The problem with having individual property threads and city threads is that sometimes property reviews get posted to city threads. Glad to see you post the link...though this rarely happens.

I would say comparisons of properties should be in the city threads while property reviews should be posted in the property threads.

So now that we're a few years out from the full renovation - any consensus on what's the better tower, North or South?

Have an upcoming stay this week. For only $10 more per night, I can stay in one of the 'Deluxe' rooms - 390sq feet, high floor - but seemingly in the South tower. The slightly cheaper alternative would be a more Boston-esque room -240sqft - 'traditional' room, which looks like it's in the North Tower.

Previous posts seem to indicate that the South is older, adjoining doors in most rooms, and some wacky color palettes (that doesn't bother me).

Any thoughts?

IME North is better.

Just got back from 2 nights this week at the Sheraton Boston. At my 9PM check-in, I was informed that there was no upgrade available. The hotel was deserted, seriously empty. I told the woman at the front desk that I was very disappointed, that ever since I'd made Lifetime Plat status, it was as if I was being punished time after time with lack of upgrades.

So she proceeded to tell me she was sorry, she'd see what she could do....and told me that the suites for Plats had been pre-assigned "at random", that Lifetime Plat had no advantage in that system over someone who had just achieved Plat status for the first time. And then she gave me a decent, but smallish, suite (#1712) overlooking the Charles River, and told me it meant that some other Plat was going to lose his/her upgrade from that list in order to satisfy me.

I appreciated the favor (sorry, whoever you are who lost that room), but I have to say I was a little unnerved to learn that my Lifetime Plat status confers no advantage whatsoever in competition with Plats with less years at that level.

Don't see why you should be "unnerved" as you've never been promised anything you're not getting.

I've achieved "lifetime" status in a few programs (air and hotel) and don't expect any other special treatment. I've always understood that this benefit kept me at that status without having to re-qualify and I appreciate that.

In all of the programs in which I've achieved lifetime status it's never been positioned as a "higher" category that merits special treatment. I think that's fair. For me, lifetime status is special enough.

Congratulations on your lifetime Platinum status. Embrace it for what it is... which is pretty sweet if you ask me.

Fine, that's your view, but it's not mine.

Which customer do I want to reward first: the one with a 15-year track record of loyalty, or the one with perhaps one year? The message the Sheraton Boston delivered to me was that my long loyalty counted for nothing, until I complained.

The question also is why were other Plats pre-assigned a suite, but not you? What is the criteria that a hotel uses?

Which was exactly my question to the woman at the front desk. She said they had more Plats than suites that nite, and that the pre-assignments were done "completely at random" (her words).

I can think of dozens of reasons why a non lifetime Plat deserves to be rewarded ahead of a lifetime Plat.

For example, given a choice between a Plat with a "15-year-track record of loyalty" who has never set foot in a property, verus a Plat "with perhaps one year" who stayed 50 nights this year at that property, I would absolutely "reward" the latter first.

And, regardless of status, I certainly would not give preference to anyone on the basis of DYKWIA.

Cheers,

I don't think you have enough info to make that judgment call. I can tell you from staying at this property plenty of times over the past twenty years that the Plat assignments are typically NOT random and, more often than not, are preassigned prior to arrival, which I really like.

Also well worth noting that this is a high-demand hotel that sees well more than its fair share of SPG elites on any given night. I remember being there 5 or 6 years ago, and their SPG on-site coordinator told me she had more than 300 Platinums in house that night.

Lifetime Plat status is great, but that longevity is just one of many factors taken into consideration for assigning upgrades. BY NO MEANS has Plat Lifetime status ever been communicated as a Platinum Top Tier status -- it isn't.

Sorry you were disappointed, but your lifetime status is but one small component of the decision making process here.

I agree with you.

Except that the woman at the SPG Plat/Gold Desk said specifically that everything was pre-assigned at random. Big difference between at random and a Plat "with perhaps one year" who stayed 50 nights this year at that property

Based on my considerable experience at this hotel, I'm gonna say that either:

1.) the front line agent simply dispensed bad info (my guess)
or
2.) you just caught them on a really bad night.

As you'll note from reading through scores of FT reports, this hotel has a reputation over many, many years for really looking out for Plats. Sounds like you just got a bad hand here.

I'm not a newbie to that hotel. I've stayed there every year for the last 23 years, and most years, I have at least half a dozen stays there.

Could well be that I was just unlucky.

Then you know that your experience was well outside the norm for this SPG Plat friendly property.

I'm not trying to hound you on this point, but rather to point out to others who stumble across this thread that it's not commonplace for this Sheraton to fail to take care of their Platinums. that's all.

In your case, it appears that they didn't go above and beyond and, if I were in your shoes, I'd be similarly disappointed. Most especially given my remarkable upgrades there over many, many years.

Actually, no I don't.

I used to get remarkable upgrades here, but they dried up sharply in the last 3 years. I chalk at least a big portion of it to the renovation they did that chopped up the enormous and beautiful suites they had on the corners so that they could make more small rooms for rent.