Starwood Preferred Guest - MCO Starwood Property standards ?

Will be in MCO at new years and might be collecting some *wood points but the reviews left on several Sheraton properties in Orlando really have me scratching my head.

Does *wood (or individual hotel managers?) read the feedback that's left for their properties on sites such as travelocity and tripadvisor?

Is it just me, or if you were a hotel manager would you have a little bit of savvy to see what people are posting about your property ?

How much control does the *wood mothership have over the "quality" of individual hotels? Are some run as franchises etc?

I'd normally just say "Hey, it's a Sheraton" and know I won't be disappointed but now i'm not so sure.

thanks,

I'd normally just say "Hey, it's a Sheraton" and know I won't be disappointed but now i'm not so sure.

Can't really answer your other questions, but I can tell you from personal experience, as recent as last week, the Sheraton World in MCO is to be avoided like the plague. It's more Days Inn than Sheraton and 90% of what I've read on sites like tripadvisor is absolutely true regarding this property.

I was lulled into staying there by the "it's a Sheraton" thought and now sincerely regret it. I know it's not fair but after staying at the World I'll be forced to question every Sheraton from here on out.

Sorry to be so negative but would hate for other to make the same mistake I did.

Can't really answer your other questions, but I can tell you from personal experience, as recent as last week, the Sheraton World in MCO is to be avoided like the plague. It's more Days Inn than Sheraton and 90% of what I've read on sites like tripadvisor is absolutely true regarding this property.

I was lulled into staying there by the "it's a Sheraton" thought and now sincerely regret it. I know it's not fair but after staying at the World I'll be forced to question every Sheraton from here on out.

Sorry to be so negative but would hate for other to make the same mistake I did.
I would have to say the same thing about the Sheraton Safari. I had the same it's a Sheraton thought, but with decor that made the room look like a set out of a porn movie and a fatigued Days Inn motif (it actually used to be one), I thought I had made a terrible mistake.

That said, the staff there was unbelievably friendly. I received two calls asking if everything was okay, or if I were celebrating a special occasion. :)

I would have to say the same thing about the Sheraton Safari. I had the same it's a Sheraton thought, but with decor that made the room look like a set out of a porn movie and a fatigued Days Inn motif (it actually used to be one), I thought I had made a terrible mistake.

That said, the staff there was unbelievably friendly. I received two calls asking if everything was okay, or if I were celebrating a special occasion. :)

I used to live in Orlando. A lot of the properties by WDW are known for being badly worn out.

I did just stay at the Sheraton Suites at the airport with my hubby and we were both pleased. Nice room, welcome beer or wine, free breakfast included all for $98.00. You might try there. The hotel has easy access to the Beeline which will take you right to the WDW area.

Do you have to stay specifically at the Sheraton brand? If not, consider the Westin Grand Bohemian. It is probably the only Orlando-area hotel I've ever visited that had any character whatsoever. And I love the downtown location - a long walk or a very short drive to the Thornton Park area, which is about the only place in that whole city that has a small bit of unique flavor.

It has a nice concierge lounge, open on weekends, and they put us on the C-level as a Gold on an award stay. The rooms and hotel itself are in excellent condition. Also has a nice bar and restaurant onsite. The restaurant serves a big Sunday brunch complete with live jazz, although we didn't have time to partake. I've heard very good things about it, though.

We visit family in the Orlando area about a couple of times per year. We have spent most of the past 5 years working our way through every mediocre Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood in town. There are a lot of them - interchangeable, mediocre hotels. None are memorable for any reason good or bad. We've hit all of the MVCI's and two HGVC's, which are all in okay shape, but are very cookie-cutter and flavorless. We still do those if there are 4 to 6 of us meeting up down there, but when it's just the wife and I, we will be at the Bohemian. I'm just bummed it took me five years to find it.

I stayed at the Sheraton Studio City about two weeks ago. I was upgraded from a traditional low-floor room (floors 2-10) to the Club level on the 20th floor, which included a continental breakfast.

The room appeared to be recently refurbished, but I noticed that some of the work was sloppy, such as paint on the outlet and switch plates.

The desk staff was great at both check-in and check-out. At check-out, I mentioned that the hot water during the night was only luke warm, and they sincerely apologized and immediately offered a partial credit on my bill. I told them that I really didn't need to be compensated as I considered it a minor issue. They insisted on providing some type of compensation, and offered 500 Starpoints. I accepted the offer of the Starpoints. :)

Although I didn't care for the Hollywood art deco theme, including the black and white bathroom floor tile, it was a good value for $89/night. I would consider staying there in the future.

I stayed at the Sheraton Studio City about two weeks ago. I was upgraded from a traditional low-floor room (floors 2-10) to the Club level on the 20th floor, which included a continental breakfast.

The room appeared to be recently refurbished, but I noticed that some of the work was sloppy, such as paint on the outlet and switch plates.

The desk staff was great at both check-in and check-out. At check-out, I mentioned that the hot water during the night was only luke warm, and they sincerely apologized and immediately offered a partial credit on my bill. I told them that I really didn't need to be compensated as I considered it a minor issue. They insisted on providing some type of compensation, and offered 500 Starpoints. I accepted the offer of the Starpoints. :)

Although I didn't care for the Hollywood art deco theme, including the black and white bathroom floor tile, it was a good value for $89/night. I would consider staying there in the future.


I had a similar experience at the Sheraton Studio City recently (minus the club floor upgrade :( ). I alternated between being totally horrified by the "Hollywood art deco theme" and being totally amused by it. My personal favorite is that the spaces in the parking lot are not marked by your typical white lines, but by lines of little white stars. Classy! :)

In the end, it wasn't a bad place to crash for a couple of nights.

I was going by the tripadvisor and travelocity reviews and needed to hear it from fter's before I made up my mind.

