Originally Posted by
TravelinSperry
I was saddened too because it took a while to develop a relationship with my former Lancaster Ambassador rep. However, my new rep seems to be nice and I'll give her a chance before I make any judgements. Why is everyone assuming the new agents will be worse? Let's give them a chance and see.
As for Starwood... they are a publicly traded company based in a capitalistic society. As such they must manage earnings growth. This is not unusual for publicly traded companies in America. This does not mean it's the best way to go about it - but I'm surprised everyone is surprised. This is how business is currently done in the States and it's a rare publicly traded company that does it differently (although a few come to mind such as Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon).
Not saying that Starwood did not have a right nor, perhaps, an obligation to its shareholders to close the Lancaster office, as unfortunate as that is for those who worked there, including my outstanding platinum concierge. I'm sorry for them, especially in an economic environment which has not recovered fully, and I wish them all the very best.
From the standpoint of a loyal member, the manner in which Starwood handled the closing of Lancaster was nothing but a disaster. I'm glad if you have found someone new at Starwood with whom to work. Judging from my own experience and the postings of others, that is not true for all of us. I had a reservation request which was ignored for a week and probably would be still had I not become aware of the situation by other means and taken the necessary action. That is not a "seamless" transition.
And as for my skepticism about transferring my allegiance to a new platinum concierge, it is a healthy skepticism based upon some very poor past experiences with other, random platinum concierges at Starwood. Not all platinum concierges are equal, and using one who possibly is a newbie in Wichita is not my idea of "platinum" service.