A Hotel Loyalty Program for College Towns

The New York Times reports about a loyalty program for independent hotels. With Stash Hotel Rewards, you can earn and redeem points for a free nights at over 180 independent hotels across the United States.  

The article notes that Stash Hotel Rewards is actively trying to sign-up hotels near colleges. According to their press release:

"More than 75 independent hotels located either on or near major U.S. university campuses are part of the Stash Hotel Rewards program – making it possible for incoming families to get an up-close look at campus life, while also earning and redeeming rewards points at some of the country's most unique hotels."

Most parents of college student visit their kids' campus at least twice a year for drop-offs and pick-ups. When my grandfather dropped me off or picked me up from college, he always stayed at the Holiday Inn. However, in Washington, DC there is at least one hotel every other block. In smaller college towns, that isn't the case. Typically, there is one or two hotels near the campus and at least one is independent. 

Overall, Stash Hotel Rewards has a smart strategy. I don't know how many points you earn per stay or how many it takes to get a free night. However, I can only assume by the time that your student walks across the stage in their cap and gown that you will have at least a free night. One free night at a hotel should help the sting of 4 years worth of tuition bills.

Here a list of colleges with hotel participating in Stash's loyalty program:

Amherst College - The Lord Jeffrey Inn

Anaheim University- Ayres Hotel Anaheim

Auburn University - The Hotel at Auburn University

Binghamton University - Traditions at the Glen

Boise State University - Hotel 43

Boston University - Seaport Hotel, The Hotel Veritas, The Lenox Hotel

Brown University - Hotel Providence

California State University Long Beach - Ayres Hotel Seal Beach

California State University Sacramento - Larkspur Landing Sacramento

Catholic University of America - Capitol Hill Hotel, The Liaison Capitol Hill, 

                                            Washington Court Hotel 

Clark University - Beechwood Hotel

Coastland University - Ayres Hotel & Spa Mission Viejo

College of the Holy Cross - Beechwood Hotel

Colorado State University - Armstrong Hotel

Columbia University - Affinia 50 Hotel, Affinia Gardens, The Benjamin, The Mansfield, 

                               YOTEL New York

Dartmouth College -The Norwich Inn

DePaul University - Hotel Felix, The James Chicago, The Talbott Hotel

Drexel University - The Independent

Georgetown University - The Liaison Capitol Hill, Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill

Georgia State University - Artmore Hotel, Stonehurst Place

Georgia Institute of Technology - Artmore Hotel, Stonehurst Place

Harvard University - The Hotel Veritas, The Lenox Hotel

Howard University - Capitol Hill Hotel, The Liaison Capitol Hill, Washington Court Hotel 

La Sierra University - Ayres Inn Corona East

Loyola University Chicago - Hotel Felix, The James Chicago, The Talbott Hotel

Loyola University New Orleans - Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Dauphine Orleans Hotel, 

                                                Hotel Le Marais, Hotel Mazarin

Lubbock Christian University - Arbor Inn & Suites

Marquette University - Ambassador Hotel

MIT - The Hotel Veritas, The Lenox Hotel

Northeastern University Seaport Hotel, The Lenox, The Hotel Veritas

NYU - Affinia 50, Affinia Dumont, Affinia Gardens, Affinia Manhattan, Affinia Shelburne,

           Duane Street Hotel, NU Hotel, Shoreham Hotel, The Benjamin, The James New York, 

           The Mansfield, The MAve, The Strand Hotel, YOTEL New York

Old Dominion University - Craddock Terry Hotel

Our Lady of the Lake University - Menger Hotel

Penn State University - The Nittany Lion Inn, The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel

