Starwood Preferred Guest - Nothing but trouble for new Starwood member

Well, it's somewhat comforting to see that others are having problems as well with Starwood. We've been gold members since October after we bought timeshare in Maui at the Westin. We bought more timeshare this Christmas, also in Maui. We are now ELITE members! OHH - AHH!!! The sales pitch is all about the fabulous service and exceeding expectations blah, blah, blah......

We had the crappiest room ever at Christmas at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. 3 room changes later and a lot of kicking and screaming to get an ocean view room (bigger view of a concrete roof and adjoining building, neck pain reaching out over the balcony to see a sliver of ocean) which is unbelieveable considering I coughed up an extra 8,000 points for an upgrade. Starwood credited me 10,000 points but the manager of the hotel sent me a couple of really snotty letters. Hey - I traded the equivalent of a 2 bedroom condo at the Westin in Maui for this crappy room!!!! I have the right to complain!!

Yesterday another disaster. We got booked by a Starwood employee for a hotel in June but she booked it as nonrefundable tickets in Feb and June. In the wrong hotel. At the wrong price! Then, they accused my wife of making the bookings!!

Their computer system sucks. The attitude sucks and as far as I'm concerned they have one more chance to make me feel special or I'll trade in my $90,000 worth of timeshare and go to the Hilton.

How's that for a rant?! And, it's not the whole story - you get the abridged version!!!!

...We've been gold members ...blah, blah, blah...... I'm not sure what you were expecting, but as a gold member, you were only eligible to receive an upgrade to preferred rooms (this doesn't mean ocean view). As with other programs, you should not really have huge expectations as a mid-tier elite. As a top-tier elite, Platinum, I have been offered one bedroom suites on several occasional at the Moana Surfrider along with lounge access on the PH floor. I find the the rooms to be acceptable.

... I coughed up an extra 8,000 points for and upgrade. Starwood credited me 10,000 points but the manager of the hotel sent me a couple of really snotty letters. Hey - I traded the equivalent of a 2 bedroom condo at the Westin in Maui for this crappy room!!!! I have the right to complain!! Can you please further clarify. I am confused as to the "8000" points upgrade. What did you upgrade from and what type of room did you end up getting? You can typically upgrade to a suite for 10,000 points, so I'm not sure what you are referring here.

...The attitude sucks and as far as I'm concerned they have one more chance to make me feel special or I'll trade in my $90,000 worth of timeshare and go to the Hilton. How would you like them to make you feel "special?" By your standards, what exactly should they do to make Platinums feel even more special?

Uhhh... Welcome to FlyerTalk, daveanddeb2006?

I'm not intending to direct you away from FT, but if you haven't already, you really should check out the Timeshare User's Group (http://www.tug2.net/). (OT: Hey, is that apostrophe really where it belongs in TUG's name? :confused: )

Here is a link to the pics of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. When I get home, I'll cut and paste the e-mails to and from SPG.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daveanddebmallory/SheratonMoanaSurfrider02

authkey=appzd1jUztw

To daveanddeb, we own at the Westin Maui also. Unfortunately as gold we don't get much in the way of upgrades. It's never usually a good value to convert your staroptions into starpoints especially since the point level for stays have increased. However, as a 3 star elite, it could come in very handy if you use your American Express Starwood for all of your everyday purchases, and then occasionally convert some of your options. You could upgrade to a suite , or use your starpoints in Europe..... that's where the starpoints are very helpful.

It sounds like this was your first stay with converting your staroptions into starpoints and using the starpoints. You will learn all the ins and outs so please don't be so discouraged.

Please do go to TUG website like someone else suggested. Go to the hotel based timeshares and there you will find lots of Starwood postings.

Everyone has their own opinion on that website about trading our timeshare for hotel points. Many will tell you to never do it. But I do like having the option. It really helped us in London last summer.
Good luck!Give it more time and enjoy Maui!

Hate to break it to you but you'll never feel "special" as a Gold level. And quite honestly, you probably shouldn't. There are tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of Gold members. Kinda hard to be special in a group that big. Gold at Hilton is the same.

