It seems like every major hotel chain has a frequent stay program, where you earn a free night's stay after so many nights booked with their hotel chain. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I do not travel enough to earn enough points for a free night's stay, but it seems like these programs are kind of useless unless you travel regularly for business. I have signed up for a couple of the hotel chains' frequent stay programs, and have never earned enough points for a free night. It could be because I am not particularly loyal to one chain, I tend to choose a hotel based on location, price, and reviews. Have you signed up for any hotel chains' frequent stay programs? Have you ever earned any free night stays or any other promotions?
I've signed up to a couple over the years but never really stayed at one chain frequently enough to build up any significant amount of points. I can imagine that theses schemes are great if you're a frequent traveller, perhaps for business reasons. However, to the average person like me who maybe stays at a hotel once or twice a year, they seem to represent little value.
I have joined those programs, but since joining I haven't stayed in hotels enough to get anything free. The same with frequent flyer miles. I have never gotten a free flight, but air miles on credit cards are things I have taken advantage of.
I have joined many of these programs. I have actually taken advantage of the free stay twice. For our honeymoon we stayed at two different Sheraton hotels in Hawaii. We did a total of 14 nights. Those stays gave us enough Starwood points for 2 or 3 free nights later on. We cashed in those free stays which was great. The only problem is the points can expire and you have to start over collecting points. My husband called to complain and they gave us back the points. Unless you travel a lot for work it is hard to collect enough points to get a free nights stay. I prefer to collect air miles and use them for hotel stays or car rentals.
Though frequent stay programs look helpful and interesting, they're actually baits to keep competitor hotels at bay and to encourage travellers to keep coming back to the same hotel. I'd rather vary my options, however, and explore as many temporary dwelling places as possible. Besides, I much prefer guesthouses where I can stay for as long as 6 months free of charge in exchange for 3 hours of volunteer work. That's a much better bargain than a frequent home stay program.
I have a membership in Marriott Hotel and I earn points whenever we would check in. However, the cost of an overnight stay is very expensive at $100 which is already discounted. My husband prefer to avail of the 50% discount on the food. Last week we went to the buffet dinner and this Halloween again because of our discount coupon. And with the hotel check in, I guess we have to think about it for now.
