Options for redeeming Starpoints for larger rooms
There are a handful of ways you can use points for larger rooms as Starwood hotels. Given I’m keen to travel with my family, finding a room that’s large enough for four, preferably with some living space and/or a small kitchen, is really important. I spend way too long trying to find the right room! I also massively prefer trying to lock in the exact room type I want (especially when travelling with kids), rather than dealing with an upgrade lottery – and I’ll happily pay for that certainty too. So I used the option of a Suite Upgrade award to confirm the room types we were after.Using Suite Upgrade Awards to redeem points for Suites outright
There are two types of upgrade redemptions in Starwood Preferred Guest – room upgrades and suite upgrades. The difference is fairly evident between the two, one will get you a better room (up to, but not including a Suite) and the other will get you into a Suite. Here are the price points for each type of reward:| Category of Property | Room Upgrade points required | Suite Upgrade points required |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000 – 1,500 | 3000 |
| 2 | 1,000 – 1,500 | 4000 |
| 3 | 1,000 – 1,500 | 7000 |
| 4 | 1,000 – 1,500 | 10000 |
| 5 | 1,500 – 2,750 | 12,000 – 16,000 |
| 6 | 1,500 – 2,750 | 20,000 – 25,000 |
| 7 | 1,500 – 2,750 | 30,000 – 35,000 |
I was after a One Bedroom Suite, along with a standard twin room (the Deluxe Studio Suite). The standard room redemption was 12,000 Starpoints per night.
I then got in touch with the SPG team confirming that the suite upgrade option in this case was an additional 12,000 Starpoints per night.
So all up, the One Bedroom Suite came to 24,000 Starpoints per night, versus a comparison rate of around $850 / night for our stay.
I also leveraged Starwood’s 5th night free redemption offer (which applies for any room type redemption) to bring that cost to 96,000 Starpoints per 5 night block, versus spending $4,250 for the same room.
This yielded a 4.42c per Starpoint redemption value, which is well above the price at which I value Starpoints, and at which they can be purchased when on sale usually around 3c.
For an additional standard room, I then used a combination of some paid nights (for when nightly rates were low enough to warrant spending cash) and 12,000 Starpoints per night (when rates were higher) too.Alternative: Redeeming for Premium Room (not Suite) upgrades, and using these as no award availability busters
This tip is especially useful if the Starwood website is showing no availability for a standard room redemption, which might then have you think that no rooms are available for redemption at that hotel. That’s often not the case. Remember that chart above which states that room upgrades are available for as little as 1,000 extra points per night? Well, they aren’t shown online, and if you give Starwood a call you might find yourself able to open up a room redemption for a few thousand extra points. You’ll be prompted to call as part of the booking flow if there are possibly premium rooms available:
Again these premium room redemptions are confirmable immediately if you are paying for the room entirely using points, but not if you are trying to upgrade a paid stay.
And on the plus side, you’ll also find yourself in a better room!
Alternative: Try using the SPG50 rate
Another option for using points to get yourself into a larger room at lower cost is to enquire about “SPG50”. This award will give you 50% off the rack rate for up to 5 nights, which is the non-sale, flexible rate, of any room type at most Starwood Hotels. The best part? This discount will only cost you 1,000 Starpoints, total. This only gives value in specific circumstances – where the hotel is not selling discounted flexible rates at all, and you can pull out SPG50 as a trump card to help bring the paid cost down. Given that SPG50 can be used on any room type, this can help to discount the cost of a suite dramatically, but only under those specific circumstances. If there is a promotional rate on a room without SPG50 you’ll often find the room ends up being more expensive when using SPG50 than without.Summing up – picking up room upgrades when using Starpoints
Starwood’s room upgrade options are not the easiest to understand, and it’s often hard to find value from using points for upgrades. That said, there are some circumstances where it can make a lot of sense to use points for a room upgrade – it depends on how much you want that room type. In my case at the Westin Whistler it was non-negotiable to have this combination of rooms to have enough room for us (and guests we had stay with us) during our stay, so it was worth spending the extra points.
Community Comments
Hi Keith – I can’t see a guide for booking straight up SPG Award rooms. I am starting to think they don’t exist! I am struggling to find a room in NYC a year away without looking at each hotel (there are a lot) individually. Is there a better way?
SPG awards should be available if the hotel is selling standard rooms. If you can’t find them, their call centre is excellent – just give them a call and try and work through what you’re looking for.
Timely article! I’m just booking the Westin at Whistler but have no SPG points. I’m thinking of booking a night in Melbourne to get the auto upgrade to Gold status (Westpac Earth Black) then trying for an upgrade when we get there. Does that sound do able? Very keen to read your review of the Westin.
Having Gold won’t hurt of course, but I am yet to experience a full room upgrade from having Gold for a year. I did get some ‘not basic’ rooms, i.e. higher floor or better view, but no notable upgrades at the handful of hotels I used Gold at. If you had it then of course it would be good to have in your back pocket but I wouldn’t go out of your way with an aim of using Gold for one stay – although of course the 4pm checkout, extra points etc have some value too.
Review of the Westin is taking a while. Going to get cracking on it in anger and finish it up tomorrow.
Can the “SPG50” promo be used in a booking to get the Gold status from the Mastercard promo?
It could be. The MasterCard offer terms state that the upgrade is offered after an eligible stay which earns starpoints. SPG50 is a paid rate which would earn points and night credits, so IMO this should work.