(EXPIRED) Best Western: Earn 3,000 Bonus Points Per Stay Through 10/31/20, But Must Book By 9/13/20

At one end of the hotel promotions spectrum we have Hyatt with its excellent new promo. At the other end we have Marriott’s fairly lackluster offering and they’ve now been joined by Best Western, whose latest promo could’ve been significantly better if they hadn’t included a limited window in which you can book.

The Deal

• Earn 3,000 bonus points on every stay with Best Western in the United States, Canada & the Caribbean Islands.
• Direct link to registration (our affiliate link).

Key Terms

• Best Western Rewards (“BWR”) members (“Member(s)”) who
  • (a) were pre-selected by Best Western Hotels & Resorts to receive this offer via email;
  • (b) register for the Promotion by Sunday, September 13, 2020, 11:59 pm;
  • (c) have a valid email address listed in the Member’s account profile at the time of registration for the Promotion;
  • (d) book travel between Thursday, September 10, 2020 and Sunday, September 13, 2020 on bestwestern.com;
  • (e) complete an eligible stay by Saturday, October 31, 2020 (“Promotional Period”) at any Best Western branded hotel in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean Islands, will earn 3,000 Bonus Points for each eligible stay.

Quick Thoughts

Earning 3,000 bonus points per stay is a fairly good return, especially if you’re only booking stays of one or two nights. I’m not very familiar with Best Western’s loyalty program, but a quick search showed an average redemption price of 16,000 points, although that presumably varies based on location. If a 16,000 point per night redemption is indicative of what to expect, each stay would earn you enough bonus points to get you 18.75% of the way to a free night which, while not overly generous, is solid enough.

Where this promotion falls down is the restrictive dates involved. It’s valid on stays through October 31, 2020 which only gives you seven weeks in which to stay (for comparison, Hyatt’s promotion is good through January 4, 2021). Far worse though is the fact that you have to book your stay by September 13. That only gives you a couple more days in which to book your stay which seems needlessly restrictive. I understand the concept of introducing a sense of urgency to encourage customers to book, but a hotel chain only giving you a few days to earn enough bonus points to get less than a fifth of a way to a free night isn’t much of an incentive.

If this promotion does align with your booking needs though, there are some ways to make it a little more rewarding. There’s a Best Western Amex Offer giving $20 back when spending $100. You can also get $20 Best Western Travel Cards for every $100 of Best Western gift cards you buy.

With that latter promotion, the $20 Travel Cards expire on December 31, 2020. Seeing as stays for this promotion have to be completed by October 31, you can redeem them for your stay to ensure they don’t go to waste.

Seeing as you’ll be booking a paid stay, be sure to click through from a shopping portal – here are the current rates. At the time of writing this, Rakuten (formerly Ebates) is offering 8.5% / 8.5x Membership Rewards which is a decent return.

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