Starwood Preferred Guest - If there are rooms available to buy, how come I can't book a freebie?

Ok, so I thought the whole whoopla with *W was that you could book award stay rooms as long as there are paid rooms available....??? As far as I can tell, it's the only real advantage over Hilton...

So I call SPG to book an award stay at the Royal Orchid Sheraton in BKK and am told that there are rooms available at $135 per nite. So I say, 'fine, I'll use points.' And the agent says, 'that'll be 10K points for a CAT 1 stay for four nites... but there are no free rooms available in my system and so I can't book it for you.'

BTW and FWIW, the agent definately told me that this property was still a CAT 1 and I wanted to be sure to get the CAT 1 award rate... as this is apparently changing shortly. But there was nothing she could do for me.

So what's the real skinny on this availabilty thing w *W? Why couldn't she book the rooms... if ordinary paid rooms were available. This certainly gives me pause to have 2nd thought about *W... :confused:

Is there an asterick* after the 4free* 'no blackouts' part?





Free Nights with No Blackouts


You typically need to stay just three times to earn a free night. To redeem, visit spg.com, call 1-877-STARWOOD or ask at the hotel front desk. If we have a guest room available, it's yours*. That's True Redemption(SM).

Only Starwood Preferred Guest® allows you to redeem Starpoints(SM) any time you want to go. Other programs say no blackouts, but limit the number of free rooms available. With Starwood Preferred Guest, if there is a room available in the hotel, it's yours!

* Applies to Standard Rooms only

Are standard rooms available for purchase?

Yes, at $135 per nite.

1. There could be a glitch in the system, unlikely but possible.

2. What you may think of as a standard room may not be categorized by the hotel as such. Higher floors, better views, etc. could be categorized as something else entirely. It's a bit of a technicality, meaning that Starwood does not always offer last room availability for award redemption.

3. When standard rooms are not availabile, you can still sometimes claim upgraded awards for additional points.

4. But there's still no comparison between SPG and HHonors when it comes to availability. I have experienced last room availability on an award (the very last room at the Sheraton Russell several months back, after claiming it the website showed the hotel as sold out for paid nights... actually, it was the very last Starwood room for sale in all NYC.)

I'd book the room for the cash rate, and contact SPG about this immediately. They're really good about looking into this stuff and fixing it if it's not right. Then, please, post back here and tell us what happened!

I'd book the room for the cash rate, and contact SPG about this immediately. They're really good about looking into this stuff and fixing it if it's not right. Then, please, post back here and tell us what happened!

Make sure that it is a refundable rate before you book it; otherwise, you are stuck.

I had a similar situation in NYC recently; online showed plenty of availability at one of the W's but when I called SPG directly (since online did not show awards available) it was the whole "Wonderful" versus whatever the next room up is. Anyways, in this case, the agent agreed it should be available for awards - at least at an upgraded rate (11250) so she did something and booked me a "revenue" room at $549 for the night and then made manual notes in the reservation that stated it was an award; I then nearly immediately saw the points deducted and was given a reward #.

Bottom line; the room fee was charged to my card, of course; but a single call to hotel accounting and the charge was reversed.

So in my experience, getting the right CSR means getting a room when one is available. I'd just call again and try :-)

BUT WATCH YOUR CREDIT CARD BILL after you check out...