jn024

Complaint, SPG support not helpful.

How can starwood advertise no blackout dates, but then refuse the ability to redeem points for a room when the hotel had rooms available?

I called the W in Hoboken NJ on April 30th inquiring if i could book a room for that evening using points. At first they told me yes, then after a few minutes apologized that there were no point redemption rooms available, but there were normal rate rooms available.

Isn't this essentially a black out?

Complaint number 2 about the same hotel. Today I attempted to redeem points for a 1-night stay for Sat May 14th, and they will not allow redemption unless its for a 2 night stay. This is the first I have heard of there being a minimum night stay for points redemption.

I typically stay around 100 nights per year at Marriott properties, but I use my starwood amex card and accumulate points for SPG redemption as they seem to be a good value.

Due to this experience, I am probably going to take the following actions:

1. was considering staying 25 nights at SPG property since my 75 other nights at Marriotts get me platinum. Now i will stick with marriott for all 100 nights.

2. cancelling SPG amex

3. will never stay at a SPG property again.

Am I expecting too much from the program? Is this situation unique to this particular property or is it common across Starwood? I never have issues like this when redeeming Marriott points.

Starwood Lurker

Not if all the standard award rooms were sold out. There may or may not be award availability for upgraded room types, but those are subject to black-out dates and capacity controls.

Minimum length of stay requirements for award rooms are mentioned in the Terms and Conditions of membership. They must also apply to paid-rate rooms, meaning that award availability cannot have separate, stricter MLOS stay requirements.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

jn024

Thanks for the prompt response, William.

Unless I have just gotten lucky with Marriott, the experience so far with SPG redemption has not been a pleasant one in comparison. It would be nice to be able to redeem a 1 night stay at this hotel, seeing as I am attending a private event that evening in this property.

treznor

SPG never says no blackouts, it says no blackouts for standard rooms. Yes, the "for standard rooms" part may be in smaller type (though not sure, haven't looked in a while). At a W, a Wonderful room is the standard room. Taking a quick look at the W Hoboken, it appears that when they have Wonderful rooms for sale, they have awards available.

As for 5/14, they aren't selling rooms at all for 1 night stays on 5/14. If they aren't selling it, why would they have it available for an award? It appears the entire hotel has a 2-night minimum for 5/14.

ajg276

I live next door to the W Hoboken, I'd surely rent you my place for a reasonable sum!

neo_781

There is a particular (run of the mill) Marriott in California that I am trying to book for a summer vacation and it is virtually blacked out for every weekend even though there are plenty of rooms available for sale. I rarely (if ever) run into this issue with SPG unless the hotel is near sold-out. Worst case I have to spend 1000 or 2000 more points per night for the next higher room category ...

SPG IMHO is much easier to redeem points than other chains. So much so that I had to look up the Marriott rules when I came across no availability because I truly forgot how easy SPG makes it.

I am sure people can list examples where Marriott is better or they got the shaft from SPG, those things do happen, but my experience leads me to believe that they are really the exception.