Gagravarr

With the current bonus for booking with the app, I've been using the site as normal to work out where I want to stay, then using the app to actually book it. This has meant a few "It looks like you left without completing your booking" emails when I had actually booked!

Clearly the system that sends these isn't smart enough to check to see if you booked using another channel (eg mobile) before sending the "needy" email...

nineworldseries

Getting these emails all of the time is sufficient reason for me to discontinue my relationship with Starwood.

missxmelon

Wait...you base where not to stay on how many emails you get? Instead of using one of the techniques posted above to stop receiving such emails? Also...according to a previous poster IHG and Marriott send similar emails, too. So you're not going to stay with them again, either?

CPRich

Perhaps you can feed back the seemingly unanimously sentiment expressed by top tier travelers on FT to the marketing gurus.

If I can summarize:

Keyser

i've been getting a lot of these lately & i agree, they are extremely annoying....

r415

Anytime I get one of these, I refuse to complete the reservation, and just book a room somewhere else. I'm not one to financially reward annoying behavior.

margarita girl

Exactly! I wonder how many people say "Oh darn, forgot to finish making that booking. Thank goodness for the reminder."

Flews

I don't think I'm getting any from Starwood (maybe I always complete my booking). But I do get them from Disney and Trip Advisor, to name two. Must be a travel thing.

Cheers,

Starwood Lurker III

Thank you for all your feedback. We will be sure to forward to our marketing team.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

nineworldseries

I guess if you look at it this way. I choose to spend money with companies that exhibit good customer service; sending random, needy, annoying emails every time I visit your site to look up a booking is terrible customer service. Hyatt doesn't bombard my inbox with spam like this.

Not sure which "techniques" you're talking about. Setting up a inbox filter? Remembering never to be logged in when checking rates? How about just not sending pestering, annoying emails to your customers?

No, I won't, although that's mainly for other reasons. For the record, I have had status with Marriott for three years and several dozen lifetime stays and have never received an email of this sort from them.

Oxon Flyer

How many are you getting ?

FWIW, like the OP, I also spend time on the spg booking engine to troubleshooting FT-reported problems, but I don't get any of these e-mails, despite being opted in for everything.

What am I doing wrong ?

missxmelon

Same. I've never gotten one of these emails, despite looking up hotel rates all the time for potential future vacations.

missxmelon

I don't see promotional / marketing emails as terrible customer service. Pretty much every business uses them. I guarantee Hyatt has a mailing list and sends emails about exclusive offers.

Also, IME SPG has been great at resolving my customer service issues. In fact, one of the lurkers just passed on everyone's feedback on this issue.

The fact that you're cutting ties with SPG because you got too many emails (and refuse to do any one of the simple fixes) is really arbitrary to me.

Didn't realize I needed to actually repeat the above posts.

1. You can opt out of communications from SPG. And if your inbox is being "bombarded," it sounds like you could really use this.

2. According to another poster, you can set your web browser to forget your Starwood cookies. It's a one-time fix.

3. Also, you don't have to "remember never to be logged in" - you just DON'T log in. The website doesn't automatically log you in without you clicking "sign in."

I have status with Marriott, too (not sure why you think this is relevant). I get promotional emails from them, too.

pWei

I imagine this is okay and might be helpful if I go all the way to the review your reservation page, just before the final confirm button. This should make it rare enough since we should be able to see the terms before that page.

Like another poster said, review the account to make sure there isn't already another stay reserved for the same date.

These two should be technically feasible, and, at least the first, trivial to do.

nineworldseries

I'm not sure why you seem to be taking this so personally (and seriously). I'm choosing to not stay with SPG again because I don't like their marketing practices with email (among other, less trivial reasons).

I don't feel like I should have to go in and adjust my cookies, or worry about being logged in or not, when I'm trying to book an SPG room. These might be trivial fixes, but I don't care; I'm not doing them.

Marriott (and Hyatt) does send me promotional emails. I find some of them informative and useful (special rates at certain properties, promotions to enroll in, etc.). What Marriott and Hyatt both don't do is send me an automatic form email like a needy, clingy girlfriend reminding me to go back and book a room whenever I even visit the site.