Starwood Preferred Guest - Need to Audit SPG Entries

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the SPG program. On too many occasions, I am given fewer points than I deserve.

I have recently returned from a stay for which I paid $230/night for ten nights (not including tax, etc.). The total room only expense was a clear $2300. There was also some F&B expense.

So I find a total point credit of ~4500 points. I am SPG Gold, so this implies a base credit of $1500.

I have written via the website to SPG. No response.

This is the third or fourth time in a year when I have had to challenge the credit.

What's up with SPG? Have others had this problem as well?

While I've not had problems with hotel stays, what I have found frustrating is the posting of hotel meal credits during non hotel stays. This is generally the error of the hotel itself and I would assume not the SPG program, since if they are not provided with the meal information, they have no way of knowing that my account needs to be credited.

Last year, I dined at several Starwood properties in San Francisco while I was attending a conference for a week. Each time I provided my Preferred Guest membership card to the server with my payment for the meal and while most times I received my blue SPG credit slip, the points were never posted. Since the total number of points totalled well over 1,000, I made copies of the meal receipts and took them back to the hotel for crediting, amazingly, they still didn't credit my account after several weeks. The easiest route was to fax them into the SPG service center. While not a major hassle, I think that if this benefit is offered, then the hotels should comply and submit the point credits. Having just returned from a business trip in San Francisco, where there were 1 - 2 meals at Starwood properties each day, not one has posted. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the copy machine ... again.

I too am having problems with points pointsing which are not showing up in my on-line account statement.
Called in and spoke to a very snotty CSR who kept insisting that she shows a posting for a date that my on-line statement doesnt even show, I requested a copy of the one she is looking at she told me it would take 3 to 4 weeks.???

Went back and put all the postings I can see online into a spreadsheet and it adds up to the total shown. So something aint right here.
Will wait for the copy but seems an e-mail to William (when he gets back) may be in the works.
mike

I have noted, and haven't resolved it yet, that the number of points showing as being credited on my Starwood American Express statement are sometimes more than the amounts that Starwood actually credits to my account.

I haven't taken the time to inquire but we are talking about some significant differences.

So far I have had no problems with paid stays. But, when I used an award stay, mistakes are rampant. For example, on a recent award stay, I spent a total of over $300 on food, parking, etc. Yet I was credited for only the valet parking! Took several emails to *wood before someone saw fit to even send a terse reply: "send us your folio." To their credit, within a day after I faxed in my folio, I was credited for all the missing points. But the fact remains that it happened, and not for the first time. And not even an apology was forthcoming from *wood for THEIR mistake. Oh well, buyer beware, I suppose. :(

Receiving the proper amount of points from SPG is a pain. You almost need to hire a outside auditor for the task. When staying abroad it is even worse. We have complained about this consistently here in FT and it is obvious it is not a priority to SPG.

Tell me about it!

In the last year or so, it seems I have had to e-mail or write them about 2 out of every three stays.

The bad part about it is they usually reply with "send us a copy of the hotel folio". Well, wait a minute - it's THEIR hotel, why can't they ask the hotel to send them a copy? Why ask us, the patron, to spend the time and money to fax or mail a copy to them?

The worst part about it is that even when you do, about half the time they don't do anything, and when you again inquire, they demand you send the whole shebang to them yet again!

They might be able to save a few points that way, or by disgusting a customer to the point he says "forget it" rather than go through the hassle, but that's penny wise and pound foolish - they need to factor in the customer irritation this sort of thing causes.

I too resent being asked for the folio. In my case, I checked out on the TV and had no paper bill. So I sent a page from my credit card statement (gathered online).

The error in my credit was corrected and an additional 3000 points were deposited in my account.

But the only way I discovered the correction was by checking my account online.

SPG apparently could not be bothered to send a brief email message stating that the adjustment had been made, apologizing for the error, or thanking me for my patronage.

FWIW, I've had a few stays with SPG this year that have not posted...mostly non-qualifying stays that should have posted points for qualifying extra charges. It's just not worth it anymore.

On the other hand, I've just had a stay with Hyatt that didn't post to my Gold Passport account. I phoned their customer service line. Their response: "Thank you for giving us the details of your stay. We will contact the hotel and ask them to post the missing stay."

My thoughts were, "Yeah right."

The points were posted, along with bonus points from a promotion, within 48 hours. What's happened to Starwood these days? :( I really used to like 'em.

