Triangle Trip

Before July 3rd, I am going to stay at least 10 nights at a Crowne Plaza hotel.  Why you ask?  There are two highly enticing offers that have caused to me switch temporarily from Starwood to Crowne Plaza in particular, especially if you golf:

1) Stay 2 nights at a Priority Club hotel (ie. Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental) and get a free night at Priority Club hotels (ie. Intercontinental). You’ll get a max of 4 free nights.  Here is the link to this offer.  See Captain G’s post regarding this offer.

2) Bonus of 1000 points per NIGHT when you use AMEX to pay for your stay at a Crowne Plaza hotel.  And along the way earn Callaway golf equipment.  You’ll get a sleeve of Callaway Golf Tour iX balls shipped to the address you have on file after the first night.  Each successive Callaway award according to the fine print will be fulfilled in the form of a Callaway Golf Gift Card.  Ten nights will give me the equivalent of a sleeve of Callaway Golf Tour iX balls, another dozen Callaway Golf Tour iX balls, and a Callaway X-Forged Wedge. The rest of the details of the offer are here.

Priority Club, with Intercontinental Hotel as the flagship hotel, has joined Starwood’s (SPG) to free hotel nights after each hotel stay. Here’s the link to the Priority Club offer. In case you are interested in the SPG free night’s offer, here’s the link again.

The Priority Club offer is as follow:

* Stay 2 nights from May 4 to July 3, 2009 and get 1 night free
* Maximum of earning 4 free nights which can be redeemed from July 3 to December 26, 2009

The SPG free weekend nights offer is much better than Priority Club’s free nights’ offer. Below are the reasons why:

1.  SPG’s free weekend nights’ offer allows you to earn unlimited free weekend nights after two hotel stays from May 1 to July 31, 2009. In addition, SPG’s offer period is two weeks longer than Priority Club’s. However SPG is looking for two hotel stays which means you may need to check-in and check-out of hotels to maximize your rewards during the promotion period. For those who are not familiar with the hotel stay concept, an eligible stay is one or more consecutive nights at a particular hotel. SPG will not give you credit for a multiple hotel stays if you check-in/check-out on consecutive nights at the same property .

2.  There are no blackout dates for redemption. As long as it’s a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and rooms are available, SPG will allow you to use the free weekend night.

3.  SPG’s properties are generally nicer than Priority Clubs’ properties. SPG properties are also in metropolitan locations.

Here are a few minor setbacks on the SPG offer:  Priority Club’s 4 free nights can be redeemed on any day – not just weekends. Another minor downside on SPG free nights offer is SPG’s free nights expiration date: September 30, 2009 compared to Priority Club’s December 26, 2009.

Given the two minor setbacks, SPG’s free weekend nights’ offer is superior to Priority Club’s offer. Below are links to two other offers which may be attractive to you:

*  Hilton’s 1000 Bonus Point offer

*  Marriott’s Double Nights Offer

Here’s a link to my original post regarding the SPG offer.