $1,000 gift cards for 135,000 points when the Gift Cheques redemption option is discontinued next week. The upper elite member 28% discount has been in place for several years when purchasing Marriott Rewards gift cheques. Hopefully this discount will now apply to gift cards redeemed with Marriott Rewards points.

Apparently some Marriott Rewards members are not so certain the benefit will be applied in 2012 and they are jumping on the opportunity to redeem 135,000 points for $1,000 gift cheques before the option ends December 31, 2011.

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Hilton HHonors new promotion offers 1,000 bonus points per night plus 5,000 bonus points for two night weekend stays from January 1, 2012 through March 31, 2012. There is no earning limit for bonus points. Stays with check-in prior to January 1 or checkout after March 31, 2012 will count for this promotion for nights stayed within the promotion period.

Hilton HHonors More Points promotion registration is required before hotel checkout to be eligible for this bonus points offer.

Weekend Stay 5,000 bonus points is Good Value  

Weekend nights include the four nights from Thursday through Sunday, but only one 5,000 point bonus may be earned per weekend. These are combinable bonuses of per night and weekend bonus, so two nights as Thursday-Friday, Friday-Saturday, or Saturday-Sunday stay earns 7,000 bonus points for the two nights and 1,000 bonus points for any additional nights of an extended stay.

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Yesterday was bird day afternoon along the Big Sur coast of Monterey County. The wind blown waves made whale spotting difficult. To compensate for lack of whale sightings was a marvelous display of birds, thousands of gulls, soaring along the coastline cliffs along 40 miles of coast from Carmel Highlands south.

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This has been a week of visitors and local sightseeing around the Monterey Peninsula for me. My sister wanted to see whales when she arrived in town. We drove to Point Pinos in Pacific Grove and saw spouts from at least six whales immediately upon arrival to the beach. I pulled out the binoculars and my sister and I watched gray whales heading south. The gray whale migration is in progress to Baja.

I’ll get back to regular posting on Loyalty Traveler by Wednesday, December 28. The weather is so gorgeous that I am spending all my waking hours out and about and unchained to my computer.

Brown pelican at Monterey Fisherman's Wharf.

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“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” – John Steinbeck – Cannery Row.

Cannery Row Stohan's Gallery and El Torito Mexican Restaurant.

Cannery Row is still somewhat of an eyesore on half the length of the street with vacant, fenced off lots on the ocean side and a large asphalt parking lot on the other side. By the the mid-1970s all the canneries had closed down. Restaurants and shops come and go and change names frequently.

Culinary Center of Monterey closed its doors in 2010.

Cannery Row Hotels

A few fine hotels have opened along Cannery Row over the past few decades with the Monterey Plaza Hotel being a leading redevelopment project for Cannery Row when it opened in 1985 one year after the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the opposite end of Cannery Row. Monterey Plaza Hotel is a member of Stash Hotel Rewards. The newest addition is The Clement Monterey InterContinental Hotel opened in 2008 and available as a Priority Club Rewards hotel at 40,000 points per night.

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This year we are staying home in Monterey for the holiday season and welcoming family to our locale. That means hotel stays, restaurant dinners and outdoor activities. Our ten day weather forecast for the Monterey Peninsula shows no rain and temperatures in the mid-60s next weekend. This has been a gorgeously clear sky December on the central coast of California.

Many visitors come to Monterey for the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the famed Cannery Row. Here is my photo walk along the less touristed southeastern half of Monterey’s Cannery Row named after John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel.

Cannery Row Monterey

Cannery Row is a half-mile stretch of oceanfront road on the northwest end of Monterey. A century ago this parcel of Monterey developed canneries for processing sardines from Monterey Bay to feed the world. The street was called Ocean View Avenue up until 1958 when the name changed to Cannery Row in honor of the novel by Monterey County’s John Steinbeck. The road name is still Ocean View Blvd. in Pacific Grove where the town line begins just west of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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There is a December 20 one-day only sale for Holiday Inn hotels in the UK at £20.12 room-rate promotion for stays from December 26-January 31, 2012. Since this sale is based on UK time, the offer has about another 8 hours to go. Primary caveats are these rates are prepaid and nonrefundable and also do not earn Priority Club points.

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My wife started 16 days of holiday vacation Saturday and our first outing was a parent gift to see comedian Wayne Brady at the Improv in San Jose. No better excuse for a hotel stay and Kelley needed her Radisson Big Night Giveaway stay for 50,000 points with a Radisson hotel stay by December 30, 2011. I booked her into the Radisson San Jose Airport for Saturday night.

Rates at the airport were as low as $75.60 for AAA Sleep Number bed, but for $99 we could have a one bedroom suite and for $114 a one bedroom suite with jacuzzi tub.

So I went all in and booked the full suite with jacuzzi tub. We planned on meeting friends for the comedy show and space to let the teachers get loose seemed like a grand plan for an apres-theater party.

Radisson San Jose Airport SJC

Radisson San Jose Airport (SJC)

The hotel has free shuttle for the airport and is located along a stretch of road between Highway 101 and the airport with several other midscale hotel brands.

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