Starwood Preferred Guest - Starwood Support vs. Website

I was trying to book last week some guest rewards nights. I didn't have enough points for the entire trip, so I was trying to book the best rate for 2 nights and the rest starwood points. Each night was 16K a piece. Each time I tried to book, the options kept changing. So, I called into the help line. The guy was great. He said that he had nights for 14.5K a piece and could get me a better room. I know this is a dumb question, but why couldn't I see those room options online? I thought the purpose of having a website was to allow customer self-service and thus being able to reduce operational costs?

I was trying to book last week some guest rewards nights. I didn't have enough points for the entire trip, so I was trying to book the best rate for 2 nights and the rest starwood points. Each night was 16K a piece. Each time I tried to book, the options kept changing. So, I called into the help line. The guy was great. He said that he had nights for 14.5K a piece and could get me a better room. I know this is a dumb question, but why couldn't I see those room options online? I thought the purpose of having a website was to allow customer self-service and thus being able to reduce operational costs?

The guy at web support has more options to choose from, if there were as many online for all members to choose from it would become quite confusing to say the least. Not saying the members aren't savy but the support people are trained for this and know the in's and out's of the system, promos and different rate plans. The online option does help out as it takes the basic choices and lets the members do them without assistance.

The guy at web support has more options to choose from, if there were as many online for all members to choose from it would become quite confusing to say the least. Not saying the members aren't savy but the support people are trained for this and know the in's and out's of the system, promos and different rate plans. The online option does help out as it takes the basic choices and lets the members do them without assistance.

Huh? It would seem to be that if the system can't make it easy for the average Joe to book a reservation (using points or otherwise) there is probably a problem with the system!!

Putting all options online (with a decent system to display and book them) would allow for self service and reduced calls at a call centre etc..

To say that most members (especially those on this board!) would be "too confused" by too many options is quite rediculous actually!