St. Regis Hotels support the sport of polo. The 6th Annual St. Regis  International Cup 2013 happens 5/18/2013 – Cowdray Park Polo Club, England.

Audi England compete against South America, captained by St. Regis Connoisseur, Nacho Figueras.

St. Regis will invite a number of guests to watch the high-goal polo match from the hospitality marquee to experience some of the St. Regis honored traditions, such as the Afternoon Tea by The Lanesborough, a St. Regis Hotel and the hotel’s signature cocktail – the Bloody Mary.

General public tickets are available at www.cowdraypolo.co.uk for £15 per person.

Rules of Polo  Read More…

I have to face the fact that I do not like staying at the St. Regis San Francisco. The hotel has many endearing qualities like a fantastic bed and linens, great bathtub, a large fitness center and pool. There is even a yoga room.

But I get a bad vibe every time I stay at this hotel.

In December I stayed two nights at the St. Regis San Francisco courtesy of the SPG American Express Amex Stars blogger outreach program I was invited to participate in for 2012.

Luxury hotel stays are aspirational for some travelers. After taking advantage of free hotel stays with SPG Amex Stars to visit St. Regis Princeville Kauai, St. Regis San Francisco and St. Regis Bal Harbour (Miami Beach), I have developed the opinion that I love luxury class hotel rooms, but I do not like the luxury hotel environment. The cost of nearly everything at a luxury hotel is more than I care to spend. And the commonly free items at hotels like ice and coffee can set you back $5 to $10 an order throughout your stay.

Even worse for me than the high prices at large luxury hotels are the multitude of staff. The staff members are almost always kind and engaging. There are frequently more staff than guests walking around when I am at a St. Regis. It is kind of like being in a beautiful office building. Most of the people around are employees. And all the greetings from a staff member require a reciprocal response from me. Isn’t it rude not to return a greeting?

St. Regis San Francisco Read More…

JohnnyJet is giving away 25,000 points as part of his SPG Amex Stars Starwood staycation at the St. Regis New York.

Leave a comment on JohnnyJet’s blog post: Win 25,000 Starpoints by sharing your dream destination.

Contestants must either subscribe to Johnny’s newsletter or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
Only one entry per person, and a winner will be chosen at random. All official contest rules apply.

Johnny Jet 

Comment entries will be accepted by JohnnyJet through 6pm Pacific time Tuesday, November 13.

I’ll be living the 1% life with St. Regis in December

I am also a SPG Amex Star blogger for 2012. My planned time-spaced travel schedule initially included being at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Miami Beach last week, Boston’s Liberty Hotel at Thanksgiving and St. Regis San Francisco in December.

That has all changed.

I did not follow my advice I posted Monday, Nov 5 for a cheap mileage run to Boston to earn American Airlines Platinum status for 2013 on a single $280 roundtrip ticket from Monterey: Planning out AA mileage runs for 2x EQM/RDM. I opted instead for a trip to Kauai via San Diego for $410.

Loyalty Traveler is staying Coast to Coast to Coast in December

Now I am booked for three 2-night stays in December at St. Regis Princeville, Kauai, St. Regis San Francisco and St. Regis Bal Harbour. This will be my biggest ever dip into luxury hotel travel.

While I’ll be swimming with the 1 percenters, my plane travel will still be flying with the masses in coach.

Illogical cancellation policy at St. Regis Kauai

One of the strangest cancellation policies I have ever seen came to my attention with the St. Regis Kauai reservation.

Cancellation Policy

If you cancel between 11/09/2012 and 4:00 PM hotel time on 11/11/2012, there will be no forfeiture amount. If you cancel after 4:00 PM hotel time on 11/11/2012, the forfeiture amount will be a 3 night stay.There may be additional applicable charges and taxes.

St. Regis Princeville Resort

The cancellation penalty within 30 days of a reservation at St. Regis Princeville is the amount for a 3-night stay even if your reservation is only booked for a 2-night stay.

What’s up with that?

Anyway, I will be offering three Starpoints giveaways over the next seven weeks for 50,000 points, 25,000 points and 60,000 points associated with my three St. Regis stays in December.

