aussiechris

Folks, lets get some balance here.

During the last nearly 2 years (almost) all Hotels have been hard hit,rates have fallen and GM's have looked at ways of controlling costs just like all businesses.
Starwood are hopeful now that the better times are close by and are looking to improve all their performance parameters.
This will allow them to strengthen their economic position and allow them to review the SPG program with a view to keeping it as the market leader for the years ahead of us.This will also allow them to grow further in regions where opportunities exist and developers come to them wanting to support a Starwood brand.

Take this promo for what it is. If it suits you or not suits you accept it and move on.
For those of you feeling outraged it shows us all that Starwood are looking to the future rather than merely heavily discounting to fill Hotels today.The later strategy is not one that would inspire potential owners and developers looking at new opportunities.

mahasamatman

I'd love to know where you're staying. Every hotel I've looked at this year is significantly more expensive than last year.

aussiechris

Mahat,I think you have misread what I am saying , rates have started to rise but aside from some areas they are no where near where they were.
What we have seen is not a rise "across the board" but a rise in certain markets like NYC. Other US markets like Chicago are much slower to move on rates.
I am planning a trip to Atlanta soon and have lower rates to look at than 3 years ago....

sc flier

Whether rates are rising or not, the SPG hotels still have competition from other brands. Even when the economy is good and rates are sky high, most hotels still have competitors. They still run promos. I don't see how this coming quarter is any different unless they expect to fill up rooms by some other competitive advantage.

What seems most unusual about the lack of participation in this particular promo is that it seems like there is some regional collusion. In some markets such as NYC, multiple hotels (with separate owners) have chosen not to participate. Did they all make this decision on their own?

onfillmore

Imagine if the only W in NYC opting in was say the W on Lex?
Would they take business from the others?
Why are none of the Sydney properties opting in (all 3 have different owners and one of them is Starwood)

onfillmore

Yes Atlanta is saturated with Hotels wanting to do deals.
I remember in late 2007 trying to visit NYC at short notice in mid December and the lowest room rate a Starwood hotel could offer me was $600 for the night.
Ahhh..the good old days!

yosithezet

Which Sydney property is owned by Starwood? Seems odd that Starwood Corporate would corral their own properties into an SPG promo.

yosithezet

Darnnot, "would not corral"

* sorry, can't edit post with mobile FT on BB.

onfillmore

Sheraton On The Park is still owned by Starwood despite some recent offers.

SunshineStay

You're right in so far, that even a sucky promo is better than no promo at all.
I've been a long time member of the Steigenberger Award program and have never seen a chain-wide promo there in the five years that I've been an Elite member there.

For me this just illustrates, that SPG has really done great promos in the past, so FTers seem to be somewhat spoilt by now and voice their concerns heavily if a promo is less than awesome.

Keyser

in the bigger cities, yes....but not in the smaller cities....

prices in places like new york & london are definitely up, but i travel to a lot of the smaller cities & the prices there are generally the same....some even cheaper than the last couple of years....

DownUnderFlyer

Yes, SPG did good promos in the past. The reason for the dissatisfaction in regards to all the latest promos has something to do that Starwood has stopped doing good promos while other chains continue putting out more offers.

For me the latest promos are so weak that I will only do points booking for the rest of the year and send my revenue bookings elsewhere.

camsean

Hi William,

The link in your op post seems to be broken.

hhoope01

It worked for me just fine.

Do note that per the OP (and the link) you can't register for a while yet.

fhben

Nice, thanks for the heads up!