Written By: Chris Austin, Vice President of Global Leisure and Luxury Sales, Starwood Hotel and Resorts
Are you taking advantage of Starwood Hotels & Resorts latest promotion reserved for members of SPG Pro? If not- why not? For every three eligible bookings; a travel pro can earn a bonus 1,500 Starpoints® up to 15,000 Starpoints. This is in addition to all the regular Starpoints earned for each eligible booking. This is for client stays from March 14 – June 30, 2016 at any of our more than 1,300 luxurious hotels and resorts worldwide. There is still plenty of time for travel pros to take advantage of this offer. Those who are not yet signed up should do so at spg.com/probenefits.
SPG Pro offers travel professionals the ability to earn SPG elite status, upgrades and Starpoints for B2B business booked at any of Starwood’s properties around the world. Plus, any SPG member who books an eligible event, whether that’s a corporate business meeting, holiday party, wedding, family reunion or social event will earn Starpoints and status for the business you influence.
We truly hope you are taking advantage of SPG Pro. As a reminder, with our program you earn:
- 1 Starpoint for every US$3 of eligible room revenue you book for your clients — and you’ll earn even more once you reach elite status. You’ll earn for meetings and events too, up to 20,000 Starpoints® per event.
- 1 eligible night toward elite status for every 20 room nights you book for your clients. You’ll achieve elite status after just 25 eligible nights per calendar year.
Through the SPG Pro program you also gain the following benefits:
- ProLearning training modules that give you an inside look at our brands, hotels and resorts worldwide. You’ll be an expert in no time.
- Easy account management tools so you can track all the Starpoints and eligible nights you earn for professional and personal bookings in one easy account. Keep tabs on your reservations, check your earnings and follow your elite progress — just like that.
- The best redemption options in the industry — Free Night Awards and Award Flights without blackout dates, exclusive experiences with SPG Moments℠, and so much more.
- Booking resources — booking on our site is fast and easy, plus you’ll earn on eligible bookings made through the GDS, too.
- Complimentary in-room Internet access:
- Receive complimentary in-room Internet access, for you or your clients, when you book on spg.com.
- Consolidated commission payment services so you can receive weekly payments and check the status of your commission with real-time online access.
PLUS – Make your first eligible SPG Pro booking for another traveler and earn 1,000 bonus Starpoints when they complete their stay.
Launching this month is a new spg.com/dashboard for our SPG Pros. This new dashboard will provide you with:
- a single view of their SPG YTD stats and bonus earning activity
- updated information on partnership earnings and registration (if not already enrolled)
- additional Starpoints earning opportunities through bonus earning modules
- a central location for all relevant promotions
And we want you to be sure and come experience our hotels. It is critically important for you, as our true sellers in the global marketplace, to experience our brands. We award our loyal SPG® Pro members. As recommended by travel professionals Starwood no longer offers TA Rates and only makes its travel professional rates available through STARPRO, the rates developed exclusively for travel professional members of our loyalty program.
You can access these rates upon completing the Loyalty and Brands module in our ProLearning library reserved exclusively for SPG Pros. STARPRO rates are always at least 5% off of the lowest published fully restricted prepaid rate plans found on Starwood consumer websites but do not carry any of the restrictions.
This is great news because now our hotels will always be offering a discount on the STARPRO rate guaranteeing this key benefit offered through SPG Pro. The STARPro discount will quite often be significantly more than 5% when compared to the flexible BAR rate of the day, often presenting discounts of 25 to 30 percent or more. We want our travel professionals to experience our properties.
This is the best way for you to understand our brands and see, first hand, how well we will serve your customers and protect your business for the future. We hope you are earning all your bonus SPG points and we hope to see you in one of our hotels very soon!