Today’s reader question comes from Christina who asks (emphasis and links mine)
I have been lurking on your blog for a while, in part because I have
four kids and have tried to glean advice about traveling with several
kids. There was a post that you wrote once about why you prefer Best
Westerns and every single one of your reasons were reasons that I like
it too.
I don’t have an account with Starwood, mostly because those hotels are
crazy expensive compared to BW or the Holiday Inn Express. I am sorely
tempted though to get their credit card because all travel gurus highly
recommend it. I am not interested in using the points for flying and
pretty much never travel without all of my children. I have looked at
suites at some Starwood hotels in places we are interested in visiting
and don’t think I have ever seen one that is listed as appropriate for
five or more people. (Even though we have four children, my husband and
I have never had objections to sleeping six in a room for five.) I am
trying to convince my husband that we should get this card, but my
arguments are weak since I can’t find any way for us all to stay at
their properties without getting two rooms. Can you give me any advice
as to whether we can use the points for something else useful, or ways
for large families to stay at Starwood properties?
Getting the Starwood cards
First of all, Christina mentions getting the 2 SPG cards, which are temporarily at an all-time high bonus of 35,000 points. Â The deadline for signing up for these increased bonuses is Friday April 5th.
And of course, as I always say, you SHOULD NOT SIGN UP FOR A CREDIT CARD JUST BECAUSE SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET SAYS YOU SHOULD! Â First figure out where you want to go and only THEN sign up for a card that can help you get there.
SPG hotel cost
I actually find that SPG hotels can be among the cheapest in terms of point cost
Category 1 hotels start at only 3000 SPG points AND Category 1 and Category 2 hotels give you a 1000 point discount if you book on the weekends
PLUS, you get the 5th night free on Category 3 and up redemptions!
Finding larger Starwood hotels
Of course, like Christina said, this doesn’t do any good if you can’t find a room that will fit your family. Â Thankfully, there are SPG hotels that work for large families. One SPG for large family hotel that our family personally have stayed at is the Sheraton Suites Columbus (Read reviews and compare prices at TripAdvisor). Â It has a 300 square feet suite with a separate bedroom that actually has an OCCUPANCY LIMIT of 6. Â Now many of you know that at least in the US, I don’t pay a ton of mind to those – in fact, as I write this post, our family of 8 is sitting in a 2 bedroom suite (630 square feet!) that has an occupancy “suggestion” of 5, which is totally ridiculous.
The Sheraton Suites Columbus is a Category 2 hotel as well, which means it’s 3,000 points on weekends or 4,000 points on weekdays. Â Here’s a sample booking for a random 5 night period (unfortunately you only get fifth night free on Category 3 and above)
Here is the cash price
And here is the points price (4,000 points for 3 nights and 3,000 points for the 2 weekend nights)
That’s a valuation of 5.92 cents per point for your SPG points, which is a HUGE value! Â The 35,000 points you’d get from the signup bonus at that valuation would get you over $2000 in hotel rooms!
If you have the Starwood Preferred Guest(R) Business Credit Card from American Express, you can also get Sheraton Club access, which can be super useful.
Using points for suites
So that would be my #1 suggestion to Christina or anyone else looking to use SPG points for large family, but if you can’t find a hotel that has suites or other larger rooms, SPG will still let you book suites using points.
Keep in mind that these are the prices in ADDITION to the price of the room. Â So it’s essentially like getting 2 rooms, but if you want to all stay in one room, it can be a good option. Â You can also use these point amounts to upgrade a cash stay. Â It completely varies by the hotel what suite you might get, so you’ll have to shop around. Â I’ve also had good luck emailing the hotels to talk through various options. Â I’ve had hotels complimentarily upgrade me and also upgrade me for a small cash co-pay.
Transferring your SPG points to Marriott
Another option is to transfer your SPG points to Marriott [4 reasons to transfer SPG points to Marriott, instead of the other way around]. Â SPG points transfer 1:3 to Marriott, so the 35,000 points from the current all-time high bonus would become 105,000 Marriott points. Â Marriott has a large contingent of Residence Inn properties which are good candidates for larger families.
Don’t forget the airline miles transfer
I know Christina said that she was not interested in using her SPG points for airline transfers. Â I’m not sure why that is, but that can be a great option. Â If you got the personal and business card you would end up with over 80,000 SPG points
Using SPG Airline transfer partners that would turn into 100,000 airline miles which is almost enough to get a family out to Hawaii.
Hopefully that helps people looking to book SPG for large families
As always, if you have a travel question, feel free to email me at dan@pointswithacrew.com and I will do my best to help!
Readers – do you have any other suggestions for Christina about SPG points?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I’d add that Marriott has Residence Inns, which can be good for large families. We (family of 5) are using the equivalent of 13,333 Starpoints per night for a Studio w/ 2 doubles and a sofabed. Hopefully will get upgraded to 1-bedroom to give a little privacy.
That’s a great point! We recently stayed at a Cat 3 Residence Inn for 15K Marriott points / night. That booked into a 1BR and we got upgraded to a 2BR. 630 square feet / night for 5K Starwood or 15K Marriott a night!
The Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance recently went to a Category 8, but it’s directly across the street from Disneyland and the standard rooms have two queens and two bunk beds. 5 nights would cost about 53,000 Starwood points I think.
Thanks, all. The reason I am not interested in flying is because my husband hates it and we live a 7.5 hour drive from a decent airport. So we drive when we travel, but that also means staying in more hotel rooms. Are there very many Category 1 or 2 hotels in the US? I know for many hotel chains they are mostly abroad.
The (tangental) problem that isn’t discussed . . .
“I know Christina said that she was not interested in using her SPG points for airline transfers. I’m not sure why that is, but that can be a great option.”
Yes, SPG points can be transferred to a HUGE number of different carriers, and when you transfer 20,000 points, you receive a bonus of an extra 5,000 points. Since most points transfer at a 1:1 ration, 20,000 Starpoints will equal 25,000 points on __________________ Airlines.
On the face of things, that sounds like a great value. But if your SPG points are worth 2.4¢ each, and you transfer your points to an airline where the points are worth only 1.2¢ each . . .
I *try* to never transfer SPG points, unless it’s to Marriott. That said, the 5k bonus *is* a good thing, and I wouldn’t be opposed to transfer 20k — and so taking advantage of the extra 5k bonus — if I needed an “emergency top-up” for something. But I earn my Starpoints — both through stays @ Starwood and through spend on my SPG Amex — with the intention of spending those points at Starwood . . .