Flews

For what it's worth, I am still batting 100% on SNAs this year. Probably about 10 or so... I tend to travel on days when the property's aren't very full. But not always.

Cheers,

RogerD408

No, just like airlines have multiple rate codes for the same seats, hotels have different buckets for the same rooms. The sad part is instead of having different codes/names for the same rooms and showing each bucket, they list the sale-able room bucket. There may be times the $ rooms will match the SNA rooms, but not good to count on it.

Hotel math has lots of interesting quirks.

Keyser

so there are only 3 suites at the hotel....1 is a specialty suite & goes by a different name while the other 2 go by the same name & are in the upgrade pool for suite nights, one smoking & one non-smoking....during the daily sweep they did not clear at day 5 & both remained available for sale on spg.com....they did not clear again during the daily sweep on day 4....it finally clears a couple of hours after i sent my ambassador an email asking him to follow up....in my example it seems i should be able to rely on what i saw online....

i get that part....but there are properties that only have 1 suite or 2 suites & they are all included in the upgrade pool....for example, there are 2 properties i regularly stay at that have only have one suite each & they are included in the suite night bucket....when that shows online then it means its still on sale & should ideally clear in the 5 day window for suite nights....no need for rate codes in this instance....

Flews

Our Lurkers - who know this stuff inside and out - categorically tell us we can't rely on what we see online when it comes to upgrades. You can believe otherwise, but I'll take the word of the Lurkers.

Cheers,

Memphis Mile Hound

I've only had one SNA ever clear for me out of 12 attempts. They are extremely frustrating from my experience.

Keyser

i don't believe otherwise when it comes to properties with multiple suites & if they tell me that the property that has only one suite (which is in the sna upgrade pool) is showing for sale online but is not the suite that falls in the upgrade pool then i'll believe them too....

but as of now in my opinion its pretty simple when it comes to properties with single suites....if its showing online for sale then it means its available....you can believe otherwise....

Flews

Well, according to another thread, which you just posted on, there's pretty well no online availability anywhere in the world!

So, again, I believe the Lurkers, not the website...

Cheers,

Keyser

i think the world is a lot bigger than langkawi (which is where i found no availability)....wouldn't you say so????

either way, i'm done with this discussion....believe what you want....makes no difference to me....

Flews

Indeed. I invite you to read all the other posts on that thread today, not just your own.

Cheers,

spgplat21

I agree that the availability is never going to be exactly correct, but if a person is seeing 5 or 6 of a certain room type available online, there's probably a good chance there is at least one of those rooms available.

I also think there is a balance between "the front desk is always truthful and online availability means nothing" and the "front desk lies and online availability is perfect." To me it's that the front desk just sometimes doesn't know the rules and online availability serves as the best indicator of availability that a guest has.

I haven't mentioned it often, but I have had a front desk agent at two properties tell me there were no upgraded rooms available, but then find one for me after I mentioned seeing availability online. In a perfect world, where the front desk staff knows all the rules of the program and is 100% transparent regarding availability I would love to just trust what they're saying, but I think there are a small number of properties that don't automatically upgrade their platinum guests and don't teach all the rules of the program to their front desk staff. So "no" is the default answer and all I have to go by as a customer is what availability is showing online.

dingo

+1...or more.

RogerD408

It's what I call the "Costco Syndrome". If you ask someone there if they have a particular product there is a very good chance the response will be "No". They know full well if they say Yes the next question is where and they don't want to hunt it down for you.

It would be nice if SPG could make this process more transparent and eliminate this game playing back and forth. Until properties only post inventory they actually have and the upgrade inventory is shown specifically as such, they will have wiggle room to give a room as an upgrade even when it isn't. So just because you get an upgrade doesn't mean it was part of that inventory.

In the mean time we are free to speculate what is really happening.

DC777Fan

A big +1 and ^ to both posts. More transparency would be great... particularly for last minute bookings where it might actually inform the hotel choice! If I want a weekend getaway, I'm going to choose the property with 7 suites available instead of 1 if I want my SNA to clear. I realize it's not perfect and somebody could buy all 7 suites, but at least I would know it's all above board.

As it stands, the hotels have a lot of wiggle room to not offer published benefits if they think it's more profitable, and that's frustrating as a customer.

Keyser

i have....however, if you refresh the page a couple of times then availability comes up....unfortunately that's not the case with suite nights....

broadwayboy

I have an upcoming stay at Westin Kuala Lumpur. It is 4 days ahead of check-in time, but my SNA upgrade still hasn't cleared (the suites eligible for upgrade are still available for sale).

I chatted with an agent online who told me it's system driven and there's nothing they could do about it.

I really need the suite upgrade to clear ahead of time, since despite having stayed more than 10 times at Westin KL, I have never received an upgrade higher than room with lounge access.