They are back! I took advantage of some $52.80 nights last December during a stay in Denver using Mile High Holidays rates. All the major hotel brands participate with offers from Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Starwood.

This is a great opportunity for a mattress run for elite and free night promotions with IHG and Marriott both offering a free night after two stays. Check out my page “Current Hotel Loyalty Promotions” to sign up for current promotion offers.

Downtown Denver hotels like Marriott Denver City Center at $60.64 after tax for tonight, Friday, December 3.

Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt are $99 on many nights (Dec 17 for example) and SPG is giving double stay elite credit for aloft and element hotel stays with rates around $75.

Sample of $52.80 hotels:

The $30 for a 5,000 points Pointbreaks reward night at the Holiday Inn Santa Maria finally got her thinking that perhaps she should try and work this hotel loyalty thing with a little more effort. The $12 credit for morning breakfast at the Holiday Inn turned something on in her head. She called to ask me about the Priority Club stay two times and get one free night promotion with IHG.

“Yeah. That is the best deal out there at the moment. You can stay at two Holiday Inns or Holiday Inn Express or their other brands like Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites and Crowne Plaza and then you get a free night at some place like the InterContinental Montelucia in Scottsdale. You have from December 1 through May 31, 2011 to use the free night.”

No need to confuse her by mentioning Hotel Indigo. She won’t likely be around one anytime soon before she goes to Scottsdale.

I offered to put her and her old man up at the Hyatt Mar Monte Santa Barbara or the Four Points Ventura on a points reward. In retrospective mode, she said the weather in Ventura and Santa Barbara had been the best of any place in California where they had traveled over the past week and perhaps they should have stopped.

But they were Orange County bound.

Two nights in Anaheim at the adjacent properties of Staybridge Suites Anaheim and Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort around Disneyland cost $80 each night after tax for the two of them.

InterContinental Montelucia next February for Tuesday February 8, 2011 is $361 base rate and nearly $420 for one night after tax.

This is hotel loyalty program arbitrage. This deal can be repeated at IHG brand hotels to earn up to 5 free nights after 10 hotel stays. Spend something like $800 for 10 hotel stays by December 31, 2010 with IHG brand hotels and a $2,000 resort five night vacation is within your grasp.

Mom finally gets it!

The fall 2010 Priority Club promotion title Sweet Dilemma probably encapsulates the feelings of many members for this offer. Promotion registration is required by December 20, 2010. You must register for either free nights or double miles/points.

The good news:

• You can earn one free night after two stays, up to five free nights during the promotion period September 20-December 31, 2010.
• You can redeem free nights beginning November 1, 2010 for hotel stays from December 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011. Free nights can be booked at http://www.priorityclub.com/bookfreenights
• Sweet Dilemma free nights offer appears to be combinable with the Crack the Case promotion.

 The bad news:

• Asia-Pacific region IHG hotels are not participating in the free nights portion of this Priority Club promotion. You cannot earn free night credit or redeem free nights in Asia-Pacific hotels. Stays in Asia-Pacific region are eligible only for double points or miles portion of this promotion offer.
• If you register for free nights, then you will not earn any base or elite points or miles during the promotion period from September 20 through December 31, 2010, even after you maximize the free night offer of five nights. So if you complete 10 IHG hotel stays by October 1, you will earn five free nights but you will be ineligible for earning base points and elite points on all your paid stays for the remainder of 2010.
• Free night reservations may not be cancelled without forfeiting free night credit.
• Double points or miles begins with second stay at any IHG hotel worldwide.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

Two stays at a Holiday Inn and you can have a free night at an InterContinental Hotel. Most Priority Club members will likely get the best value from free nights. A free night is worth 30,000 or 40,000 points for an InterContinental Hotel. This promotion is potentially worth an equivalent 200,000 points for someone who maximizes the use of free nights at upper tier InterContinental Hotels.

The general consensus among Priority Club members on the value of points is $6 per 1,000 points. The five free nights offer has a potential $1,200 promotion bonus value. Redeeming your free night for a $240+ InterContinental Hotel night is likely an easy exchange to find considering the high cost of luxury class InterContinental Hotels.  Just remember that you cannot use free nights for Asia-Pacific region hotels.

I see this IHG offer as a low entry promotion given the easy access to over 3,000 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels with rates under $100 per night. Earning a high value luxury class hotel night for two stays costing under $200 is a great value promotion opportunity.

