Originally Posted by margarita girl

Believe it or not, this gift was the idea of Kelly Sanders, the amazing GM that ran the place under Starwood. It's the same gift shop that was used 13 yrs ago when I started staying there. There were far fewer Elites under SPG than under MAR.

Another great benefit Kelly put in place was allowing SPG Platinum/Ambassador members to reserve chairs in the first row in front of the Edge pool months ahead. (This would be the first row of free chairs.) I would book my 2 favorite seats as soon as I made a reservation. They had to do away with this benefit after the merger because of the number of Elites meant that someone would always be annoyed that all the chairs were booked.

Also, I never had to use SNAs. I got a suite every time I went if there was a suite available which was 90-95% of the time.

Kelly also allowed Gold members one complimentary visit to the Leahi Lounge to give them some recognition.