WHITE PLAINS, NY—With falling occupancy rates plaguing the industry, hotels are hard at work developing promotions in an effort to draw in more guests. However, as many rush to create fresh offers, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is choosing to stick with its proven methods by renewing its Starwood Preferred Guest Free Weekends promotion.
Designed to reward guests who belong to its Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program, the promotion allows SPG members to earn one free weekend night for every two hotel stays from May 31 through July 31.
The Free Weekends promotion was first rolled out in 2001 in a slightly different version. “It started as Free Fridays. When the SPG program launched, it was an excellent way to get a lot of members into the program,” said Chris Holdren, senior vp of Starwood Preferred Guest. “It was successful because the value proposition was very compelling.”
After another profitable run in 2003, the SPG Free Weekend promotion became an offer that clearly resonated in the minds of guests because of its flexibility and simplicity, according to Holdren. “From its earliest days we’ve found it’s one promotion that has really stuck in the minds of our members, even though it hasn’t been in effect for several years. It’s one of their favorites and our owners have a great deal of affinity for it as well,” he said.
In its most recent iteration, the SPG Free Weekend promotion extends across all of Starwood’s nine hotel brands. Members can choose from more than 875 properties worldwide to redeem their free nights through the end of September and need not stay at the same hotel where the free nights were earned. “It has a very simple structure, which makes it attractive to a wide base of customers,” Holdren said, noting there are very few Starwood properties that are not included in the promotion. “We have seven categories of hotels for our SPG program and there are 14 Category Seven hotels that are not part of the offer. But with over 875 hotels, there is certainly a lot of choices for guests.” Among those exempt are the St. Regis New York, the W Maldives and several properties in the company’s Luxury Collection.
In addition to rewarding existing SPG members, Holdren stressed the promotion will also hopefully help attract new guests to Starwood’s loyalty base. “We absolutely want to bring in new customers. Acquisition is key to all of our marketing efforts. Something like this promotion that has very broad appeal conveys to people that this would be a good reason to join our loyalty program,” he said.
Starwood recently launched a multi-million-dollar campaign promoting the SPG Free Weekends program utilizing print and online marketing across all of its brands.
While Starwood is, like most in the industry, dealing with declining occupancies, it seems to have stabilized somewhat, according to the company. The hope is effective marketing and key promotions such as the SPG Free Weekends will help to keep things positive until the economy rebounds. “We’re viewing this as our own version of a travel stimulus program,” said Holdren, who did not rule out the possibility of extending the promotion beyond September. “As time goes by, we may consider an extension. We’ll see how overall business is doing and what happens to the economy. But there’s been a lot of excitement for the promotion already so we’re optimistic.”