I just got back from a trip to China and found two things. First, hotels in China still consistently treat Platinum guests remarkably well. As in the past, I received great upgrades, full buffet breakfast without using the continental breakfast amenity, late checkouts without question and other perks. One hotel, the Sheraton Xiamen, even acknowledged me reaching 75 nights for the year while staying with them with a special platter of chocolates.

However, the second thing I noticed is that they don't seem to get the rule change that allows night and stay credits for each of up to 3 rooms. I stayed in 5 hotels over 11 nights; Sheraton Hong Kong, Sheraton Guangzhou, Sheraton Xiamen, Sheraton Wuxi Binhu and the Westin Bund Center in Shanghai. I had two rooms each night in my name. My name was on the reservation for each room as was my SPG number. I paid the tab for both rooms on my credit card. Of the first four hotels, only the Sheraton Xiamen got it right. All of the others credited me with the stay and night credit for just one room, requiring me to deal with SPG customer service after each stay. I had mentioned to each of the hotels at checkout that I should receive night and stay credit for each room and none of them disagreed. They just didn't do it.

Since it was a continuous screw-up, when I checked out of the Westin Bund Center, I reminded the agent at the counter that I should get 3 nights credit and a stay credit for each of my two rooms (total 6 nights credit). She replied that I was incorrect; that I should get points for both rooms, but not credits. I told her that I knew the rules and should get 6 nights. She went back and spoke to a manager and then came back to the counter to tell me that the manager said that I only should get 3 nights credit total. I said that the manager was incorrect and that I would like to speak to him/her. So, the clerk went back for a long time and then told me that they were calling SPG to check. She later informed me that I was correct and that it was their shame that they didn't understand the rules. So, today I checked my account and found that the Westin somehow decided to credited me for 5 nights instead of 6! So, I'll be dealing with customer service again.