Flews

My experience is similar to MG's, with the exception of being a BRG guru. I've never taken the time to master the BRG.

While I am probably 40% leisure, and 60% business, it's really all the same thing for me, since I own my own business(s).

I've dabbled with Marriott, Hilton and others, only to find they fall short on expectations. I find *wood delivers the best value, perks, and stay experiences for my own travel patterns, both in Canada, as well as internationally. Part of this is because of my elite status, whereby I consistently receive great upgrades, both SNAs and otherwise, and Your 24 has worked out just great.

I've stayed with others. And sometimes still do. And it hasn't all been incident free with *wood. But all in all, after 35+ years of travelling the globe, *wood has become my hotel of choice.

Cheers,

fdem

I am Lifetime Platinum (haven't updated my profile yet) and find that due to not needing to retain 50 plus nights per year we no longer do mattress runs (like driving out to Heathrow airport and checking in and out) Due to my husband's two hip replacement in the last 2 years the Lifetime couldn't have come at a better time. having said that we always try and stay with Starwood unless no other options were available. As we travel to the Far East a lot this works well for us. I would say we are 80% loyal. I think having been Platinum for over 10 years we would find it difficult to stay at another chain with no status, maybe suites were not always forthcoming but we never had a bad room (unlike another non spg top luxury hotel in Mauritius where we stayed a few years ago. Just a shame no nice hotels in the Carribean (not interested in Westins in Aruba or St Martin!

Eastbay1K

I'm in a similar boat (or hotel room?) although you're probably a few years older than I am.

I was temporarily upset when I learned about the formation of Starwood, as my beloved Westin program was to disappear. My fears were unfounded. For the most part, SPG has treated me quite well, and when there is the occasional service lapse, recovery has been very good. Even during my two brief periods of Gold during the program's life, the program treated me well. I have IHG Platinum status (my current first backup program) and it is what it is, but it doesn't instill the sort of loyalty that SPG does, and I have been HH Gold and occasionally Diamond over the years, and now I'm a comfortable Blue member, with no burning desire to regain any sort of status.

I'm not blindly loyal. If a price differential is too great, or there is a stupid resort fee and there's another option, I will stay elsewhere. Case in point - in the past year, I stayed twice elsewhere in Honolulu because I needed a simple clean hotel room. The resort fee was enough to keep me away from the Princess Kaiulani (or any of the even more spendy beachfront properties). Holiday Inn got my business.

schmoove

I will check SPG first but I am 100% loyal to my pocket. If I find a cheaper rate with a hotel under a different banner I will book it assuming it is a similar quality hotel in the part of town I want to be in.

If the non SPG Rate is less than a $10-$15 difference I will probably go with SPG as I have the Amex and get more points for using it.

missxmelon

Good point. If I ever have to spend my own money on my hotel (fwp, I know ), I'll make the same consideration. So far I've always had enough points!

abraxis

Hmm. 100% leisure traveler. All bills paid out of my own pocket.

Pretty loyal. I will hunt for an Starwood hotel first. Then, if it's too expensive, Hyatt. Then IHG and Hilton. I like that SPG takes care of its plats. 4 PM check out. Decent upgrade batting average. And most importantly, there are lots of Starwood hotels where I travel (China and SE Asia).

Still doesn't explain the huge gulf between the brands over there and here in the US, or why Amex charges forex on its SPG card. That's exactly why I don't use it overseas.

ftrbt

100% leisure traveller, normally with my wife; but we also both work from home (or the hotel). Starwood platinum for about 7 years now + an additional 30 nights a year in non-starwood properties including both $30/night hostels and $1k/night properties.

With Starwood I know roughly what I'm going to get and it is often similar or better value than other chains. I also prefer the business atmosphere; get it done quickly and get out of the way (I avoid resorts when possible; I move quickly and they often don't).


When visiting a city for the first time I always book-end my stay with a Starwood because they deal well with weird arrival/departure times, airport transportation always knows where they are, and I usually sleep well while shifting schedule.

Independent hotels are either wonderful or duds depending largely on the owner; reviews aren't always helpful as I don't usually want what most people want (I may kill the next desk-clerk that insists on giving me a room tour, or manager that makes me wait while they greet me). Business hotels are much better at doing things quickly then getting out of the damn way otherwise. I often book fallback options which may be cancelled if I've not stayed at that property before, and I do keep notes as there is nothing worse than booking a bad hotel a second time.

