We have almost decided to take the plane from San Juan PR to Vieques Island to stay at the wonderful W Retreat & Spa, Vieques Island , one of our readers (Justin Does) has done a fine job of convincing me that it is a simply fabulous place, so its pretty likely we will go there. The motivation for Vieques initially was from Allison receiving a Starwoods offer that gave us one free night in up to a Category 6 Hotel, and the W Retreat & Spa, Vieques Island is one of the few places that would give us the full value from that night, you can read more of my procrastinating about it here Puerto Rico Dilemma – to Vieques or not to Vieques? – Travel
The question now of course, is if we book that one night for free, how to pay for the second night? Of course we could do just the one, but if we are already going to be paying for the sea plane to take us there and we do want it to be a restful break then two nights is definitely the answer.
The process for me is as follows:
Establish the benchmark price for the room in cash – hotels change their prices based upon demand, so if the season is high, or the hotel is busy due to a convention or any other reason it may be higher than normal. Therefore to get a ballpark I take 3 numbers right off the bat:
1x Hotel Site Price – spg.com
2x Consolidator Site – personally I like Hotels.com for their Welcome rewards, plus one other site such as Travelocity. A good way to pick your Consolidator sites is to go through www.evreward.com and check which are currently offering the best deals on cash back. Whilst this has no correlation with the cost of the room, you do know you are checking the site that will compensate you the most in Cash Back for the booking. Here is the link to evrewards sub category hotels/hotel consolidators http://evreward.com/browse/list/20-travel-amp-automotive?prog=all&sort=abc&sub=459 when I did this I came up with HotelClub offering 14% cash back (but when I clicked through it told me it was only 8.4% on Bigrcumbs still not bad, but I did feel like I just experienced a nice ‘bait and switch’ from these guys. I dug a little deeper into the Hotelclub.com program and wrote a review of it here if you are interested: Hotelclub.com Member Rewards Vs Hotels.com Welcome Rewards
Between the price I received from SPG.com ($335), Hotels.com ($336 and HotelClub.com ($336) I have my benchmark = $335.66 price, and because there was very little variance between these three quotes I feel comfortable that the benchmark is sound. Now, lets assume worst case scenario, by booking through a Third Party I am supposed to surrender the SPG Gold Perks and Points Earning for this stay, as such we have the following costs, and rewards for booking each of the three ways:
American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts
Holders of the American Express Platinum or Centurion Card (either Personal or Business Versions) are able to access the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, this is a group of high end hotels that are bookable through the American Express Website, and come with some really great perks.
The best thing about the program is that they have a one night minimum., so if the price is comparable you get the $100 credit for just one night, which is ideal for my trip, and is incredibly valuable. Needless to say, the longer your stay the less the Credit is worth. Also, some Hotels offer the Credit to the Spa, which is less value, but the W Retreat & Spa, Vieques Island offers it as a dining credit:
The other bonus, which is subject to availability would be the free upgrade – to a pool oasis room.
Clearly the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program is the winner here, but wait, it actually gets better… I was talking yesterday with Jamison from Points Summary and he told me that he has had success by adding on his Loyalty Card number to Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts reservations, so at least you will earn points for your stay, and you might also get the welcome amenities for being SPG Gold too!
Oh, and in case you forget, SPG Gold comes free with the American Experess Platinum, but you have to call in to activate it, so if you are able to book the Fine Hotels and Resorts rates (because you are a card holder) then you also have the SPG Gold Status at minimum. Looks like this is the best way to book this room for one night!
it’s not *might*, it’s you WILL get your SPG Gold Benefits, stay credit, and night credit 🙂 After you book, look at the confirmation #, you can plug it into SPG “find reservations” as well,just omit the first letter
That’s two confirmations that this works – awesome! Personally I don’t think you are supposed to get your Gold bennies but if you do regardless then that makes FHR clearly the best option.