A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Starwood announced during their third quarter earnings call that they were planning a marketing partnership with Design Hotels. As I explained, Design Hotels is a group of almost 300 independent hotels around the world, all of which are extremely stylish and local. I was extremely curious…
Continue reading: Details Of The New Starwood & Design Hotels Partnership
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Kruisherenhotel in maastricht is great: it is part of the camille oostwegel group that has all kinds of classy restaurants and castles in the limburg area. It is very very design style and usually among the top choices when the international art fair TEFAF is held at MECC Maastricht.
I rather fancy trying their property in Iceland so fingers crossed they join. I'm not too bothered about no upgrades etc, I would be happy to earn the points and get the breakfast as a platinum.
First and foremost, this Design Hotel soft brand allows more options for staying at an SPG hotel to earn stay/night credits AND SPG points. Second, for me, at least, when deciding between StR and Luxury Collection and the other typical luxury chains like FS, MO, Pen, etc, the points earned (towards other free hotel nights or premium airline awards) are a factor in staying at the StR or LC hotel. The same is true for Hyatt members staying at Park Hyatt, I imagine. Third, being able to use points to have an award stay is a very nice perk when I need it.
Only the 3rd issue is in question now with the SPG Design Hotels. It is possible that the award nights for SPG Design Hotels will cost too many points and/or not be available when I want them.
But that doesn't diminish that the SPG Design Hotels still gives SPG members an extra set of SPG options for the most part.
More than anything, I hope that even more Design Hotels opt to join SPG in this limited fashion, thereby expanding the SPG footprint in regions where there are no or few SPG options already. In the future, we might hope for total SPG integration, but I am more than thrilled with the ability to earn SPG stay/nights credits and SPG points towards my stays at these exciting and interesting hotel properties. The Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC is one I've wanted to try for years, and now that it's SPG that option seems to be imminent for me.
I actually do not like this partnership because it has resulted in the termination of Design Hotels' partnership with Miles & More (which I find was far more rewarding than what SPG is offering, especially since it covered ALL the hotels in the Design Hotels portfolio). Also the the special bonus Miles and More offers that Design Hotels offered from time to time were quite valuable and rewarding. Finally, I think those "special SPG benefits" that have been touted, aren't so special afterall I think and aeren't the big deal they are making them out to be (I mean free wifi is considered a perk? Please!! every design hotels property I've stayed in offered this to all customers)