The bohemian really isn't mrs anvils cup o tea (and have 2 rugrats with us) so will be lost on us. I think we're doing 2 nites at HGVC (close to seaworld) and then moving into WDW for days 3-8...annual passholders & beginning of value season etc...

Hey starwood lurker: does *wood read its own reviews...?

I recall the book "Inside the Magic Kingdom: the 7 secrets of Disney's success"...the customer is best heard with many ears. The reviews on TA and Trvlocity are listening posts....is *wood listening?

cheers,

...Hey starwood lurker: does *wood read its own reviews...?

I recall the book "Inside the Magic Kingdom: the 7 secrets of Disney's success"...the customer is best heard with many ears. The reviews on TA and Trvlocity are listening posts....is *wood listening?

cheers,

I'm sure that someone reads them. Why wouldn't they?

Cheers.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

I'm sure that someone reads them. Why wouldn't they?

Cheers.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

I guess I'm just surprised that a property's manager would tolerate month after month after month of repeatedly unsatisfactory reviews regarding hotel conditions. I'm probably more surprised the folks at Sheraton HQ find it acceptable.

Having said that, last time is was in MCO, the shortage of service workers was unbelievable...almost every single business I was in had a help wanted sign on the door...and the service workers I encountered who did have jobs were none too happy about being in the 'service' sector.

cheers,

I guess I'm just surprised that a property's manager would tolerate month after month after month of repeatedly unsatisfactory reviews regarding hotel conditions. I'm probably more surprised the folks at Sheraton HQ find it acceptable...

While I'm sure that some people find these web sites helpful, they really provide nothing more than anecdotal evidence of problems that a former guest may have encountered. There is no way to verify what is written there, so anyone can pretty much say whatever they want. I mean how many times have I read here where someone provides a link to a review at tripadvisor with the caveat not to take the negative comments too seriously because the people posting there do not appear that travel saavy?

The system we have in place to track this kind of stuff is a lot more sophisticated and is verifiable, so my guess is that while they may read them, there is very little energy spent on things we can't verify as actually having taken place. Hopefully, these people are calling or emailing us to complain. Otherwise, their missives may be giving them an empty voice. If the plan is to derail the hotels in the area, well, occupancy there has never been higher, IIRC. They would do much better in posting their experiences on the Internet at their URL of choice and letting us know through official channels. If they don't, then everyone gets short-changed.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Will be in MCO at new years and might be collecting some
How much control does the *wood mothership have over the "quality" of individual hotels? Are some run as franchises etc?

Are George Clinton and Parliment Funkadelic investors? :p

Are George Clinton and Parliment Funkadelic investors? :p

Whew ! I get the funk to warm up every wednesday nite for basketball but that question went completely over my head?

Shake your groove thing !

Also to William the Lurker: thanks for the enormous effort you put into answering all of the questions here.
I really take two things in your last post to heart:
1) The travel savvy of the people who post those reviews on tripadvisor etc. and
2) The importance of letting the hotel know that something needs to be addressed.
Cheers,

While I'm sure that some people find these web sites helpful, they really provide nothing more than anecdotal evidence of problems that a former guest may have encountered. There is no way to verify what is written there, so anyone can pretty much say whatever they want. I mean how many times have I read here where someone provides a link to a review at tripadvisor with the caveat not to take the negative comments too seriously because the people posting there do not appear that travel saavy?FWIW the way that I read internet reviews is not to focus on the details of a single review, but to look for patterns. Words and phrases like mold, stained carpets, peeling wallpaper are fairly telling when repeated consistently by a plurality of guests writing reviews.

While it's nice when a property contacts a person out of the blue to address an issue they've written about at Flyertalk or TripAdvisor or wherever, I'd simply suggest that a useful datapoint is the overall consistency of comments about a property. You can learn quite a bit.

Note that I don't suggest looking at 'star ratings' that folks give to properties, or choosing a hotel based on which is ranked #1 versus #7 on Tripadvisor.

People ding hotels for all sorts of odd reasons. Pull up a better hotel in an expensive location and you'll see some reviewers offering up 1 star because room service was expensive. (Gee, you ordered room service at the Ritz-Carlton Central Park. It's going to be expensive. May not be your cup 'o tea, but not really a reason to downgrade the property IMHO.)

Now, we have seen some of the sketchier properties either get some investment or leave the program or at least get rebranded. So presumably there certainly is some monitoring out there. But I think the point can be made in a few instances that the brand management folks aren't doing quite the job they might preventing their brands from being diminished by underperforming properties.

...Now, we have seen some of the sketchier properties either get some investment or leave the program or at least get rebranded. So presumably there certainly is some monitoring out there. But I think the point can be made in a few instances that the brand management folks aren't doing quite the job they might preventing their brands from being diminished by underperforming properties.


I can see where this might be the perception from the outside looking in; however, I can assure you the brand folks are on their game. For instance, without too much fanfare, we have disassociated ourselves from about 50 former Four Points properties in the past year or so. The same with a lesser number of Sheratons certainly, but these things are always under review. The focus is now on finding franchisees and owners amenable to long-term management contracts that fit more with what our corporate culture has evolved into. So, you will see new Four Points properties more in the vein of the Four Points Chelsea in Manhattan rather than some of our most recent departees. The same with all the other brands according to availability and necessity.

I know the process is indeterminably slow. Even cathartic at times. However, when you take on a business partner and mutually invest in one another's success, you don't trash the relationship in a fit of pique. Rather, you give them enough rope to hang themselves and move on. Most of the time a change here or there makes all the difference in the world. Other times, you just have to write it off as having been a poor fit. But, usually, business decisions like these are not made in haste, so it sometimes gives the appearance that no one is minding the store. Nothing could be further from the truth...especially lately. ;)

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com