Starwood Preferred Guest - First time SP Platinum, Bad luck or is this SP Platinum?

This week I stayed at 2 hotels after achieving my Platinum status and in both case I got the same type of rooms I had been given when I was SP Gold.

1. Four points Sheraton near SFO, was told no upgrades were available, given a 2 queen bed on the 2nd floor
2. W lakeshore Chicago was told no rooms were available and given a standard room, but they gave me the 500 points.

In both cases I had booked these stays well in advance using SPG, put my CC number in etc etc, so I don’t get it how they can say no rooms are available.

Is this is a standard practice? I mean I religiously stayed at Starwood properties during the last 4 months to get SP Platinum, so has all this gone to waste :-( ?????

Jay

Don't expect to get much in Four Points, as they often don't have suites. Most W's will upgrade you to a room with a nice view or to a jr suite, seldom to full suites. I've found Sheratons & Westins to be most generous, followed by European Luxury Collection hotels. Enjoy your new status :)

Here are 2 threads that might help. I found them by searching for "Platinum Upgrade Success":

Platinum upgrade sucesses (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174474&highlight=Platinum+upgrade+success)

Plat Upgrade Problems (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176021&highlight=Platinum+upgrade+success)

Don't expect to get much in Four Points, as they often don't have suites. Most W's will upgrade you to a room with a nice view or to a jr suite, seldom to full suites. I've found Sheratons & Westins to be most generous, followed by European Luxury Collection hotels. Enjoy your new status :)

Ia agree with 4 points. Will see how my luck is with W again as I am going to stay their again this week.

Jay

Ia agree with 4 points. Will see how my luck is with W again as I am going to stay their again this week.

Jay

FWIW, I've stayed at W hotels 7 times and have never been given a suite, Junior or otherwise. This includes the W Montreal, W Times Square, W New York and W Mexico City.

FWIW, I stayed at the Lakeshore W in February. I was upgraded without asking. I would tend to believe that there were just no rooms available.

In the past two years as a Platinum member I've been upgraded to a suite three times(once in LA - GORGEOUS room btw, once in Seattle, and then tonight in Bellevue :)). Don't be disappointed if you aren't upgraded; there are many people with Platinum status especially at the larger cities/Ws. It seems people have differing experiences. You should always receive the best room available at check-in though unless you've booked something ahead of time.

The late check out, the 500 points, etc. are what I see as the differentiators. Plus - if there is a lounge you will receive access to it and complimentary breakfast/hors d'ouvres which is nice.

I wouldn't base my experiences on just two recent stays though.

Outside of the US, things seem much easier. My 9 non-US stays this year have netted me 8 suites and a I'm-sorry-we-have-no-suites-left, have-an-exec-room. Not bad imho.

This week I stayed at 2 hotels after achieving my Platinum status and in both case I got the same type of rooms I had been given when I was SP Gold.

...

2. W lakeshore Chicago was told no rooms were available and given a standard room, but they gave me the 500 points.



Jay

Jay:

Occupancy in Chicago lately has been very high. There are some threads about it in the Chicago FT forum.

If you hit on a time when the Cubs/Sox are in town, and maybe a decent-sized convention, the better hotels do pretty much fill up.

Should you be making a lesiure trip, you can Google for the convention and sports schedules to try to make a guess as to when it will be slower here.

Upgrades are based on room availability at time of check-in. Making the reservation "well in advance" has no bearing on rooms being available. If all the upgraded rooms were full due to paying customers or other PLT's checking in ahead of you, that's how it's supposed to work.

FWIW, 4 Pts. might have one or two upgrade rooms in total, so no surprise that nothing was available there. W's tend to have more, but the big cities have been pretty full recently, so that may have just been bad timing.

as far as i know, W Lakeshore generally upgrades PLat members to a spectacular room with lakeview and rarely give a suite (I don't think they have a mega rm).

