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Starwood, the hotel chain that includes luxury brands such as St. Regis and The Luxury Collection, has brought back their “Paradise Just Got Closer” promotion which gives 35% off Starpoint redemptions at some of their more luxurious (expensive – both in points and cash!) resorts.
The offer doesn’t exactly cover a lot of their properties – 7 in total – but they are some of the more aspirational properties in the Starwood portfolio.
If you have a reasonably healthy Starpoints balance and if you’ve ever wanted to visit Thailand, The Maldives, Bora Bora or Dubai then this promotion could be for you.
Promotion Period: 30 June 2015 – 8 March 2016 (I’ve no idea why the T&Cs state that the promotion runs from 30 June….they only sent out emails with details of the promotion last night!)
Bookings can be made throughout the promotional period.
The seven resorts that are included are (all images courtesy of Starwood):
W Retreat Koh Samui – Koh Samui, Thailand
Starpoints required: 39,000/night reduced from 60,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $493/night
The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa – Phuket, Thailand
Starpoints required: 26,000/night reduced from 40,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $388/night
Vana Belle, a Luxury Collection Resort – Koh Samui, Thailand
Starpoints required: 26,000/night reduced from 40,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $505/night
W Retreat & Spa – Maldives
Starpoints required: 58,500/night reduced from 90,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $1,099/night
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort – Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Starpoints required: 58,500/night reduced from 90,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $977/night
Le Méridien Bora Bora – Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Starpoints required: 39,000/night reduced from 60,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $977/night
Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa – Dubai
Starpoints required: 39,000/night reduced from 60,000/night
Cash cost on randomly selected night: $1,198/night
Terms & Conditions
A link to the full terms and conditions can be found on the promotion home page but here are the highlights:
- Offer only applies to the basic room category – although at these resorts most of the “basic rooms” are anything but!
- The standard SPG “5th Night Free” IS combinable with this promotion.
- Award stays will count towards elite status qualification
- No limit on number of night or number of stays
Checking Availability & Booking
These offers cannot be booked online. If you head over to the Starwood homepage and look up one of these properties this is what you’ll see:
These resorts only participate in the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program in a limited fashion so you cannot see availability online – and that’s extremely annoying. As far as I’m concerned you’re either a participant in SPG or not – Starwood should do something about this (but they won’t).
To check availability and to book one of these resort you have to call you local Starwood office and talk to a reservations agent. Starwood has provided a drop down list of local office telephone numbers on the offer’s home page.
Value
If you go to the trouble to calculate the value you’re getting from your Starpoints with these offers you’ll find that it’s not fantastic.
Taking the W Retreat & Spa in the Maldives as an example:
On the dates I selected randomly, the base room – which is what you would be booking with Starpoints – costs $1,099/night or 58,500 Starpoints/night. That’s a return of a little under 1.9c/Starpoint. I value Starpoints at an even 2.0c each so this, for me, isn’t a good deal.
The same story is repeated with all the other resorts, some of which are returning as little as 1.3c/Starpoint…but that’s not entirely the point.
There will be a lot of travellers out there who have healthy Starpoint balances but aren’t particularly prone to paying $1,000+ a night for a hotel room – so these deals could be a great way for them to experience the über expensive/luxury/aspirational resorts without re-mortgaging the house.
5th Night Free
The usual “5th Night Free” that Starwood gives guests booking award stays can make this promotion a little bit more tempting for those hell-bent on maximising the return they’re getting from their Starpoints.
Continuing with the example of the W Retreat & Spa in the Maldives:
The sweet-spot for this example would be a 5-night stay because you’d be paying cash for 5 nights but only paying the equivalent of 4 night’s worth of Starpoints:
Cash: 5 nights @ $1099/night = $5,495
Starpoints (5 nights for the price of 4) – 4 x 58,500 Starpoints = 234,000 Starpoints
Return: 2.35c/Starpoint
Note: Taxes and fees may need to be taken into consideration for this calculation depending on whether or not the property adds them to award bookings.
