School of SPG 2 – SPG Gold Preferred Guest benefits

SPG Gold Preferred Guest status is the next status level after Preferred Guest, and is awarded after 10 eligible stays or 25 eligible nights in a calendar year.

SPG Gold Preferred Guest is also offered complimentary with credit cards such as the Emirates NBD SPG World MasterCard.

SPG Gold Preferred Guest Benefits

SPG Gold Preferred Guest brings the following benefits:-

• Increased Starpoints earning rate (3 per US Dollar spent)
• Enhanced room at check-in (note – the terms say “corner room, higher floor or better view”)
• Welcome gift of 250 bonus Starpoints (125 at Aloft, Element or Four Points hotels) OR in-room internet OR free drink.
• 4pm late checkout (subject to availability at resort or conference centre hotels)

How get the best out of your SPG Gold Preferred Guest Benefits

• Ensure your book your stay through ‘SPG Digital Channels’ (i.e. the SPG app or websites) because you receive free PREMIUM Internet as Gold. As the SPG terms and conditions state: “Complimentary in-room, premium Internet access when you book on SPG digital channels. This is in addition to your welcome gift.”
• Ensure you select Starpoints as your welcome gift, then you can receive TWO benefits (Premium Internet and bonus 125/250 Starpoints)

SPG Gold Preferred Guest – elite status qualification notes

‘Stay’ means single or multiple nights, with one check-in and one checkout. So check-in on the 12th and checkout on 14th means 2 x nights (12th & 13th) but counts as 1 x stay.

‘Night’ means one calendar day/night, so check-in on 12th and checkout on 13th means night of 12th counts as 1 x night (and 1 x stay).

Award redemption stays/nights (where Starpoints are used to pay for stays in SPG hotels) also count towards elite status.

It can take a few days (often up to 48 hours after checkout) for stay credits to be updated onto SPG system. For example, if you were staying at 5 different SPG hotels over 5 nights, and your 25th Qualification night (that moves you up to Gold) was the first night/first hotel of your stay, you may not receive Gold status until the 3rd or 4th night of your stay.

This is part of a series of articles on how to maximise Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) – our favourite hotel loyalty program.

Do you have any queries or questions about SPG? Feel free to drop us a comment below and we’ll try to answer it for you 🙂