Originally Posted by
username
It is interesting that the SPG thread is a lot longer than the Marriott one and people there are worried.
I am MR LT Plat and SPG LT Gold and UA 1MM. From my perspective, there is not much gain. I had 0 paid stay at Marriott this year because my company does not have a chain-wide discount with Marriott and I made LT Plat. So, I started to diversify to SPG - then this happens :-(
In my experience (mid-tier business traveller):
+ for MR
1 - better 800 number service
2 - more consistent mid-tier hotels
3 - travel packages
4 - bigger footprint
5 - generally better lounges in the US
+ for SPG
1 - SPG's Social Media team is great
2 - Make a Green Choice makes a big difference for points
3 - guaranteed 4 PM checkout
4 - longer hours / more days for lounges (but food not as good)
5 - SPG Your 24
I know going forward, we most likely won't get the best of both worlds and the reduction in competition is never good for the consumers.
Former PP (for around 7 years IIRC), currently FT Plat and SPG Plat-100. I stopped staying at Marriott because the top end PP was completely inconsistent. Treated great 10% of the time and the rest as a regular Plat. SPG has more tangible benefits as a Plat than Marriott ever has.
- 50 nights - Plat - 10 suite night awards (now they also have some alternatives to choose from). Allow you to request a suite upgrade and they will try and confirm 5 days in advance and check until you arrive. Of course there is not guarantee you'll get to use all of them as they expire each year.
- 75 nights - Your24 (request alternative, confirmed if available, checkin or check out times)
100 night - assigned a personal Ambassador (direct phone number to a single point of contact). This is a mixed bag as some Ambassador's bend over backwards for their pax others only respond when spoken too. If they are not there you roll over to another Ambassador that, in my experience, provides equal or better service. I had one help us use free weekend certs in Hawaii when we only tried to book the rooms just 14 days in advance at a hotel which was almost sold out (based on available inventory) then on top of that we were able to use our suite night awards to ug from a 300 sqft room to a 900 sq ft ocean view and diamond head view room. That was all done in advance and we didn't have to beg the front desk for an upgrade, which seems to be more the norm at Marriott (even as a PP).
- FWIW 4pm check out is not guaranteed, if the property is sold out that night they can easily deny it, happened to us in Hawaii (online res showed zero availability) but they did make some accommodations for us. But at Marriott they make you feel like you are asking for them to get some special approval from Mr. Marriott himself to allow it.
- also there are points bumps as you go through the additional plat levels
- The point add ons. My typical week my base points is around 1,200 per stay, that doubles to 2,400 with my level bonus. Take the points for a 'gift' 500, green on a 3 night stay 1000 points, so 3900 for one 3 night stay. Doing the math, 1,500 point for the add ons is more than my base stay points. For reference the Sheraton on Oahu or the Westin in Paris are 10-12 points per night, so it's a pretty good haul of points for one week.
- Sheraton's normal UG policy on rooms does include suites
As for Marriott (some of the reasons I left)
- 'beg' for late check out or you have to make them look up your status to get it done
- 'beg' for that suite upgrade
Marriott benefits
- definitely more options, especially in Europe. We spent a few weeks in Spain (outside the main cities) this year and leveraged the AC Hotels and were treated very nicely there. SPG only in Madrid and Barcelona
- Agree the lounges are generally better
- Quality of the hotels are more consistent. You know what you are getting with each brand.