Check out JohnnyJet’s 25,000 Starpoints giveaway now. Look for my 50,000 Starpoints giveaway blog post in a couple of weeks in conjunction with my St. Regis Princeville hotel stay.

Blogger disclosure: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express is providing me with the three complimentary St. Regis hotel stays in December.

The 5-star Lanesborough London St. Regis Hotel in Knightsbridge, London has been managed by Starwood Hotels for more than a decade. The problem though for Starwood Preferred Guest members is the hotel never participated in the loyalty program. SPG members have never been able to use points for free night awards at one of the most, if not the most expensive hotel in London.

Rate check today for Wednesday, October 17, 2012 shows rates starting at $762 per night or USD $914 per night after tax, however, that does include free internet and butler service.

On Monday, October 15 that all changes when the Lanesborough St. Regis London becomes a participating hotel in Starwood Preferred Guest entering as a SPG Category 7 hotel for 30,000 to 35,000 points per night for award stays. Members will earn points and be eligible for elite benefits and the hotel will participate in the SPG “Better by the Night” promotion for hotel stays through December 20, 2012. 

The building was formerly a 19th century hospital

The Lanesborough at the corner of Hyde’s Park in Knightsbridge served as a hospital for over two centuries since 1733. The original Lanesborough House was torn down due to disrepair and the current building was constructed between 1827 and 1844 when it reopened as St. George’s Hospital. The hospital remained in service until the 1970s.

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts refurbished the property in the 1980s and opened the site as a hotel in 1991. The hotel was taken over for management by St. Regis in 2002 as a non-participating SPG property.

The hotel has 93 rooms with 43 of these suites.

The restaurant Apsleys – a Heinz Beck Restaurant apparently set a record for the fastest time a London restaurant received a Michelin star rating.

Even TripAdvisor reviewers love the Lanesborough. Starwood Hotels offers reviews on their own site now, but as yet no reviews have posted for The Lanesborough.

The Lanesborough London St. Regis photos Starwood site link.

Lanesborough.com website photos.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Every Night Counts for double or triple base points is Starwood Hotels primary fall 2010 promotion for stays from September 8 through December 15, 2010. Promotion registration is required by October 31, 2010. The registration link is now live.

Stay 1 to 9 nights during the promotion period and earn double base points.

If you stay 10 or more nights by December 15,2010 you receive triple base points for all hotel nights. The additional points are even applied retroactively to the initial nine nights.

The main drawback of this offer is the large number of properties that opted out of the promotion. More than 150 hotels or about 15% of Starwood brand hotels globally are not participating. There is a list of participating Starwood Hotels on spgpromos.com, but you may find it easier to check this FlyerTalk list of nonparticipating Starwood Hotels.

The promotion FAQ state this offer may be combined with other SPG promotions. I sure hope they come out with more to fatten up this slim pickings.

Loyalty traveler promotion rank = 2 of 5 keys. (not a promotion worth chasing)

SPG Every Night Counts - fall 2010 promotion

Every Night Counts Loyalty Traveler Analysis 

Calculating SPG Double/Triple Base Points

SPG members earn 2 base points per $1 in hotel spend. Starwood counts incidental spend such as room service, restaurant charges and such for earning points.

SPG Double points = 2 bonus points for 4 points  per $1.

SPG Triple points = 4 bonus points for 6 points per $1.

Assume you stay 10 nights at $150 per night = $1,500 in Starwood Hotels spend during promotion.

$1,500 x 2 base points per $1 = 3,000 base Starpoints for $1,500 in hotel spend.

Earn 3,000 base points during this promotion assuming you spend $1,500. These 3,000 points are the basis for double or triple points promotion bonus.

Double Points is 3,000 bonus points (assume $1,500 spent on 7 hotel nights).

Triple points is 6,000 bonus points (assume $1,500 spent on 10 nights).

In this scenario the SPG member who spends $1,500 earns at most 6,000 bonus points from Every Night Counts. That is not even enough for a free night at a lowly category 3 hotel (7,000 points per night) in the seven category reward system for SPG.

Starwood’s “Every Night Counts” promotion by itself does not excite me at all.

