Don’t miss out on Starwood’s Winter 2015 promo, “SPG Double Play”:

The Deal

From January 5 – April 15, 2015, you’ll earn:

• 2x Starpoints on all stays of 2+ nights (for a total of 4x points/$ spent for normal member, 5x points/$ spent for SPG Gold and Platinum, and 6x points/$ spent for SPG Platinum-75)
• 1,000 bonus Starpoints for every five nights, up to 4,000 Starpoints total (essentially 200 bonus Starpoints per stay)

How to Get It

1. Register here: SPG Promos: “SPG Double Play” by March 31, 2015.
2. Book your SPG stays, remembering only stays of 2 or more nights will get you the 2x Starpoints bonus.
3. Bonus points will post to your account within 2-4 weeks.

Analysis

Here’s what you stand to gain on a typical $250 stay:

Compared to the past 3 promos, Starwood has been offering less and less incentive in the form of promotions to book at Starwood. This current promo is essentially a less attractive version of the Fall 2014 “More For You” promo that offered up to 3x bonus points (Blitz Deal: Starwood Fall 2014 Promo: Up to 3x Starpoints Through Dec 15) and that promotion was a weaker version of the Summer 2014 “Earn Away, Get Away” promo (Blitz Deal: Starwood Summer 2014 Promo: Up to 3x Starpoints on All Stays).

Compared to Starwood’s most recent promo that ran in the fall of 2014, it’s basically identical but has removed the option of earning the 3x points per night bonus.

Don’t forget: 

• As always, this is only on “eligible nights” i.e. Award nights, Cash + Points Award nights and bookings through third party sites like hotels.com, travelocity.com and expedia.com do not count.
• There are 113 properties that aren’t participating (view them all here: SPG® DOUBLE PLAY — NON PARTICIPATING HOTELS AND RESORTS)
• Bonus points are only calculated on base Starpoints earned–does not include additional SPG Gold or SPG Platinum elite points.
• “There is no limit to the number of total bonus Starpoints a member can earn.” But, the 1,000 point bonus for every 5 nights can only be earned 4 times for a total of 4,000 Starpoints.

BOTTOM LINE: This promo is ok at best; there are many other competing brands with better promos so I would probably suggest taking your business elsewhere if possible. For those that are loyal to Starwood, there’s no sense in not registering for this promo as you’ll be increasing your overall earning per dollar from 2-3x to 5-6x, on average.