starwood4life

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I have been increasingly frustrated in redeeming Suite Night Awards.

I am about to embark on a international vacation to [destination shall not be named] staying at [hotel shall not be named]. Suite Night Awards were used to try to upgrade a 5 night stay. Being the obsessive person that I am, I would check suite availability continuously on the days leading up to the 5 day window in which the SNAs would clear and there was availability for the suites eligible for SNA upgrades. Needless to say I was excited and confident I would be able to get an upgrade. The day before upgrades are available to clear, availability is gone, my suite night rewards do not clear, but got the "hold tight, we'll check every day up until check-in for availability" email. Disappointed but still optimistic (did I mention obsessive), I continue to check availability each day and lo and behold, the day after my SNAs are rejected suite availability opens up again. Coincidental, probably...or is it???

Excitedly I call platinum concierge to see if they can clear my SNAs as there is now suite availability. From what I gather, "corporate's" hands were tied and they could not award my suite night awards, it was left up to the property so I waited patiently for two days checking each day to confirm availability but yet still no glorious email to confirm upgrades. Sadly today, two days before my check-in, there is no longer any suites available. Granted, I have yet to check-in and may be pleasantly surprised and my conspiracy theory ruined.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Should I have reached out to the hotel directly? Is there a defined guideline on how SNAs are awarded when online availability is displayed within the check-in window.

First-time poster, long time reader. Thanks for reading.

Starwood Lurker

There's a very long thread on this already. I'm sure you will find detractors and supporters of Suite Night Awards, but here are few indisputable facts:

1) The hotel has absolutely no say in whether your SNA's clear; it is a totally automated process. So, calling the hotel or the call center isn't going to get you anywhere.
2) The system is not checking spg.com for suite availability, so you shouldn't be either.
3) The system is checking according to the parameters in which it was programmed to do so. If the suite you selected is available at the time the system checks and no one else was in line before you, then you will get it.

True story: I once did a deep dive into one of these kinds of situations. It was a hotel in NYC. They had a group of Middle Eastern gentlemen who wanted all the suites, but they were wishy washy about their decision. One day, they were taken out of inventory. The next day, they were returned. This went on for several days and definitely played havoc for anyone trying to get their SNA's cleared.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts LLC

[email protected]

damon88

The formula that determines which SNAs clear is proprietary and certainly complicated. But I promise you that they actually do clear. There were probably other SNAs that cleared ahead of you for whatever reason--the member made his/her request before you, the member had more nights/years/points/spend/? That would definitely be my best guess at what happened. The system has to have some way of prioritizing requests. If there were 4 suites available and 6 SNAs pending, 2 members were going to lose out.

But don't give up. Sometimes an SNA "fails" and you still are upgraded. (In that case it is the hotel making the decision, not the SNA algorithm)

M.dA.R.

controller1

Welcome to FT. And for a first-time poster, what a name!

UKTraveller4Fun

I recently had a situation at LeMeridien Nice where I had 5 night SNA's waiting to clear on a reservation, it was a BRG rate just for full information share! The suite I picked is not something they can upgrade you from as it has a wrap round balcony as part of the advertised feature and other suites do not have this.

Anyway long story short I did keep an eye on availability and leading upto and including 8.30am on 5 days before they had 2 available to book. Then my SNA's got cancelled off around 9:30am, I got an email informing me. I called Ambassador team got them reapplied but when I checked spg.com at about 10:30am both suites had gone for my dates, but 2 could still be booked if I split it into a 3 night and a 2 night stay! In fact all 3 of these suites could be booked for the first 3 nights!

Obviously my SNA's didnt clear, I asked Ambassador to look into it and eventually the hotel responded a couple of days later, the hotel said a glitch with the revenue department but it was to late now as all suites were occupied during the 1st night of my stay!

It was also confirmed to me the hotel revenue department were the ones accessing my reservation at 8:30am causing the SNA's to cancel in the first place.

Upshot is I agree hotel's have no power over the SNA system but they do have power over what is shown to the SNA system. This could have been a freak set of circumstances, the fact the suites would demand a lot of money as possible upgrade over the weekend nights would be the other way of looking at it.

M.dA.R.

UKTraveller4Fun

Hi,

No it was cancelled about 3 hours before the SNA sweep should start, so at that point still a request.

I did follow up via Ambassador and initially they were helpful agreeing it all seemed odd and they would contact the hotel who did inform them yes the suite availability was there but due to an error (which only appeared it seems that morning) the room wasn't available for the 5 nights and they would correct it. 36 hours later when they did the suite was not available for the first night of my 5 night stay as it had been allocated!!

In regards my questions that why did the SNA's get cancelled apparently it just happens sometimes when a hotel accesses a booking! My thoughts is great it puts me at the back of the queue for people applying SNA's as its a earlier you apply them you get first access. Other than that I got basically no answer as to what went on and after spending several hours on it and being passed from one Ambassador to another to a supervisor I became fed up of having to go over the entire series of events over again as they never knew the situation before contacting me! I ended up going elsewhere and staying with a different hotel entirely which I will say was a very enjoyable stay!

RogerD408

There are so many issues that have to align for SNAs to clear I'm surprised any do. Not only does the SNA Pool inventory have to be available (and is not shown on SPG.com), the same room must be available for the duration of your stay (again not shown on SPG.com). And you have to be at the top of the list for the system to apply the SNA. It is a "black box" process with no disclosure about where your request stands and there is no apparent means for anyone to intervene. Now, on the up side, many have reported having their SNA request denied only to get a Plat upgrade at check-in.

So, no real "conspiracy theory", just questionable implementation. The more transparency put into these programs make them much more valuable.

TerryK

SNA inventory is often a subset of what shows on website. For example, spg.com may only show Junior Suites available while there are Junior Suite with Mountain View and Junior Suite with River View subcategories; only the former is SNA eligible. That distinction is not shown on spg.com as they lumped into one for paid stays.

I see it more as lack of transparency instead of conspiracy.

ckendall

Just to add a case in which things turned out well when they could have gone south: I was in Paris earlier this year and tried to use 3 SNAs at the Westin Vendome. Something screwy happened and the SNAs went through (I got an email) but there was no confirmation of the type of suite or any information on the reservation. I got to the hotel and asked what about my suite; there was some confusion and I was asked to forward the email that the SNAs went through. A few moments later I was offered my choice of very nice suites.

As noted above more transparency would be helpful (and perhaps Marriott will bring better IT integration to clear some of these things up). But things do work out in some instances.

M.dA.R.

RogerD408

From what I have read, there is zero transparency. The SNA pool is a subcategory of rooms determined by the property and there is zero visibility to what availability exists. So if Junior Suites w/Mountain View are rooms in the pool, not all of them need to be in the pool. So just because you see availability of that room type on SPG.com, it doesn't mean SNAs are available.

cln

actually i dont believe the hotel that the hotel doesnt can influence the approval of SNA's .. i talked with the properties a couple of times when i had stays with famliy or friends and they said they would clear it for me...

M.dA.R.