SPG Amex Cardholders: Stay 2 Nights, Get a 3rd Night Free with Aloft, Element, or Four Points
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Since the limited-time bonus offer of 30,000 Starpoints for both the personal and business versions of the Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express launched earlier this month, I've been extolling the benefits of these cards including the automatic 2 stays/5 nights credit you get towards elite status each year, the extra Starpoints you earn by using them at Starwood properties, and even special cardholder events like courtside US Open tickets.
Additionally, Starwood just launched a special offer specifically for SPG Amex cardholders where if you stay for 2 nights you receive the 3rd night free at Aloft, Element or Four Points properties now through December 31, 2013. You can either book online or by calling 877-782-0108 and mentioning promotional code Z3H.
This is deal is valid at over 150 properties throughout the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic and requires an arrival on a Thursday-Saturday night. You must pay using your Starwood American Express card.
Just to see if this deal was worth it (I always wonder if hotels raise their prices to compensate for offers like this), I made a few sample bookings to test it out.
At the Aloft Silicon Valley, the flexible rate was $149 on September 26-29th. I was able to apply this promotion to those dates, bringing down the average daily rate to $99, saving $149 on a three-night stay. By contrast the lowest rate I could find, which was non-refundable, was $114 a night, so the cardholder discount still beat that.
The next hotel I looked at was the Element Summerlin, outside of Las Vegas.
The flexible rate was $139 on September 12-15th. I was able to apply this promotion to those dates, bringing down the average daily rate to $93, saving $139 on a three-night stay.
The lowest public rate I could find at the hotel those same dates was $129 a night - still much better off applying the SPG Amex discount.
At the Four Points San Antonio Northwest, the flexible rate was for $100 on September 12-15th. I was able to apply this promotion to those dates, bringing down the average daily rate to $67, saving $100 on a three-night stay as opposed to the $80 lowest rate (non-refundable) available to everyone else.
This promotion seems to base the free night off the flexible rate for the first two nights, so when searching for rooms to apply this offer, I found generally there was great availability as long as there were open rooms.
While the offer appears to be targeted to SPG personal Amex cardholders, it looks like anyone can book this through the link, and the terms say "Offer only valid if charges are settled with any American Express® Card," so it's possible that you could simply use another Amex like the Platinum or Premier Rewards Gold and still receive the rate, though you'd have to go through the checkout process and the payment page to see if your rate sticks.
If anyone has done so, please report back on the results in the comments!