Now perhaps combining three 4-night Starwood Resort vacations for 30,000 bonus points is the real SPG fall 2010 deal that can be made slightly sweeter with Every Night Counts.

Act Fast: Starwood Lurker is within 25 posts of his 20,000^th FlyerTalk post in the past ten years. Check this FlyerTalk post to email the date and time you think the 20,000^th post will post for 20,000 Starpoints.

Americans do have a reputation for gluttonously over-eating, but how many Americans can really eat $162.80 worth of food for breakfast – even at 5-star St. Regis luxury hotel prices?

I was looking for other Starwood Hotels special offers now that the Stay 2, Earn 1 Free Weekend night promotion is over. The highlighted link to St. Regis Offers looked promising.

“Enjoy exceptional rewards or preferred rates at the St. Regis.”  Link

St. Regis Hotels Offer: Receive complimentary daily breakfast during each stay.

Promotion Rate code – DSR

I tried a couple of test bookings.

St. Regis New York, Complimentary Breakfast,  

Superior Room, including American breakfast for two daily

Friday, August 14

$705.00/night Promotion Rate DSR

$808.96/night after tax

Same room, same night, no complimentary breakfast

$562.50/night AAA rate

$646.16/night after tax

$162.80 a day for complimentary breakfast at the St. Regis New York?

The other day I was reading notes in a travel journal from my trip to Thailand in 2004.

180,000 Baht can provide a water system for a Karen hill tribe remote village in the Chiang Mai province of Thailand; US$5,300 for a village to have running, clean water. 

30% of Karen children who go to secondary school drop out because they can’t afford the 150 Baht/month (US$4.40/month) for food while boarding at school. 

The added expense of a complimentary breakfast rate at the St. Regis could feed 3 high school students for a year.

Choices.

Yesterday Starwood published details of their new promotion and I’ve been smiling quite a lot these past 24 hours.  This promotion is so good that I waited 24 hours to let it sink in.

The first set of hotel loyalty promotions for 2009 were nothing to get excited about. Points bonuses are great for business travelers who are going to be in hotels anyway, but I work through my hotel stays on an annual plan. The first four months of hotel promotions were nothing special historically. Starwood Preferred Guest has now given us a historic promotion for 2009.

Why spend $1,000 in February and March for 20,000 points when I can spend $1,000 in June and July for free nights worth 100,000 points?

My Loyalty Traveler advice is to take advantage of the opportunity. This Starwood Preferred Guest promotion is the best deal from Starwood Hotels in quite a long time.  Who knows how long it will be before another promotion comes along as lucrative as this one? (Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights will probably return in 2009, however, Starwood has hundreds more upper upscale hotels than Hyatt.)

The Offer: Every two stays earns one free night. Starwood paid hotel stays at any property are eligible for earning promotion credit.  Starwood Hotels includes the hotel brands: Four Points by Sheraton, Sheraton, Westin, aloft Hotels, W Hotels, element, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, and St. Regis Hotels.

Free nights earned are valid for a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night stay at a Category 1-6 hotel. There is no limit for free nights earned. The opportunity to redeem a free night at a Category 6 hotel is a rare opportunity.  These are quite generous terms.

Promotion Registration is Required: Member must register online at SPG.com/freeweekends by July 31, 2009. 

Promotion Dates for Earning Free Nights: Paid stays from May 1, 2009 through July 31, 2009 qualify for free night promotion.   A multi-night stay extending through these start and end dates also counts.  For example, stay April 29 to May 2 and that counts as a stay.  Stay July 31-Aug 4 and that also counts as a stay.

Redeeming Free Nights: Free nights may be redeemed through September 27, 2009 at a Category 1-6 hotel.

“How do I redeem a Free Weekend Night Award?

To redeem a Free Weekend Night Award, Preferred Guest members in the U.S. or Canada should call 866-539-0059. Elite members should call their dedicated Gold or Platinum customer service lines. Members residing outside the U.S. and Canada should contact the SPG Customer Contact Center for your region; Advance reservations are required, and all members should ask for Award ID 9FWFN.”

