Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Announcing Starwood's "BOOK AND WIN" Promotion For 2010!

An Open Letter to All Travel Professionals
From Chris J. Austin, Starwood's VP Global Customer Partnership, Leisure & Luxury Sales

Hello to all the members of the Home Based Travel Agent Community. I love to follow your conversations and see how truly engaged this community is with the issues of our industry today. I also know how hard you work and how much effort you put into finding the right products for your customers, the right solutions for your business and the right opportunities for growth. Today, I wanted to share one of those opportunities with you. I thought it might be strongest if I shared this opportunity by letting you hear some stories from some fellow travel professional colleagues.

An 11-year front line travel agent, loyal to her agency and loyal to her customers, proved that booking a Starwood hotel could be good for her as well. Amanda Kincade of World Travel Inc. is now thinking of all the possible ways she can use One Million Starpoints®. First on the list will be a trip to Disney for her 4 year old son, and then, Hawaii is her wish list.

 “I love this industry and I love to sell travel, and to have an opportunity to do some exploring and traveling of my own is an incredible gift. And all I had to do was do my job and book my clients,” said Kincade. “I have not yet had time to dream and decide what I want to do, but I know my son gets a Disney trip for sure.”

In the first year of the Book and Win BIG promotion, we at Starwood recorded more than 60,000 booking entries and registered more than 6,000 travel professionals for this promotion. There were 12 monthly winners of the 50,000 Starpoints and one incredibly lucky winner of the Million Points prize.

The complete winner’s list includes:

January:  Jann Koert, KDM Travel, Davenport Iowa
February:  Lorena Flores, American Express - Travizon, Chicago Illinois
March:  Vickie Gorlick, Frosch Travel - Northbrook Illinois
April:  Cheri Rice, ProTravel International - New York New York
May:  Marcia Wiesner, Grays Travel Management - Northbrook Illinois
June:  Wallace Jones, Signature Travel - Phoenix Arizona 
July:  Connie Long, Adelman Travel - Irvine California 
August:  Kerry Wallace, Ovation Travel - New York New York 
September:  Seta Kembikian, Andovo Travel of Marin - Larkspur California 
October:  Jerry Lyon, Sanders Travel - Ft Worth Texas 
November:  Cathy Hohertz, Journey House - Carrolton Texas 
December:  Betsy Rainville, Garber Travel - Arlington Virginia

Recognizing that in a challenging economic year, travel professionals gave their business to Starwood, we returned the favor and extended this promotion for 2010. So this year you can log your bookings as entries in the monthly 50,000 Starpoints drawings and qualify for a chance at the year-end 1 million Starpoints prize.

New for 2010, we’ll be giving away 60 land based vacations at Starwood Resorts in North America, including Mexico and Hawaii. Each month five lucky Travel Professional winners will be randomly selected for a complimentary three-night stay at a participating Starwood resort.

For February our resort winners will be able to experience: The Westin La Cantera Resort, San Antonio; the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, Scottsdale; the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort & Spa; the Westin Key West Marina Resort & Spa; or the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel.

We know you, as a travel professional, have plenty of choices for  your customers’ hotel and resort stays and we certainly recognize and appreciate the decision to choose us.We believe it is important for those who sell travel to also truly experience it and enjoy it. We even checked in with some of last year’s winners to see if they had put their winnings to use yet.

For Vickie Gorlick, Israel is the plan. “I am using some of my points for a trip that I am taking to Israel this spring.  I am booked at the Sheraton Tel Aviv.  I am holding the rest of my points, trying to decide where to go.  I hate to use them all up at once.

I really appreciate having them.”

Seta Kembikian is planning a trip to Tahiti. Betsy Rainville is letting her children choose.

Wally Jones, our June winner, used his points up pretty quickly, and happily. “I used them for my first trip to Europe.  I stayed four nights at the Westin Berlin.  It is a very well located and an absolutely elegant property.  Ulrich Moritz and the entire staff at that property were fantastic.  And I stayed two nights in Paris at the Le Meridien Montparnasse. A wonderful experience all around!”

And Jan Koert, she’s being creative. “I was able to use my points for all kinds of fun!  I used points to purchase a flight to Cabo San Lucas in May.  I got a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate and bought some lovely bedding.  And I also used points for a free hotel stay in Paris in November!  I think that is pretty awesome to get all of that and be able to spread it out as well!  Thanks so much Starwood!  What a wonderful combination of happy clients and fun for me!”

Every time a reservation is confirmed, via the GDS, web, Starwood call center or tour operator at any Starwood hotel or resort property, a travel professional is eligible to submit an entry into the StarwoodPro “Book and Win BIG” one million Starpoints® sweepstakes. Each booking is a chance for a travel professional to earn the ultimate reward they deserve.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Starwood Preferred Guest® is unique in its free night awards with no blackout dates or availability restrictions. Very simply, if there's a standard room available on the chosen night, it can be booked with starpoints. Free Night Awards can be redeemed for as few as 2,000 Starpoints® in popular cities or be used at rates of up to 35,000 points a night for stays at magnificent resorts in the world's most sought-after places, or upgrade to a Specialty Room or Suite at participating hotels starting at just 1,000 Starpoints®.

Book & Win BIG prizes include:

•   Grand Prize – One Million Starpoints® to redeem in any way you wish*

•   Plus, twelve monthly prizes of 50,000 Starpoints®.

*   Five monthly land based vacations of 3 nights making a total of 60 land based vacations at Starwood Resorts in North America to be won.

*Starpoints® will be awarded as part of the Starwood Preferred Guest® hotel loyalty program. See SPG.com for full program details.

One of our winners from last year, Jerry Lyon, a Virtuoso agent from Sanders Travel, has only used a few of those points so far, but for a very good reason. “I used some of my points to visit my daughter at the University of Texas.  A Sheraton, not an exciting vacation, one night in and out, but special nonetheless! Hopefully I’ll be able to use the rest for an exciting trip somewhere.  I’ll keep trying for the million in 2010. Thanks again, Jerry.”

Well, to Jerry and to all of you, I say, Good luck! Hope we give you the prize in 2010! And let’s all have a great year together.

Chris