Originally Posted by
Troopers
Quote:
However, a lot of those costs are paid by the hotels anyway, not corporate.
False.
According to Starwood v. Parker case, hotels have to purchase Starpoints from Preferred Guest, Inc. ("PGI sells Starpoints to SPG participating hotels and partners,") So my understanding is that the Starpoints that hotels give to the customers are not free, and in fact they have to purchase it from PGI which I assume a part of Starwood.
So the costs are indeed paid by the hotels at least partly. Of course hotels do get reimbursement when SPG members stay with points, but they get pretty low amount of money, unless the Occupancy Rate is >95% when the reimbursement is at the ADR.