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Starwood is out with a promo for hotels in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Points, Miles, and Martinis has a detailed post outlining the promotion. When paying with a Mastercard and using promo code M3D, you can receive 1 or 2 free nights at select properties when you pay for two or more nights.
The Deal
- Use promotion code M3D
- Pay for 2 or 3 nights, get 1 night free
- Pay for 4 nights, get 2 nights free
Key Terms
- The offer applies to the hotel room rate and room tax only.
- Must book and stay by June 1st, 2017.
- Rates are prepaid and non-refundable
- Read more terms and conditions here on the promotion page.
Maximizing the offer with Citi Prestige
I checked a few properties and this promotion code seems to offer a pretty good discount over regular booking rates. The discount becomes really good with a Citi Prestige card.
Bookings made through the Citi Prestige concierge qualify for the 4th night free. See our Complete Guide to Citi Prestige 4th Night Free for complete details on this valuable benefit. The short story: utilizing the 4th night free benefit should result in paying for 3 nights and receiving 3 free.
I tested this with a dummy booking (that I did not complete since rates are prepaid). I just pulled up a random hotel — the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane. Here is the cheapest non-refundable SPG Member rate for May 25th-31st:
While I generally avoid non-refundable rates, I wanted to compare apples to apples as the promotion is non-refundable. As you see, the cheapest non-refundable rate is 294 pounds per night for a total of 1764 pounds for six nights.
The M3D promotion code brings that rate down to an average of about 227 pounds per night for six nights (the total comes to 1360).
That’s a savings of 404 pounds — not quite “2 free nights”, but they probably compare to a more expensive “regular” rate. Still a pretty good promotion.
How much is the 4th night?
My question was how Starwood (and therefore the Citi Prestige Concierge) would calculate the price of the 4th night. If you click the “Show Night-By-Night Rate”, you’ll see how it is broken down:
I called the Citi Prestige Concierge to test this out. The concierge rep confirmed that the 4th night was 340 pounds and that this would be my rebate. After the 4th night free rebate, this hotel would come to 1,020 pounds for 6 nights. While that’s not exactly 3 free nights when compared to the cheapest prepaid rate available, it’s quite a discount over the best available rate otherwise. On average that is 170 pounds per night (compared to 294) and a savings of over 740 pounds over a 6 night booking without the promo code.
I have no idea whether this particular property is worth that price — but this savings could be replicated at your property of choice from the promotional page. You would also earn Starpoints on all four paid nights (including the night that is rebated by Citi). I believe you would also receive elite credit for all 6 nights, but hopefully a reader can confirm in the comments. This could be a great way to attack the SPG Elite Status Challenge from our Shortcuts to SPG/Marriott Elite Status if all six nights do count.
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Has anyone confirmed when this expires? Looks like it’s pre-pay and the calendar lets you book in June onward as well, but T&C’s say “book and stay” by June 1.
I’m confused on how to stack if you need to enter a promo code online to get the free nights from spg and need to call in to book through citi to get their 4th night free,
Entering the code online is for your research purposes (so you can make sure there is availability / check the price). When you call the Prestige concierge, you just give them the promo code (M3D) and they will enter it and quote the same price. Alternatively, the Prestige concierge can apply discounts like AAA, AARP, etc. You just have to ask.
Beautiful. thanks!
There is a z3r promo that has been valid many starwood properties in SE Asia. Check hotel website, not spg app. Le Meridien, Sheraton and Four Points I have used.
i have used already 4-5 times for both 4 and 6 night stays with 4th night free.
what’s the 4th night rate if you book 7 nights (B2G1, B4G2)?
Good question — I see where you’re going with that.
The short answer: Nights #3 and #6 are still the free nights — so you’ll still get rebated for night #4.
Longer answer: I just tested it. If you click through the link to the promotion page that we have in this post, it will NOT allow you to search for anything more than a 6 night stay. However, if you go to SPG.com, you can search a 7-night stay and then enter the promo code on the right hand side where you check the boxes for which rates you want to see.
In the example in this post, I did the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane from May 25th-May 31st and the “paid” nights were 340 pounds each. The promotion ends on June 1st, so I tested a 7th night by adding May 24th. I believe the rate on May 24th is higher (if I do a 6-night stay from May 24th, it comes out higher than a 6-night stay from May 25th). So I expected the nightly rate might be a bit higher — and it is….it’s 345 pounds for each of the paid nights if you book it as a 7-night stay from May 24th. So you’d pay 345 pounds x 5 nights and then get 345 pounds back for a net of 1380 pounds for 7 nights at this particular property.
To be clear, I have no idea whether or not this property is worth that price — I just compared the rates against those found on other sites and saw this was a significant savings. If I were actually planning a stay, I’d look at reviews/location/price to find the best combination — you may find something even better. Also keep in mind that I believe the Mastercard promotion works on any room type, as does the Citi Prestige discount — so if you’re interested in a Presidential Suite somewhere, you could go all out.
[…] Stacking Citi Prestige for “3 nights free” with SPG (sort of) by Frequent Miler. Great discount if you can make it work for you. In other news I think Nick has really found his feet and I’m really enjoying the content he is producing for Frequent Miler. […]
I stacked citi prestige 4th night free with spg stay 2get one free promo code zh3 and got both the citi credit and 4 nights. Perfect for a spg platinum challenge period. No reason the stay 4 get 2 free zh6 wouldn’t work as well imho.
Hi Nick – Thanks for all the good articles and insight. I successfully “stacked” the Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit with the SPG Z6H promo code in Dec 2016 at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva (SPG Luxury Collection). The Z6H promo code was slightly different, in that it was “buy 4 get 2 free” (i.e., the 5th and 6th nights were the “free” nights), but the principle seems the same as with the current SPG M3D promo code. Hopefully this DP helps.
You’re welcome! Glad to hear that you stacked this — did you get elite credit for all 6 nights? (credit towards Gold/Platinum status)
Good question. I meant to say this in my original post – Yes, I got elite credit for all 6 nights.
As you get elite credit even for award nights, it shouldn’t be a surprise you get credit for discounted paid nights as well.
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