Out of curiosity about the inner workings of my favorite hotel chain...

I noticed several references on Starwood.com to various rate codes such as RACK, SET, and COR. I know what RACK is, and I assume that COR is a corporate rate. What is SET? And are there any other known rate codes? I also found that the rate code for cash & points is SPGCP - is there then also a rate code for Starwood free nights using only points?

Thanks!

SET = Starwood Executive Traveler
BAR = Best Available Rate

Preferred (free) Night Awards follow the format: SPG?, where the ? = the category of the hotel.

Then there are upgrade award rate codes:

SPG?S = Specialty
SPG?SS = Specialty Select
SPG?SU = Standard Suite

There are even some upgrade suite award rate codes:

SPG?SU1
SPG?SU2
SPG?SU3
SPG?SU4

We could be here all night listing all the rate codes that exist.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

This is rather difficult question to answer.

SET stands for Starwood Executive Traveler. SET codes are primarily corporate discount codes arranged by a negotiated contract, but they are sometimes also used for other purposes including public promotions. They are numbers which are typically 4 - 7 digits long. An example of a current promotional SET code is...
390324 - Reserve & Relax promo (rate plan SETCCCAP if booking by phone)

There are various types of rate codes. For technical use, I divide them most simply into "Rate Codes" and "Rate Plan Codes." But even that oversimplifies them.

These are just some of the simpler code names that you might see to refer to various rate plans:
RACK
BAR
COR
SET
DAILY
GOV
AUTO (AAA)
SNR (Senior/Primetime)

Of the above codes, the only one that you are likely to encounter in that simple form on a technical "inner-workings" level is probably RACK; and even that is a rare encounter on spg.com.

But when actually searching for rates, you'd probably encounter slightly more cryptic names that provide more detail. These are actual rate codes such as...
DAILY0
DAILY21
SETAUTOF
AUTOV
BAR8 (There are different levels of "Best Available Rates": BAR1 - BAR10)
RETIRE

(I won't elaborate more on the details of all those rate codes right now, but you can see that there are multiple variations within a particular rate category.)

For award rates, agents will reference award rate codes which usually correspond to a particular SPG category number. For example, these are some codes which may be used for Category 6 properties...
SPG6 - standard Preferred (free) Night Awards
SPG6S - Specialty
SPG6SS - Specialty Select
SPG6SU - Standard Suite
SPG6SU2 - Upgrade Suite (such as a 1BR suite with a premium view)
SPGCP - Cash & Points

But then there are also Promo Codes which members can find from a promotional link or enter into the rate search forms themselves. Examples of such promo codes include...
Z2H Z3H Z4H Z5H Z6H (Multi-day Resort discounts such as 3rd Night Free)
Z2R Z3R Z4R Z5R Z6R (Multi-day Hotel discounts such as 3rd Night Free)
ZS3 ZS4 ZS5 ZS6 ZS7 (SunSational Savings)
ZBT (Better Tomorrows)
NBR (Pay Your Birth Year)
...

Rate Plan Codes are used for searching for a particular group of rate codes and are most commonly found in links from promotional offers. For example, AAABFS is a code for AAA Breakfast packages at some hotels. All sorts of codes could be found for these, and they are not always the same at every hotel. Sometimes, these will reveal rates which you would not otherwise find through a search without these codes, and sometimes these are tied to rates which are available through a standard search anyway. These are quite different from Promo Codes (above), though, because you cannot enter these into the search form yourself. SPG expects you to access these only through promotional links. (It is also possible to add these manually into a URL in a browser's address bar, though.)

Making the Rate Plan codes more confusing, many ads for promos might mention a "rate plan" which you could give to an agent over the phone but which is not the same method by which you would book online. An example is the collection of Reserve & Relax rates mentioned above. They are booked with SET 390324, but you might mention the SETCCCAP rate plan if you were to call to book. If you tried to use SETCCCAP yourself anywhere on spg.com, you'd probably never have any success.

For various reasons, the mix of SET codes, Promo Codes, and Rate Plan Codes often causes confusion for users of spg.com.

See also...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...rack-rate.html