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| All photos in this post courtesy of Starwood Hotels |
As my wife approaches the $40,000 spend threshold on her Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express she will soon receive her Category 1-4 free weekend night certificate for doing so. Well light bulb goes off since we did the post a few weeks ago about using your free night certificate from the Marriott Visa at 5 great hotels in Canada, why not do it for SPG as well for those of you who also reach that $40K milestone. This is a great year to explore Canada as we celebrate the 150th birthday of the country and there are so many events and places to check out! Remember access to all National Parks and Monuments is free for 2017!
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
comes with a great sign up bonus of 20,000 Starpoints when you spend $500 on the card
but it also has a decent offers if you hit marked spend levels within 12 months. The first is SPG Gold Elite status when you hit $30,000 and then if you hit $40,000 you’ll get a Category 1-4 Hotel Free Weekend Night Certificate. This certificate can be
redeemed for a free weekend (Fri-Sun) night stay at any Starwood Hotels Worldwide that
fall under the Category 1 to 4 levels. In Canada you have
quite a few choices that you can use the certificate, namely 67
hotels. (21 Category 4, 28 Category 3, and 18 Category 2, there are no Category 1 hotels in Canada)
From those 67 hotels these are our top picks to use your certificate at for travels within Canada:
The Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa, Victoria
The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver
The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto
Le Westin Resort & Spa, Tremblant, Quebec
Hotel St. Paul, Montreal, a Member of Design Hotels
Now you may be asking the question, what about the Marriott takeover of Starwood and the integration of the reward programs. We know from what Marriott and Starwood have told us that the programs won’t be combined into a single program until sometime in 2018. That means you have at least 12 months but more than likely closer to 18 months to still utilize this card. So you do have some time still to get it, hit that $40k in spend for your free night and use it up. Not to mention the card has its 20,000 point sign up bonus! That can be used for 2 more free nights at Category 4 hotels or converting to 60,000 Marriott Rewards points!
What hotels have you redeemed your Category 1-4 benefit at in Canada or for that matter anywhere Worldwide? What hotels would you recommend to our readers?