CPRich

So you received no upgrade except for.... an upgrade?

Do you have a reason to believe that a suite was available an they actively chose not to provide it to you? If you saw suites available for sale, what happened when you asked the manager why they were for sale but not available to you?

Why do you think the response was "stupid"

Do you think changing the loyalty program completely changed the daily, on-site activities of a management team at a property?

lilpisher

HollyGlen

Club access is a standard Plat benefit at this property. So no, I do not regard it as an upgrade at all.

Why do I think the response was stupid? The previous message from the duty manager was signed off by a human being with a name and a position. I do not regard pro forma text, with no sign-off at all (let alone a name) as a sign of intelligent life.

And yes I do believe things may well have changed. In this part of the world, people play strictly by the rules. The duty manager was someone I had not dealt with prior, and coming in cold with the new upgrade T&Cs, may well have chosen to apply them to the letter. Contrast that to under the "old regime", when I actually once received a few days' advance notice that all the suites had been booked out, with the subtext that they understood if I wanted to cancel and try my luck at another hotel.

copyright1997

since you know the management of the hotel so well, why not do the old fashioned yet sometimes effective thing and call them directly? Why not call the GM and find out if there is an issue with what they are seeing in your profile or if this is the situation going forward or ....?


The Marriott rewards policy doesn't PREVENT the hotel from going beyond what your rewards level calls for.

kennycrudup

This. It's very effective ("even" at MR properties, where I made the overwhelming number of stays nearly a decade ago).

Out of my Element

Tomorrow is now yesterday, how did it go?

CPRich

I note you've conveniently avoided responding to this question.

Anything?

GoPhils

ethernal

This made me laugh

wobbly wings

The terms have materially changed from something that entitled the guest to the best available room, excluding specialised suites, (whether or not it was always honoured by all properties is another matter entirely) to no further specified "enhanced rooms". Yes, there will be certainly cases where the property will throw in a great suite upgrade for whatever reason including the customer's loyalty (as they can do already to a random guest), but it seems obvious that this is a considerable worsening of terms for plat guests. It seems also pretty obvious that most plats will not bug the check-in desk about that suite or corner executive room that's still on sale simply because, well, it's just not due to them and they will likely be told "Oh yes, Sir, we have indeed assigned you an enhanced room" as for your privileges" (can you please go away now?).

Most will see how the old legacy properties continue to play in the future and vote with their wallet. I have been Plat on both SPG and Marriott for some time. I get the occasional suite upgrade on Marriott but way less frequently than at starwood properties. Personally I expect that in the future legacy starwood properties will follow the rulebook of the new chain, rather than the other way round.

HollyGlen

Hi All

Thanks for the reminders, sorry been madly busy and haven't been online.

I checked in at 5pm on Monday and was told the hotel was fully booked until Wednesday, and the suites would only be available then if I wanted a comp upgrade. I thanked them and politely declined the offer. I then went to my "Club Room" and cried myself to sleep.

@CPRich, yes, I checked availability through the app late on Sunday night and didn't see a suite. But like I said, this was my first stay since the integration and given all the system teething problems, I wanted to check with the hotel to be sure.

Per my earlier post, if the duty manager had simply told me over the chat line that the hotel / suites had all been sold out, I would have said fine and dropped it. He had two opportunities to do so and didn't, and in fact led me to believe in his second response that there may still be suite availability at check-in time. In the past, this hotel confirmed upgrades or otherwise through the app at least three days before check-in. This time, with the new app, I didn't receive a room allocation until late Sunday night, 18 hours before my check-in time.

And no, I didn't call the GM because it was late on a Sunday night here.

MSPeconomist

fastflyer

This may not be what legacy SPG members want to hear, but the following has been my experience.

I have been old Platinum at Marriott for many years (10 years according to the new "years tracker" on Marriott.com). I have stayed mostly in Europe and the US. Marriott rarely upgrades to a legitimate suite. At hotels with many room types (older, urban properties), I often get a corner room or perhaps a "junior suite" which is really just a larger guest room. I can count on two hands the number of times I have been upgraded to a legitimate two-room (or more) suite. I would estimate around 10 stays among 700+ nights.

Most of my upgrades have been simply to the club floor -- like 80%+ of my stays. That is what Marriott has long considered a satisfactory upgrade for a Platinum member in its own program. At the great majority of full-service US properties, there are fewer than a dozen suites. The suite-heavy hotels are mostly historic properties, and that property type is a small subset of Marriott/ JW/ Renaissance properties. If you want a specific non-suite room, say a corner room with a particular view, you can add that in the notes, but true suite upgrades have always been vanishingly rare.

remymartin

MSPeconomist