[Expired] Best Western: Buy $200 Giftcard, Get $50 Bonus Card (Bonus Card Expires 5/31/23)

View Comments (14)

• Just checking if anyone has a datapoint of buying a single travel card of $500 and receiving two bonus cards of $50 each or does it need to be separate purchase of two $250 cards. TIA.

• I've used a similar bonus twice now in years past, $20 bonus per $100 purchase. I've had similar experience to TD below but the staff I worked with seemed to know what they were doing. In the past I purchased a single $500 ecard and then receive 5x $20 bonus ecards. I was able to use it all on a single stay. I printed all 6 ecards and gave them at checkin. They told me that can't apply them at the beginning of the stay and they have to do it during checkout. They held onto the cards during my stay. Both times I did the offer I felt a little nervous with my gift cards kinda hanging out and not applied to my stay until the end. But everything worked out without complication in the end. I reminded the staff on the morning of my last day to apply all 6 cards at checkout and there was no problem when I was ready to leave. It probably helped my case since both times I did it were longer stays that burned up all $600 at once, not partial amounts. It does seem kinda janky though to not be able to apply them until the end.

  • It makes sense they can’t apply until the end. There’s no charge yet so there’s nothing to apply it against.

• The use of the GC when you get it can be a mess because there has been so much turnover and the new staff at the franchisees has no idea how to deal with GC. I experienced, on three consecutive stays at separate properties in 2021, attempts to use none of the gift card, all of the ($500) gift card (!), and the wrong amount of the gift card. Resulting in, respectively, charging all to credit card when none of it should have been (and reversing that), having to do a three way call with BW corporate to revive and restore the proper amount to the gift card, and having to call the property to correct the charge to the gift card.

  Since the GC is driven by corporate wanting to book revenue before guests stay, it is a clear case of misaligned incentives between corporate and the franchisees. The franchisees do not give AF because they view it as a kind of unfunded mandate from corporate and so few people use the gift cards; corporate already has the money, probably doesn’t pass it all to the franchisees for a GC stay (much like with free nights), and is not willing to herd cats to verify competent training. For obvious reasons (fraud) they even don't sell physical GC at the hotels anymore, so you may be the lucky first guest the staffer has ever dealt with that uses a GC, if they've even heard of it. You'll get your deal, eventually, but perhaps at a cost.

• I don't see any language saying that only 1 bonus card can be used per stay, or anything similar to this... Can someone correct me if I'm wrong? I have an upcoming stay and would like to leverage this, but am wary as many other "BONUS CARDS" that one receives during holidays like this often have that language!

  • I had five $20 bonus cards once and used all of them on a single stay, so I do not think it will be a problem. The bonus cards are actually certificates you get by email usually with a bar code and a unique certificate number. I usually *print them out*, as there is no way to attach them to a reservation from the guest's end, and to simply forward them to a random hotel email address is pushing the bounds of reliability in an already shaky process (see above).

    In my experience, the night person at check-in just put the printed-out bonus certificates that I gave them in the folio (bring a second copy for yourself, or in case they "lose" them!) and punted it to the manager who did it in the morning when they came in, before I checked out. It is not as straightforward as knocking $20 or $50 x 5 off the bill, because the franchisee has to validate the certificates with BW corporate to get their money, and for whatever reason, it is not a tidy overlay with the reservation system. There is also apparently a box or field or something that is easily missed by untrained employees such that the system defaults to charging the entire value of the card and literally terminating it so that it cannot be revived (of course!) without a special code or authorization from BW corporate, rather than just charging the amount of the reservation, if the reservation only uses part of the card value. These are things you learn when you do this crap long enough. I've encountered some BW employees who are aware of all of this and do it right the first time (Laramie, WY looking at you), but they are few and far between.

    Just expect something like that going in, and that you'll have to triple check everything before you leave the hotel to make sure it was done right.

• Will this stack with amex 100-30 offer?

  • Highly doubt it since it's a 3rd party site selling it once you click the link.

  • cards are sold NOT by Bestwestern; sold by site with different name. So purchasing the card is not SPEND at Bestwestern.com

  • Wondering the same thing

    • Doubtful, I purchased one and it coded as Givex Best Western: Givex is the platform (a gift card platform) so it's not a direct purchase from Best Western.

      • Also Amex offer language says it is only valid on room rate and room charges; Givex will code as not that.

• Can this stack with Amex offer?

  • Answered above: No, because it's not billed to Best Western at all.