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Best Western has launched a new promotion which, if my memory serves me correctly, is their most rewarding promotion in quite some time.
An additional interesting feature of the promo is that you have the choice between two earning preferences, so you can pick which one best suits you based on the stays you you’ll be planning along with how you value their gift cards and points.
The Deal
- Best Western is offering the choice between the following two promotions:
- Get a $20 Best Western gift card for each night you stay (limit 5 gift cards)
- Get 5,000 bonus points for each night you stay (limit 3 nights)
- Also earn 5,000 bonus points after every 5 nights regardless of which option you pick above.
- Direct links to registration – note that you can only pick one and you can’t change your mind after registration:
Key Terms
- Must register by May 16, 2021.
- Promotion is limited to one Choose Your Own Adventure (“CYOA”). Once a CYOA option is chosen, this will be your earning preference and no changes can be made following registration. Promotion is subject to cancellation or change without notice. Promotion is non-transferable. Promotion registration and BWR enrollment/membership required prior to the eligible night stay applied to the promotion. An eligible night stay completed prior to promotion registration and BWR enrollment/membership will not count towards satisfying the promotion requirements. BWR enrollment may be completed by visiting bestwesternrewards.com.
- Gift card offer
- Best Western Rewards® (“BWR®”) members*** (“Member(s)”) who (a) are preselected by Best Western International, (b) register for the promotion through the email marketing communication, (c) complete one (1) eligible night stay*, a maximum of five (5) times, between May 17, 2021, and September 6, 2021 (“Promotion Period”) at any Best Western® branded hotel in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean Islands, and (d) have a valid email address listed in the Member’s account profile at the time of registration for the promotion, will earn one (1) promotional $20 USD/CAD** Best Western Travel Card® (“Travel Card”) for each of the five eligible night stays. There is a limit of five (5) $20 USD/CAD Travel Cards or a total of $100 USD/CAD in Travel Cards per Member during the promotion. Travel Cards expire on November 30, 2021.
- Once the registered Member earns a maximum of five (5) $20 USD/CAD Travel Cards, Member can earn an additional 5,000 BWR Bonus Points for every five (5) eligible night stays completed during the Promotion Period. There is no limit to the number of 5,000 BWR Bonus Points awards a Member can earn during the Promotion Period . BWR Bonus Points will be posted to the Member’s account within 5 to 7 days following the completion of the fifth eligible night stay.
- 5,000 bonus points per night offer:
- Best Western Rewards® (“BWR®”) members*** (“Member(s)”) who (a) are preselected by Best Western International, (b) register for the promotion through one of the email marketing communications, (c) complete one (1) eligible night stay*, a maximum of three (3) times, between May 17, 2021, and September 6, 2021 (“Promotion Period”) at any Best Western® branded hotel in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean Islands, and (d) have a valid email address listed in the Member’s account profile at the time of registration for the promotion, will earn 5,000 BWR Bonus Points for each of the three eligible night stays. There is a limit of three (3) 5,000 BWR Bonus Points awards per Member during the promotion.
- Once the registered Member earns a maximum of three (3) 5,000 BWR Bonus Points awards, Member can earn an additional 5,000 BWR Bonus Points for every five (5) eligible night stays completed during the Promotion Period. There is no limit to the number of 5,000 BWR Bonus Points awards a Member can earn during the Promotion Period. BWR Bonus Points will be posted to the Member’s account within 5 to 7 days following the completion of the fifth eligible night stay.
Quick Thoughts
OK, so this is no Hyatt Bonus Journeys promotion, but as Best Western promos go this is the most rewarding one that I can remember.
5,000 bonus points per night for the first three nights is a pretty good return for that option, although getting $20 gift cards for the first five nights could be a good option too if you’re confident that you’ll be able to make use of them.
Something important to note with the Best Western gift cards is that they’ve more like bonus cards than gift cards because they expire in November 30. If you’re not sure you’ll be able to redeem the cards by then, earning the bonus points will be the safer option, especially because Best Western Rewards points never expire.
It’s also good to see Best Western rewarding you for subsequent stays too. 5,000 bonus points for every five nights after you’ve already earned the gift cards or initial 15,000 bonus points isn’t amazing seeing as that’s only 1,000 bonus points per night and you have to actually stay five nights to earn those points. However, Best Western promotions sometimes provide no reward beyond the first few nights you stay during a promo period, so at least they’re making some kind of effort here to, y’know, get you to book more stays with them (shocking, I know).
Best Western being Best Western though couldn’t resist making it just that little bit harder to take advantage of this promotion. Although the eligible stay period is May 17 to September 6, you have to register for the promotion by May 16. Thankfully you don’t appear to have to book your stays by May 16 – you just have to register by that date – but it does make me question why they only give you a few days to register for a promotion that’s lasting for the next four months.
As of the time of publishing this post, Rakuten is still offering 15% cashback (or 15x Membership Rewards) when booking Best Western stays. That in itself is a fantastic return, so combined with this latest promotion certainly makes them worth considering for at least a cursory search when making hotel plans over the next few months. Please let me know if you need to borrow my smelling salts as a result of this shocking turn of events.
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Details!!!! Just left BW disappointed after having my gift card use denied. 1 I probably click through a Rakuten link to book my BW reservation and that created a “commissioned” reservation which did not qualify for using the gift card. 2 I was told I had to declare the gift card upon check-in which no one asked for. I thought I would do it at morning check out but i was told because of the omission the night before it cannot be applied afterwards.
Front desk lady said she’s been hearing multiple complaints about these undisclosed restrictions on the gift card. And was unable to help me. I will be taking this up with BW corporate. These detailed terms and conditions are not disclosed anywhere to the BW consumer.
5000 points can be redeemed for a $25 Best Western gift card, a real one that doesn’t expire. At one time they had different redemption rates for elites, though right now I only see one rate. Maybe the elite rate will come back some day. Anyway, there’s no reason to choose a fake $20 “gift card” over 5000 points, unless you can max them out at $100 and can surely use them.
I’ve been able to use two of the $25 credits from the promotion that started last year and have one left. It ended up being helpful for me for mid trip hotels on long drives. I don’t have plans for future stays so I’d probably select 5k if it was offered to me. But then I didn’t have plans for future stays after the stay that generated the first $25 credit.
Seems ok of a promotion but not sure without seeing a points valuation. FM team – it would be good to add your RRV to these posts!
You can find a Best Western points valuation here: https://frequentmiler.com/reasonable-redemption-values-rrvs/
Greg’s been going through and updating all the hotel RRVs recently, but hasn’t gotten to Best Western yet, so I’m not sure how accurate the old RRV of 0.58cpp still is.