bernardk

Hi guys,

There's a question bugging me ever since my stay at the Vancouver Airport Sheraton Hotel.

I was there for work and the hotel was booked and paid by my company at a corporate rate or something. When I checked in and informed the staff I'm a Platinum Preferred Guest and asked to have access to the lounge and welcome gift, the staff denied me both and told me I could not have any benefit as a Platinum member because the room was not paid by me even though I'm physically standing in front of the staff.

I am confused and would like to have it clarified(coz i'll soon be staying in another SPG property by it's a Westin this time):

1. Do I have to pay for the room myself to get Plat benefits?

2. If the answer to Q1 is "no", then if the room is booked under a special corporate rate or something makes me automatically lose all my benefits as a Plat?

Thank you guys for answering.

bigguyinpasadena

The FDR at the hotel was wrong. You should have had all the perks associated with SPG Platinum Status.
This is a case where having the physical membership card might have been useful/

TravelinSperry

Welcome to FT!

Who booked the room? Your company travel dept using their corp rate? Under whose name? Yours? If your name was on the reservation I could perhaps see the properties point. But if it was your name, regardless of method of payment, then they should extend Platinum benefits to Plats.

It's probably too late for you, but you can ask the Lurkers to follow up with the property to retrain (if your corp travel booked under your name). The Lurkers are friendly helpful Starwood representatives who can assist when things go wrong or you need answers to something.

Land-of-Miles

Conference or group rates can exclude benefits depends on the deal struck. These are not just bog standard Corp rates though.

3Cforme

The Plat guest needs to stay, and to pay. It's covered in the terms and conditions.

B. A "Stay" is a stay of one or more consecutive nights at the same SPG Participating Hotel by an SPG Member who: (A) provides his/her SPG Member number at the time of reservation or at check-in; (B) pays an Eligible Rate or redeems an SPG Award or an SPG Promotion Reward for the stay; and (C) stays in one of the reserved guest rooms.

You don't have a qualifying stay so you're not due elite benefits.

9.1 General. An SPG Member will only receive the benefits of Elite Preferred Guest Membership Status during a Stay

ATLawyer

The issue probably isn't really the form of payment (CC by Member at check in vs corporate expense account), but actually whether the corporate rate is an "Eligible Rate." The complete phrase is "pays an Eligible Rate." The limitation of that phrase is "Eligible Rate" not "pays."

They don't care who is paying the rate, they care whether the rate is eligible.

Oxon Flyer

Would be useful if the OP could detail the type of rate and how payment was made, as 'corporate rate or something' may be significant here.

RogerD408

Earlier in the program there were some FDCs that insisted that corporate branded CCs precluded getting benefits thinking they were all company paid. SPG stepped up and resolved that issue. I believe they stated as long as the member's name was on the card you were good to go. I'm sure there are still some FDCs, and maybe FDMs, that will be looking for ways to say no under the impression they are saving the property big bucks. What they fail to consider is the future business lost, and possible by way more than just that guest as they will be talking with their co-workers and friends.

For the OP, I would make contact with SPG and ask for their help in resolving this. Just keep in mind there will be some reps that will automatically side with the hotel without looking into the situation. Contacting the Lurkers with your stay details would be my choice.

CHOPCHOP767

^ Bingo. Eligible Rates do include Govt/Military rates, AAA rates, Senior rates, etc. Eligible Rates might not include rates bargained for by conference organizers.

Back in my Navy days when I travelled often for the Navy, the hotel was booked by Sato (Third Party), under a Government Rate, and paid for with a Government Travel Card. I never had an issue with SPG elite benefits because the Government Rate was an eligible rate.

MSPeconomist

Most regular corporate rates should be eligible but special room blocks for meetings might not be, depending on what was negotiated. More significantly, you shouldn't get benefits if the room is being paid as part of a master bill.

Simply using a corporate (or government, AAA, senior AARP, etc.) rate available through SPG shouldn't cause a problem, even if you use your own corporate credit card. If another traveler such as your boss is paying with his/her own credit card, there could be an issue, especially for points and night/stay credits.

IMO the situation is more murky if the room is being direct billed but not part of a master bill.

Of course, there could also be an issue if the employer used an OLTA such as Priceline to book (and prepay) the room, but this would be rather unusual for business travel.

mahasamatman

To summarize, there is not enough information here to determine whether the FD agents were right or wrong.

The Wolf

As a Plat, when travelling with a colleague, is there a difference regarding lounge access if we share a room or if I book 2 rooms?

MSPeconomist

Isn't the Plat lounge policy for the Plat member and one other person sharing the same room with the Plat member?

An exception might be if you used SNAs to upgrade both rooms to a category that includes lounge access.

YMMV as staff at many properties will assume that if you enter the lounge together, you must be sharing a room. Just don't expect the other room's key cards to work for the lounge.

bernardk

Thanks everyone for replying.




I just want to clarify the issue so that I don’t need to go through the asking and being denied process in the future.




I believe my room is being paid for as a Master Bill as a group of my colleagues are travelling together with me as MSPeconomist said on #10 even though my name is on one of the bookings.




When I travel for leisure I stay mostly in Marriott properties so I’m not that familiar with SPG rules. In this case I guess the most significant difference is in Marriott properties, I simply need to be the one staying there to get all the benefits while SPG is not? I can get everything when my company books us in Marriott properties.




Being said that, there’s another interesting case. I travelled with my friend to W Taipei on leisure few months ago. The booking was made through my account via the app (book in advance rate but I guess it’s still an Elite stay?) and was paid by my friend’s credit card. When we checked in, I was told I couldn’t get anything as a Platinum because I was not the one paying for it.




I asked to change the payment to my credit card but it was not possible as the associate told us the booking was paid in advance. The associate basically said “no” to me no matter what i was asking (eg. Welcome gift, room upgrade etc) and I guess I was growing impatient after a 1x hours flight and kept being told “no”, and my face got longer and longer.




Eventually the associate suddenly said she needed to check and when she returned, I got everything I entitled to.

skywalkerLAX

1) The Sheraton Vancouver Airport is a disgusting dump and the lounge is horrible. You didn't miss anything. Made the mistake of staying there last month for the first time (never again).

2) If you book an ineligible rate such as third party booking (expedia) or you're on a convention/nego rate the hotel doesn't have to give plat benefits depending on the rate terms.

Not sure why such a horrible hotel would be so anal and refuse to give Plat Benefits though. It's not like they're losing out of much.

3) W Taipei is a very difficult hotel customer service wise and you have to push them each and every time to get proper Platinum benefits (especially Suite). How do they even know whose CC paid for the hotel? I've never had to enter a name for a prepaid booking, only CC #.