Earning five free nights for under $1,000 over the next few months is a way to meet your hotel needs this fall while earning enough nights for a high-value vacation in 2011. Five nights at a hotel like the InterContinental Amstel in Amsterdam next spring can easily be a $2,000 value.

I recommend throwing as many short hotel stays to Priority Club as your top alternative to your primary hotel program. And if Priority Club is your primary hotel program, then you may want to get your five free nights and shift some hotel stays over to another hotel program for extra bonuses this fall. The exclusion of base and elite points through December 31, 2010 for all stays completed after maximizing the free nights offer is a real drawback for high frequency Priority Club members.

You may have a not so sweet dilemma if Priority Club is your main program. Choosing free nights as a Priority Club platinum member means forgoing 25 points per $1 for your stays from Sep 20-Dec 31, 2010. It will take you $6,000 to $8,000 in hotel spend to reach the equivalent value of 150,000 to 200,000 points you will receive with free nights.

This IHG fall 2010 promotion announcement leaves only Hilton HHonors left to announce its major fall 2010 promotion. Starwood went with double base points based on nights and triple base points with 10 or more nights. Hyatt has 10,000 points per 5 nights. Marriott has MegaBonus offers for up to two free nights, but the free nights are only valid for the lowest 4 of 8 hotel award categories. Marriott also has triple miles. Compared to the other bonuses this is a high-value, low hurdle to earn promotion offer from IHG Priority Club.

Loyalty Traveler promotion rating = 5 keys (one of best promotions of 2010)

Links: IHG Priority Club Sweet Dilemma Promotion

Sweet Dilemma FAQ

Terms & Conditions clause shows combinability of Sweet Dilemma with Crack the Case promotion offer:

14. Frequency Credits:

(a) During Free Nights Promotion Period: Once registered for the Free Nights Promotion and during the Promotion Period, Members will not earn base or elite Priority Club points, airline miles, or any other frequency credit earning preference Members have chosen (“Frequency Credits”) for the room rate, food and beverage charges or any other incidental charges for any stays at any IHG hotel (except at hotels in those countries in which the Promotion is void), whether pursuant to this Promotion or otherwise, even if the Member has previously registered for, or is otherwise qualified for, another promotion and even if the Member has already earned the maximum of five Free Nights during the Promotion Period. In other words, participation in this Free Nights Promotion excludes the receipt of base and elite Frequency Credits for stays from the date of registration for this Free Nights Promotion until December 31, 2010. Bonus Frequency Credits, however, will be awarded pursuant to the terms of any other promotion in which Member is participating.

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club Sweet Dilemma Fall 2010 Promotion

Last month I stayed two nights in a Holiday Inn for $66 per night. My two night stay earned a free night at any IHG property worldwide from the stay two nights, earn a free night promotion that ran for about 14 weeks from May 4 to August 15.

Loyalty Traveler April 27 post – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/04/27/ic-hotels-group-promo-one-free-night-for-every-two-nights/

Loyalty Traveler July 16 post – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/16/priority-club-free-nights-or-double-points-until-aug-15/

There was a term in the free nights promotion stating members had the choice of Double Points, Double Miles, or Free Nights. The preference for free nights was capped at four free nights earned after 8 nights of qualifying hotel stays. A condition of earning free nights was forfeiting base and elite points for the hotel stay.

• Paragraph 9 (a): Members who have re-registered will not earn base and elite points or miles from date of re-registration until 15 August 2009.

I forfeited $132 in base points from my hotel stay, but I earned a free night for my two night paid stay.

I did not earn 1,320 Priority Club base points from this hotel stay.

I did earn 5,640 Priority Club bonus points from this hotel stay. The bonus points posted to my account within days of my stay.

Net result is my paid two night stay spending $132 for a decent Holiday Inn in Henderson, Nevada earned a free night at any IHG property worldwide (an InterContinental Hotel is calling me) and 5,640 points (PointBreaks free night is whispering to me).

Holiday Inn Henderson has the distinction of being the first hotel I recall reading all positive TripAdvisor hotel reviews. While this property would not normally be my recommendation for a Las Vegas hotel stay, the location was convenient for where I needed to be during my Las Vegas trip. And I appreciate a 24-hour pool.

Priority Club Insider and FlyerTalk as Priority Club Promotion Sources

FlyerTalk has a long thread with Priority Club promotion links and discussion. Radioman has consolidated information in the first post of this 150+page thread.

Priority Club Insider is a well-organized site for staying up-to-date with new Priority Club promotion offers. I keep this site on my RSS feed.

