pricesquire

Question...

Trying to ensure an either/or scenario.

Either I want the Virtuoso rate for Dec. 24-26 (upgrade at the time of booking, free breakfast, among a few other amenities) @ $895/night ($1k w/ tax)...

or

I want to use points @ 30k/night.

I don't want to make the decision now...but I also don't want to wait too long just to realize there are no V rates available and/or there are no award nights available.

Has anybody ever made two reservations at the same hotel for the same person under the same SPG #?

Is this kosher?

On another note, 30k SPG points for a $1k room....good deal? How about taking into account an upgrade on booking from a Super to a Deluxe?

Thanks

pricesquire

EDIT: just did the booking....all is well....

Still curious as to any thoughts Re: value of 30k/$1k during X-mas at this property.

thx

controller1

I make two reservations for same dates at same property under same name regularly during football season. I make the double reservation in case my son and daughter-in-law are able to join us for the out of town game. That way if they are unable to join us, all I have to do is cancel one of the rooms.

If I made one reservation for two rooms and tried to cancel one of the rooms after the hotel has sold out or increased the rate I would have a problem. That's why I make the double reservation.

Never had a problem doing this as I also note in the comments that there are two reservations.

pricesquire

Thanks, controller.

margarita girl

I do this all the time, usually with a revenue reservation and a reward reservation, while I try to decide which to keep. Quite often what will sway my decision is what promo SPG is having at the time. Since my reservations are often made 6+ months out, I must wait to see what the promo will be.

Sometimes, I'll make 2 reservations at different hotels in the same city while I decide where I want to stay! I try to be courteous and cancel the extra reservation at least a month prior.

CPRich

Yes, quite a few times. I'm holding one right now, for differing number of nights until I figure out how long I'm going to stay.

mahasamatman

I've got five of these right now...

With the minimal information you've provided, I'd say stay at home. But only you know the importance of the trip, your financial situation (in both currency and SPG points), and the hundreds of other variables involved, so only you can answer that. You're even being so secretive as to avoid letting people know the property, so how can you expect anyone to form an informed opinion?

pricesquire

You're right - didn't intend to omit the name of the hotel.

The hotel is the St. Regis NYC.

The trip has personal and familial importance. My wife is from the NYC area (Long Island), and it is a budding family tradition to stay at this property for x-mas eve and x-mas day.

So, yeah...definitely going. Just hate spending *points when I only have 75k in the bank...this would effectively eliminate 60 of those. $1k for a hotel room...oy.

ajnaro

Could you get away with this sort of double booking on an airline? I doubt it. How is that hotels don't have the software to weed out double booking? I guess it would be difficult to tease apart legitimate cases like a family traveling together and needing more than one room.

mahasamatman

If you don't use your frequent flyer number, yes. Of course, you'd have to pay for a fully refundable fare for this scheme to make sense.

Hotels officially allow you to book multiple rooms, and SPG will even give you night and stay credit for up to three rooms booked in your own name.

RogerD408

I can think of many situations where this type of situation is appropriate, if not even mandated. i.e. Need multiple rooms, need to use different CCs to guarantee the rooms, need to choose different date ranges, and many more.

I would hope, unlike I have heard some airlines doing, that the property would contact the guest to find out what they are doing. And, Yes, I hope the guest would be courteous enough to cancel at least weeks before to free up some rooms. Unfortunate for the rest of us, the cheaper rates may be gone.

geminidreams

Often I will be booking for myself and children and as a plat I will choose different bookings me compared to them. Eg I may book on points and them on a breakfast rate. There are several rooms and multiple bookings but all under my SPG account. With airlines you need to book each ticket under one name (usually not changeable) and they aren't giving credit to your frequent flyer number unless they have a family plan.

ajnaro

Right! It’s easy to come up with legitimate examples such as booking extra rooms for accompanying family, friends, and business associates. But some of the situations described in this thread don’t seem entirely legitimate to me:

- decide between Virtuoso and points
- see whether guests will show up
- find out whether a promotion will be offered
- decide how long to stay

From the discussions in the AA forum it looks as if AA would take away all of your miles and kick you out of AAdvantage for this sort of thing. I suppose the problem must be that these tactics take away inventory and drive up prices on the basis of false demand. They might also result in empty rooms/seats when real customers could have booked them.

controller1

I make the reservations 18 months in advance and cancel, if necessary, the one room I don't need at least five months in advance. It's not like I'm preventing the property from selling a last-minute cancellation!

pricesquire

Right...

It's not like I'm keeping 2 reservations until 48 hours in advice.

More like, I'm going to cancel one of this within 48 hours of this thread...