Free night credits should be posted within 3 to 5 days after qualifying activity. Free nights are only available for weekend stays on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. You may redeem consecutive free nights and you may combine free nights with paid nights or other SPG redemption nights such as Cash & Points or Free Nights using Points.

Category 7 hotels are excluded from free nights redemption and four other lower category “all-suites” hotels are excluded from Free Weekend Night Award redemption:

·         The Resort at Singer Island,

·         Pine Cliff Residences,

·         Sheraton Vistana Villages International Drive, and

·         Sheraton Vistana Resort Lake Buena Vista

Restrictions: The primary restriction is Free Weekend Night Awards are not transferrable and may not be gifted. The member who earns the free nights must be the guest who stays.

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

I’ll tell you my plan. I took a look at Category 6 hotels and Category 5 hotels  where I can leverage this promotion to stay at hotels I would not otherwise be able to afford. I have my sights on three hotels:

·         St. Regis San Francisco,

·         St. Regis Aspen,

·         St. Regis Monarch Beach

These hotels are my Staycation Bucket List.

San Francisco and Monarch Beach in Orange County are within driving range. My wife’s family is in Denver and I have desired a trip to the St. Regis Aspen for several years.  My plan is simply fly K and myself to Aspen and let the family drive up and visit us.

As a rule of thumb I use $100 per hotel night when calculating promotion expenditures. Even downtown San Francisco has had room rates under $100 this year.  20 one-night stays = $2,000.

I look at a $2,000 investment for 10 free nights.  Obviously, St. Regis  Aspen would need to be a 3 night stay and I could work St. Regis Monarch Beach in as a 3 night stay and use the remainder of nights at the St. Regis San Francisco.

Here are sample room rates:

St. Regis Aspen, Fri-Mon, June 12-15 $309/night or $1,020 for three nights after tax.

St. Regis Monarch Beach, Fri-Mon,  July 10-13, $575/night or  $1,983 for three nights after tax.

St. Regis San Francisco, Fri-Mon, Aug 7-10, $429/night or $1,488 for three nights after tax.

Bottom line:

Starwood is being proactive in this poor economic environment. The luxury hotel segment has been hardest hit with declines in occupancy and rates.  Hotels sitting at 30% occupancy is a recipe for employee layoffs and more limited service as a result.

This promotion allows Starwood to fill hotels across the market segment spectrum. Hotels will get through this tough economic climate, but a luxury hotel has a difficult time providing service without employees and it is hard to maintain employees without hotel guests to service. This promotion seems designed to share the pain and provide a gainful opportunity for customer loyalty and guest occupancy.

I see this as a win-win customer relations strategy.

I estimate my $2,000 planned investment will have a return of $4,500 in added value benefits from the free room nights at St. Regis hotels.  In addition as a SPG Platinum elite, I will likely receive $2,000 to $3,000 in added value for my 30 nights of hotel stays in the form of room upgrades, Starpoints earned (15,000 or so), and hotel amenities. And Platinum elite requalification is assured for 2010.

This Starwood Preferred Guest promotion will likely provide K and I with 30 nights of hotel rooms with added value around $7,000 on top of the $2,000 to $2,500 investment for the hotel stays.

That is why I have been smiling for the past day. This offer is really good for our hotel lifestyle.

Links:

FlyerTalk thread on SPG Promotion

SPG Promotion link

SPG Promotion Terms and Conditions

SPG Promotion FAQ

Laurence Geller listed some interesting data points in a blog from Jan 18, 2008. His piece discusses the widening divide between Generations X and Y mass consumers and the truly “super-affluent”. In 2006, the affluent spent on average $2,400 on hotels and resorts, while the super-affluent spent $61,200. He argues new brands will proliferate as today’s luxury brands become commonplace.

St. Regis Hotels are luxury brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts

Friday morning on CNBC, a news crew reported from the St. Regis Fort Lauderdale, Florida from a CEO conference. The studio reporters were asking about the age of the hotel and the reporter stated it had been open 9 months. I haven’t looked into those facts.

The report got me to thinking about the super-affluent and the merely affluent. For the Loyalty Traveler the travel is reduced to the numbers. I wondered what the rates are at the Fort Lauderdale St. Regis.

