Starwood has just announced the details of their first quarter 2012 promotion, “Better By the Night,” which runs from January 9 to April 8, 2012. Through this promotion they’re offering two bonus points per dollar spent on stays of at least two nights, and three bonus points per dollar spent on stays of at least three nights.

As a Starwood member you earn two points per dollar, plus you earn one bonus point per dollar if you’re a Gold or Platinum member, for a total of three points per dollar. Then if you use the Starwood American Express you earn another two points per dollar spent.

Therefore through this promotion you’re earning seven points per dollar on a two night stay if you’re an elite member paying with the Starwood American Express, or eight points per dollar on a three or more night stay. Starwood points are worth at least two cents each, so that’s a return of at least 14-16%.

Lastly, there’s a pretty big list of excluded hotels, which The Points Guy posted here. That’s one thing that really irks me about Starwood. So many of their hotels seem to only participate in SPG very half-a$$ed, be it regarding participation in promotions or taking good care of elite members.

Better than nothing, though I’ll be curious to see what Hyatt comes up with…

Posted on December 28th, 2011 by lucky
Filed under: Great Deals, SPG | 9 Comments »

  1. December 28th, 2011 at 11:36 am

    Zach said,

    Nitpicky – but I think saying “4x points” is a bit misleading. It’s 4 bonus points, which in total is 3x the points without the promo.

  2. December 28th, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    UA-NYC said,

    Agreed – it’s 2x points on 2 night stays, and 3x points on 3+ night stays

    http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17696508-post77.html

  3. December 28th, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    Murphy said,

    @ Zach

    I think it was just a pseudo typo by Lucky…the official promotion is triple starpoints for stays of 3+ nights.

  4. December 28th, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    hobo13 said,

    I’m sure Hyatt is wracking their brains as we speak trying to come up with yet another name for ‘stay 3, get 5k bonus’……

    May I suggest ‘The Big Yawn’?

  5. December 28th, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    Ekrem said,

    I wonder if this is combinable with the promotion of staying 5 nights in Asia and getting a free night if you use a MasterCard. Need to figure out whether it’s worth losing the 2 points per $ and getting a free night (assuming I can use that free night before it expires in April!)

  6. December 28th, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Zach — You’re absolutely right, it was a typo on my part.

    @ Ekrem — I’d wait till they publish the full T&Cs of this promotion, as I’m sure that will clarify things.

  7. January 9th, 2012 at 9:02 am

    Registration now open for Starwood’s Better by the Night Promotion - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] couple of weeks ago I wrote about Starwood’s first quarter promotion, Better By the Night. Through this promotion you earn [...]

  8. January 10th, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Priority Club first quarter promotion: double miles/points after first stay - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] this is an abysmal quarter for me. Hyatt hasn’t yet announced any promotion, while Starwood’s promotion only offers bonuses for stays of two or more [...]

  9. January 25th, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    Hyatt announces details of their first quarter promotion - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] quarter promotion offered by any hotel program. The other program I’m loyal to, Starwood, is offering double base points of stays of two nights and triple base points on stays of three nights. You’d have to have some pretty expensive stays to come out ahead with that promotion vs. [...]

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