Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently. Starwood has a CEO that really believes in loyalty.
This morning I received an email offering me a targeted promotion. The email didn’t tell me what I would get.
It’s interesting they’re imploring me to ‘come back’. I haven’t stayed with Starwood in a month.
I’m a Hyatt Diamond as well as a Starwood Platinum. My stays over the past month have been with Hyatt, with Hilton (where I have comped Diamond) and multiple stays outside of any chain (sometimes it does make sense).
I wonder if ‘come back’ — that I’m getting an offer, or getting this specific offer — has to do with the month lapse, although I will certain re-up my status.
Here’s the offer that was revealed:
This is Member Exclusive 4. It will be interesting to see others’ experiences — whether targeted for any offer, and if so whether it’s the same.
Note that once your offer is revealed you are not yet registered. I almost made this mistake. But fortunately I went back to the page and clicked the register button. Missing this, expecting free nights and not receiving them, would have left me frustrated beyond belief. I don’t think the multiple click registration step is wise, although Hyatt did it with their most recent promotion too.
I’ll look forward to my two free nights, they’ll be a real rebate of ~ $500 in my pocket on four stays on top of my usual earn.
Do you know if multiple rooms on the same night would be treated as multiple stays for promo purposes? I know it does for elite credit, up to 3
I’ve seen a 25% of point redemption as a special offer also
Nothing for me this round, I suspect it has to do with the fact I’m already at 15 stays / 32 nights with enough already booked to hit 50.
I got 6000 points after 6 stays, repeatable with 12 and 18 stays with each earning 6000 bonus SPG points respectively… Gee. How generous
I got 3 FNAs (Cat 1-5) after 4 stays. Odd that my offer said FNAs must be consumed by 11/30/15, or 1 month earlier than your offer.
Nada.
G/F, who is a 75+ night plat by nights, mostly at two properties in downtown SFO, but who has not been traveling for work since about Feb. She was offered 3rd/6th/9th of 3000 points each, for 9000 points total. MEH.
I received a different offer – 1 Free Night (Cat 1-5) for every stay, up to 3 free nights. I am SPG Gold through Amex PT. Not too shabby.
Nada, I guess I will keep my reservations with Marriott, I would have moved a good 10-15 nights over to Starwood for an offer like that.
I never receive mailings from Starwood even though I’m signed up for promotional emails. Super annoying.
Plat-lite here,my exclusive offer was earn bonus miles with crossover rewards… Guess I won’t be staying at SPG properties this summer
I’m an SPG Platinum, have 2 stays in the last 2 weeks, w/ a 3rd & 4th scheduled in the next 2 weeks. My offer was double elite qualifying I thought that was pretty good should make requalification for Platinum a bit easier for me this year.
Surprised I didn’t get anything. Have been 100+ nights for the past 3 years and have a total of 8 nights this year with 5 of those due to the SPG Amex.
Lifetime Plat who has stayed quite a bit with Starwood YTD but moving a bunch of stays to Hyatt to get Diamond.
as a Gold whose most recent stay was the first week in April and who has four nights on the books this month, I got the same as you.
I got what Jake from MSP got.
Better than nothing, but certainly no free nights.
My offer:
THIRD STAY
EARNS
3,000
STARPOINTS
+ SIXTH STAY
EARNS
3,000
STARPOINTS
+ NINTH STAY
EARNS
3,000
STARPOINTS
= POTENTIAL
BONUS
9,000
STARPOINTS
I got the free night for each 2 stays. (Max 2 free nights). Going to make the best of this 🙂 Happy.
Gary – do we know if existing booking count as eligible under this offer? I already have 2 stays in May booked. cheers. LF.
@Gary gushes: “Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently. Starwood has a CEO that really believes in loyalty.”
Except that what SPG has done is to simply copy something that Hilton had initiated back in February 2015: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24256061-post1.html :
“We’ll now have two global bonus promotions (what are typically referred to as our quarterly promotions) throughout the year instead of four. But, the remainder of the time, engaged members like you will receive some very cool targeted offers based on your level of activity within the HHonors program. This tailored approach will allow us to reward our members with the most relevant offers based on their travel behaviors and needs, which will ultimately help you get to your next free night faster. In addition, all of our hotels will be participating in these targeted offers, which we know is a top priority for you! ”
After that initial announcement the targeted promo soon followed, with mine consisting of a flat, one time bonus of 100,000 HHonors points AND, on top of that, 2x bonus points during the week and 3x bonus points during weekends for all stays between February 1 and April 30, 2015, with not a single property opting out. The promo, which just ended, was truly lucrative!
