Your point is valid...but it becomes moot when you compare ADRs for W and JW in almost every market in which they coexist. Certainly there are more JWs...but almost inevitably the W commands higher rates even when there are JWs in the same locale. You’re not going to find many, if any, examples where a JW has a higher rate than a W in the same locale.

Before August 18th, SPG Plats should have been offered free breakfast in place of the Plat arrival amenity of 500 welcome points. Sometimes there was also a choice of a local gift. IIRC the rules were slightly different overseas for some brands, but this was the basic version for Starwood at nonresort properties without lounges and without free breakfast for all (element).

The St Regis Washington’s SPG Platinum benefit pre-Aug 18 and Marriott Platinum benefit post-Aug 18 both includes breakfast in the restaurant.

Yes.

It is standard for St Regis. Perhaps they didn’t see or know of your Platinum status. Either way, it’s spilled milk now. I’d move on. And let’s return to discussion of luxury brands.

I would be if I could get a club level room (that's otherwise of comparable category) for the rate I would be paying for the StR or PH. I'm not sure about Waldorf as the only one I know is Waldorf Towers in NYC (several stays and nice suite upgrades under FHR). BTW, I'm Glob with Hyatt as well as PPwithAmbassador in Starriott.

I also give the edge to St Regis over PH, RC, WA, etc. I even give the edge to St Regis over Four Seasons, since I so love the StR brand standard butler service.

That being said, I also have stayed at many excellent PH properties (most recently Sydney and Istanbul) and think their standards as comparably high—but lacking butler service.

I’ve only recently stayed at RC properties (San Francisco currently, Kyoto in May, and Boston in April) but have found their standards also as comparably high—but again lacking butler service.

I must disagree with you about StR being always non-modern. Park Hyatt always has a modern, clean aesthetic. St Regis has both the classic/traditional aesthetic relative to its location (New York, Atlanta, Washington, Bora Bora, Punta Mita, Houston, etc) but also has modern clean aesthetic properties quite comparable to PH (San Francisco, Mexico City, Bal Harbour, Istanbul, soon to be Toronto, soon to be Hong Kong, etc). Your assumption that all StR properties are of the gilded Beaux Arts traditional style of the New York StR property is quite inaccurate and incomplete.

One of the problems for modern aesthetics to me is that the hotel could be anywhere. This was a major issue for Four Seasons, which they started to change only in the later 2000s. That still can be an issue for PH. The PH Vienna is a beautifully modern hotel, but you could move It to New York and one might not know the difference. StR conveniently has modern properties in locations where more modern sensibility or a modern aesthetic is appropriate, and has more traditional properties relaying a sense of place where that aesthetic is more appropriate. Park Hyatt doesn’t allow that choice; St Regis does.

That’s not what I said though! I have stayed at many modern St Regis properties (Istanbul, Mexico City, Beijing, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai for example), but all unarguably hark back to the founding days of the St Regis New York: it’s the entire point of the brand. Every St Regis has a signature Bloody Mary, Astor Suites, Butler Service, references to the parties held in New York, etc. It is not that the hotel architecture has to be from the 19th Century, but that the entire brand is based around a reference to the Upper East Side in the 19th Century.

Arab, Russian and Chinese money is obsessed with Anglo-Saxon nobility and the days of empire, which is why the brand resonates with their target market and is so successful. It’s fair to say i’m effectively the opposite of a Russian oligarch or a Chinese govt fixer, as a result this aspect of the brand is actually a turn-off for me.