SPG - Best Hotel chain for stays in India

[What The Heck?]

I recently did lot of research on the following hotel chains for stay in a major metro in India using their hotel points.

1. Hyatt
2. Hilton
3. SPG
4. Marriott

I found that SPG is the cheapest for a family of 3 - just 3700 points for one night as against 10k marriot, 12k hyatt and 40k hilton. I think SPG is simply the best for hotel stay in India.

 

[Matt]

I recently did lot of research on the following hotel chains for stay in a major metro in India using their hotel points.

1. Hyatt
2. Hilton
3. SPG
4. Marriott

I found that SPG is the cheapest for a family of 3 - just 3700 points for one night as against 10k marriot, 12k hyatt and 40k hilton. I think SPG is simply the best for hotel stay in India.

hmmm... I have stayed in some SPG properties in India (loved them) and do think they can be great value, but it is hard with me to part with SPG for hotel stays now, their difficulty to earn plus their real value in airline transfer partners makes it a tough one. You might have found a level where it makes sense here, but it is still a tough one for me.

Out of interest, the 3700 price sounds odd (or more specifically uneven...) -is that a cash and points rate?

 

[What The Heck?]

hmmm... I have stayed in some SPG properties in India (loved them) and do think they can be great value, but it is hard with me to part with SPG for hotel stays now, their difficulty to earn plus their real value in airline transfer partners makes it a tough one. You might have found a level where it makes sense here, but it is still a tough one for me.

Out of interest, the 3700 price sounds odd (or more specifically uneven...) -is that a cash and points rate?

No Matt. Normally for a family of 2 it would have been 3000 points but since i have a 12 year old son, they quoted additional 700 points per night taking the total to 3700 points per night. I guess you would know about the additional requirements after couple of years from now

By the way, just one card signup bonus along with the spend took care of this stay for 10 days (easily worth more than 1200$) . I somehow personally feel that SPG points have to used more for hotel stays than airline transfers considering the value you derive from those stays in countries like India.

 

[Matt]

Good point, can't fault that sort of value! And thanks for the miserable news about my future expenses I was hoping things would get better once he got a bit older and I wasn't forking out $1100 for his RT flights!

 

[smittytabb]

Good point, can't fault that sort of value! And thanks for the miserable news about my future expenses I was hoping things would get better once he got a bit older and I wasn't forking out $1100 for his RT flights!

The per capita charge is rare in the US. Not sure I have ever run across it in the US. Raised four children and traveled with them a lot and never had an extra charge like this, so it could be localized to only certain countries.

 

[What The Heck?]

The per capita charge is rare in the US. Not sure I have ever run across it in the US. Raised four children and traveled with them a lot and never had an extra charge like this, so it could be localized to only certain countries.

Very true. India in particular has crazy extra charges for family stays.

 

[smittytabb]

Have been to India twice. The first time I stayed at the YMCA and the second time at a very cheap guest house. So, eventually I will do it in style, and looking forward to that! Sounds like there is a lot of value even with the chains.

 

[What The Heck?]

Have been to India twice. The first time I stayed at the YMCA and the second time at a very cheap guest house. So, eventually I will do it in style, and looking forward to that! Sounds like there is a lot of value even with the chains.

Let me know if you need any tips for your India visit. Glad to help.

 

[LowHassleMS]

another chain that can work very well for India is club carlson. Unlike the US, most of their properties in India are new and are available for low points rates. I've stayed at the one in delhi and it was fabulous for the points rate

 

[What The Heck?]

No Matt. Normally for a family of 2 it would have been 3000 points but since i have a 12 year old son, they quoted additional 700 points per night taking the total to 3700 points per night. I guess you would know about the additional requirements after couple of years from now

By the way, just one card signup bonus along with the spend took care of this stay for 10 days (easily worth more than 1200$) . I somehow personally feel that SPG points have to used more for hotel stays than airline transfers considering the value you derive from those stays in countries like India.

My bad. My sincere apologies for the confusion. I know hotels in India charge extra per person if there are more than two per room and i thought that was the case here for point bookings as well. I stand corrected. I just researched from loyalty traveller's guide to SPG and then re-ran my queries. Here is the correct result. SPG charges 4k points per day from Sun-Thu and 3k points per day on Fri-Sat for category 2 hotel. My ten days of stay had 7 4k days and 3 3k days making the count 37k points which i had wrongly assumed as 3.7k per night due to search for 3 people stay. Again, my sincere apologies for the wrong information that i posted earlier. Other than this, everything else in my post above are correct.

 

[What The Heck?]

My bad. My sincere apologies for the confusion. I know hotels in India charge extra per person if there are more than two per room and i thought that was the case here for point bookings as well. I stand corrected. I just researched from loyalty traveller's guide to SPG and then re-ran my queries. Here is the correct result. SPG charges 4k points per day from Sun-Thu and 3k points per day on Fri-Sat for category 2 hotel. My ten days of stay had 7 4k days and 3 3k days making the count 37k points which i had wrongly assumed as 3.7k per night due to search for 3 people stay. Again, my sincere apologies for the wrong information that i posted earlier. Other than this, everything else in my post above are correct.

Well, well. This is becoming crazy research. While Sheraton charges only points for the stay, Le Meridien (both are SPG) charges points + rollaway charges of 17$ additional per night for the extra person instead of additional points.
Sheraton - 37k points for 10 nights
Le Meridien - 37k points + 170$+ tax for 10 nights.

I went with Sheraton. Hope this is of help to someone.

 

[What The Heck?]

Well, more drama happening in this front. Hyatt has come up with a monsoon flash sale offer offering 50% discount during the period of my stay and thus ridiculing my whole value perception of the SPG points. The value i now get for my SPG points compared to what i would be paying at hyatt during the same time period comes to 1.9 cents per point. Of course i can close my eyes and fool myself that i got excellent value for my SPG points but then the reality is different. I am seriously reconsidering cancelling my SPG stay and staying at Hyatt this time hoping to get better value for my SPG points may be next time. However, if i transfer UR points and book for the stay, i still get poor value as there is no discount on points and the price of points+cash is same as cash price due to the discount. Should i be paying for this stay and adjust from my Barclay points? That seems to be the best option out there. Also this might give a good chance for me to apply for diamond challenge at hyatt though i am not a big fan of status but if some bonus comes automatically without any additional cost or effort, why leave it? Any thoughts if my decision to go with hyatt for this stay using the discounted price is correct or any alternative thoughts on my value perception? Hope this case study turns out to be good discussion and learning for Some of us. Anyway, i have to decide by August 15th, the last date of this offer. Thanks in advance for all comments from the travel hacking community out there.