Hotel ‘special offer’ rates can be frustrating, the best offers are usually corporate discounts that not everyone is eligible for and will sometimes though not always be verified by the hotel, you can often search for corporate codes online and in the U.S. at least they’ll generally be honored without pushback though in Asia hotels will often ask for corporate identification (such as a business card) to verify eligibility for company rates.

A revenue manager for a major chain in a major U.S. city once told me that he specifically instructed his hotels to ID the IBM rate since that rate was so low, but other than that I’ve rarely seen U.S. hotels check eligibility.

Still, there are plenty of rates out there that most people can use. Costco rates on rental cars are often low, technically you should have a Costco membership but it’s hard to imagine an Avis clerk IDing a preferred member over Costco. AAA rates are also frequently good deals though often not as good as some corporate codes. With Hyatt for instance I’ll usually see AAA be about the same as a prepaid rate without being prepaid, and throwing in breakfast to boot. I’m a real AAA member largely because I use AAA rates frequently enough to make the membership pay off. And yet I’ve never been asked to show my AAA rate card.

But frequently special offers of extra points aren’t really such special offers at all, there may be offers of bonuses but when those bonuses require a special rate code I often find that the prices are higher, such that you’re really just bundling a hotel reservation with the purchase of additional points, such as ‘mileage maximizer’ sorts of offers from airlines to buy additional miles along with your air booking. Those are either bad deals for the uninitiated, or opportunities for travelers to bill extra points to their clients or employers. In other words, they get a big thumbs down from me.

But with very limited testing, here’s one I’m liking so far. Starwood Champion posted on Milepoint an offer of 1000 bonus Starpoints per stay booked at Sheraton for a club level room. Now, a Starwood Platinum will usually get upgraded to club level but if they aren’t they’ll at least have club lounge access (provided that lounge is open!). For the rest of us, club access is sometimes worth a small premium, in Asia it’s often worth quite a lot but at domestic Sheratons the benefits tend to be modest.

Starting tomorrow, you can earn a 1,000 Starpoints bonus for every Sheraton Club room stay booked and consumed through May 31st and paid for with an American Express credit card.

Bookings made online at Sheraton.com/club or through Starwood’s Customer Contact Centers are eligible. If booking online, look for rate plans DAILYFS or SICLUB to auto-populate. If booking through the Customer Contact Centers, please ask for Promotion Code CL1.

I tested the rate at the Sheraton Seattle for a midweek stay in April. Without the special offer code there was a prepaid regular room at $205++ and a prepaid club room at $235++. Regular club was $279++.

With the special offer, prepaid club was $215++ and regular club was $249.

So the offer saved $25 per night prepaid and $30 per night cancellable, in addition to providing bonus points.

Now, that’s only one hotel and one test booking, but a tentative thumbs up for the offer. I’d certainly paid the extra $10 per night (for club vs non-club) as a non-Platinum to get the club room, and on a one-night stay I’d pay $10 for the extra 1000 points even as a Platinum (but a Platinum on a longer stay probably will not find the offer worthwhile).