Insight Needed for Staying at Swan

[mcbethanny]

Considering staying at the Swan in October but I have a few questions.

1. From what I can find, I would only have to pay a deposit for the reservation. Could I pay the remainder using points?
2. If I get the Starwood Credit Card now, do you feel like I could collect enough points to stay for three nights?
3. If I don't get enough points, can I pay partially with points?

Any other tips to help save money and stay at Swan?

 

[jprieur]

1. Stayed at swan many times, typical hotel so basically they have your credit card and you start paying when you check in. We always had annual passes though so never booked a Disney hotel/ticket package at swan so can't speak to that.
2. Would have be a good promo, the swan required quite a bit of points for free nights. Check thepointsguy website and see if Starwood credit cards have any good promos running, great source of info.
3. Yes Starwood does allow you to use a combo of points and cash, book one night with points and others cash, etc.

I'd call them on all of the above and they can walk you through your options on points. If you are a Costco member they have a pretty good program that is package of hotel and tickets, pretty decent savings but you have to pay full amount when you book. They also do the other typical teacher and other special rates too, but can be hard to find avail nights for those special rates.

 

[Minthorne]

I think the promo is 25,000 points right now.

 

[MSC]

Considering staying at the Swan in October but I have a few questions.

1. From what I can find, I would only have to pay a deposit for the reservation. Could I pay the remainder using points?
2. If I get the Starwood Credit Card now, do you feel like I could collect enough points to stay for three nights?
3. If I don't get enough points, can I pay partially with points?

Any other tips to help save money and stay at Swan?

If you get some promo points with the new card, then yes, you might have points to spend on a room at the Swan. Otherwise, you'll need to be a big spender to collect those points between now and October. Swan rooms are generally around 12,000 pts a night. You collect Starwood points on a point per dollar basis. So you go the grocery and spend $150 on your Starwood card, you get $150 points. It'll take you quite a few trips to collect the 84,000 points you need for 7 nights.

The Swan doesn't usually offer the "cash+points" rate that many Starwood hotels have. But you can split your stay. I'm doing that next month. The first 4 days are on points, the last three days I'm paying cash. The only unfortunate thing about this is you have to make two separate reservations. Easiest to do this by phone.

Also, if you are a Marriot awards member, you can convert those to Starwood points, then use them at the Swan.

My favorite money saver: if you are flying and don't need a car while at WDW, I think it is usually cheaper and more convenient to rent a car from National Car Rental at the airport and drive it to the Swan/Dolphin and turn it in once you check in, rather than hire transportation. This also allows you to stop at a grocery store to pick up snacks, water, supplies for the week at your leisure on your way to the hotel. There's a National desk at the Dolphin for turn in.