Archive for May, 2013

How I stay at 5 star hotels and resorts for free

I have been doing this for almost 10+ years. Almost all my hotel and resort stays are either free or 50% or less of the actual rates.

This is not an advertisement and I am not paid in any way to share this. I just love the unconditional program I have enrolled in years ago and it is really simple for me to do.

I have a Starwood Preferred Guest credit card that I use for all my day to day purchases (mine happens to be an American Express).

Whenever I use my credit card, I receive an award point for each $1 that I spend. By the end of the month, my cumulative equivalent reward points are added to my Starwood Preferred Guest account (SPG).

I can use my SPG points at 1000+ Starwood Hotels & Resorts all over the world to book for either free nights or use some of my points and pay half of the room rate. I used my points when I went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; I used my points when I was in the Caribbean, and I used them many many times in the USA during my travels.

Even when I am staying at one of Starwood hotels for free using my accumulated points, I still make more points! How? there are sometimes special bonus points that the hotel offers such as if I skip room maid service for a day, I receive 500 starpoints. Also for every $1 I spend at the resort/hotel, I get a star/reward point.

The reason I stayed with this reward program for such a long time and still enjoy it is the fact that flight and hotel stays of any travel trip are the most expensive parts of the trip. Actually most of the times, hotel stays are the most expensive part of a trip.

So, during the majority of days and months of any given year where I am not vacationing or traveling (which is the case for many people), I am using my SPG credit card to pay for things (which anyway I need to do with or without this program) and keep accumulating points automatically. When travel or vacation time comes by, I am at ease and its exciting as I know I can stay at highly rated hotels and resorts without too much worries about how much it will cost me.

By the way, the program can be found here

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