To put things in some perspective, the 100,000K HHonors points that I got for no reason other than I’d requalified my HH Diamond status would be equivalent to getting ~33,000 Hyatt GP points for doing absolutely nothing!
The funny thing is that @Gary had dismissed that promo at the time? Why? Well, simply because HHonors was the initiator! Why is the concept suddenly being touted as an indication that “Starwood has a CEO that really believes in loyalty”? Well, simply because SPG has belatedly jumped on the bandwagon (and soon we’ll be told that they had originated the whole concept! 😉
I received the same offer as you did, Gary.
I’m SPG Gold with 12 stays under my belt so far for 2015. My last SPG stay posted on 4/12 (I’ve been focusing on knocking out the 20,000 points for 10 nights bonus with Hyatt).
@DCS – I’m not excited because of targeted promos, I’m excited by the generosity of the targeted promos. That’s the difference.
I missed it in the T&C if it’s in there–I presume the free nights from this promotion will yield stay credit?
@Gary — Pound for pound this targeted SPG promo does not come close in terms of “generosity” to Hilton’s original promo that you’d dismissed. Off the bat I got 100K HH points, which would be about 11K starpoints, but I did not have to do anything to get those points. They were deposited into my account as soon as I opened the envelope to find out what my targeted offer was. Then for every stay until April 30, I got 2x/3x bonus points per week/weekend day of the stay…lucrative!
The point here is that there was no reason to dismiss the more lucrative [original] targeted HHonors promo, but then to turn around and gush when SPG does an imitation or copycat act that offers far less
That’s all 😉
Make that, 100K HH points ~= 17K Starpoints…
I got the same offer as SonomaWine. 3rd stay = 3,000 points, 6th stay +3000 points, 9th stay + 3,000 points. Not worth the hassle of hotel hopping for 9,000 points.
@DCS I did not ‘dismiss’ free points, I trumpeted the 100k offer and many readers got it. Free points are awesome.
@Gary — LOL. It’s been a while so I cannot find the exchange but you’d dismissed the free 100K HH points as not enough for a decent award stay or something to that effect, until I pointed out that 100K HH points would buy about what 30K Hyatt GP points would buy. But I am glad that you’ve had a change of heart 😉
@DCS I don’t knock free points, I’d happily take 100k for nothing. But it’s not mocking to point out that HHonors are an inflated currency, 100k doesn’t go as far as most people think they will and not nearly as far as they did just a couple of years ago. That’s not knocking the promo, it’s knocking the currency. Yes I agree they will do about what 30k Hyatt points will, though Hyatt will still treat Diamonds better on award stays overall no matter what you’re smoking…. 😉
@Gary sez with a straight face: “But it’s not mocking to point out that HHonors are an inflated currency, 100k doesn’t go as far as most people think they will and not nearly as far as they did just a couple of years ago.”
The perception of HHonors points as “an inflated currency”, which is totally bogus, is a fabrication of travel bloggers, based on the purportedly cataclysmic “devaluation” of HHonors points in the 2003. You just tried to play on it again but I will not debunk it this time, especially since you did the math and know the truth…
I will just illustrate how people can develop totally bogus perceptions about currencies. If you go to Myanmar, you’ ll find items in stores that cost 1,000,000 kyat (the local currency). One million! Wow, that sure sounds like a lot of money. However, if you learn that $1 US = 1,000 kyat then you realize that without a reference 1,000,000 does not mean much. A currency conversion is required to make sense of it. Bloggers, however, do not believe in currency conversion so they go around making claims that are totally and demonstrably wrong, like “Starwood points are the most valuable points currency”…
That was a long way to say that anyone who pontificates about what 100K HHonors points can or cannot buy without a reference point or using a common unit has no credibility.
Oh great to live in the good old USA. Not seen a sausage here in Europe which is quite appaling