Can't explain it, but recently I'm resigned to the fact that more frequently than not I'll have to contact spg to get my earned points. Don't know how this can be accidental, when all paperwork points to amenity and prominently displays spg account number.

Solution: failure to properly credit earned points when properly documented results in a nominal credit to the customer. Say, 250 points for the inconvenience, charged to the property. We'll quickly learn whether the omission was accidental or not.

Hello All,

The following paragraph, some of you might have seen before, explains the reason we ask you send in your folios.

"As Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide encompasses over 700 hotels and resorts in more than 70 countries, we are not linked via a central computer/record keeping system. We ask that members send their hotel bills to us, because most of our members have this information readily available and can send it to us in a more timely manner than many of our hotels would be able to. If you do not wish or are not able to send us copies of your hotel bill or credit card statement, we ask that you forward the details of your stay to us. Please include the name and location of hotel, date of arrival, length of stay, and total amount spent (in US dollars). Once we have received this information, we will contact the hotel, research your stay, and credit applicable Starpoint earnings."

When you submit missing stay info (either via the web site or via fax) we will credit your account for all eligible charges usually within 5-7 business days. If for some reason the stay in question is not eligible, we will contact you via e-mail, telphone, fax or letter (usually via e-mail if possible) and advise why you did not receive credit regarding a particular stay.

If your submitted stay is eligible and you do receive credit, we do not send further verification. Essentially, if you do not hear from us, then the Starpoints you inquired on are likely on your account. Your account history and balance are available live on spg.com or through monthly electronic statements. You can also request this information via e-mail or telephone. (most members use the web site or e-statement)

Sending a personalized e-mail or letter for each stay we are able to credit based on eligibility, would be monumentally inefficient. The end result being a longer wait time for missing credits to post.

Receiving earned Starpoint credit is not intended to be difficult. This is a Starwood concern and it is addressed with our properties and with customer service in efforts to improve this area of SPG.

Regards,

Dave "the back-up Lurker"
Starwood Preferred Guest

Hello All,


If your submitted stay is eligible and you do receive credit, we do not send further verification. Essentially, if you do not hear from us, then the Starpoints you inquired on are likely on your account.

Sending a personalized e-mail or letter for each stay we are able to credit based on eligibility, would be monumentally inefficient.

Regards,

Dave "the back-up Lurker"
Starwood Preferred Guest


I am left nearly -- but not entirely -- speechless by Dave's SPG response.

Sending a message after an SPG error has been corrected is deemed "monumentally inefficient."

It is "monumentally inefficient" for me to have to audit SPG entries, to gather the paperwork, to contact SPG, etc. And I, by the way, am the customer/guest.

The errors, by the way, have occurred primarily at US Luxury Collection and St. Regis properties -- not at out-of-the-way properties lacking computer connections.

Saying "please" and "thank you" and "sorry" and "pardon me" and "good morning" is also inefficient, Dave. But it's a common courtesy.

SPG might want to consider whether such courtesy might be extended to SPG members when an SPG member has patronized an SPG property, SPG has made an error, and the member has had to go to the trouble to have the error corrected.

Incidentally, the "delay" caused by sending a confirming email message might be (at the very most) 30 seconds per transaction. That mean that a person working full time on this enterprise would be able to send nearly a thousand such messages. Does SPG have to correct that many errors each day?

I am gravely disappointed by the SPG response.

I stayed four times in late 1993 during the period that SPG was offering 2000 bonus points for three stays by 12/31/03. I got no bonus points. I sent three emails inquiring. The first was "too early," the second yielded a "wait a few weeks" and the last went unanswered. My efforts seem to comport with the Lurker's instructions. SPG needs no portfolio, but just the record of my stays. I still have not received the points. What gives? I shouldn't have to beg. Any ideas?

Golf

Surely you don't expect credit for your 1993 stays in connection with a 2003 promotion? :)

Of course I understand that the 1993 was a typo

Ronin suggested the award of bonus points when an error has been identified and corrected.

I used to fly TWA a good deal. When TWA introduced its FFB program, one pasted stickers on paper flight coupons. (Does anyone remember paper tickets?)

TWA awarded bonus miles if an error was the result of the airline's failure to notice the sticker on the ticket.

I would greatly appreciate bonus points when SPG has made errors. In fact, however, I would be satisfied with a mere "thank you" or "sorry for the error" or "thanks for calling this matter to our attention -- and for your patronage."