hhoope01

Personally, I'd guess it has more to do with the local hotel management/ownership than with the hotel company, be it Starwood or Marriott.

With that said, if a given hotel only had a few connecting rooms and/or is in a market where there is a high demand for them, I might be able to see a specific hotel charging extra for connecting rooms. But under most situations, I doubt it would net a hotel very much in the way of extra revenue.

Okto

Last time I took the family to the Westin Grand Cayman I asked for connecting rooms in an email prior to arrival. They wanted $150/nt, so I told them "no thanks", but please do make a note in my reservation and hopefully you can accommodate this request at check in.

At check-in time, no connecting rooms were available.

Oh, and SPG Plat didn't get me any sort of upgrade either.

yyznomad

Hmm. Perhaps this is/was a resort thing?

UA-NYC

As noted in countless threads across the board, service and recognition at legacy Starwood properties has gone in the tank for many of us post-8/18

DJ_Iceman

If this is true and not just sky-is-falling nonsense from the rabid SPG loyalists, it begs a very serious question. Why have legacy Starwood properties thrown their service and recognition in the tank since the merger went final? How is it even possible for so many properties with so many employees to systematically screw things up for the guests who, if this is to believed, lived like kings up until the very day before? And why are legacy Marriott properties doing such a better job with service and recognition, the same as they always have?

EuropeanPete

RogerD408

I think this is more of collusion of the owners/managers and not the entire staff at a property. Maybe escalating this to SPG Regional Managers will spark a discussion get this resolved. Also, as suggested, posting such activity on Trip Advisor will expose the practice in a negative light and get them to change.

C17PSGR

Before 8/18, SPG properties couldn't distinguish between plat guests who stayed 100 nights versus those had 25 stays. Lightspeed still doesn't have that info although I can't say whether it distinguishes between gold and plat under the new rules. However, the hotel gets separately a list that helps them identify Plat Premiers.

So ... I can sort of understand why the ABQ Airport Sheraton checks me in and tells me thanks for being a plat but all rooms on the club floor are already given out without any attempt to prioritize. Maybe that's a computer thing.

But the bulk of post 8/18 complaints by legacy SPG folks are talking about other treatment at the hotel -- maybe no one is getting suites, legacy SPG properties in the pacific don't like the award rules so they create a very limited "standard" room category. Those are decisions being made at the hotel by the hotel GM. That hotel GM decides whether they use the list of plat premiers to make sure they get prioritized and whether to train staff (the nice woman at the FD in the ABQ Sheraton didn't know what Plat Premier was ... she said she heard their were some changes). In any event, these aren't Marriott decisions made at a corporate level, they are made at the hotel. But ... I guessed the connecting room fee was an SPG thing Just like at the GCM Westin or the Seoul Westin. But ... I can't say what a particular Marriott would or wouldn't charge.

Ultimately, an engaged GM treats elites well to drive repeat business. I have a poor suite upgrade rate at SPG properties this year (3 for 23 stays) and a great suite upgrade rate at MR properties of 40 percent. (I think its good based on my travels which aren't always to major cities with lots of suite options). Neither of those have changed after 8/18 but part of that is because I've learned which MR hotels will upgrade me from experience and FT and haven't figured out which SPG properties to avoid. So perhaps instead of blaming the program, we can all share info about hotels so we know which ones to reward and which ones to avoid.

UA-NYC

LOL that's a funny one