Upgrades are based on availability when you check in and sometimes the desk clerks lie about that availability so they don't have to upgrade you. You can always call the Platinum Concierge and verify what the front desk has told you. When I stayed at the W Lakeshore last August I got an upgrade only after I begged and pleaded for a nice room. First I was told the had no suites or lake view rooms available, then when I pressed and threatened to walk to the Marriott did an upgraded room suddenly become available. Go figure...


RIP...

I've had very good luck with the W LS. I was a bit skeptical the first time I stayed there given some of the comments other FTers have made. The team there has always been helpful IME -- I used to favor the W CC but changes in their team made me reconsider and I tried the W LS. As mentioned, upgrades to suites (IIRC all of their suites are the Urban Suites, 1 per floor) are based on availability at check-in. I'm at 80% for suite upgrades at the W LS and receive consistently better recognition there than the other Cgo *wood properties. I had a very pleasant surprise with my 5th stay, a note and token of appreciation from a member of the concierge team thanking me for repeat business -- very nice touch & much appreciated. :) They also, from what I've seen, tend to take care of their repeat guests.

FWIW, I've been upgraded in advance (checked on spg.com) to a bi-level suite as a SPG Gold at the 4 Points near SFO. It was obviously a really dead time for the hotel, so I figured they had rooms to spare...

I will be at the W LS this Sunday for the first time. Will be interesting to see what/if I get a Plat. upgrade. So far his year I haven't received a single suite upgrade at all so why should my luck change with this property. Looking through the reviews it does seem like they are pretty good about upgrading Plat. Will also be at the Sheraton Chicago the following night so I will see if I get lucky with an upgrade there as well.

Don't expect to get much in Four Points, as they often don't have suites. Most W's will upgrade you to a room with a nice view or to a jr suite, seldom to full suites. I've found Sheratons & Westins to be most generous, followed by European Luxury Collection hotels. Enjoy your new status :)

My limited experience with 4pts has been that I get suites there more often than in the North American Westins and W's. I got suites in the 4pts in Montreal, Montreal Airport and Minneapolis. Not at SFO and Pleasanton though.

I think there are two sides to it. On the one hand, most 4pts would not have many suites. On the other hand, they also would not have many platinums.

As other posters have said, upgrades abroad tend to be more spectacular.

I will be at the W LS this Sunday for the first time. Will be interesting to see what/if I get a Plat. upgrade. So far his year I haven't received a single suite upgrade at all so why should my luck change with this property. Looking through the reviews it does seem like they are pretty good about upgrading Plat. Will also be at the Sheraton Chicago the following night so I will see if I get lucky with an upgrade there as well.

when I checked-in at Chicago Sheraton last time (in Feb), I asked for an upgrade . And the check-in clerk said:"you are already upgraded to the SPG Preferred Room level!" What a joke! I knew that she had no clue what platinum benefits are and I knew there were standard suites available at that time (becoz I called platinum concierge right away). I was sick of begging for upgrades and dealing with lying check-in staff.

The late check out, the 500 points, etc. are what I see as the differentiators. Plus - if there is a lounge you will receive access to it and complimentary breakfast/hors d'ouvres which is nice.

Actually, Gold gets late checkout too. The only differentiator I find is the 500 points. My suite upgrade factor while I was a platinum pretty much sucked, and I was staying about 1-2 times a year in a hotel that had a club lounge. Not worth it for me. I'm glad to hear some people have better batting averages at suites. ;)

I am back on the road starting tommorw. This time I have booked my self into Westin in Vegas and LAX. Let me see what I will get

Jay

I am back on the road starting tommorw. This time I have booked my self into Westin in Vegas and LAX. Let me see what I will get

Jay

Well, don't be surprised if you're disappointed by the Westin Casuarina. They don't have many suites, so if there are ANY conventions in town (not even one of the big ones), you probably won't get a suite upgrade and there's no lounge. Best you'lll get will be a nice Exec room and a free bottle of water (if you ask nicely). Sheraton LAX is a better bet than the Westin, BTW - nicer hotel, and very good treatment of Plats most of the time.

