A couple of thoughts to add to the OP's useful summary of the Ambassador programme:- Firstly, as he said there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that there is some kind of link between the service provided by the Ambassador programme and your programme spend. I almost never book rooms for anyone else, and so my annual spend is about 1/2 or less of bhrubin's. I too seem to get the "VIP" treatment in most Luxury Collection hotels and some of the better W/ Westins, but generally do not in St Regis hotels. I rarely get my Ambassador involved in general stay prep, but on the 1-2 occasions I've asked for a special room or requirement he has delivered. As an example, I'm probably going back to the Grande Bretagne in Athens soon where I'm usually upgraded to Suites, but have never had a view of the Acropolis. I'll ask to sacrifice size of room for a view this time and am pretty confident that will be delivered (probably in a Suite, but maybe not).
- Secondly, where I think the Ambassador programme today is at its weakest is in setting expectations and helping members understand what services the "Ambassador" is able to provide. My welcome email was focused on him being able to book me airport transfers and liaise with hotel Concierges, neither of which has any value to me whatsoever. I hope they improve this before they roll the service out to thousands of new people.
I've experimented with requests over the year and have found the following value add services useful:
- Help with logistics. Liaising with hotels to keep hold of packages, collect bags, do advance dry cleaning, etc. While I'd expect to arrange this directly with a Concierge at a top tier Cat 7 hotel, in a few cases my Ambassador had to use his creativity and insistence to arrange some things
- Help with Starwood. Customer care is not always great in Starwood, and I've had legitimate points requests, BRG's, service failures and other denials from the programme. My Ambassador quickly figures out what is wrong and fixes it
- Special occasions. I let my Ambassador know if there is something special about a stay, and he'll generally make sure that there's something special about the recognition. As bhrubin previously indicated, it certainly helps if this is in a luxury hotel, which my special occasions usually are. I also don't take the piss - I generally have my birthday and maybe 1-2 more stays out of 50 where I'd like some kind of favour which I suspect makes his life easier.
- Hotel liaison. My Ambassador has contacts throughout Starwood and generally knows how things work. I've previously needed longer term stay rates negotiated for New York and might need the same for Paris later this year. He will know whether the Sales Directors are centralized or individual and can act as a liaison to collect options and potentially to put some pressure on properties to meet my requirements
All in all, I definitely attribute value to my Ambassador as a useful human face for when I'm spending 100+ nights on the road. I'm hoping he doesn't get promoted to a trainer role so that I can keep him.