starwood's category two hotels: a great redemption deal

making a few more hotel bookings, i was looking for a cheap long weekend getaway to portland while trying to maximize the hotel stays. and for the weekend that i wanted to go, i got this as my search result:

i don't believe in paying $200 a night to stay at a hotel, even if it means staying in downtown. staying in downtown also means having to pay a parking surcharge. the westin portland has a $35 a night parking surcharge. in my own ideal world, the maximum per night that i would be willing to pay for a hotel would be around $150. if i have a car with me, which i fortunately do when i go to seattle or portland, then staying outside the downtown area is okay for me.

the westin portland is a category 4 hotel. as above, it costs 10,000 points to redeem for a single night. the flexible rate for that particular hotel is $219 base, or $250 all in with taxes. the AAA rate is $197 base or $225 all in. i use flexible rates as a comparison as hotel redemptions are also flexible rates with no penalty to cancel. therefore, the highest value you will get from this redemption is 2.5 cents per point. and with this redemption, you will only get a single stay credit. of course, this calculation is only accurate if one was actually willing to pay $250 a night for a downtown portland hotel.

westin portland

but then taking a look at the category 2 hotel, the four points by sheraton portland east, it costs 4,000 points to redeem during weekdays and 3,000 points to redeem during weekends. at $99 base or $111 all in for either the prepaid or flexible rate on the weekends, each starwood point that you redeem has the potential to be worth 3.7 cents. it also gives you a stay credit.

four points by sheraton portland east

there are those who argue that one should redeem for the aspirational properties in order to get the best value. for example, the royal hawaiian in honolulu, hawaii. this is a category 6 hotel with a 20,000 point per night redemption. the hotel for this random weekend in november retails for $350 base or $436 all in. this does not include the $35/night resort fee charge which is not covered with a hotel redemption award. in this particular example, at its best, you can get a 2.18 cent return per point. if you value the hotel at $350 a night. and you will still only get one stay credit.

how easy is it to get the points?
the number of points earned and redeemed are different for each program, as each program awards and redeems using different denominations. for starwood preferred guest, 3,000 points can be had by:

• spending $3,000 on your american express SPG credit card
• staying 5 participating nights during this block's third trimester promo (double points + 2,500 points after 5 nights)
• $1,000 in base spending at starwood hotels assuming you're already a gold member

remember that you can get 500 points simply by declining housekeeping services. you also get 125 to 250 points just by checking in as a gold member and choosing the bonus points as your gold amenity.

and about those stay credits ...
stay credits are very important if trying to maintain or obtain status. at 3,000 points for a weekend stay, it becomes easy to book one or two nights to make up any shortfalls that you have. i was expecting to be short two nights this year, and so i booked two separate reward nights at the four points vancouver airport (richmond, british columbia) solely because it was a category two hotel. in the end, it wasn't necessary, so i cancelled those bookings without penalty. but if it were necessary, i would have thought that at 3,000 points a night, this was the second best deal out there to buy a stay credit. the best deal would, of course, would be to book a category one hotel (3,000 points weekday, 2,000 points weekend), but those aren't easily accessible here in vancouver. at the extreme, living in vancouver, i could buy platinum status by redeeming 75,000 points a year, but that would be on the extreme end.

for now, i'll keep booking my category 2 hotels when they are convenient. they remain, after all, a great deal.