Starwood 4-day California Sale Ends Friday

Check out Starwood Hotel's California sale - going on now, for just three more days. Book by Friday, April 23rd and stay before June 16th to enjoy some fabulous rates at Starwood properties throughout the Golden State. For example: Westin Bonaventure in L.A is available for just $99/night; W San Diego for $149; and the Westin St. Francis San Francisco for $149/night. Click here to check other available rates and to book.

Related: Starwood has a promotion starting May 1st where every 3 hotel stays earns you 1 free weekend night at nearly any Starwood property in the world.

Stay Twice at Westin Hotels, Earn $100 Amazon Gift Card

From the *wood blog comes word of a great new Westin Hotels promotion. Simply register two separate stays between February 22 and May 13th and earn a $100 Amazon gift card. Planning on several visits? You can earn up to 3 gift cards with this offer! You must register for the promo, and only arrivals between Sunday and Thursday count. Click here for more details.

Preview: Sheraton Check-In On Us Giveaway

In celebration of their 86 newly renovated properties throughout North America, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is giving away single night stays at each property. According to their website, the contest begins October 6th. Click here for a preview and more details of the giveaway.

inFLIGHTout Updates On Twitter This Week

• Alamo Car Rental $10/day Promotion is baaaack! Valid for weekend rentals (return the car by Monday) from 8/20 to 9/21/2009.
• Unlimited travel for 30 days on JetBlue for $599 round-trip. Travel 9/8 to 10/8/09.
• Virgin America announces new non-stop service San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale beginning November 18th.
• @TravelSocial: Travel survey finds American's suffering from 'Vacation Deficit'
• @SPGInsider: Earn up to 1,000 bonus points at select Starwood properties through November 30th.
• @HotelClub: 10 of the most expensive Hotel Rooms in the world.

Come Tweet With Us! www.twitter.com/inflightout

New Starwood Promo: Earn Up To 1,000 Points Per Stay

Earn up to 1,000 bonus points now through November 30th in Starwood Hotels' Get Closer to Paradise promotion. Simply stay at a participating hotel and earn either 500 or 1000 Starpoints per stay. Click here to register.

Starwood: Free Nights and Bonus Miles

Starwood Hotels, which back in April launched a free weekend nights promo, is now sweetening the deal by adding yet another incentive for hotel stays. In addition to the 1 free night after 2 stays promo, guests will also earn 1,000 Northwest or Delta miles at participating properties through July 31, 2009. Click here for full details and to register.

Register Today for Starwood's Free Weekend Nights Promo

Hats off to Tommy at *wood for letting us know about this latest Starwood Hotels latest stay promotion. 

Here's how it works: You earn a complimentary weekend night after you stay just two times at any of the Starwood properties worldwide between May 1 and July 31, 2009. Added bonuses: There is no limit to the number of free nights you can earn with this promotion, and you can redeem the free room at many of the luxury properties around the world. The complimentary night is redeemable through September 30, 2009. Click here to register for this exciting SPG promotion. 

Hilton To Roll Out New Lifestyle Hotel Brand in 2012

From *wood comes news that Hilton plans to launch a new brand of hotels aimed at "globally conscious and modern traveler". Denizen hotels will target both business and leisure travelers with each property featuring a spa, a lounge and individual work stations in the lobby.

This development comes after Hilton successfully recruited two former Starwood Execs who help build the companies boutique brand - W Hotels.

Although Hilton did not give specifics on where the first Denizen's will debut, negotiations are going on worldwide including Abu Dhabi, Austin, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Buenos Aires, Cancun, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Las Vegas, London, Los Cabos, Miami, Montreal, Mumbai, New York City, Panama City and Washington D.C.

New Starwood Promotion - Choose from 12 rewards

The much anticipated Q4 Starwood promotion was just announced and the *wood blog cheers it, "the best SPG promotion in history." Any SPG member can register, and the reward payout begins after just 2 registered stays or 4 nights between October 1 and December 31, 2008. For example, after 2 stays you could choose 2,000 bonus Starpoints.

But what makes this promotion so unique though is the variety of rewards you can choose from; bonus Starpoints, free night stays, double stay credits, gift certificates and more, depending on the number of visits to Starwood hotels you anticipate staying at during the promotion period.

Click here to read more and register for this exciting promotion.

250 Starwood Points For SPG Flights Feedback

This past Tuesday Starwood Hotels & Resorts launched SPG Flights, an exciting and valuable option for using points to book airline tickets. Now the company is offering 250 Starpoints for providing feedback to this new enhancement. Click here to complete the easy online survey.

Starwood Preferred Guest Introduces SPG Flights

Starwood Hotels and Resorts and its award winning hotel loyalty program Starwood Preferred Guest launched yet another enhancement to an already generous program.

Since 1999, SPG members have been able to redeem Starpoints with a no blackout date policy, and not subjected to a policy that limits the number of rooms set aside for redemption. Now, you can use Starpoints for flights, with any carrier, and still no blackout dates. Therefore, you can utilize Starpoints for both your airline reservation and hotel stay. And best of all, in most cases you can still collect frequent flier miles with the airline.

