Truly

Not me, I sent an email (albeit with the subject "other") yesterday and all I got back was the "automated acknowledgment" email.

Truly

Truly

I don't see why that is a problem. Hilton does it this way. I don't see much value in being able to change my mind up until the last minute. I would rather not have the headache of having to check and see if the points posted. As for the local amenities, I was just in *Wood properties in Bangkok and Khao Lak, and in both places the card just said "Local Gift 1" and "Local Gift 2" - so I don't even know what they would have given me.

The only thing that would make me feel differently is if one of the amenities was free internet in the room. When I am traveling on business I can expense that cost, but when I am on vacation, I might choose that over the 500 points.

Truly

Starwood Lurker

If that is true, then you would truly like for us to keep it as it is because free internet access as a blanket Platinum welcome amenity is not one of the choices for all participating properties where it may be at a given individual property.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

Truly

A very good point! I guess what I'd really like is to not have to chase down my 500 points.

Starwood Lurker

We would like that as well. But, there is some solace in the fact that everytime one is reported missing, it goes on a monthly report and the hotels that are the top offenders get a follow-up on why this is happening. Repeat offenders get a follow-up from their area managing director.

But, this is really not as big a problem as people think it is. Fewer than 1% of Platinum amenity points go missing. While an individual member may experience a higher percentage of missing amenity points this can often be traced to individual properties, not a systematic failure. And, as you see, we have protocols in place for this individual failure.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

MiAAmiNice

Because of the number of times I've had to chase down the 500 points over the past few years, I've become much more proactive about it to insure that the amenity appears in my account PRIOR to check out. Even so, it was necessary to write to request it for a hotel stay in January.

In the 13 stays I've had thus far in '08, only one hotel presented me with an actual card in order to select the amenity. Not having the card presented isn't a problem as that saves paper and ink costs but, minimally, I would like to be asked as a matter of routine what my preference would be. Increasingly, I find it necessary to remind the clerks by making a request for an amenity myself. For instance, on Friday, 3/21, I checked into a Westin in the DC area and the clerk failed to ask about the amenity. I forgot about it as well. Upon check out, I made a point of inquiring about the platinum gift and learned that nothing had been credited when I arrived.

yosithezet

Just curious, how do you know that fewer than 1% go missing? Do you get a report if the PLT selects something other than the points? If I select "Local Gift 2" is that recorded somewhere in the SPG systems?

You could have asked what the Local Gifts were. I do. So far I've always preferred the points.

Maybe we should start a "Local Gift" MASTER THREAD and start collecting descriptions.

Truly

I know - I also know that I love my points and it would take a fantastic gift to talk me out of keeping them!

I like your idea of the Local Gift master thread.

Truly

Truly

Thanks for being such a responsive lurker. The Hilton board is much more lightly lurked! I am a long-time Hilton Diamond who is fairly new to Starwood; I made Platinum in August (literally on my final hotel stay as a consultant) but then changed jobs and haven't traveled as much, so I am only just now getting to enjoy my status.

Truly

Starwood Lurker

I said less than 1% of the Platinum amenity points go missing. As I understand it, there is consumption data that tells us how many members select Starpoints for their amenity. It is then rather simple to take the total number of points missing and divide them by the total number requested.

There can also be a record of other amenity selections, but that requires a paper trail. The numbers can be skewed there if properties run out of the slips or don't use them at all for some reason, but the points are requested through the database, so no such paper trail is necessary.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

yosithezet

I'm not trying to nitpick, I've only had 2 cases I think of the points amenity not getting posted and they were both award stays. I'm am just really interested and an IT geek.

The reason I asked about the Local Gifts is that if all were points amenities you could just run a report that matched up how many stays you had by PLTs and how many times the points amenity posted. But without knowing how many times the 'other' amenities were selected I can't see how you can know how often the points fail to get posted. Say there are 100 PLT stays. And of those 100, 50 select "Local Gifts" and 50 select points. Only 49 of the points get credited. If you didn't know that there were 50 selections of "Local Gifts" then you would not know that the 1 points amenity went missing unless the guest followed up. So perhaps 1% of times a points amenity is eventually posted it is because a PLT complained that they didn't get posted. But if there are PLT that don't keep track and follow up there could be more cases than 1%. Of course, if a loyalty program member doesn't follow up on their points, did they really want them in the first place?

Starwood Lurker

I think I see where you are coming from, but I think if someone doesn't ask you what amenity you want, you should suggest something and if you don't during the stay, you should at least report it as missing afterwards, so maybe it would be better to say less than 1% of those who were interested in the first place.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

leandrorar

Hi William,

If the system knows and can report the missing credits, why don't you just correct the missing credit automatically?

In fact, I really don't believe this is the case. I think the 1% comes up from the number of missing points reported by us, either by phone or email. Probably only 10% of Plat members (may be less, may be more) proactively chase these points. That would turn your 1% to 10% missing amenities.

Now, from my personal experience as a Plat member in the last 3 years, -at least- 10% of my stays end up with no amenity points. I chased 7 stays once and got credited an extra 3500 points (as reported here) but I don't find much time to continuously analyze if your properties do what they have to do.

I also don't share the conception that guests should be your free property auditors and advisors that populate your reports so you can penalize properties. May be in terms of quality or with a survey, however not acceptable when something can be fully automated. This is Starwood responsability.

As you perfectly know Hilton does not believe we have to be free auditors. If you don't get what you deserve, you get paid $100. No promises of "we will follow up on this".

Hope SPG can solve this problem.

LR

Starwood Lurker

The correct box has to be ticked at the property level so the amenity points will be applied with the stay. If it isn't, it is because the member chose something else or the box wasn't ticked.

In a macro sense, it is less than 1%. I stand by that, so I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

Yes, I think I acknowledged the fact that it could be higher for individual members and gave a plausible reason for why that might me. Sorry if you disagree, but in a micro sense, it might even be worse for some members than 10%.

I look at it more like a partnership when it comes to your relationship with SPG. If you don't want to help, then I guess disappointment will abound.

Hilton is both a competent and able competitor, but I think we can agree that there are some things that SPG also does better than Hilton. Kudos to them for this one.

With your help, we will continue to try and make this even less of a problem than it currently is.

SPG understands that a small number of Platinum amenity points go unfulfilled. We are happy to correct them when they do and we have protocols in place to improve performance when it does.

With that, I am done debating this particular issue. Feel free to continue to discuss it among yourselves, but I wish I had never touched this tar-baby to begin with.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

rdchen

HH does NOT have $100 compensation policy, Marriott does.