Nice first post. Welcome to FT! Thanks for taking the time to compile your experience. Sorry to hear about the "bumps" in the road on your Hawaii trip.

One item regarding your Gold Status, I too am SPG Gold via Amex Plat card. I wouldn't expect too much from that and you won't be disappointed My experience to date, is that it's good for more bonus points on stays and perhaps the late check out. Nothing else should be planned for and anything above that will be a pleasant surprise.

Also, as a general observation relative to the quality of your accomadations, I recently went to Honolulu (Oct. 2008) after having lived there 4.5 years and having been away about 15 years. Sadly, I was pretty shocked at how "run down" Honolulu seems relative to when I lived there. I didn't stay at an SPG, but rather ended up renting a condo. To be honest I was finding it difficult to find a hotel (any hotel!) that I was willing to stay it in Honolulu. Even in my web research most properties seem a bit long in the tooth and pretty run down.

I'm sure there might be some nice, high end (high $) properties in HNL, but I had trouble finding the "Toyota Camry" of hotels (i.e. good value, etc.) I just couldn't get excited about any of the SPG properties in HNL.

Anyhow, I don't mean this to be an excuse for the conditions you observed at the Sheraton, but rather an observation that while I was there I walked into quite a few hotels and just found myself disappointed more often than not.

In the future, I think it's unlikely that we'll return to Honolulu, but rather will return our focus to the outer islands, as we have for the last several years. Have been much happier there. Honolulu just seems very run down in general, and that's reflected in the city and the hotel properties therein.

Regards