Starwood Preferred Guest - How best do I get an upgrade

I am a Plat starwood and have been for a couple of years, but find that I very rarely get upgrade to suites. I ususally get a club level room but it is pretty std.

I am travelling to Hawaii for 10 days next weekend and have two rooms booked at the sheratn moana surfride and 2 at the westin Maui. I am using free nights for the rooms for my kids and paying with a free weekend thrown in for me.

I checked the reservations onlune and at the surfrider I am in a city view limited room in the diamon wing fro my paid rservation and ocean view diamon wing for my kids free nights.

What is the best way of handling this, I have seen posts on this board that suggest the diamond wing is really bad. Should I call the hotel and how far in advance or call the plat concierge desk



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CO Plat, AA PLat
Starwood Plat

Those properties are usually good on upgrades.

Unless you want to use points to actually confirm an upgrade in advance, you're best to wait until check-in. What you see now is unlikely to be what you finally get once the front desk manager can go through the reservations on arrival day.

Quite a few hotels take some prodding before they'll release a suite. If I'm allocated a non-suite room, I always ask if it's the 'best available' in the hotel. If they say it's the best available, I go to my room, call the Starwood Platinum desk, and ask if there are any revenue suites available.

If there are revenue suites available, I ask the Platinum concierge to phone the hotel manager to 'explain' SPG Platinum benefits. It nearly always gets a suite released.

If I'm only at gold level with SPG, can I make the same request for upgrades? Is there any chance at success, or should I just wait until I reach plat level?

I assume it can't hurt to at least make the request. Thoughts?

I know I've been a pest on this subject. I booked a room for cash next week in Hawaii. I waited until 5 days before to use points for the upgrade. I'm told no upgrade is available. The room category IS AVAILABLE if I wanted to pay in cash for it. Can hotels just say no? Told no upgrades from any of the categories. This is from SPG. Hotel said I could but must be booked through SPG. It's like a merry go round.

I am a gold Member. I almost always pay for a room instead of using points. But 5 days before my arrival I almost always call SPG to see what i can upgrade to. I was told on two occasions that the hotel I had picked didnt allow upgrades
(1) Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa...SPG Rep called the Diplomat with me on the phone and they explained that they did not allow points upgrades in advance( i wanted club level) but they would do it at check-in. ....Sure Enough at Check-in i got an Oceanfront Room on the Club Level
(2) Westin Embassy Row(Washington DC)...was first told by an SPP rep that the hotel just didnt allow them. I called back and spoke to another man who in turn called the hotel and a man at the hotel upgraded me to an Ambassador Suite....cfosting no additional points( good business for them i will be back next month in that same suite at a paid rate using no points)
I emailed SPG about hotels "not" allowing points upgrades ..their response was
" Please be advised, all participating Starwood Hotels offer upgrades in advance using your Starpoints as long as you have the sufficient amount to cover the cost. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced"

I don't know what all the hubbaloo is about. I booked a prepaid stay at the Diplomat, and because I was Gold, upgraded to a suite (because it was available, and I called in advance three times to be sure they had my SPG number on my folio) and I was lucky.

My next stay at the same hotel a couple of weeks later I booked the same (PL) prepaid room, and found it a little harder. I followed the same procedure I had in the past stay. But, when I checked in, the front desk said that I had already been upgraded to a oceanfront standard sized room. This in and of itself is a good upgrade. But I had been spoiled on my previous stay.

After hearing this, I said, this is a standard SPG amenity, but I am Gold, I would like the same two room suite, room 33XX like my last stay...

Needless to say, it took me 30 minutes and a supervisor, then the rooms manager to resolve the issue, and I was eventually placed into the same room (literally) as I had been on the previous stay. I was never rude, or raised an octave.

The main reason I knew that rooms (suites) were avaiable was that when I called the hotel and spoke to the front desk, they mentioned that a very large group was
leaving, and the hotel was wide open. Which is why I recommend you call the hotel more than once if the stay is important to you, or you have the time to burn. This seems to give you the ammo to relay to the manager on the spot, when situations like this occur.

I am not implying that I deserved quite this much. I am saying, if you know the rules, and are willing to press the issue, sometimes things go your way. I must say, the rooms manager at the Diplomant is a stand up person, to say the least.

Just my several cents...

When you get your upgrade to a suite at the westin Maui, don't be shocked by the size. Their "premier" one bedroom suite measures a total of 436 sq. ft. for the TWO rooms.