Portland State University - Hotel deLuxe, Hotel Lucia, The Governor Hotel

Providence College - Hotel Providence

Regent University - The Founders Inn and Spa

Roosevelt University - Hotel Felix, The James Chicago, The Talbott Hotel

Santa Clara University - The Plaza Suites

St. Mary's College - Inn at Saint Mary's Hotel & Suites

Stanford University - Creekside Inn

State University of New York, Old Westbury - Viana Hotel & Spa

Syracuse University - Genesee Grande Hotel,  Hotel Skyler,  Parkview Hotel

Temple University - The Independent

Texas Tech University - Overton Hotel

Tulane University - Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Dauphine Orleans Hotel, Hotel Le Marais,

                     Hotel Mazarin

Tufts University - The Hotel Veritas

University of Arizona - Lodge on the Desert

University of California - Ayres Hotel & Spa Moreno Valley

University of Colorado - Hotel Boulderado

University of Colorado at Denver - Hotel Teatro

University of Louisville - The Brown Hotel

University of Massachusetts - The Lord Jeffrey Inn

University of Michigan - Weber's Boutique Hotel

University of Minnesota - The Commons Hotel

University of Nevada, Reno - John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino Resort

University of Notre Dame - Inn at Saint Mary's Hotel & Suites

University of Pennsylvania - The Independent

University of Southern California - O Hotel

University of Southern Maine - Portland Regency Hotel & Spa

University of Washington - Edgewater Hotel, Hotel Ändra, Hotel Max

Vanguard University of Southern California - Ayres Hotel Costa Mesa-Newport Beach

Washington University in St. Louis - Moonrise Hotel

Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Beechwood Hotel

Xavier University of Louisiana - Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Dauphine Orleans Hotel, 

                                              Hotel Le Marais,Hotel Mazarin

"On average, we see parents visiting Texas Tech between 4 and 10 times a year," said Kurt Metcalf, General Manager of Overton Hotel & Conference Center in Lubbock, TX. "By partnering with Stash, we are able to reward these frequent guests, as well as offer them a way to save throughout their child's college career."

you earn and redeem points for free nights at authentic, independent hotels across the U.S
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Marriott's Unexpected Bonus is Unexpectedly Popular

Marriott has a promotion at the moment called Unexpected Bonus. Under this promotion, one earns a free night after second paid stays.

One needs to register here on July 31st and stay twice, September 2, 2013.

I am not a Marriott guy. My Marriott Rewards account has zero points in it. However, I signed up for this promotion, because one of my goals for 2013 is to sign-up for more promotions regardless of the likely I will participate. 

What was unexpected about this promotion was that twice this week, someone brought this promotion up out of the blue. First, it was Cash Back Boy. Then, my boss. Both of them asked if I had heard about the Unexpected Bonus from Marriott and was it worth registering. Say What! How did you know about this promotion? 

Marriott's Unexpected Bonus has become Unexpectedly Popular. Both of these people do not read points blogs. Therefore, Marriott must have done a great job with their advertising the promotion.

My strategy for this promotion is to only use it if you have upcoming stays that can be steered toward Marriott. I don't this is a mattress run promotion. Maybe if you have one stay under your belt and you can find a very cheap second stay. For instance, Cash Back Boy mentioned that we steer any upcoming hotels stays to Marriott, so that we can use the free night for college football.

The bigger question is Cash Back Boy coming over to the dark side?

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

A Look Back: Your and Our Favorite Posts

When we first started blogging back in August, we made a goal to make one post per day, for at least the first month. Now six months and 210 posts later, we are proud to say that in our blogs short life, 6 days went by without posts.

Today, we wanted to share your and our favorite past posts.

The top five posts by page views:

   1) Young People and the Chains of Credit Card Debt

   2) Great Article on Twitter in Posts/Miles

   3) Share a Journey: Win 1,000,000 miles

   4) Exit Hilton, Enter Club Carlson?

   5) Why I (Respectfully) Disagree That A AA/US Merger is All Bad For Frequent Flyers

Now our personal favorite past posts:

JD's two favorite posts:

      1)  How I Became Addicted to the points game.

      2)  Will Travel for College Football - Penn State. Be prepared for more football posts in 2013.

