It's a good thing at least someone loves Uber, because I don't love Travis Kalanick, who's possibly the worst human being on earth. But maybe you love Starwood and free hotel stays!
The Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program has now partnered with Uber so that guests can earn points toward free stays every time they take an Uber. All guests are at least guaranteed to earn one point for every dollar they spend with Uber, with the rates sort of fluctuating depending on whether you've got status with Starwood, and whether you're in the middle of a hotel stay. (You earn more points for taking Uber while you're staying at a Starwood property, of course.)
In order to qualify for the promotion, guests must link their SPG account to their Uber account and must have at least stayed once with a Starwood property for the current calendar year. It's not clear whether previous Uber trips will count, or it will only include Uber rides taken after the Starwood stay is registered in the system.
To sweeten the pot, Uber users in Dubai, London, Mexico City, New York and San Francisco will receive 15,000 points-enough for a free night-if they request a SPG car this Saturday (2/28) between the hours of 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. My guess, though, is that there will probably be limited SPG cars on the road-but it doesn't hurt to check requests throughout the day.
I'm not a particularly big Starwood person-or even hotel loyalty person-but I've heard great things about the program from other friends. Apparently, free stays begin at 2,000 points, which is great if you sign up for the credit card. That will give you something like 25,000 points or whatever.
Of course, there's a cap on 10,000 points (or $10,000) each year for the Uber program. But maybe, at that point, it wouldn't be worst idea to exercise those legs a little.