Examples of Starpoints to airline ticket conversion:
10,000 Starpoints allows up to a $150 airline ticket
15,000 Starpoints allows up to a $215 airline ticket
20,000 Starpoints allows up to a $280 airline ticket
25,000 Starpoints allows up to a $345 airline ticket
(there are several higher tiers available as well)

Starwood continues to offer a points-to-miles deal which allows members to convert 20,000 Starpoints to 25,000 frequent flier miles with many airlines (Starwood chips in the extra 5,000). But with capacity controls in place, the airlines have tightened up the number of seats released for award redemption, and simply having enough miles to redeem doesn't guarantee a "free" seat will be offered by the airline. Plus, unlike this new Star Flights program, you don't earn miles when you redeem airline miles.

Therefore, using this new SPG Flights program with Starwood Hotels and Resorts receives 2 thumbs up from inFLIGHTout. This is truly one of the best loyalty programs in the travel industry.



How do you earn some quick Starpoints? The Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express earns you 10,000 Starpoints after your first purchase, with an option to earn an additional 15,000 points for spending $15,000 during the first six months. Plus you earn 1 point for each dollar purchased on the card.

Starwood Offers 500 Bonus Points Per Night in September

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is offering 500 bonus points for each eligible night you stay during the month of September. Unlike other promotions, this bonus is per night, not per stay, allowing up to 15,000 bonus points to be earned with this promotion. Registration is required before your hotel stay. Click here to register and read all the terms and conditions.

Final Day To Book Starwood 50% Rack Rates

Direct from our friends at *wood

This is the final day to score 50% off rack rates at Starwood properties in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. Keep in mind availability will vary by hotel, and remaining inventory may be limited. Nevertheless, if you are planning a hotel stay during August or September, the period in which this promotional pricing runs, it makes sense to do a quick search for availability at your hotel of choice. You must book by Midnight (EDT) tonight to qualify for this deal.

Passing Picture - Four Points By Sheraton

I snapped this oh-so-friendly reminder not to smoke in the room at this Four Points Hotel near Chicago-O'Hare airport.

Earlier this year, we reported on how Sheraton and Four Points are moving toward becoming entirely smoke-free at properties throughout the United States & Canada.

Double Starpoints At Select Starwood Properties

Another great post from *wood highlighting a double points promotion at 28 Starwood properties celebrating their 1st year anniversary in the Starwood Hotels & Resorts portfolio. The promotion runs through October 31, 2008, and requires registration prior to booking.

1000 Bonus Starwood Points For Summer Hotel Stays

The Starwood Preferred Guest program is offering 1000 bonus SPG points for summer hotel stays at participating Starwood properties around the world. Four Points by Sheraton will earn 500 points.

First, register here. Then stay Sunday-Thursday at participating properties through September 30, 2008 to earn the 1000 bonus points. Click here for a comprehensive list of eligible properties.

Westin Hotels Pilots Wii Gaming System

Westin Hotels and Nintendo announced they would launch a pilot program to install the popular Wii game system to some of its hotel fitness centers. The specially designed for hotels game console will be pre-loaded with several games, including Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and work as part of Westin's existing WestinWORKOUT program.

On Thursday the systems were installed at Westin hotels in Bellevue, Washington and in New York City's Time Square. The system will be added to select Westin properties during May in Houston-Galleria, Kansas City, Mo., Hilton Head Island, S.C., St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto, Hollywood, Calif. and Savannah, Ga.

Cigarette Smokers Face $250 fine At Some Hotels

Lighting up at smoke-free properties could result in a $250 hotel-accessed fine.
By Mike Grasso

As reported last week on inFLIGHTout, Sheraton & Four Points Hotels announced a new policy of going smoke free at properties throughout the United States & Canada. The change matches a move previously made by Sheraton and other hotels, and while probably not the intended purpose, aligns with a larger structural effort nationwide to get people to stop smoking. Those who must smoke at smoke-free properties are designated small areas, away from the masses, to do their thing.

But, what if you're non-compliant with hotel policy? Say, you light up on your balcony, enjoy the couple minutes of pure pleasure the cig-stick affords - without incident, then carry on the rest of your day. All seems fine; smoke detector didn't ring, sprinklers didn't flood the room, nobody saw your sinning and deviant act. Until housekeeping arrives...

Turns out, evidence of your smoking may be collected and used against you when it's time to checkout. The Denver Post recently ran a story of a Courtyard by Marriott property slapping a guest with an additional $250 on their bill for cigarette butts found in his hotel room. Walt Disney World Resort Hotels will fine up to $500. Swisshotel in Chicago even awards their housekeepers $10 bucks for each smoker they catch. Think your credit card will save you? A Quality Inn owner from the Mid-west says physical evidence is sometimes needed when upset customers unsuccessfully plea with card issuers to reverse the fees.

So as more hotels swap "designated smoking room" signs with "no smoking," it seems smokers themselves will need to abstain from lighting up, otherwise they'll pay up.

Sheraton Hotels going smoke-free by year-end

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and Four Points by Sheraton will ban smoking at more than 300 properties throughout the U.S and Canada.

This policy matches that of Westin Hotels and Resorts which became smoke-free in 2006. Both Westin and Sheraton are owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Some 8,000 rooms at the hotels will be cleaned, including treatments for air conditioning, walls, rugs, upholstery and hard surfaces.Smoking will also be banned in public areas in the hotels, but there will be a designated outdoor area at each property for guests who smoke.

Both hotel brands expect to be completely free in the U.S and Canada by December 31st.