Chris's three favorite post:

      1) It's JD Fault (Someone keeps finding our blog with our search term and I love it)

      1) London Day Two

      2) Perfect Day in Seattle

As a reminder, don't forget to enter our contest (here) that ends tonight at 6pm.

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Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints!

Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Will Travel for College Football! - Penn State

This past weekend, I traveled with three friends to see Penn State play Northwestern in football. The game was a perfect excuse to go to a game as my friend Chris (different than my fellow blogger Chris) is a massive Penn State fan and my other friend Robbie is a Northwestern fan. The other two of us, on the trip, have no allegiance to either team, but we cheered for Penn State. When in doubt always support the home team.

Leaving around 6:30 pm on Friday, the 175 mile drive to Altoona, PA, the location of our hotel, takes about 4 hours with DC traffic. As a custom, we stop three hours in the trip in Bedford, PA for dinner. We typically  stop at a chain restaurant called Hoss’s. Hoss’s is a steak house is a hybrid of a Long Horn Steakhouse and Old Country Buffet style. You order off a board before you are seated. They have a salad and dessert bar that are included in the price of your meal.

We decided not to go to Hoss’s and try a restaurant down the street, Ed's Steakhouse

Ed’s Steakhouse is, located on the corner of I-99 and I 200 off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, is a sit-down restaurant with a variety of food: from Steaks to Sandwiches to Pasta and Salads. Here is a sample of the food that we ordered:

The restaurant has plenty of TVs for watching sports or news programs. Service is always friendly and fast. Ed's is budget friendly with all of our bills under $20.00.

After filling our bellies, we went on our way to Altoona for the night. Before stopping at our hotel, we stopped for tailgating provisions at the local Walmart. At 11pm, Walmart is the only thing open in many small towns, I am learning.

Our normal antics began at Walmart with me daring Robbie to ride this children's amusement ride: 

                         

Provisions secured, it was time to head to our hotel for the night. As I described here, hotels can be expensive on college football weekends. We finally decided to stay at a Courtyard Marriott in Altoona, PA, 45 minutes or 45 miles away from Beaver Stadium, Penn State's football stadium.

For $200 a night, we received a standard room with 2 beds. The room was decorated nicely and bright. I liked the wallpaper. Some of the rooms had balconies, but ours did not:

The bathroom was clean and separated. The toilet and shower in one room:

The vanity and sink right outside the toilet and shower. This style worked great for us. Someone could be showering and the rest could still have access to the sink.

The hotel had a gym

and a pool, which I forgot to take a picture. The hotel lobby was bright and inviting. The lobby had plenty of 

places to sit

                                     

 

 The hotel had computers (which you had to pay for) and a small cafe/restaurant that served breakfast, lunch and dinner

 We awoke early Saturday to travel to Beaver Stadium for the noon game. Tailgating occurs in big fields, turned parking lots

We had a simple tailgate of burgers, beer and mimosas: 

  

For the game, I decided to get into the spirit a little more than normal: 

Yes, I wore a blue body suit. For the rest of the trip, I was known as "Blue"

On our way to the stadium and our seats, I received many weird looks, but that is half the fun. However, the weird looks went away, when we arrived at our seats. Our section was wild and fun. Thanks to Chris's uncle for the four football tickets located on the 40 yard line, you could see everything happening on the field.

The Northwestern game was Penn State's Homecoming game.  Therefore, the marching band had alumni back to participate:

The atmosphere was pretty calm up until the fourth quarter, when Penn State kicked it into high gear. In the fourth quarter, the stadium started to rock. At that point, one could feel what 90,000 supporting fans sounds like. It was crazy.

Penn State came back to win the game with five minutes left and never look back, winning 38-29:

Overall, it was a great trip with three great friends.

Oh, and no road trip would be complete without a trip to Cracker Barrel:

Did your team win this weekend?

Until the next trip!