If you don't get a good upgrade check online to see what they have available for rooms and then call SPG and have themm straighten it out with the front desk.

This week I stayed at 2 hotels after achieving my Platinum status and in both case I got the same type of rooms I had been given when I was SP Gold.

1. Four points Sheraton near SFO, was told no upgrades were available, given a 2 queen bed on the 2nd floor
2. W lakeshore Chicago was told no rooms were available and given a standard room, but they gave me the 500 points.

In both cases I had booked these stays well in advance using SPG, put my CC number in etc etc, so I don’t get it how they can say no rooms are available.

Is this is a standard practice? I mean I religiously stayed at Starwood properties during the last 4 months to get SP Platinum, so has all this gone to waste :-( ?????

Jay

Chicago's very tough - I couldn't even get one at the Sheraton...

Well, don't be surprised if you're disappointed by the Westin Casuarina. They don't have many suites, so if there are ANY conventions in town (not even one of the big ones), you probably won't get a suite upgrade and there's no lounge. Best you'lll get will be a nice Exec room and a free bottle of water (if you ask nicely). Sheraton LAX is a better bet than the Westin, BTW - nicer hotel, and very good treatment of Plats most of the time.


The good news is that I got a sutie at the Westin LAX, may be because it was a Friday night stay.

I am off to Sheraton Toronto this week, lets see what happens their

Jay

Had posted earlier that I would be staying at the W LS this past weekend so I wanted to give an update on my Platinum experience.

Prior to leaving for the airport I checked spg.com and noticed that I had been "upgraded" to a Spectacular room. I also noticed that the hotel still had suites available according to the booking page. I arrived at the hotel at approx. 6:30 pm on Sunday and was warmly greeted. When the desk attendant gave me the key I asked what kind of room it was. He stated that I had received a "special upgrade" to a Spectacular room. I inquired about a suite upgrade and he gave me a song and dance routine about not having any. I said that I had noticed an the web site that there were suites available. He said that according to his system there wasn't. I took my Spectacular room key and told him that I would be either logging on or calling SPG to confirm there was no suite availabilty. Went up to my room and no sooner had I put down my briefcase the phone rang. Hello Mr. Christianj...we did some moving around and actual found you a suite!! We will send the key right up to you. Great but why did we have to go through the song and dance routine when something was available? Suite was nice (I think it was a __18 room number). Overall stay was nice and I would return to the hotel. Only complaint is that the windows are very bad and allow street noise to filter into the room.

FYI, next night I had to move over to the Sheraton and got no upgrade there. Was told room 2606 was a "prefered" member room but I found the room to be very loud because it was located next to a stairwell. I have NEVER gotten a decent upgrade at the Sheraton and was wondering if others have.

The 4P LAX is generally very good with upgrades. Their 'suite' is a living room/bedroom combo at the ends of the hallways. It is very spacious with a good desk and seating area.

Since business travelers (ie, likely Plats at an airport hotel) generally favor the Westin or the Sheraton, I have had about 80% success with the upgrade here. However arriving once late at night when the hotel was full the only rooms available were in an unrenovated wing and let me tell you, that is a different hotel altogether. (Maybe with the new 4P bed they have redone the whole property; this was in late 2004).

It is amazing how many check-in staff have no familiarity with the Plat program. And this includes the larger urban hotels where you would expect a fair share of Plat guests, ie, Toronto, Chicago, London. (I would be less surprised at smaller 4P properties -- ie the old 4P Indianapolis East, which is now a Ramada, much more in keeping with the quality of the property).

The good news is that I got a sutie at the Westin LAX, may be because it was a Friday night stay.

I am off to Sheraton Toronto this week, lets see what happens their

Jay

Stayed at Sharaton Toronto, Thursday night i was given a standered room and then Friday day night got a very large suite, it even had a dining table to seat 10 people...nice.

Jay