(Back to normal) All Sonesta properties pricing at 60K points/night

Update 8/20/24: As we suspected, this appears to have been a technical issue and all properties have returned to normal pricing. I looked around for something pricing at 60K, but all of 50K properties that I’m tracking are still pricing at 50K. Sonesta has informed us that this was purely a glitch and the pricing of all properties program-wide remains unchanged.

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The FM Team has been more intrigued by Sonesta Travel Pass recently, a program that’s generally flown under-the-radar for us. In large part, that’s due to the strength of Sonesta points combined with a sensational welcome offer on the Sonesta Mastercard and a relatively strong “big spend bonus” spending proposition.

Sonesta doesn’t have a published award chart, but the properties do have fixed redemption levels that range from 10K-50K points/night. There’s no off-peak/on-peak variance, so a 30K property always prices at 30K if there’s an award available, regardless of the time of year or cash price.

However, an FM reader noticed that some of the 30K properties that she has been tracking were now pricing at 60K…effectively doubling the rate with no notice. Upon looking I found out that, not only was she right, but it was much more odd…every single Sonesta property appears to be priced at 60,000 points per night.

Quick Thoughts

There’s two things that are interesting here. First, Sonesta awards have previously topped out at 50K points/night; this is the first that we’ve seen of a 60K award. Second, all hotels are currently at the same 60K price, regardless of the cash price. Here’s the America’s Best Value Inn in Denver, which normally would cost 15K/night:

That’s obviously an insane rate for a hotel that costs $85/night in cash. I looked at over twenty budget properties and they were all priced the same way.

This makes me think that there’s a tech glitch at work somewhere. My guess is that Sonesta is incorporating a new top-tier price of 60K points (and possibly changing some pricing for certain properties) and someone had a “whoopsie.” Now, all properties are showing 60K.

If indeed Sonesta is moving to a fixed, 60K redemption level for all hotels and resorts, it would be one of the worst devaluations that we’ve ever seen for any loyalty program. I think it’s far more likely that pricing will revert back within the next day or so, with some very high-end properties how at 60K and others having changed from one pricing tier to the next.

Regardless, don’t make any Sonesta redemptions in the short term, as the pricing is sky-high. We’ll keep an eye on this and update as necessary.

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