While the benefit itself isn’t “hot off the press,” the discovery of the policy is.
Starwood has officially confirmed on FlyerTalk that SPG members can earn points and elite stay/night credit for up to three rooms per stay (assuming all of the reservations are in your name). This has apparently been the official policy since March 1, while it seemed to vary by hotel before that.
So this means if you book three rooms for three nights you earn three elite qualifying stays and nine elite qualifying nights.
This is a HUGE benefit, especially for those that travel with families and require multiple rooms, as well as mattress runners (those that stay at hotels exclusively for the points they get for the stay).
Previously if you were traveling with your family and required multiple rooms you could earn points for the second room, but not elite qualifying nights or stays. Now you can earn elite status double as fast.
This is equally huge news for mattress runners. I often see people ask why they actually have to take the flights in order to get the points when booking a mileage run, and why they have to check-in at the hotel when booking a mattress run. Can’t the travel provider just take our damn money?
While this doesn’t change the fact that you have to check-in to hotels when mattress running, it sure is nice to be able to do three mattress runs in one. I often find myself in cities with cheap Starwood and Hyatt properties where I’m almost tempted to spend extra nights just to rack up stay credits. Now I can rack up those nights and stay credits three times as fast. This could be especially nice in conjunction with a lucrative promo.
Of course not everyone is happy about this. The other side of the coin is that Starwood is making it easier to qualify for elite status, thereby devaluing it for those that earn it “the hard way” (and unlike other programs, the SPG program is competitive, since Platinum members are competing for a finite number of suites).
You can certainly count me in the camp happy about this change!
(Tip of the hat to Loyalty Traveler)
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June 20th, 2012 at 1:13 am
Carl said,
Not happy about it all, combined with the elite credit for award stays, this really devalues the elite program.
June 20th, 2012 at 5:44 am
Erik said,
I thought everyone knew this was standard policy. I have seen it work this way for a long, long time – years in fact. I wasn’t sure if it was a systems error or not and made sure never to bring it up.
June 20th, 2012 at 5:51 am
Erik said,
In fact, certain hotels give you the 500 point platinum welcome bonus on all three rooms, although others don’t. And if you qualify for the best rate guarantee price discrepancy on a three room stay you get a 2,000 point bonus on each of the rooms.
June 20th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
ZA said,
2k bonus points on each room for BRG, really?
June 20th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Erik J said,
yup. got it twice last year. of course, you have to actually stay in the three rooms.
May 28th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
tri said,
Lucky – does hyatt allow two stay credits during one evening? whether it’d be two hotels or one hotel (and two rooms)?
May 28th, 2013 at 6:17 pm
lucky said,
@ tri — You can earn stay credits and points for up to three rooms in a night (though has to be same hotel to the best of my knowledge).
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