JerryFF

I'm planning a longer than usual trip to the northeastern part of the US and was hoping to use as many SPG points as possible. I also have lots of Hilton HHonors points but because I own some weeks in timeshare and can covert to SPG, my preference is always to use SPG.

What I found was that there were relatively few places outside the major cities where I could use my SPG points. That contrasted with HHonors, where there were properties just about everywhere I am going.

I guess this is old news to most SPG members but it is the 1st time I have made a trip like this where I could do direct comparisons between the programs. For me the disappointment is that I really prefer SPG and would like this program to be my primary one, but there seems little interest in providing properties in secondary markets.

SPG just does not seem to have properties that compete with Hilton Garden Inn or Hampton Inn. I assume this is corporate policy. Most other aspects of the SPG program, including the SPG AMEX card, are so good - I guess you just can't have everything in one program.

Starwood Lurker

My apologies for your disappointment, but Starwood has an interest in branding properties wherever a hotel owner might have an interest in us doing so.

Far from it actually. The aloft, Four Points, and Element brands are built to compete in this market. All we need now are for some hotel owners to express their interest in one of these brands being in an area you frequent.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

moulder3

While I agree with William's comments above, for some reason the Northeast U.S. does seem to have the biggest *wood gap in the country, in terms of secondary cities without coverage.

I would have 100+ nights every year at *wood if they had ANY presence in these cities:

Buffalo, NY
Rochester, NY
Shelton, CT
Merrimack, NH
Portland, ME
Hyannis, MA
Marlborough, MA
Newport, RI


IMO, Starwood has done a great job of adding hotels in the Washington, DC area, but hasn't added much north of NYC.

UA-NYC

As a lower CT resident, I have no need to stay in hotels in the greater NYC area, but there's an embarrassing lack of coverage in N.NJ and Westchester/Fairfield Counties. Sad that the only property within 25 miles of me is a Four Points!

3Cforme

Marriott brands > 3,000 properties

Hilton brands > 3,500 propertes

Starwood = 992 properties

Hyatt = 434 properties

A loyalty program that doesn't have properties in the cities (and at price/service points) one visits routinely may not be the right choice.

mrredskin

the two more regarded hotel chains/programs on that list are also the ones with significantly less properties. coincidence?

CPRich

This is one of the reasons I always recommend a combination of MR and SPG for status. Better overall program/benefits/etc with SPG but the reality of MR's geographic coverage.

(I think HH may not be a viable option to MR - I think they bought a few low-end chains to beef up the count, but I've long-term invested in MR lifetime status now)

DownUnderFlyer

This topic comes up here regularly. To see where other people would like Starwood to be, have a look at this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...ood-hotel.html

ajnaro

Perhaps other hotel groups are more active in actually recruiting hotels rather than waiting for "hotel owners to express their interest". The phrase does seem very laid back.

mahasamatman

Or perhaps Starwood has higher standards?

I suspect Starwood has quite an active marketing department.

Flews

Sheesh, everyone's a critic, eh?

While I agree it would be great if there were many more *wood properties in many parts of the world, I have observed some pretty consistent, and impressive, growth here in Canada. Especially in the secondary markets outside the urban areas in Ontario.

Cheers,

Eastbay1K

I would expect that SPG is a fairly expensive program to be affiliated with, as compared to some others. That doesn't mean the properties can't charge more, or otherwise make more money, but the initial economics of going with another brand may seem to make sense, especially if the market is known for one where a small % of guests even care about loyalty programs.

3Cforme

'More regarded' as presented here is entirely devoid of objective fact.

Few people will argue that Four Seasons is bad; it just isn't a brand that's useful to many people.

As for Lurker's explanation, a gap of 2,000 properties isn't going to be filled any time soon, whether investors come forward or are dragged forcibly.

sbtinme

These are the reasons that conventional wisdom has held for the past decade that Starwood's SPG program, by definition, needed to be much stronger and more appealing that most of its core competitions' affinity programs. I think there's much truth to that.

Starwood, from its inception, knew that it had good brands, but its number of properties was far less than some of its strongest competition. As a result, the SPG program was head and shoulder above the other affinity programs (for many of us, at least) up until very recently.

ILUVCITIBANK

Last summer, I traveled from the Dallas area to Louisville, KY and needed a starwood stay and a place to stop mid-way...literally could find nothing in the starwood except for a sold-out business-class Westin in downtown Memphis.

Nothing in Little Rock (the biggest surprise), nor any city in NE Texas (Tyler, Longview, Texarkana) in a NE direction from Dallas, and crossing well into TN. 100s of miles along a major east/west artery (Interstate 20) with zip.

Not complaining as much as lamenting. Sure is tough to make PLAT when there is no starwood within 120 miles, versus something like 5 Hilton family properties in my town of about 100K. Further, here in my city of about 100k we also have one monster Marriott property about to open in a few weeks...with 2 or more Marriott-family properties already in my town...and not a starwood in a 100mi radius.

I was hopeful Aloft and Element and 4Points would provide rural coverage and/or compete w/ all the Hilton and Marriott properties in this corridor, but so far no love.

Crazy. Though starwood can claim "we'll talk to any property owner" who wants us, as a businessperson myself, I interpret the lack of starwood presence as meaning their package to prospective owners is not competitive or else they would have better coverage and fewer gaps (or they do not desire to have rural coverage, hence a non-competitive package).

or, they have an ineffective hotel sales group.

Who really knows ?