darcie_InsideFlyer

We are going to review Starwood Preferred Guest in the January issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in Starwood Preferred Guest and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at [email protected].
Thank you!

ldsant

Starwood: C-

Pros (+)

located everywhere; lots of options
free internet in rooms for Platinums
some of the lounges are lovely e.g., Sheraton Seattle

Cons (-)

customer service and laissez-faire staff at hotels are poor
upgrades for Platinums have to be "fought" for
promotions are lackluster
many properties have many problems in their facilities and are "falling apart" in some ways
difficult to use Cash & Points
used to be the forerunner in hotels; now it seems they play "catch up" or just ignore in many ways
no recognition for their elite members - they give Gold to everybody and don't treat Platinum as anything unique

CIT85

Pros:
- Quality of international properties very good, especially in Asia
- Upgrades and recognition of Platinum members at international SPG hotels very good to excellent.
- SPG AMEX makes it much easier to earn SPG points.
- Free Internet access for Platinum members.

Cons
- Quality of US properties mediocre.
- Upgrades and recognition of Platinum members hit and miss (more miss than hit) in US SPG hotels.
- Promotions inferior to industry leaders such as Hyatt Gold Passport.
- No free breakfast for Platinum members vs competition.

mahasamatman

I'd give it a B+.

Pros:Cons:

BlackGold

Pro:
International locations
Airport terminal locations
SPG Moments

Con:
Everyone has Gold or Plat
No Breakfast

spgplat21

Overall Grade A-
It could be better, but compared to the other programs SPG is still at the top for me

Pros:
-Redemption Availability
-Great Value at High-End Properties (5th night free)
-Cash & Points Redemption
-Best ski properties out of the major chains
-Coverage in most major cities in America and Europe
-St. Regis brand continues to expand
-Unlimited Suite Upgrades
-Wide-variety of brands to meet most of my travel needs


Cons:
-No Free Breakfast for Platinum Guests
-Consistency has improved drastically in most Sheratons, but Westins and Four Points are still extremely hit and miss
-Lack of coverage in many medium-sized cities
-Lack of consistency in best available room upgrades / some properties will flat-out lie about availability and contradict their online inventory while others will only upgrade to the club level unless you ask for something better

sfosolo

On balance, a good loyalty program with opportunities for improvement: B+

Redemptions
+ Regular redemptions have no blackout dates and are easy to book online
+ Cash and points redemptions, when available, are easy to book and usually a good deal
- Rates for SPG50 redemptions are not visible online nor can they booked online
- Earned free weekend night awards cannot be booked on line

Elite recognition
- Poor distinction between elite levels. Gold level is handed out much too easily so only Platinum level is meaningful
+ Platinum recognition is generally good in Europe and Asia
- Platinum recognition is highly uneven in US. Properties tend be far less generous with upgrades to best available room even when appropriate level rooms are visible for revenue sale.
+ Free internet for Platinum
- No free breakfast for Platinum

Branding
- There are too many (nine) brands in SPG and many brands do not have consistent standards. A lower-quality property in a "higher" brand may well be inferior to a higher-quality property in a "lower" brand. Need to research the individual properties to find value and know what to expect. Reading the FT hotel master threads is unfortunately highly necessary.

Lounge
- Quality is highly uneven. For example, recent stays at the Westin Beijing Financial Street and Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers (at FRA) have been stellar. Most lounges are adequate, but some are mediocre at best. Again, research before booking is necessary.
- Availability by brand and on weekends is highly variable
+ Sheraton has promised to make lounges available 7 days per week at all non-resort properties starting 1 Jan 2011.

barelyelite

Pros:
Reasonable requirements to attain platinum status
Decent success in achieving upgrades for platinums
Lots of redemption options -- including Nights & Flights and Fifth Night Free -- and many categories to choose from
Good availability of free night awards
Bonus on transferring 20,000 points into airline miles
SPG American Express credit card
Good email and phone customer service (Platinum Concierge)
Decent base and elite bonus earning potential

Neutral:
Free internet for platinums (this should really be a given)
Hit-or-miss promotions
Spotty availability of Cash & Point awards

