Starwood announced their new promotion, Triple Up, which runs May 9 through July 31, 2016. (Registration will be required and opens May 3.) They’re offering:

Triple Starpoints at Sheratons

• Double Starpoints at other brands
  
• 1,000 bonus Starpoints if your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East)

Unfortunately the Friday or Saturday night stay bonus of 1000 points requires that the stay be two nights or more. Per the terms and conditions,

A member whose eligible stay includes either a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East) will earn an extra 1,000 bonus Starpoints.

..An eligible stay is defined as two or more consecutive nights paying an eligible rate in the same hotel, regardless of the number of check-ins or checkouts that occur, and posting to the Member’s Starwood Preferred Guest® account.

It looks like the vast majority of hotels are participating.

Starwood’s original winter promotion was double points on stays of 2 nights or more plus 250 points per night at select properties.

But that was pretty weak, so they added threshold bonuses for staying 15 or 25 nights. That made it a decent promotion.

This time they’re back to limiting bonuses two stays of 2 nights or more. The kicker here is that it’s a bit stronger with Sheraton. And Starwood needs to spend more marketing Sheraton to get guests to stay. It’s the problem brand Marriott is inheriting (hence Starwood’s 10 point plan for the brand).

View from the Sheraton Iguazu Falls

This new promotion seems somewhat weaker than the revised winter promo. Nonetheless as my grandfather used to say it’s certainly better than a hole in the head. Double (or triple) points is better than not having double or triple points!

And come May 3 it’ll be worth registering, even if you’re not a frequent Starwood guest, in case you happen into an unplanned eligible stay — as in my experience virtually no one remembers to go back and register later when a stay pops up.