The week before my Holiday Inn stay I registered for several promotions through links posted on these two sites. Taking 30 minutes to read over promotions and register for offers earned the equivalent of $564 base spending in Priority Club points. I would have earned 0 points for this stay without the extra effort.

The 5,640 Priority Club bonus points came from just two offers.

One bonus offer I received was 3,000 bonus points toward elite status for an IHG brand stay within 90 days.

Another bonus offer I received was Triple Points. The application of this bonus is interesting. While I did not receive the 1,320 base points for my $132 Holiday Inn hotel stay, I did receive 2,640 bonus points for this stay. Basically I received 0 base points, yet I still earned double bonus points based on the 1,320 base points with the triple points promotion.

Combinable promotions allow a Priority Club member to pull in 5,000 to 10,000 points per hotel stay a good deal of the time. Priority Club counts all earned points towards elite status. Earning 60,000 points for Priority Club Platinum elite may seem like a formidable feat requiring somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,000 in annual hotel spending.  The reality is the going is easy with combinable promotions, the ability to buy points with hotel stays, and the relatively new option of purchasing points for Cash& Points stays. Earning 60,000 Priority Club points and Platinum elite status can be accomplished by some members for under $1,500 a year.

Gotta love Priority Club as a loyalty traveler.

Holiday Inn

I have been looking over some social communities sponsored by hotel chain’s for their loyal members. As a long time member of FlyerTalk, I haven’t bothered to spend too much time in the hotel chain’s own social networks. It seems like information on most of the deals and hotel properties are discussed on FlyerTalk. A community of 200,000 travelers covers pretty much every topic.

So what is going on in the hotel-chain-managed social forums?

Priority Club Connect

InterContinental Hotels Group social community forum Priority Club Connect has several employee moderators and several active members. I received a personalized reply from Jenni shortly after registering for the site.

While the information on Priority Club Connect may not be as pervasive as using FlyerTalk, I did find one major advantage to hanging out in the Priority Club Connect forum.

30 Free Nights over 30 Days Exclusive Promotion Offer through Priority Club Connect

(30 Free Nights promotion link)

Priority Club Connect is giving one free night away from July 15 thru August 13 and a grand prize of 7 free nights to be awarded around July 17.

Simply register for the Priority Club Biggest Free Nights Offer (or Double Points Offer) and then submit a reply to where you want to spend a free night.

Restrictions: Promotion only available to US residents, but residents of Florida are ineligible.

( You aren’t American enough in Florida?)

Free nights are not eligible for hotel stays in Japan.

The free nights promotion seems to be a good strategy for publicizing Priority Club Connect.

I am doing my part here on Loyalty Traveler to help them grow the community. Although, more contestants reduces my odds of winning a free night.

Brief notes on the other hotel chain social forums:

MarriottRewardsInsider seems to have several active discussions going on with nearly 3,000 posts on a variety of topics. There were forums with recent posts, questions and replies, and some Marriott Official posts with program information and promotions. A member can sign in and jump right into the conversation with information, advice, and questions for cities and particular hotels and transportation options.

Starwood has TheLobby, but the last SPG member post in SPG Member’s Corner was from October 2008. The social forum aspect seems entirely absent from the site. I didn’t spend much time in TheLobby because the website seems to be an advertising extension of Starwood rather than a community forum for loyal SPG members.

Hyatt Hotels’ travel community is called Yatt’it. Browsing through posted tips reveals the Hyatt Concierges do most of the meaningful posting and even those tidbits of information are scarce. There is relatively little activity happening here.

Hilton Hotels was praised by Adam Kirby of Hotels Magazine in his blog last week for its customer engagement strategy on Twitter. I made a Hilton comment yesterday and gained another 10 followers from Hilton employees. I did not find a Hilton Hotels social forum.

Hey Readers – Let me know if there is a social community around Hilton that I missed. And please share your thoughts on this trend of hotel chain managed social forums.

Priority Club’s spring promotion for a free night after every two paid nights was extended from the original ending date of July 3 to August 15.

Priority Club members who did not earn four nights in the original timeline can re-register for the promotion extension. Members who already earned four free nights in the original timeline from May to July 3 and members who prefer points can register for Double Points.

Loyalty Traveler analyzed the original promotion in this post from April 27.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/04/27/ic-hotels-group-promo-one-free-night-for-every-two-nights/

Register or re-register for this promotion at

www.priorityclub.com/register4FreeNights.

Terms and Conditions for Free Nights Promotion

Terms and Conditions for Double Points

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

·          

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