ToledoRocket

As a Starwood PL and Hilton Gold, call me crazy for even thinking about BW. However, I am sick of the cookie cutter hotels and I am selectively trying some BW. My question about BW are:

1)How long does it typically take for points to post?

2)How responsive is customer service when they don't post?

3)How often do promos come around?

Thanks

rubbernyc

Stefan Daystrom

Normal points or miles take a couple weeks to post to the BW site. (Then additional time to the airline, if miles, of course.) Bonus points or miles take forever. But you can call after a month or two and ask them, and they'll generally manually add them. And then months later the "normal" bonuses may finally post, in which case you may get extra just for the hassle of the delay, essentially!

Promos are much richer, and in fact more frequent, if you are a AAA member and sign up for their special AAA program. For one thing, you automatically get a 10% points bonus on every stay on which you earn points (doesn't apply when you're earning miles).

Personally, I've found BW especially useful in looking for affordable European properties that earn points or miles and have high-speed internet. Hilton HHonors, for example, doesn't have anything like Hampton over there and is only just starting to put in HGI (plus in a few countries has Scandic, which are often a great value). But they also don't have coverage in a lot of smaller European cities no matter what you want to pay, while BW often does.

In Orange County CA, OTOH, they're just a different type of cookie cutter. The one in Newport Beach looks pretty identical (same builder?) as the Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn Express down the street, and the one in Santa Ana (Hotel Terrace) is a standard outdoor-entrance property for that area.

BamaVol

mfox

Make sure you see if BW will status match.

Also, make sure you research the properties before making a reservation. I'm a Platinum at HI and also have gotten bored of the cookie cutter properties. I've tried BW a few times and have had very mixed results. I stayed at a really great property near the university by downtown Seattle. But then I got burned at a property near Fresno that was a real dump. So I've gone back to HI.

I'd be curious to see what you find or what kind of quality issues others have found. I do like the fact that BW properties have a lot more character than the other chains. But I don't want to spend the time having to research every property before I make a reservation.

Ob1Stogie

After earning Plat status on BW (only 15 nights) I can honestly say they are nothing to get exited about. However, they are all pretty clean, have free WiFi and are generally about $50 less than a comparable Marriott or Hilton property. I will say the BW in Naples, FL is great and I would even stay there for a vacation.

BamaVol

Excellent point. There is a post here on doing just that. There's so little activity on this forum, you won't have any trouble finding it. If you contact the OP for instructions, you find him willing to help.

Kate_Canuck

BestWestern is the first chain I check when I'm looking for a hotel in France (where I live). They've got a good range of hotels in various price ranges, and the Best Western Premier hotels (the top of the range) are often quite nice. They're a good bet in Paris, where so many other chain hotels are exorbitantly priced. A lot of hotels in the chain in Europe have a lot of charm; they're often historic hotels that were once family run but have joined BW. Internet booking is easy - and you get good value rates that can be cancelled, unlike some chains where cheap rates are only available for non-cancellabel bookings.

ToledoRocket

Now it takes a little more work, but I am trying to put a little adventure and fun back into business travel. www.tripadvisor is a great screener of properties to avoid. Good to see some activity on the BW board.

hotlguy

I have to admit that my perception of BW is even more hit and miss than some other chains I frequent. Well with the exception of Inter Conti which is always consistent.
Having said that I have stayed in 2 BW's which were quite nice. The Hotel Bologna in Mestre opposite the station ( a 10min train ride to Venice ) and the Master Johansson hotel ( a Premier property ) in Malmö.
As said before you have to be quite careful to select a BW. Check out Tripadvisor which can help select the better BW's. Post questions on this forum to fellow BW guest to get some feedback and calling the property asking questions about last renovation etc.

drdroad

Overall, my experience with GCC is they are the worst. Of the Rewards Programs I use, they are the only one that has actual black out dates, where you can't use your points to get ANY room at a particular hotel. And I've had lots of trouble getting credit for stays, often. Even though I use THEIR mastercard, with my GCC membership # printed right on it, I still don't get credit even 30 days later. And too often, they want me to do the legwork to get the credit. Rather then them just calling their member hotel and confirming my stay, they require me to dig through my receipts and fax it to them when I find it. I just don't have this problem with Choice, HHonors, Marriott.

Oh, and there is this. I was able to book a room with points at a small city in South Dakota a few months ago. I was told that the room I wanted was on the top floor, so the points were higher. I like top floor, so I said ok. When I get to the hotel (the worst BW I've ever been in) it only has ONE FLOOR!

loomis

Very informative first post, drdroad. Welcome to Flyer Talk!!

rubbernyc

Also wanted to add that one of the elite perks ( Platinums and Diamonds ) is the ability to get an upgraded room. I have found this to be a myth. I never usually bother with BW in the US, but as others have mentioned, they are usually quite nice in Europe. This is where I try to get upgrades but it never works. Case in point, I was just at the BW Ambassador in Menen, Belgium this past week and even though I requested on my reservation and called the reservations desk to put a note on my reservation, I did not get an upgrade. I politely asked at check-in to be told that the business room required a higher tariff than what I had reserved, so much for the benefit.

On the other hand, one thing I've found about European BW's ( Belgium, France, Italy ) is that upon checkout they credit your points instantly to your account, a nice touch I think.

Hope that helps.

Hamburger

I have been to BW facilities in Europe twice. Both were bad. The first one was near Stuttgart Airport (STR) where their restaurant was unable to serve a WARM cordonbleau, even after 3 complaints! (It was really still frozen in the middle).
I just returned from a stay in the Best Western Hotel Le Lido, Belgium, close to Brussels airport (BRU). Neither at checkin nor at checkout there was english speaking personell, which I would expect at a hotel 25km away from BRU. The info map on the room said food could be ordered in the lobby or bar and would be brought from a nearby restaurant. When trying to do so the answer was: "Sorry we do not do so, please go to the restaurant yourself."
The checkout was the worst I have ever experienced. It was impossible to make the checkout guy understand I need to have my company's address printed on the invoice. The first printout contained no customer address whatsoever, but was on the hotels paper. The second try, after a long while trying to fix printer problems, was on blanko paper, containing half of my address, the rest was outside the printable area.

IMO BW can not seriously be compared with HI-group, Hilton etc. because it is more inconsistent than the others.

P.S.: One positive example comes to my mind: The Best Western Hotel Plaza in Pescara, Italy: Good rooms, good restaurants, good service.

ToledoRocket

As I stated in my original post, I wanted to BW a shot for something unique and different. My beef is not with the hotel. It is with "customer service". There was a stay in February that did not recieve the triple point promo that I registed for. Knowing how notorious BW is in posting their bonuses I sat on it. I finally wrote today and here is the response I got back in less than an hour:


Hello Rocket Flyer,

Thank you for contacting the Best Western Gold Crown Club department.
We are able to take into consideration any qualified stay within the
last six months; due to the length of time that has passed we will not
be able to review this stay.If we can be of further service, please do
not hesitate to contact us again.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Am I crazy? All the major chains go back at least a year. There are records of my stay and promo registration. Why would any serious business traveler put up with this when Intercontinental, Marriott, Hilton, and Spg do more?

Post Mortem: I wrote back stating this policy was non-competitve. I recieved back a response in 15 minutes with the points posting.