We have previously covered the great savings offered with promotions from Stay Vancouver Hotels. Check out our previous post for some background information on Stay Vancouver Hotels promotions.
The current promotion provides up to a $125 Mastercard gift card for the first night's stay at a qualifying hotel and $50 per night for up to two more consecutive nights. The offer can be found at stayvancouverhotels.com.
It's important to note the following:
The offer is applicable for stays now through April 30th.
These offers are limited and are pulled without warning so if you want to take advantage of the savings, book now.
These offers are quite flexible, allowing for free cancellations up to 48 hours prior to your check-in date.
Typically you can simply apply the gift card directly onto your bill at check-out if you wish (personally, I prefer to earn more points by using a credit card that has a multiplier).
Also of note is that it's our experience that these nights generally count as a hotel stay for Marriott's Bonvoy program when booking a Marriott hotel. This is notwithstanding that it is booked through the Stay Vancouver Hotels website. Your credit card will be charged directly by the hotel, just as if you booked it directly with the hotel. So, for example, you can still take advantage of the current Marriott promotion of earning 1 bonus elite night credit with each night's stay.
You can also stack other offers with the Stay Vancouver Hotels promotion. For example, if you have received the Discover Winter British Columbia offer on an American Express card which provides you with a $100 credit upon spending $800 at eligible hotel merchants, you could stack it with the Stay Vancouver Hotels offer for a further $100 in savings. Check out our review of the Westin Bayshore to see how I stacked Stay Vancouver Hotels offers with other promotions this past summer.
So, what kind of deals can be had this time around? I did some searching and found some pretty great rates.
If you are looking at racking up some stays at Marriott branded hotels in order to take advantage of Marriott's current bonus elite night promotion, there are a couple of attractive options. In searching for a stary on February 4th, I found the 3 star Residence Inn can be had for $179 per night, with the Stay Vancouver Hotels offering a $100 gift card for the first night, bringing your net cost down to $179 per night. Better yet is the 4 star Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, with a rate of $169 per night and a $100 gift card, bringing the rate down to $69 for the first night. Not cheap enough? How about the 4 star Sheraton Wall Centre for $160 per night, with a $100 gift card, bringing the first night to a very reasonable $60 per night! I recently stayed at the Sheraton Wall Centre (review coming) and $60 per night is a steal for this hotel.
On the same dates, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver has a rate of $239 with the promotion providing a $125 gift card, bringing that first night to a rate of $114. The Fairmont Waterfront is only $10 more, with a regular rate of $249, with a $125 gift card received with the promotion, bringing the effective rate to $124.
If you want to go full 5 stars, you can book the Shangri-La over March break on March 29th for $385 per night, with a $125 gift card, bringing the rate down to $260 per night, which is a good price for this hotel. One could also book it for 3 nights at $385 per night and receive a total of $225 in gift cards. If you also stacked that with the Amex Discover Winter British Columbia offer for a further $100 credit, your net cost would be $276.66 per night.
Finally, if you are just looking for a cheap night in Vancouver, there is the 2.5 star Days Inn or the 3.5 star Executive Hotel Vintage Park, both with regular rates of $109 per night. I checked out the hotel websites and the regular rates were slightly cheaper, being $92.65 per night at the Days Inn and $101 at the Executive Hotel Vintage Park. However, once you account for the $50 MasterCard for each night up to three nights, you will effectively only be paying $59 per night. Frankly, however, for a few dollars more you could book into a 4 start hotel like the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront which offers a rate of $139 (Feb 7th) and offers a $75 gift card, bringing the rate down to $66 per night.
As you can see, there are some very good deals to be had when you factor in receiving a MasterCard gift card. If you use the Stay Vancouver Hotels promotion, share your experience in the comments below.