Keyser

i would say about 20% of my travel is leisure....if it comes down to a choice that 20% of the time, i would almost always pick a 4* spg property over a 5* non spg property, even if pricing was the same....

the spg property would give me a better room (most likely a suite), free breakfast, free wifi & sometimes other benefits like club access, laundry, etc....

recently i had a choice of either staying at a four points or a local 5* star property for a weekend stay....the price difference was under $50....i picked the four points & the benefits i got was a suite upgrade, free breakfast, free internet, fruit basket on arrival & free muffins during departure....all the staff members knew me by name & i was made to feel very welcome....all this is worth a lot more to me than a stay in a random 5* property....

porciuscato

My 100+ nights for the last two years are all leisure. How loyal am I? Extremely. I will go out of my way to stay at a Starwood property and pay a premium. For the various platinum benefits, it's worth it.

It all started 3 years ago when an SPG phone rep. offered to recover some points that had expired because I hadn't stayed at a Starwood property for a while. Then he enrolled me in status challenge offer. Smart move, since it earned his company $50-$60k of business.

The reservations agents (all of them, not just the ambassadors and plat ones) are always helpful and extremely friendly. You always feel like they're on your team. As opposed to the agents at certain airlines, who seem to be playing for an adversarial team.

Another chain would have to offer me a significant advantage to switch. I have had Marriott Gold status, courtesy of United 1K, but haven't used it once in 2 years.

kluau88

13 years and 499 nights later I have been pretty loyal to SPG strictly on a leisure basis. I think in my early days I stayed a Hilton property for a night or two because as a price sensitive traveler, Hilton was a better option, but I never earned any status with Hilton and haven't stayed at a Hilton since maybe 2002. Why did I go with SPG?

At the time promotions were quite lucrative and many people had lauded SPG for their online presence here on Flyertalk with Starwood Lurker. I also really got hooked on the "Heavenly Bed" at the Westin properties I stayed at. I earned Platinum status and for the most part things were as advertised! While I will agree that the promotions aren't quite as lucrative as they once were and the trend as of late means that sometimes you need to fight for your benefits, I was vested in the Starwood program. I will admit I did dabble into Hyatt for a couple years and qualified for Diamond, but given that my travel is soley on a leisure basis, it was too tough to qualify for both Hyatt Diamond and Starwood Platinum. My belief is that the best loyalty program is the one that fits your travel pattern and in the cities I have traveled Starwood has a decent footprint. Is SPG perfect? No SPG has its flaws in my opinion, but is any loyalty program perfect?

Do I stay with other properties even where SPG has a presence? Yes. As I said the SPG program has its flaws and in my opinion one of them is the redemption prices for their high end properties or the nickel and diming for their all suite properties. Sometimes the point redemption or cash outlay is something that just isn't within reason so I will go boutique. I haven't gone down the boutique route in the US, but have done it outside the US in Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, and Italy.

Most of the boutique places I stayed at in lieu of SPG properties offered many of the same benefits I would have received as a Platinum. Generally these places were much smaller, but that is what I was looking for. The service I received at these properties was excellent too and some of them went above and beyond what I likely would have received at a SPG property even as a Platinum.

margarita girl

Congrats on your imminent LT Plat status! :-:

I just crossed 75 nights last night. Still need 120 nights and 2 more yrs for LT Plat. Currently at Sheraton Waikiki sitting in the Plat reserved chairs. Flying out tonight, but hotel has agreed to give me 6 PM check out even though I'm occupying a Kai suite. This is a perfect example of how they earn my loyalty! ^

This thread also reminded me that once again I chose a destination based on Starwood availability. I'm going to the SIN DO in January. There is a post do in DaNang, Vietnam, but no Starwood there. So going to Langkawi instead.

nineworldseries

I'm super, super loyal to Hyatt. SPG is my second choice if there's no Hyatt around or if it's significantly (like $100) cheaper a night. Marriott is a distant third and gets my stay only if there's no Hyatt or SPG (Oakland, for instance).

kluau88

^ for the 6PM checkout. Just an FYI, but I know at the Sheraton and Moana they have hospitality rooms that you can use after you check-out if you need to freshen up before a redeye flight.