Starwood Preferred Guest - "Client Preferred/Net" rate on SPG.com

Does anyone (Lurker?) know if this rate is eligible for:

SPG Gold upgrades
Earning Stay credits
Earning Points

When booked on SPG.com. I'm assuming it is, since it's through SPG. But it's a discounted rate, so I'm questionining it in light of all the recent changes to SPG's booking/stay/credit policies.

Thanks!

yes

Thanks. One more question. What exactly is this rate? I mean, is it used for certain promotions, certain customers/plans, company or travel agents, targeted offers to customers, etc..?

It's a corporate discount number. When I enter it into the rate section of SPG.COM, I get a bunch of rates described as 'CORPORATE/SET RATE' or something similar. Then when I do a search for regular or 'promotional' rates, they sometimes come back cheaper. I gotta' talk to my company's purchasing dept. about this.

PHL, The reason is it's an agreed upon rate regardless of events going on. So basically sometimes it will be cheaper or more expensive. The hotel expects you in good faith and a bit of laziness to choose that rate and it will even out on their side.

However alot of companies have a policy of always asking the hotel if they have a lower rate. Many don't do this but you do have your company saved $$$

Interesting topic. I'm only staying at *wood hotels for leisure and after I reached about 3000 SPG points a rate code came up whenever I wanted to make a booking online. I was always wondering whether this was some kind of "special" rate for SPG members who collected a certain number of points. I never used the rate as I could find lower prices without it, but sometimes I got room types that I couldn't find otherwise. The rate code is now gone if I want to make a booking, but thank god I've written it down.

Did anyone else get a "client preferred/net rate" without knowing where it came from? To me it sounds like a rate for SPG members booking on the net, but I was never sure whether they want to see some ID at check-in. What is that rate and where did it come from and of course can I use it?

My observation is that entering the corporate code that applies to me will often result in a rate that mentions my company.

A lot of times however (often in areas where we don't have offices) the "client preferred/net rate" shows up. I have always supposed that it was the generic corporate rate for properties that did not have a specific relationship with my company.

Perhaps William can shed some light?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by VPescado:
...Perhaps William can shed some light?</font>

No need to. You summed it up pretty much the way it is. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
No need to. You summed it up pretty much the way it is. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif </font>

Does this mean my SPG Junior Lurker badge (and matching luggage tags) are in the mail? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Agree with VPescado about Client Preferred/Net rate is the generic corp rate if your company specific rate is not available.

My experience is that that rate is generally, but not always the lowest rate - I've scored better with AAA rate or even the occasional Promotional rate, so it pays to check a bit.

All my past booking using the Client Preferred/Net rate have always earned me upgrade, stay credit, and points credit.