Here are the search results for St. Regis, FLL room rates for Monday, 2-18-08

OceanView
$476.10 (AAA rate)
$479 (Best Available on StarwoodHotels.com)
$509 Special Offer Page “SRSPG”
$529 (Best Available on SPG.com)
$549 Special Offer AAA rate “XRF”

Ocean Front
$566.10 (AAA)
$579 (Best Available on StarwoodHotels.com and SPG.com)
$609 Special Offer “SRSPG”
$649 Special Offer AAA rate “XRF”

Pool Terrace
$607 Florida Resident rate
$669 Best Benefits Package special offer “SRSPG”
$689 (Best Available on StarwoodHotels.com and SPG.com)
$709 Pool Terrace Special Offer AAA rate

[special offers accessed from St. Regis Fort Lauderdale ]  [Loyalty Traveler note:  St. Regis converted to a Ritz-Carlton in summer 2008 a few months after this post]

XRF rate includes complimentary valet parking, two Bloody Mary’s, and complimentary room upgrade to next available room type. In this case, contact hotel and find out a good night for booking with a good upgrade potential.

SRSPG rate includes two Bloody Mary’s, triple Starpoints and complimentary internet access.

The super-affluent spender could be looking at about 2 to 3 months of Pool Terrace living over the course of a year at this hotel and comparable properties. The affluent spender on $2,400 is looking at a long President’s weekend holiday and sitting home the rest of the year.

Starwood Cash & Points Award Savings

While checking St. Regis Fort Lauderdale, I came across an example of where loyalty program membership leads you to a much better booking option than a regular search on the hotel chain primary web site.

Westin Colonnade, Coral Gables, FL
Saturday, Feb 16, 2007
Rate = $429/night

www.starwoodhotels.com web site hotel rate for the Westin Colonnade through a regular search as a hotel guest not participating in Starwood Preferred Guest and not looking for the Starwood Preferred Guest hotel loyalty program site.

Checking http://www.spg.com/ – I have the option of getting a Cash & Points award at the Westin Colonnade, a Category 4 SPG Hotel for $60 and 4,000 Starpoints.

The ability to buy up to 20,000 Starpoints online from SPG at the rate of $35/1,000 points is a strategy to keep in mind if you do not have 4,000 Starpoints. Adding the cost to buy 4,000 Starpoints for $140 and the $60 Cash portion of a Cash & Points award makes a $200 room rate booking possible. The website states purchased Starpoints will be posted to your account within 24 hours.

The corporate-branded hotel websites generally have the lowest rates for their own hotel rooms compared to third-party online travel agencies like Expedia and Travelocity.

The difficulty for the DIY online hotel reservationist, is the time needed to sift through thousands of pages on the corporate-branded websites to find the lowest rate page. Finding the lowest rate is a matter of knowledge and luck at the time you search.

$485 through Starwood Hotels corporate web site compared to $200 for the SPG member using Cash & Points booking option for a one-night rate at the Westin Colonnade is the differential cost for the guest with a lack of knowledge and time. The Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program gives the member a hotel rate option that is nearly $300 less.

An additional benefit of a Cash & Points stay is the award stay usually does not incur tax. The minor detraction of a Cash & Points award is the hotel stay does not count for elite qualification or promotional offer credit. A Cash & Points award stay also does not earn points for the Cash portion of the award.

Priceline Hotel Bookings

CNBC reported Friday morning Priceline has experienced a surge in bookings. The TV commentator asked, “Does the growth in Priceline indicate a weak economy?”

Priceline is a great resource when hotel room rates are threatening to make your credit card bleed. Last June, I booked the Marriott Key Bridge in Arlington, Virginia for a Sunday night before a Monday afternoon flight to Buenos Aires. I wanted to be in DC, but the major loyalty program hotel rates ranged from $250 to $350/night. I considered renting a car and driving to the Virginia outer suburbs for a $100/night Sheraton rate.

Marriott Key Bridge Hotel, Arlington, Virginia (Priceline.com booking $115)

Instead I paid $115 total for the Marriott and I was a ten minute walk across the bridge into Georgetown. I had an interior pool view room on the third floor while the preferred rooms look out over DC from 6 to 10 stories up.