Of course, on the other hand, you have the right to be treated fairly and professionally. I would just reevaluated exactly what you expect so that you don't keep feeling as if you've had a "diasaster".

Finally, I've spent many nights at *woods and I've had my share of disasters. In fact, I'm the first one to stand up and complain when i have one. But I can assure you, a bad room or no upgrade is about as far from a disaster as you can get.

Having been to the Maui sales presentation, I can understand why an SVO owner would be frustrated, and is a major reason why I didn't purchase.

The artificial exchange of 80,000 SPG points per year for a week of ownership is absurd. Having familiarity with the SPG program, with its fluctuating categories for redemption, the advertised 5 nights at the St Regis no longer holds true......What's more insulting is the 80K trade ratio is "pre-determined" and won't fluctuate in the same way as the SPG hotel categories.

This makes staying anywhere but the home resort a really really bad value.....I could buy Hilton at Orlando and get the same vacation (probably better) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for 1/3 the price of SVO Maui.....

Unless one really loves Maui, for any vacation ownerships, it's better to buy at a home resort that's cheap. In addition, the Hilton points structure is totally independent of its HHonors program, so you are trading the same currency, providing better value for the price paid.

Your first problem was buying a timeshare. They're only for the gullible, IMHO. But I digress...

Please clarify for us exactly what you paid 8,000 points to upgrade to. That may help us shed some light on the situation...

Your first problem was buying a timeshare. They're only for the gullible, IMHO. But I digress...

Exactly, I agree 100%. That is why even for the 7500 points, I did not waste my valuable vacation time on Maui to listen to a presentation. All you have to do to realize the problem with timeshares is look at the resales. Do some quick online searches for timeshare resales and you will see that they go for a fraction of the original selling price.

Well, it's somewhat comforting to see that others are having problems as well with Starwood. We've been gold members since October after we bought timeshare in Maui at the Westin. We bought more timeshare this Christmas, also in Maui. We are now ELITE members! OHH - AHH!!! The sales pitch is all about the fabulous service and exceeding expectations blah, blah, blah......

We had the crappiest room ever at Christmas at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. 3 room changes later and a lot of kicking and screaming to get an ocean view room (bigger view of a concrete roof and adjoining building, neck pain reaching out over the balcony to see a sliver of ocean) which is unbelieveable considering I coughed up an extra 8,000 points for an upgrade. Starwood credited me 10,000 points but the manager of the hotel sent me a couple of really snotty letters. Hey - I traded the equivalent of a 2 bedroom condo at the Westin in Maui for this crappy room!!!! I have the right to complain!!

Yesterday another disaster. We got booked by a Starwood employee for a hotel in June but she booked it as nonrefundable tickets in Feb and June. In the wrong hotel. At the wrong price! Then, they accused my wife of making the bookings!!

Their computer system sucks. The attitude sucks and as far as I'm concerned they have one more chance to make me feel special or I'll trade in my $90,000 worth of timeshare and go to the Hilton.

How's that for a rant?! And, it's not the whole story - you get the abridged version!!!!

Your "elite" status from buying SVO weeks from Starwood gives you certain status as it pertains to timeshare reservations. That has nothing to do with the fact that you are SPG Gold just like any other Gold member.

The rest of your issues are a bit vague but I hope you get them straightened out to your satisfaction. I would also suggest you visit the SVO section at Tug as suggested earlier - lots of great info with regards to SVO:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=30

I'm sorry you have had such a rough time with your new status. My situation has been the opposite this year. I've enjoyed upgrades on all my stays so far as a new PLT and have been successful in having a room cancelled day of with no charge by the PLT concierge. There have been some issues with points posting but those appear to be sorted out.

TS Cards are punched in the Chaplain's Office, Second Deck Aft, Dog watch, 2nd Tuesday of each week. TS may stand for "Time Share", but also stands for another familiar word pairing, "Tough Sh....", which is the standard response to many of those who own Time Shares....

Don't let all these people make you feel bad about buying your timeshare. Like I said before we own at Westin Maui , only EOY. We really enjoy it and make it work for us and has nearly paid for itself, and we bought 3 years ago

I think beerman has had good luck in upgrades because of the plat status.