Starwood 2015 Cyber Monday Deals Teaser

St regis Bali

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Cyber Monday is the marketing term that was dreamed up to help small, online, retailers generate a similar frenzy about their products as Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) does for the larger bricks & mortar stores. Since its debut in 2005 Cyber Monday has grown considerably in size and the giants of online retail have just about taken it over – but it’s still a great day to snag some bargains.

Technically, Cyber Monday takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving but, just like “Happy Hour”, it has begun to morph into an event that lasts longer than its name suggests (when was the last time you saw an hour-long happy hour?).

This year Starwood is proving that point beautifully by having Cyber Monday deals that will be bookable from 23 November through to 6 December – so it’s more of a Cyber fortnight.

Starwood has given us a little insight into what we can expect from this year’s promotions and some of them don’t look pretty good.

The Headlines

  • Discounts will be as high as 50% (most will be between 20% and 30%)
  • Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members will receive an additional discount of up to 10%
  • Bookings accepted for dates through 6 September 2016

SPG membership is free so, if you haven’t signed up yet, this could be a good time to do just that.

The W Hotel Hong KongThe W Hotel Hong Kong – Image courtesy of Starwood

Example discounts

  • All of Europe, Middle East, Africa 20% off, plus SPG members get an additional 10%
  • Bali up to 40% off
  • Beijing up to 40% off
  • Boston up to 25% off
  • Chicago up to 25% off
  • Hong Kong up to 30% off
  • Maldives up to 40% off
  • New York up to 20% off
  • Shanghai up to 50% off
  • Singapore up to 40% off
  • Sydney up to 20% off
  • Waikiki (Hawaii) up to 15% off

The bonus 10% discount that SPG members will get in Europe is great news as some of my favourite Starwood hotels just happen to be there – now I just have to hope that they participate in the sale!

Hotel Maria Cristina San SebastianHotel Maria Christina in San Sebastian, Spain.

As well as giving us an insight into the percentage discounts we can expect to see in their Cyber Monday sale, Starwood has also published some indicative rates for cities around the world.

Indicative Rates

  • Boston from $99
  • Chicago from $99
  • Dubai from AED 306 (approx. $85)
  • London from £179 (approx. $270)
  • New York City from $199
  • Paris from €122 (approx. $130)
  • San Diego from $99
  • San Francisco from $179

While it’s great to see the indicative rates, it’s hard to say with any kind of certainty if they’re any good. If the $99 rate in Boston is available at the Liberty then it’s a fantastic deal but I’m unlikely to get excited if it’s for the Four Points at Logan Airport.

The other things that I’ll be interested to see are which hotels decide to opt out of the sale completely and what blackout dates will be imposed. The 40% discount (plus 5% SPG discount) in Bali looks very interesting right now, but it won’t be in the slightest bit interesting if it turns out that the only participating hotel is the new Four Points and rooms are only bookable for two nights in any given week 🙂

The little info that Starwood has let us have does whet the appetite (as I’m sure was their intention) but I’ll contain any excitement until I see exactly what they make available in the sale.