For those that are familiar with the Starwood SPG program, you probably know that the higher level hotel categories charge more Starpoints for redeeming in peak season dates.
Well, all that is changing for 2009 and the entire year is now considered off-peak season. Hooray!
SPG is getting rid of the peak season redemption awards for categories 5 through 7 for 2009 (except for 3 Luxury Collection properties in Costa Smeralda, Italy). So that means for the remainder of 2009, you’ll get to enjoy redeeming at the higher end hotels at the lower redemption rate!
Also, the new category levels for each Starwood hotel have been announced for 2009. The link below will take you to the full list of category changes, which will go into effect on March 2.
http://www.spgpromos.com/categorychanges/index.cfm?
How about some more great news?
This year, more Starwood properties are dropping lower in category than moving up in 2009. Traditionally, the opposite has been the norm. What this means is you’ll need fewer SPG Starpoints to redeem at some hotels compared to previous years.
If you’ve already made an award reservation and notice that the category level of your hotel has in fact gone down, you can simply cancel and rebook to take advantage of the lower redemption rate. :-)
