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Starwood Preferred Guest is offering a 250 Starpoint bonus when you check-in to select hotels using their mobile App.

The promotion website – which you can find here – and the mobile App itself are woefully short of details about this promotion. (i.e. start and end dates for one…) However, it appears to apply to the following SPG brands:

• St. Regis
• The Luxury Collection
• Westin
• Sheraton
• Le Meridien
• Tribute Portfolio
• Four Points

Why not the other brands? Well… W, Element and Aloft have their own “Keyless” function, which is an entirely different thing (and involves using Bluetooth on your phone to open the door). And Design Hotels are boutique hotels only partially participating in SPG.

I am not sure whether every property is participating, since SPG have provided a very long list of participating hotels, which you can find here.

I can’t see any reason why this promotion wouldn’t apply to award stays. But you definitely need to book direct to qualify – i.e. not hotels.com – even though I hope that few of my readers use OTAs to book chain hotels.

How to “Check-in” Using Your Phone

Well, you aren’t really checking in at all. You still have to pass by the front desk to pick up your room key. But the mobile App on your smartphone should give you a buzz to remind you of your upcoming stay.

Ultimately you are just giving the hotel a bit of advance warning about when you are planning to arrive. And perhaps you are providing a few details that aren’t already in your SPG profile. It might save 30 seconds during the check-in process but is mostly for the benefit of the hotel IMO.

Does it Make Sense?

Well, it should… 250 free Starpoints is worth roughly £4. Nothing life-changing, but a nice little extra considering the regular SPG promotion is a weak 250 Starpoints per night.

Historically though, I’ve never bothered with mobile check-ins. Unless the hotel has already processed my upgrade as a Platinum member, I don’t ever want to select a standard room and then have to DYKWIA at check-in…

I have a few SPG stays coming up, so a few extra Starpoints is welcome. What about you? Do you have an opinion about the usefulness of mobile check-ins?