Free points for no housekeeping!

I’m in Barcelona, Spain, staying at the Four Points by Sheraton, Barcelona Diagonal. I’ll be posting a review of the hotel itself shortly.

Upon entering my room yesterday, I found an interesting offer sitting on the desk inside.

In summary, “Reward yourself with a choice of a 5 Euro credit at a participating food and beverage venue or 250 Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints. The choice is yours for each night you decline Housekeeping services and help us conserve natural resources.”

After placing the door hang outside my room, this coupon slipped under my door early the next morning.

It’s an interesting proposition, one that I actually took them  up on. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this concept. More recently, several months ago I was staying in Seattle at a Kimpton property, and by refusing housekeeping, your receive a similar $5 food and beverage credit (Kimpton doesn’t have a points structure, so the only thing they really could offer was some type of monetary credit). Not realizing it, but that specific Kimpton property was even generous enough to apply it as a credit to the room bill itself, and not just for food and beverage. Unfortunately, I had already gone to the restaurant to eat, so I applied it there. Nonetheless, it was certainly a nice thing to have a bill less $5!

So back to this current offer – 5 Euros, or 250 Starpoints. I recently booked an SPG property in Atlanta for 1,500 Starpoints a night, so when considering the value of their lower-point properties, 250 Starpoints certainly does come in handy — but only when you stay, in this case, 6 nights total. I’m only here for 2, and you can only apply the coupon to nights where you are actually in the room the next day (not the checkout day). I’m choosing to use the 5 Euro credit, as I’m trying to keep food and beverage costs low for this trip. Last night, I had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant which was about 20 Euros. Coupled with a 10 percent discount for SPG members, the points I’ll receive for the purchase since I billed it to my room, and this new 5 Euro credit, I’m receiving quite a bargain in what ordinarily could be a very expensive city.

So, here’s my question for you — Do you every choose the no housekeeping option to receive additional points or credit? Which hotels have you seen them offered at, and which option do you usually take?