Explain Starwood Rewards Points to me

LS45 · March 2012

Is the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program tied to a credit card or is it just a loyalty program? Are there any fees or downsides? I was looking at the benefits and it seems to good to be free.

melissainabq · March 2012

It's their loyalty program. And like most other loyalty programs, you can get an SPG credit card to accumulate more points.

MerRhosyn · March 2012

No, not tied to a credit card. No fees. Downsides (in comparison to other hotel chain loyalty programs), sure, depending on your travel habits.

Here is some basic program comparison info:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2011/02/23/starwood-preferred-guest-program-comparison-needs-major-update/

Well, depending on how you want to look at it - you're spending money to obtain points or status - the perks you receive are commensurate with the revenue you provide to the hotel chain.

Brit's Luna154 · March 2012

It is free, and if you have to stay at Starwood properties then you might as well join, but I do not think highly of it as a hotel loyalty program. My husband has to stay at Starwood properties for a lot of his business travel so he is an SPG member and I am not impressed with it compared to the Hilton program that I use. With Hilton I seem to earn free nights more quickly and I seem to get credit for my stays more consistently. My biggest complaint about SPG is that he is always having to check if he got credit (after verifying at check-in) and then call to have his account corrected when the stays don't show up in his account.

Jells2dot0 · March 2012

I have had the exact opposite experience with Hilton vs SPG. My FI is a Hilton member; I'm the SPG earner. I always receive my credit and as a platinum member, I usually get a ton of bonus points. FI is Hilton elite (not sure which level) and I feel like the points he earns almost never yield us a decent hotel room. For example, I'm trying to use FI's points to stay at the Hilton Cairns in Australia for our destination wedding. We just need two nights before and after we transfer to Lizard Island. It's 35,000 points/night!!! I used 12,000 points per night to stay at the Grand Mauritian, which is a Luxury Collection resort! I used less points for 5 nights at the Grand Mauritian (5th night is always free) then i'll be using for two nights at the Hilton Cairns (70000 points total). We were also going to use his Hilton points for a night in Brisbane, but for another 40,000 points, it wasn't worth it. We're paying to stay elsewhere. There aren't any SPG hotels right in the downtown areas, so we're not going to use SPG points for that.

One thing I like about SPG, though, is being able to use points for flights. It's not always a great conversion, but I used points to pay for my flights from Mauritius to the Seychelles. It saved me about $900 for a 2.5 hour flight. I also frequently redeem for hotel rooms- I'm staying at the Westin Paloma in Tucson in two weeks and for 3 nights, it was only 21,000 points. I should say that becuase I'm elite, I do get a lot more benefits, like suite upgrades, breakfast, free internet etc. So, I do end up reaping more than the average person.

angiem33 · March 2012

Brit's Luna154:
It is free, and if you have to stay at Starwood properties then you might as well join, but I do not think highly of it as a hotel loyalty program. My husband has to stay at Starwood properties for a lot of his business travel so he is an SPG member and I am not impressed with it compared to the Hilton program that I use. With Hilton I seem to earn free nights more quickly and I seem to get credit for my stays more consistently. My biggest complaint about SPG is that he is always having to check if he got credit (after verifying at check-in) and then call to have his account corrected when the stays don't show up in his account.

This exactly. I never have the correct points credited, and they are always taking points off after a statement has closed.

That being said, the last time I had a problem the lady I spoke with was awesome, credited all the points immediately, and then upgraded my status to the "gold level". I haven't yet booked a rewards night with the program.

We stay at starwood properties so even with the issues it makes sense for us to use the loyalty card.

LS45 · March 2012

Thanks so much for the feedback! I have a couple of trips coming up this year that will take me to Starwood properties, so I guess it doesn't hurt to sign up.

gryffindor · March 2012

We love Starwood. We got hooked during our honeymoon. If a stay doesn't post, I've never had an issue getting it to post as long as I follow the rules on the website. I've had this happen to me twice with two European stays but they posted quickly once I sent the required info and I didn't have to talk to a single person. At the same time, I had an expensive Hilton stay in Italy also not post because the maiden name on my HHonors account didn't match the married name on my passport and the hotel had to go by the name on the passport. Once I changed the name on the account, I called, faxed, and emailed the requested stay info to HHonors twice and got nowhere until I emailed the property directly to help me.

Redemption seems like a much better value with Starwood. We are staying at the Excelsior in Naples for 10K points per night for a room that costs 225 euro. Then we're going to the Hilton Sorrento Palace but the redemption rate there is 50K points per night for a room costing 146 euro! We're just paying for the room at the Hilton and need to figure out a trip at some point to just burn all the Hilton points up and not have to worry about them.

Explain Starwood Rewards Points to me

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