Cons:
No free breakfast for platinums
No confirmable room upgrades
No way to achieve lifetime status
Relatively worthless Gold tier
Conspicuously absent from many middle-market cities
Lack of consistency within and across the brands

BTMaximus

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Droid Build/FRG22D) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

A-
Pros:
SPG Amex card
Cash and points (when available)
No blackout dates
Good variety of properties in major cities, internationally, and travel destinations
Good phone customer service with short hold times
Award availability
Varied awards, auctions, "moments", concerts
Generous flight awards

Cons:
Generally poor availability of cash and points
Gold essentially worthless
Highly variable quality between properties in same brand
Low presence in medium cities, Las Vegas, and convention centers
Lounge availability and quality poor overall
Relatively stingy with meaningful upgrades (ie suites)

lardiop

Overall: B

Pros:
Achievable top-tier elite (Platinum)
Depending on the call taker, very helpful concierge service
Asian and European upgrades are fantastic
Free Internet as Plat
1pt/$1 spent on SPG Amex
Points are valuable and easily transferred

Cons:
North American upgrades tend to be less than stellar and hard to get
Gold status is essentially 4PM checkout and a better view. (Given out like candy, I called and asked politely for it 3 years ago)

azepine00

B- and going downhill rapidly in US

Pros:
cash and points option
point transfer flexibility
good elite recognition outside US

Cons:
deteriorating US elite benefits
proliferation of resort fees that overlap and negate elite perks
weak and/or poorly executed promotions
no breakfast for plats in US

Flews

Relative to other hotel loyalty programs, I rate SPG an 'A'.

Relative to perfection, well... I will leave that to other posters on other threads...

The big 'plus' for me is the lounge access and upgrades.

The big 'negative' for me is inconsistency. Although, even here we have to be careful, because *wood has many different classes of properties - ranging from basic to luxury - and some folks tend to compare apples to oranges.

At the end of the day a hotel loyalty program is only as good as its properties. This is where I believe *wood/SPG has the clear edge over other chains/programs, in terms of location, variety, choice, value, etc...

Cheers,

3Cforme

The program is pretty good: B

For golds and plats, the point accrual to point redemption ratio is competitive. The point Plat amenity is valuable - but I wish I didn't have to chase it as often as I do; same for the call center busy bonus. I value the many airline/Amtrak transfer options.

I wish there were more transparency in award availability (the persisting non-definition of a 'standard room' to the public is a problem). I want non-smoking and bedding preferences guaranteed for awards as it is for paid stays. The growth of resort fees (and non-waiver on awards) is a cancer. Loosen up restrictions on the SPG50 (availability and/or eligible rates) or eliminate it; too often attempts to use one leaves a bad taste.

No, my strongest objections are generally with the properties and property management:

- Overall, Four Points is an embarasment (Sydney is an exception.)
- aloft is a total miss for me, so don't suggest that as the value brand replacement
- too many at-checkout and post-check out errors and spurious charges (minibar counts too high, valet parking I didn't use...)

Minneapolis

F. The loss of Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas was egregious.

Sweet Willie

Agree with both statements. After Hilton went downhill, I was voicing frustration and a fellow FT’er suggested I move to SPG (thanks bseller). SPG wowed me, it was great, since the early 2000’s that luster has dramatically decreased for this plat. Now Hyatt wows me. I’ll make SPG plat for this year but if things don’t perk up at SPG, they’ll be history.

B-

Pros:
Cash and points option
Point transfer to airline miles with 5k bonus
Good elite recognition outside US
Free internet for Plats
Good co-branded credit card

Cons:
Deteriorating US elite benefits
Proliferation of resort fees that overlap and negate elite perks (resort fee at Westin in Itasca IL is probably one of the most egregious examples but they are all bad)
Weak and/or poorly executed promotions (I don't expect SPG to run Hyatt's fantastic stay twice get one night free promos, but I do expect to use a 'free' night earned on any day of the week, just not on weekends, & at any level SPG property)
No free breakfast for Platinum members vs. competition
Lack of coverage in many medium-sized cities
Lounges - SPG needs to either make the effort of just shutter them