Starwood Lurker

That's a fairly astute observation, frankly. The system is actually checking for many more variables than an available suite. We'll just have to see how this particular one pans out.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

AJLondon

If it is showing as available for the entire duration of stay, and it is the exact same category (bed type, smoking type etc) of suite that was originally requested under the SNA, then surely there shouldn't be other variables...

Starwood Lurker

I beg to differ. We have already discussed the possibility of business decisions that may be in effect at the time the SNA request begins to process.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

glx

It being a business decision on the part of the participating property and not corporate is what makes the program completely bogus.

Give us a way to confirm the premium product like other programs (hotel, air, car) or get rid of this joke that's a waste of everyone's time.

My SNA upgrade rate is nearly zero. My front desk upgrade rate is maybe 25%. If you can't swap those two numbers, this program is a failure.

UKTraveller4Fun

Here is my biggest issue with SNA, it is aimed at pretty much the top tier of SPG's program and you have an example here of someone who has an Ambassador so does 100+ nights and as such should be considered reasonably important to SPG.

You would think then that a process like SNA should be as such they enhance the program and make the members who get them value the program more while actually they cause frustration, confusion and in some cases anger as they seem to actually at times decrease the upgrades you get but most frustrating is when you can see a suite that could be booked but your SNA's dont reserve it!

The answers we are given is its automated(meaning anyone you speak to at spg is powerless and dont blame us), its complicated and hotel business decisions can effect it (business speak for they can set certain room rules that prevent tham allocating and thus circumvent the automated system). I fully understand why the Lurkers cannot say to much as neither can anyone else at SPG as it seems no one quite knows how the system works, or that should be they are not willing to let people know how it works as then people would realise how it is anything but like its advertised! The point being though by not allowing people to know how it works it simply causes more frustration and less loyalty to Starwood as people simply see a suite available they have requested and the SNA's not allocating it to them, which in basic terms makes the SNA seem like a waste of time and almost a con!

I will add I have been lucky and on the numerous times my SNA's have not worked but looked like they should or the computer refused to let me request SNA's my ambassador has been able to work things out for me and I am hoping he continues to do so as on principle the answer of "the computer says no, there is nothing we can do as its automated but the suite is still available but the hotel wont help" simply is not good enough!

Either make the scheme transparent and simple of get rid of it completly!

MSPeconomist

I don't understand this. When I see the box that SNAs cannot be applied and why, it gives a laundry list of irrelevant reasons. I've never seen a single reason pop up as the explanation.

puntamita

Hi William, you were very helpful in my stay issue. Is there a contact we can e-mail that will actually get to management vs. spg.com where everyone tells us it is automated? Either Starwood is ignoring some of their best customers or they are not understanding how bad the program is due to no one telling them how serious the problem is. I continue to be told it is "automated" I beg to differ.

SensFan

I had two of three SNAs clear over the weekend in NYC. Received upgrades to Fantastic Suites at both the W Times Square and W Hoboken (fine, not exactly NYC). The third SNA at the W Union Square did not clear. These were over Labour Day weekend which is probably a much easier time to get an upgrade than the rest of the year.

The SNAs that I received above were on government rates.

BluHorseshoe

Do you get an additional 10 suite nights upon hitting 100 nights in a year?

stimpy

I'm having a SNA problem and I'm hoping someone can help escalate here.

I booked an award stay at the Ra Beach hotel in Spain many months ago. A few months after I made the booking, the hotel contacted me to say "sorry, but we are shutting the hotel down for renovation". They kindly moved my reservation to the W Barcelona.

So now I want to use SNA's that I have saved up for this trip. I click on the SNA button and it says there is a suite available, I click OK, and then it says sorry, the suite is not available. I check online and I can book the suite at spg.com. So I call the Platinum hotline up and they first say the hotel is sold out. I then point out to them that the hotel isn't sold out. So their next excuse is that because the hotel that I originally booked online manually moved my reservation to another hotel, SNA's cannot be used!!!

This is 100% the fault of Starwood and they are telling me sorry, no can do because SNA's can only be used under automatic online situations. I cannot accept that there is no one in Starwood who can manually correct their own errors. Where is the responsibility? Should I just call up the W reservations dept since SPG cannot handle this?

margarita girl

No, you do not.

Starwood Lurker

The problem here is that the W Barcelona made an award reservation in-house. SNA's can't be attached to such a reservation because they are not supposed to be doing this.

You would be better off starting over from scratch and booking a new award reservation online, then attaching the SNA's to that one. When all that is done, cancel the one you have now.

Just my two cents...

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

Starwood Lurker

No, but you would get access to a Starwood Ambassador when reaching that level of nights.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

MSPeconomist

What happens if award nights (for the same number of points) aren't available for stimpy's dates? He shouldn't cancel unless there's the same award avaiable.

Starwood Lurker

He says its available in his post. I checked and it is available online, but it is not available in the database we use at the Customer Contact Center, so he needs to book it there since we can't do it for him.

Besides this, I said to book it first and then cancel what he had.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]