Did you know that you can earn 500 additional SPG points per night on Starwood hotel stays?
The process is really simple and you may even feel good about your choice. The catch is this extra point earning option is good on all nights except the last night in your stay. So the longer the stay, the more points you can earn through this program.
Starwood Preferred Guest has rolled out what they call “Make A Green Choice” program at participating hotels. I consistently find this option at Sheraton hotels but have also found it at a few select Westin hotels. The basis for the Make A Green Choice program is you forgo house keeping and get rewarded with 500 points or $5 hotel room credit per participating night. You can only participate on nights that you will not check out the next day.
The title earn 1,000 to 1,500 points per stay comes from the assumption that a business traveler stays an average of 3 nights a week in a hotel. At the high end of the average some business travelers stay 4 nights a week. Thus, giving the opportunity to use this program two times on a 3 night stay earning 1,000 extra SPG points or three times on a 4 night stay earning 1,500 extra SPG points.
How To Earn Extra SPG Points With Green Choice Program
- Place the Green Choice card on your hotel room door before you go to bed or before 2 AM
- Receive card that was placed under door in the morning
- Redeem at front desk for 500 points per night or $5 off your hotel bill
Unfortunately you cannot select the Green Choice option on your last night of a stay. The hotel has to clean the room anyway so this makes perfect sense.
Bottom Line
The Green Choice program is a great program to reward guests who are interested in the Green Choice or just plane old point hoarding.
Don’t forget about this Green Choice option when making hotel choices. If you select a hotel like a Sheraton that has the Green Choice promotion on an award stay you can save up to 500 points per night.
Follow us on Twitter || Like us on Facebook || Sign Up For Email || Tips & Tricks Page
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
I did this on a recent one night stay, which was totally worth the 500 points. The thing I wondered about was if you still get the points if you ask them to replace the complimentary coffee and water (or shampoo if you run out on a multi-night stay) or if that invalidates the points?
Keri; I once had 5 night stay, after the 4th night when I came back I found a housekeeping personal and simply asked for more stuff I needed. They just gave me it w/o any questions.
There are also some hotels that have doubled this offer this summer, i.e., Sheraton in Burlington, Vermont. That was an awesome bonus!
Could I just ask for new towels and still get 500? Maybe just call down and ask for two fresh ones.
Hi Keri – In my experience yes. Great job on getting this during a one night stay, that’s a bonus!
Hi edekba – Same thing for me. If I need more stuff I just call down, although it is rare that I do.
DealsWeLike – Great to know. When does that offer expire, do you know?
Hi Mike – Yes and yes.
@Keri: I thought you get 500 points only if the stay is minimum 2 nights. Am I missing something?
Hi Murtuza – You are correct. Keri technically shouldn’t have received the points. Perhaps Keri wasn’t aware and simply put the card outside but wasn’t awarded the points. Or perhaps the hotel accidentally gave Keri a card to redeem for 500 points by accident…
Do you know which SPG hotels participate in this program in Asia Pacific, and in the US?
Also does the bonus work for award nights stays, including for those with points + cash?
Hi Laurent – Check out the green choice website for participating hotels.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/promotions/promo_landing.html?category=SI_PROMO3
Interesting that the promo page only shows US, Canada and Bahamas hotels in participating hotels. I’ve taken advantage in Europe – almost all hotels in Brussels participate.
I had a 23 (consecutive) day stay at Sheraton Park Lane in London and they participate, but their restriction was that I could only do it for 3 consecutive days and the 4th day they cleaned. That worked out nicely.
Stacey – 23 days would be quite the record, and quite the challenge for us to go after and beat. You won on that one, congrats.
I’m not sure it worth congratulating, it was one of my least favorite Starwood hotels 🙂
Cleaning on the 4th night is standard, I believe.
This business traveller with over 90 percent one-nighters thinks you may be a tad optimistic on typical stay length, although people like Stacey obviously balance out the other side. Spg gets most of my multi night stays – with Hilton I believe i have 51 stays for 53 nights between this year and last, including 23/23 this year.
I know I am at the short end of things, but I am sure plenty of others have travel patterns that involve not consistently staying in one place all week long.
@Murtuza — you’re right, it was a weird stay where I checked in at 2AM and then checked out at midnight the next day. Technically a 2 night stay, but felt like one, although long enough to go through all the water and coffee in the room. 🙂
Nice tip…especially since you can even earn points this way on free/cash + points stays. I’ll be using this at a two night stay next week in Quebec. Thanks!
As a matter of conscience, I never take this offer because I believe it’s primarily a ruse to cut housekeeping staff. Can’t do that to hardworking people!
The two times I did this I did not receive the points for the effort, and when I called hotel (Detroit I believe) they couldn’t award points without a record.
I agree with previous comment – it’s more about the housekeeping staff – although it isn’t about cutting the staff as much as making their day a little less crazy. I worked in hotels all through high school, and I promise that if you spend a few hours watching back-of-house hotel operations you’ll understand what I am talking about.
This is great. We usually decline housekeeping anyway, so this amounts to free points for us.
@PSL: do you trash your room to make cleaning take long and help out the staff? Maybe take your shopping cart to the far corner of the parking lot to help the baggers keep their jobs?
Can I ask why you say it’s a secret when this door hanger is placed in EVERY Room… Doesn’t seem very secretive?
Hi Andrew – We use a loose interpretation of “secret” here at Points, Miles & Martinis. Some people may not even be aware of this if they don’t stay at SPG. They might not calculate this point earning into their equation to stay at SPG vs Hilton vs Hyatt vs Marriott.
@PSL,
I see where you are coming from, and believe me, your heart is in the right place.
However, without the facts, you do not know if that is true. Even if a lot of people take this offer, housekeeping could still be shrunk through attrition as opposed to layoffs, the staff might simply not be increased in season, each staff member could have less work, or staff (or their equivalent salary) could be reassigned to other areas such as check-in or the kitchen staff, all of which support jobs and improve customer service. Who are you to say one job is better than another?
there are many opportunities to cut costs which generally leads to lower cost hotel stays, which is good for the consumer, and leads to a better economy.
As I said, its a nice sentiment, but not necessarily true
Green does not mean not clean. It’s how you clean that matters. No housekeeping is simply lowering labor costs. Some if Starwood’s other efforts on energy efficiency and recycling are truly green– so slipping in this bit of greenwash ing mars your overall effort. Want to clean green– use vinegar, baking soda and friendly products. And please- don’t call unmade beds “green”