Starwood is running a 35% discount on award nights booked with SPG points at 7 resorts. If you stay 5 consecutives nights, the 5th night is free. But even with the 35% SPG points discount, are any of them worth it?
First, the details. Here are the 7 resorts:
- W Retreat and Spa Maldives: 58,500 SPG points per night instead of 90,000 SPG points
- Le Meridien Bora Bora: 39,000 SPG points per night instead of 60,000 SPG points
- Mystique, Santorini: 39,000 SPG points per night instead of 60,000 SPG points
- Al Maha, Dubai: 39,000 SPG points per night instead of 60,000 SPG points
- W Retreat Koh Samui: 26,000 SPG points per night instead of 40,000 SPG points
- Vana Belle, Koh Samui: 26,000 SPG points per night instead of 40,000 SPG points
- Pine Cliffs Residence, Albufeira, Portugal: 26,000 SPG points per night instead of 40,000 SPG points
Deadline to Book: March 1, 2014
Stay Dates: Any dates that are in inventory (you do not need to complete your stay by March 1, 2014)
Why Are the Regular SPG Points Rates So High to Begin With?
You may have in mind the regular SPG free nights award chart, where even Category 7 properties are 30,000-35,000 points for a free night. The regular SPG free nights award chart doesn't apply to any of the above properties, however, because they have no “standard” rooms (only suites or villas). Here's the relevant SPG small print (bolding mine):
“Free Night Awards at the following locations require higher Starpoint redemption amounts either because the hotel does not have standard rooms or the standard rooms it offers have a mandatory Full Board requirement in peak seasons: Sheraton Denarau Villas, Nadi, Fiji; Canyon Suites at The Phoenician; Scottsdale, Arizona; St. Regis Resort Bora Bora, and Le Méridien Bora Bora, Bora Bora, French Polynesia; The St. Regis Bali Resort, Bali, Indonesia; W Retreat & Spa – Maldives, Maldives; Sunset Key Guest Cottages, A Westin Resort, Key West, Florida; The Westin Resort and Spa, Playa Conchal, Playa Conchal, Costa Rica; Mystique, Santorini, Greece; Pine Cliff Residences, Albuferia, Portugal; and Cala Di Volpe, Hotel Pitrizza, and Hotel Romazzino, Porto Cervo, Italy; W Retreat Koh Samui, Koh Samui, Thailand; and Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The minimum number of Starpoints required for a free night at the Sheraton Denarau Villas, which is a category 3 hotel, is 14,000 Starpoints; Pine Cliff Residences and Canyon Suites at The Phoenician, which are Category 6 hotels, require 40,000 to 100,000 Starpoints; and the minimum number of Starpoints required for a free night at the other listed properties, which are all Category 7 properties, ranges from 60,000 to 140,000 Starpoints depending on the hotel, its category, its room types, the time of year, and/or its mandatory requirements. Redemptions at these hotels must be booked through your local customer contact center.”
Are Any of These Redemptions Worth It Even with the 35% SPG Points Discount?
No, not in my view. Of course, if you have 1 million or more SPG points, your perspective may be different. But if you have a relatively small number of SPG points, I certainly would not waste them on these redemptions. Let's take a couple of examples.
Example 1: W Retreat and Spa Maldives for 58,500 SPG Points per Night
Winter is a good time to go to the Maldives weather-wise, so I took February 19-20, 2014 as an example. The entry level villa, the Beach Oasis, comes to an eye watering $3081 per night including taxes. So using 58,500 SPG points instead yields a redemption value of 5.27 cents per point nominal value.
If you had enough SPG points to redeem for 5th Night Free, your redemption value would be 6.58 cents per point nominal value.
The question is: would you ever pay anything close to the going rate: over $3000 per night? I know I wouldn't. Even though the villas apparently are larger in terms of square feet than the Park Hyatt Maldives, I doubt that the overall resort and service levels are superior. And $3000 would get me 3 nights at one of the Aman Resorts in Bali or Indonesia, such as the amazing Amankila.
Even giving the resort the benefit of the doubt, I would likely pay at most $1000 per night for it, which would yield an actual redemption value of 1.7 cents per point–not good!
Example 2: W Retreat Koh Samui for 26,000 SPG Points per Night
26,000 SPG points sounds like a relative bargain, but keep in mind that the regular rates are a lot lower as well. For the February 19-20 stay I checked, it would be the rough equivalent of $822 including taxes per night for the entry level Jungle Oasis. That gives a nominal value of only 3.16 cents per night; 5th night free would push it a bit higher to 3.95 cents per night. Not bad, but not amazing either, as this is just nominal value.
What would you actually pay for a night here? Given the other options in Koh Samui, I likely wouldn't pay more than $450 per night, which again pushes real redemption value for me down to 1.7 cents per point. Naturally if you would never pay $450 and only pay less, your real redemption value would be even lower.
Best Use of SPG Points Remains Transfers to Airline Partners
While 4 to 6 cents of nominal value sounds ok, transferring SPG points to airline partners with the 25% transfer bonus and flying first class remains the highest value use, as measured by nominal redemption value: what would you have to pay for the award night or award ticket.
Here's an example: say you want to fly Emirates First Class from NYC to Dubai. You could transfer 110,000 SPG points (in two tranches, not all on one day) to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, to have 135,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles to redeem for an Emirates first class roundtrip award ticket.
Let's look at what that Emirates First Class ticket would cost: nearly $22,000! That's about 20 cents per SPG point 🙂
Even presuming you'd never pay that much to fly Emirates First Class, if you were willing to pay $3500 for such a ticket, that would give you a real value of 3.18 cents per SPG point: much better than the 1.7 cents per SPG point values above, although keep in mind I'm giving examples close to what I might pay, and your values might be different.
What do you think: are the 35% SPG points discounts on these resorts worth it or not for you?
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