Lazarev

That is encouraging!

Do you remember how far in advance you had to book? Was it more than a year, or maybe couple of months?

thomasito

I tried to book a room at Le Meridien Vienna, and they have no award availability until September 2017 (you cannot book longer ahead), altough you find almost every day a Class ich Room which is their lowest room category.

https://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemer...:PRORLM,RP:SPG

Seems this problem turns up with more properties.

Starwood Lurker

This is a different issue entirely. They were scheduled to go from Category 4 to 5 and they were set up as such initially, but then it was decided that they would stay at Category 4.

So, the bad news for the moment is that no awards can be booked until they are set up as Category 4 again. While it may take a day or two to get this sorted out, the good news is they aren't going up to Category 5 after all.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

jibi

And the issue in this thread where a hotel does not have ANY standard rooms available for reservations? Something is obviously going on and most in this thread would think this would need some type of response - after it has been investigated from a skeptical and logical perspective - to smooth over concerns. They are offering standard rooms on third-party websites. They have no standard rooms available for 1.5 years. They state on Starwood-authored material that they have only Superior/Club/Suite rooms and nothing regarding standard/Classic rooms... so do they or don't they? This is not much different than a suites-only property, but it would be good to know if they have classified their rooms as the non-standard rooms only - for 1.5 years or permanently or otherwise - or if there is a glitch or if they only have 2 standard rooms or something else...

Keyser

they also charge for the shuttle to fco....in fact, the shuttle to fco costs more than the shuttle to central rome....

landeej

9 days, and I did it myself online on spg.com (Ambassador dropped me a note three days later to say he had noticed the new booking, at which point I asked him to set my Your24, which was accepted).

CPRich

Data point - after the May 2017 date, the date finder shows awards available most nights through August. I pulled up a couple of those available nights, and it allows me to find/reserve (up to but not including the last button click to reserve) the max 15 rooms under both "Classic room, non-smoking: Queen Bed ", and "Classic room, non-smoking: 2 Single Beds "

That would seem to imply that there are at least 30 Classic rooms.

And the cynic in me may infer that someone went an made award unavailable back in November '15 (through May '17 - 18 months out), and hasn't gotten around to blocking further out.

Or maybe big groups of 30+ just have booked solid up to that date, and none after.

PayItForward

I think both are equally plausible. Or the rooms were taken offline for refurbishments, or it was a inventory error etc. Many possible reasons. I feel it is ok to ask but not necessary to think that the reason behind is malicious.

I recall there were issues with award inventory in the past and that was quickly corrected when the Lurkers looked into the matter.

I do not think there is a conspiracy and if a property runs afoul of the rules, they are taken to task.

jibi

I think that is all anyone is asking... for someone to follow up on this a bit more than what has been done (looking on future awards and noticing May 2017 and on). That is a bit suspicious... and everything else (standard rooms available on third-party sites, etc.) makes it seem even more so. However, if it is nothing more than a clerical error, then all the better to get it corrected...

jibi

Just an FYI, it appears this issue has been resolved. Superior rooms, which we learned earlier were the standard room in this hotel, are now available for 3,000 points (weekends) and 4,000 points (weeknights) as a Category 2 hotel. There are only 19 nights for the remainder of 2016 that are unavailable for redemption; and 9 total unavailable for all of 2017.

Lazarev

Thank you for the tip, I stopped checking long ago, and chalked it up to "just another points limitation".

Now I have to retract my previous opinions, and admit that SPG DID come through, and did enable use of regular amount of points for regular rooms. No catches, no games. I booked the room and canceled the higher points reservation.

So, in the end, they turned my bitterness and disappointment into higher appreciation of SPG. On odd occasion, it might require some gentle (or not so gentle) push, but it will come through.