Loihi,

We thank you for your patience while I have been attending a continuing education course the past few days. I am personally very sorry for the delay of my response.

Currently, all of the hotels which you mention have their own reservations departments. The person to whom you spoke was simply misinformed and may have been new at their job. After all, everyone has a first day at work. Starwood does allow its properties to send overflow calls to the Central Reservations Office (CRO) when they are busy. This is in order to achieve a quick telephone response time for the customer. Staffing at hotels is always an issue, not just for Starwood, but for any major hotel operator. Most hotels do not have the luxury of staffing their telephones around the clock and during peak hours the staff they have are stretched to their limitations. For this reason, we always encourage our guests to call the toll-free reservations number. The associates that receive these overflow calls at the CRO have been specially trained to take calls for the properties (this instance notwithstanding). Since the available information about the property is the same both at the hotel and the CRO, the customer usually has a seamless experience with these calls. Regretfully, you apparently did not, and for that I sincerely apologize. I can assure you that our associates are monitored frequently to be sure they are offering the best customer service possible.

I do have some suggestions to offer as an alternative to calling the hotels directly regarding special requests. Using these suggestions would cost you nothing, so if you have an interest, please send me an e-mail at the e-mail address below and we will discuss these options further.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]


[This message has been edited by Starwood Lurker (edited 03-15-2001).]