Starwood Preferred Guest - Starwood Hotel Interactive Maps

Inspired by the numerous hotel spreadsheets posted here at FlyerTalk, i tried to take this to the next level and have created an interactive map for anyone looking for a Starwood property which you can see here: Starwood Hotel Maps (http://www.betterchecker.com/starwood)

How it works:
1) Enter all or part of any US or Canadian address in the text box and select a radius to search by. Click GO.
2) A map will then appear centered on your location, and all Starwood branded hotels within the radius you selected will be shown on the map
3) Put your cursor over a hotel marker to see the name of the hotel. Click a hotel marker on the map to see additional information about the hotel and for a link to go directly to that hotel's website

This is an extension of the BetterChecker (http://www.betterchecker.com) website which helps users search hotel rates across multiple brands, so this seemed like a natural fit for users who were specifically interested in just the Starwood brand of properties.

Any feedback is welcomed and if anyone has a suggestion, finds a problem, mistake, missing hotel, etc, please let us know.

thereuare,

Thanks. The visual is an added enhancement when searching for hotels in new locations.

FYI, I like your website www.betterbidding.com ;)

Thanks, very helpful resource when traveling to new locales!

Very helpful. Thank you.

Awesome tool!

Thanks thereuare

is it possible to have an increased radius? Say 100miles, for example if you put 25miles and Calgary you get the three in Calgary but not the 4points in Canmore which may be useful if your doing a ski weekend.

Nice. I'm probably a day away from sharing my Google Earth KML file of all Starwood properties worldwide with each property's placemark indicating the SPG category number and each placemark offering a link directly to the property's homepage on starwoodhotels.com. I'll post a new thread when I release it.

is it possible to have an increased radius? Say 100miles, for example if you put 25miles and Calgary you get the three in Calgary but not the 4points in Canmore which may be useful if your doing a ski weekend.
Thanks for the feedback... sure this can be easily done.

Before i make the change, is the default 5 mile radius good (as i figured that most would be using the tool for large cities where a smaller radius is better) or should that be increased as well?

Thanks.

Inspired by the numerous hotel spreadsheets posted here at FlyerTalk, i tried to take this to the next level and have created an interactive map for anyone looking for a Starwood property which you can see here: Starwood Hotel Maps (http://www.betterchecker.com/starwood)

How it works:
1) Enter all or part of any US or Canadian address in the text box and select a radius to search by. Click GO.
2) A map will then appear centered on your location, and all Starwood branded hotels within the radius you selected will be shown on the map
3) Put your cursor over a hotel marker to see the name of the hotel. Click a hotel marker on the map to see additional information about the hotel and for a link to go directly to that hotel's website

This is an extension of the BetterChecker (http://www.betterchecker.com) website which helps users search hotel rates across multiple brands, so this seemed like a natural fit for users who were specifically interested in just the Starwood brand of properties.

Any feedback is welcomed and if anyone has a suggestion, finds a problem, mistake, missing hotel, etc, please let us know.

Very cool. I did notice that the US Grant in San Diego is missing.

I did notice that the US Grant in San Diego is missing.
Thanks... but actually the US Grant is on the map (slightly 'hidden' behind the Westin Horton Plaza)

You can either click the '+' control on the top left corner of the map to 'zoom in' and you'll see that there are two markers almost behind one another.

Or if you change the radius to 1 mile and search for "326 West Broadway, San Diego, Ca" the map will automatically be at a higher zoom level (due to the narrow radius) and you'll be able see both the US Grant and the Westin Horton Plaza.

Any furhter problems/issues please let me know.

Got it--

There's such a cluster of Starwoods there that the Grant was hidden.


I really like this idea. I could have used it when I was looking for a Starwood near a wedding in Maine we're invited to in July.

Thanks.

As per a request I have just added the hotel's starwood category (1-7) to the maps.

Put your mouse over a hotel marker and next to the name of the property will be the hotel's Category.

Enjoy.

PS- and for those who use other hotel programs, have also just launched a Hilton Interactive Maps (http://www.betterchecker.com/hilton) page

another idea, would it be posible to have it display the hotels in the current view, say you want to plan a trip via car and not sure the route to take you could get to the map of the area and then see where the hotels are in larger general area. Although I'm sure this would cause problems if someone where to zoom too far out and try it.

I'm not sure i understand the suggestion directly above, but based upon it and your prior comment, I've just increased the radius to 50 miles, which actually 'casts a net' of a 100 mile diameter.

Let me know if this is sufficient or if you think it needs to be increased further.

I'm not sure i understand the suggestion directly above, but based upon it and your prior comment, I've just increased the radius to 50 miles, which actually 'casts a net' of a 100 mile diameter.

Let me know if this is sufficient or if you think it needs to be increased further.

I was thinking of say your looking at a whole state on the map and would like to see where all the starwood hotels are within the displayed map.

For anyone who uses other hotel programs, we have just released this same tool for Marriott hotels:

Marriott Interactive Maps (http://www.betterchecker.com/marriott)

... and Hilton Maps (http://www.betterchecker.com/hilton) are still avaialble as well

Maybe not so important: The Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto shows up way to far in the East. It should be south of Downtown. There must be something wrong the way Google identifies this address.

It looks like they are using addresses instead of pure coordinates. Note where the Four Points Lakeshore is - on Toronto Island! (It shouldn't be.)

We had similar issues when we started our interactive hotel maps, but using the geocoordinates without Google's geocoding system solves *most* of the problems. Still, Google Maps isn't a perfect science by any means.

As an aside - maybe for a mod - we never made a formal announcement in the Starwood forum when we launched our maps - just in Travel Technology. But you can filter by any chain or even multiple chains (i.e. just Starwood and Hilton). Should we have announced in the major frequent guest program threads as well?