EdV

While true that I found many Saturday nights where "points redemption not allowed at this location" pop up during search (that's new for me) I found many of those same weekends having room available on points on the corresponding Friday night and for the 35k points. So use your points for Friday and pay for Sat is an option no? Of course I'd like to use points for both but this is still an option.

bgriff

For my particular dates, I kept checking and eventually points did pop up, presumably either because someone with a points booking cancelled, or perhaps someone in hotel or corporate revenue management decided to release more points rooms.

It's not just this hotel -- a few of the other Portland hotels seem to have the same thing going on with no points even though standard rooms are available, like the new-ish AC Hotel. But, those are all legacy Marriott brands, where this sort of thing has always been allowed, so that's less surprising.

I did notice that the Westin still appeared in the search results when searching for points, whereas the AC disappeared from the list entirely, so maybe that's related to the Friday only being available, or something like that. I had other options in this case, but if I'd really needed to stay here, booking one night on points and the other on cash wouldn't have been terrible. But still a lot worse than how it would have worked under SPG, considering the Saturday night rates are well into the $400-500s.

arlflyer

Just curious, I guess for the sake of trivia, since SPG is gone (and I wasn't active in it when it existed), but...I see that for this property the "standard room" types for the purposes of redemption seem to be the most "standard" indeed - room types named "Guest Room - 1 King" and "Guest Room - 2 Double". On the Saturdays that you note, the room types purchasable for cash are "City View" rooms which the hotel does explicitly designate on its website as a separate room type.

I am pretty used - across other programs - to hotels being allowed to define these trivially different rooms as different types (and thus different from "base" rooms for award purposes). Did legacy SPG hotels not engage in those games and, if not, what was the basis for determination of what comprised a "real" difference in room types?

bgriff

Yeah, there were definitely some shenanigans at certain hotels under SPG. I remember the Westin Berlin was a frequent offender here; it seemed to have only a small number of "standard" rooms but then hundreds of only marginally more expensive "deluxe" rooms or whatever, so standard rate points bookings would become unavailable after the small number of standard rooms were fully booked. I'm not sure how actively SPG corporate policed which rooms fit in which categories, but the Westin Berlin was definitely an unusual case in frequently having points rooms unavailable.

To be clear, though, what this Westin is doing is worse than that, and would not have been allowed under SPG -- for example, as of right now, for an Aug 16-18 stay next weekend, the hotel is taking cash bookings for a "traditional" guest room, but is not taking points bookings. (I think "traditional" is the lowest room category, though it's not 100% clear; looking at other dates when points are available, it appears that points book into "guest room", but that same exact label doesn't show up when booking in cash -- in cash "traditional" is the cheapest room.)

There were a few other weird little things where properties could play games under SPG, particularly with minimum stay length requirements or rooms only being bookable under special packages or the like where properties would try to prevent people from redeeming points under certain circumstances. Though again, none of those are in play here -- for Aug 16-18, there is plainly a "standard rate" for a standard room available for cash sale but not with points.

arlflyer

Thanks for the background on the old SPG setup - was just curious because this is something I've seen pretty regularly with Hilton etc. for quite some time.


You might wanna check again...all I'm seeing for sale for that period is the Pres Suite!!! Maybe you were just a bit too slow? And people wonder why I neurotically check my hotel reservations and availability multiple times a day.

bgriff

Actually now I'm realizing I might be confusing myself even more ... for the 16th to the 18th Marriott.com will sell me a standard room when logged in, which appears to be because of the room availability guarantee for Platinums & higher. Logged out it's presidential suite only. So for those dates, it's reasonable that there's no points availability, since the hotel is actually going oversold in order to offer me those cash rooms.

But, the point I was trying to demonstrate still holds for this weekend, Aug 9 to 11, where standard rooms are available when logged out as well, but no points rooms.

arlflyer

That's what I was saying earlier though, take another look. The rooms available for cash purchase 9-11 August are "City View" rooms, and if you click on the "Standard Rates" tab these are in fact explicitly noted as "Preferred Guest Rooms". So not base rooms. If you go to a date where there's a lot of inventory (I picked 24-25 Sept just because it's after summer season), you see that those are in fact sold as separate room types and that the hotel asks a price premium for them.

So I don't think that this is anything more than a manifestation of the garden-variety room type shenanigans that you noted before.

bgriff

Hm, you may be right. I can't find an example at the moment where this is a problem when logged out. So it's possible the dates where I was seeing problems were only because the cash rooms being shown when I was logged in were under the room availability guarantee.

EdV

Yep, I think that's exactly what happened as that weekend (Aug 16 - 18, 2019) was showing unavailable before I logged in. Post logging in only rooms popping up now are the Prez suite ($1,800/nt) or a Junior suite ($500/nt). Also, I looked further down the summer (Sept) and now are finding rooms available on points for both Friday and Saturday night stays for 70k points. So thinking this isn't as bad as you might have been thinking.

platbrownguy

Had a wonderful 3 night stay here this week. Used SNAs, got 1 bedroom "proper" suite on 12th floor. $87/nt AAA rate included garage parking (otherwise $26/day), great deal. Titanium breakfast was one of the best covid-era ones yet: voucher good for bagel+fruit option, yogurt+granola+stuff option, or a 3 egg omelet with choice of ingredients served with potatoes; all options came with coffee/tea + a good brand of OJ. And because the restaurant was closed for breakfast our mornings, it was all brought by room service at no additional cost (we ordered via chat on the app). Packaging was great, food was hot, omelets and potatoes were very tasty.

Service was excellent across the board. Gym was nice, 2 Pelotons but could use a little maintenance and deep cleaning.

Lazzari (around the corner) had great food and drink available until 1 a.m. Monument Square was easily walkable.

Will check out the Hyatt Place next time for a change of neighborhood but will definitely return to this Westin; it's one of the good ones.

cfabar1

If I’m visiting Portland, which hotel will make my visiting and touring of the neighborhoods more walkable, the Hyatt Place or the Westin?

The Westin seems like the much nicer hotel, but would love a comparison if anyone knows between the two properties.

bgriff

Downtown Portland is pretty compact, so I don’t think there’s a big difference really. The Hyatt Place is a bit more in the heart of the action and would probably save me some walking vs the Westin for most of the times I’m in Portland, but the Westin isn’t far away either.

platbrownguy

I've stayed at both in the last month (Westin 3x and HP 1x in the last few months). The two properties are only about 10 minutes apart on foot, with downtown Portland (incl. Monument Square, etc.) essentially in between the two. The Westin is nicer, but the HP is pretty good for an HP (and if you're looking to go out at night, there's more nightlife near the HP on Wharf Street than there is by the Westin).

I suppose you could look on a map at where you'll actually want to walk. I have been basing my decisions on price (and loyalty benefits/promos).

cfabar1

Yeah, I think I am going to stay at the Westin to make use of some SNAs. I’m using points, the HP has a better valuation, but it will be a longer stay and I don’t have SNAs at Hyatt. Knowing my luck, might not get a suite anyways, but figure I’ll give it a try.

bgriff

If you have the points to hold both places, you could also make a speculative booking at the HP in case your SNAs don't clear at the Westin, and cancel one of them once you see what happens inside the 5-night SNA window -- in my experience they often don't during the summer as the Westin frequently sells out.