Starwood Preferred Guest - Future Starwood Locations (South Africa)

William, or Anyone else in the know -

Right now Starwood only has two locations in South Africa that are cities where the World Cup will be held - Cape Town and Pretoria. I'm somewhat suprised there are no Johannesburg locations. Do you know if there are plans for any new properties to open in any cities where the games will be held?

The missing cities (to make it easier) are Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Mangaung, Rustenburg, Nelspruit, and Polokwani.

Thanks!

I was also wondering this as I'm certainly heading down to SA for that!

William, or Anyone else in the know -

Right now Starwood only has two locations in South Africa that are cities where the World Cup will be held - Cape Town and Pretoria. I'm somewhat suprised there are no Johannesburg locations. Do you know if there are plans for any new properties to open in any cities where the games will be held?

The missing cities (to make it easier) are Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Mangaung, Rustenburg, Nelspruit, and Polokwani.

Thanks!

This is the only one I'm personally aware of, but I'm not sure when the Olympics are being held in South Africa or if this location is even nearby: Le Méridien Kruger Park Golf & Spa Resort - Opening January 1, 2010

From here: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/new_star_props.html?regionName=africa&brandCode=CORP

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

This is the only one I'm personally aware of, but I'm not sure when the Olympics are being held in South Africa or if this location is even nearby: Le Méridien Kruger Park Golf & Spa Resort - Opening January 1, 2010

From here: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/new_star_props.html?regionName=africa&brandCode=CORP

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com
It looks like it is an hour or two from Durban (but I'm not sure) so this is might be a plus. So long as Durban doesn't end up with the last game of the day, this might be a reasonable alternative.

Not having an SPG property in Johannesburg will really hurt (only city with two venues).

William,

BTW, this is the Football (Soccer) World Cup which might be as big event as the Olympics. My son and I used Starwood properties almost exclusively (14 out of 16 nights) during the 2006 WC in Germany and twice got to be in the same hotel as one of the teams. This was the point at which Starwood won me over from Hilton (we had a great time and got wonderful service at each and every hotel). I switch over to Hilton (from Marriott) after a good experience with them during the 2002 WC in Japan. I sure hope to be able to use Starwood hotels again during the 2010 WC.

Now the big question, how to get tickets...;)

...William,

BTW, this is the Football (Soccer) World Cup which might be as big event as the Olympics...

Oops. :o

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

It looks like it is an hour or two from Durban (but I'm not sure) so this is might be a plus. So long as Durban doesn't end up with the last game of the day, this might be a reasonable alternative.




Hazyview is about 3 hours drive Northeast of Johannesburg. If you can make it from there to Durban in under 8 hours I'd be surprised.

The finals are being held at Johannesburg in SA's oldest football stadium. I was hoping to use my starpoints to defray the cost of this trip, since airfare seems to be pretty expensive no matter what, and who knows how prices will shape in the future. Also if I get lucky and get decent tickets (approx 500 euro) then I will REALLY need a hotel to stay at! Tickets go on sale in traunches after all FIFA member organizations take the tickets they need. The tickets are set to begin in Feb 2009. Now that I've helped you out I expect to be able to purchase a ticket off of someone if I can't get mine (need one, two would be fine too!)

I'm trying to avoid any cape town games because of its location (no where near other stadiums), so looks like I might have to spend my star points on airline miles =(

I don't know about olympics vs World Cup, but Soccer is the worlds most popular sport!

Hazyview is about 3 hours drive Northeast of Johannesburg. If you can make it from there to Durban in under 8 hours I'd be surprised.

Opps :o

Thanks for the correction.

I guess that I shouldn't have trusted the map (https://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/area/map.html?propertyID=3266). To be more accurate, I should have verified that the arrow on the map matches the right location.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q49/BigSoccer/Durban.jpg?t=1225387128