The other day I wrote about the SPG Exclusive Member promotion, where many Starwood members were targeted with promotions designed to entice you to stay in their hotels. Â There are a variety of offers out there, but mine was for a free night at any Category 1-5 hotel after 1 stay, and ANOTHER free night after my 2nd stay
Find out how to see if you were targeted for anything here.
Adjusting my stays
I don’t often participate in these promotions, since I don’t have a ton of business stays (where other people are paying for it) and most of my regular stays I use points (as I have more points than money). Â Still, this is about as basic as it gets.
I do have one stay coming up for work, and I should be able to book that at a Starwood hotel without too much difficulty, so that’s one night. Â Then I looked at the 2nd night. Â I have 3 nights stay for the Family Travel for Real Life conference in Orlando coming up in a few weeks. Â Currently I have one night at a Holiday Inn Express (not a Holiday Inn as I hate them!) and 2 nights at the host hotel, which is a Category 1 Hyatt. Â All 3 of those I am paying for with points, and they’re all Category 1 hotels and 5000 points / night
(SEE: Panning for Gold with low level hotel redemptions)
Finding a cheap Starwood to stay in
I also have a stay I’ll need for an upcoming Brian Regan concert in Columbus. Â I have a few options there. Â Originally I was going to book the Sheraton Suites Columbus, but I made a boneheaded move and didn’t book it before it moved from Category 2 to Category 3, costing me 4000 Starpoints.
(SEE: Grrrr I just threw away 4000 Starpoints! )
I didn’t want to use 7000 points to book that hotel, even if I can get into the Sheraton lounge for free, and the cash cost on that hotel on that particular night was nearly $200 / night, also not an option.
There is also a Sheraton Suites and on one of my nights, it is only $90 / night, so call it a little over $100 after taxes. Â I was going to move one of my Hyatt Place stays there but….
Really? Â Is it worth it?
I’ve written before about how I wonder if “free” hotel nights are a good idea, and there’s 2 reasons for that. Â One, is that unless you have status with that hotel chain, you’re often getting nickel and dimed for breakfast, wifi, parking and all sorts of other fees. Â The other reason is that those nights are often not FREE. Â In this case, my “free” hotel night is really costing me $100, and it’s not even at ANY hotel, just at a Category 1-5. Â My last “free” night did not go so well….
One question that you could ask yourself would be, “could I get more than $100 in value from a Category 1-5 SPG certificate?” Â And I think we could pretty definitively answer that question “Yes”. Â I’m sure that there are Category 5 SPG hotels out there that go for WAY more than $100.
But I think the better question to ask is “If I didn’t have this certificate, would I spend $100 on a comparable hotel?” Â And there, I think the answer is “No”. Â I’m very likely to have either enough points to book something, or else I’d stay at a cheaper hotel and probably do just fine.
So, for now at least, I think I’m going to hold off on my 2nd night. Â I still have until June 30th to book another night if anything changes!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
It all depends on how you will redeem the free nights. I have redeemed free nights for hotels that would’ve been $300+ numerous times, so I feel I get good value of them.
But I think that’s the fallacy. You can’t compare it to the $300 cost of the hotel, but instead to whatever the cost would be if you actually WERE paying cash. It’s like folks (myield included ) who talk about first class flights costing $29,000 and how much their miles were “worth”. No, they’re not, because nobody would ACTUALLY pay that much for flights (at least not very many people )
You’re right that the “free” $300 night isn’t necessarily a $300 value, but I think it’s inaccurate to value it by the Quality Inn you would have paid $100 for as the alternative. There is some value to a more comfortable bed, quality customer service, the better location it may have, etc. I’d rather pay $100 and drive in from the burbs than pay $300 to stay downtown, but I’d rather stay downtown.
I think you’re being silly. Your two nights will average out to $50 a night out of your pocket. That’s less than the value of the Hyatt points you’re going to spend instead on the “paid” night and you’ll surely find a room worth much more than $50 to you for your “free” fifty dollar night. But that’s just my $0.02.
It’s quite possible that I’m being silly 🙂
But it’s not $50 / night. One of those nights will be paid for by someone else, and I’ll get 1 free night.
So I think the question is, would I pay $100 for a free Category 1-5 certificate, and I’m pretty sure, at least for me, the answer is no.
Yes, I think you have missed something in your calculation. Your $100 is buying you both a free SPG night and whatever points you will use at the Hyatt Place (presumably 5000 Hyatt points). Is it a good deal to buy 5000 points and an SPG night for $100. I would think the answer to that would be yes, unless you never use either the Hyatt points or the SPG night.
You are calculating this as a pure mattress run, but you actually do need to stay the night.