Members of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) can now collect Starpoints when riding around town with Uber, thanks to a new partnership between the hotel loyalty scheme and the Google-backed technology giant.

After spending just one night in a Starwood hotel each year – including brands such as Sheraton, W, Le Meridien and St. Regis – travellers will earn one Starpoint per US dollar, or the equivalent in other currencies spent with Uber.

Base-level Preferred members also pick up double points on Uber rides when staying in-house with Starwood, Gold and Platinum members earn triple points with Uber and 75-night Platinum guests net an impressive quadruple points on Uber spend: that’s four Starpoints per US dollar.

But until you’ve completed that obligatory first hotel night each year and that stay has appeared in your SPG account history, you won’t earn any Starpoints with Uber.

You’re also capped at earning Starpoints on up to US$10,000 worth of Uber rides every calendar year.

Linking your SPG and Uber accounts

To get started, head to spg.com/uber, sign-in with your Starwood Preferred Guest details and click ‘link accounts’.

For everything to go smoothly, you’ll need to use the same email address on your SPG and Uber accounts, so if they don’t match, update one to match the other.

It’s then as simple as approving the terms and conditions, after which you’ll see this screen:

After that first hotel stay, a $65 trip from Sydney’s domestic airport to the CBD earns roughly 51 Starpoints for all travellers, or up to 204 Starpoints for a 75-night Platinum member heading to a Sydney Starwood hotel on check-in day.

Get a discount on your first Uber ride

New Uber users can sign up for the service at uber.com and enter the special Australian Business Traveller promotion code of uberAusBT to add $10 free Uber credit to their account, which will count against your first paid ride in an Uber car.

(Disclaimer: we'll also pick up $10 of Uber credit when you take that ride, so it's a win-win.)

Read: Get $10 discount with our Uber promo code

Uber doesn't actually employ the drivers or own the cars, but rather provides a go-between to link drivers who have some downtime between booked jobs with people seeking a quality ride that's a cut above a taxi.

Uber counts many business travellers among its customers, especially for these runs to and from the airport.

Read: Our review of Uber in Sydney

For the latest information for business travellers and frequent flyers, follow @AusBT on Twitter.