Starwood Hotels & Resorts on Sunday deposited 1 million SPG Starpoints in the account of travel professional Roxana Lewis of ProTravel International, according to the hospitality company. Lewis was the official 2010 winner of Starwood Hotels & Resorts "Book and Win BIG" One Million Points Sweepstakes.
A 40-year veteran of the travel industry, Lewis is an adventure travel specialist with Virtuoso’s ProTravel in Beverly Hills, Calif. She is a noted authority on the back roads of Italy, a restaurant expert and she speaks three languages.
Asked what she thought she might do with this new found fortune, Lewis said, "I have always wanted to do a solo backpack around-the-world. I think the gods of good fortune are telling me to ditch the backpack and Starwood-it instead."
The "Book and Win BIG" promotion recorded more than 90,000 booking entries and registered nearly 12,000 travel professionals last year, according to Starwood. Twelve winners earned monthly prizes and three prizewinners took home resort stays.
Travel professionals can once again register their bookings as entries in the monthly 50,000 Starpoints drawings or resort prizes and qualify for a chance at the year-end one million Starpoints prize. January winners will be posted shortly, Starwood says.
"We know travel professionals have plenty of choices for their customers’ hotel and resort stays and we certainly recognize and appreciate a professional’s decision to choose us," said Chris Austin, vice president of global retail leisure and luxury sales at Starwood. "We have more than 16,000 travel professionals who have committed to our ProLearning curriculum and are officially StarwoodPros."
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Starwood Preferred Guest program offers its free night awards with no blackout dates or availability restrictions. 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 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.
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