UKTraveller4Fun

[QUOTE=AJLondon;23029503]
All you can rely on is the "hope" that the system does the right thing, but no way to check if you feel it doesn't. A case of:

Trust the system but we can not let you Verify.

QUOTE]

It is actually worse than that as it seems SPG cannot really check the system either, its simply the computer says yes or the computer says no! It is a system designed to allow complete getout clauses and make the SNA's unaccountable! I might be being unfair their, not sure if it was designed that way, but its what we have got and you wonder why so many people dont have faith in it!

RogerD408

[QUOTE=toddml;23035294]Not quite that bad... At least for those of us that have been following this thread, the Lurkers have the ability to look into the request and help if there is a glitch, and they have offered to do just that if one sends their reservation info.

The black-box solution does not work when the result can be negative and the user has no way to confirm it should be. Properties are playing enough games with room types to add yet another layer on that and make it unique was probably what they were trying to avoid.

Dr. HFH

Why not just stop stressing about the upgrade and enjoy the anticipation of a nice holiday? If the suite is that important, i.e., if you won't really enjoy your stay unless you're in a suite, then book it.

TerryK

This is not stressing about getting a suite at check or not. I thought the purpose of SNA is to take that suspense out so that you can confirm a suite up to five days in advance if a suite is available. What I didn't realize is that it is not based on what shows as bookable on website but based on a back office system somehow.

Let me rephrase my question: "I don't want to stress over getting a suite at check in or not. It is within five days of arrival; I see a suite available online for my reservation dates; I chose that suite type online using SNA; how come I still cannot confirm it?" This question has been answered.

RogerD408

I want to believe this was the intent of the SNA program and may very well be for the majority, however, we will typically only hear about the failures and get to think that is the norm. At least we have the Lurkers to look at what's going on if it looks like it's not working, you just need to send them your info.

Maybe if we continue to make the apparent failures visible to SPG, they might find it cost effective to improve the process instead of continually looking at what's happening. It's early Sunday morning and the wishful thinking has been restored from last week.

dingo

Has anyone who has seen the inventory on the website but not received the suite upgrade at the 5, 4, 3, 2 day window booked one of the rooms via the website? I get that we've been told not to trust the website that is offering rooms for sale. It seems like an absolute certainty, in that case, that there are common occurrences of guests seeing those rooms available for sale and booking them. Yet we've never heard about that happening here. That seems odd to me.

remymartin

Why not build up statistics and wikify results?

RogerD408

I think you are mixing inventories here. What is shown on the SPG website is what the property is willing to sell. What they are not showing is how many of those rooms are allocated to the SNA process. Yes, you might, and probably should see a reduction in online inventory when an SNA is granted; however, just because they are showing a suite for sale does not mean there is a suite for an SNA.

There have been many postings of people booking rooms (suite and otherwise) online and getting to the property just to be walked because someone chose to stay over or a room went offline for maintenance issues and even due to a major event taking over large blocks of rooms. It makes sense that if the property has to make a choice of downgrading an upgrade or selling a room at rack rate, the upgrade loses. And honestly, that's the way I think it should be. Many times when I'm checking in and asking about an upgrade I state that feeling. If they can sell it, do it, but if it's going to sit empty, I'd like it. It's the honey/vinegar approach to me.

RogerD408

Because FT members represent a small community compared to SPG members as a whole. Although we may be more vocal, we are not and do not represent a majority, except my opinion of course. hehehe

Lurker's, if it's not considered too proprietary, can you post what that ratio might be? I'd be surprised if it's even in the double digits.

Starwood Lurker III

Hi RogerD408,

We could not reveal the information you asked. However, we are happy to help look into anyone's SNA request if needed.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

dingo

So they are capacity controlled or at the discretion of the hotel. Isn't that the OPPOSITE of how the program is designed or at least explained here? I thought that the whole process was automated based on inventory. Not automated based on the portion of inventory a given hotel chooses to make available to the automation????

AJLondon

Agreed. And by the same rationale,
- If you want a half decent breakfast, just pay for it
- If you want a club floor room, just book it
- If you want high speed internet, just pay for it or carry your own mifi

So basically, sod the loyalty program, right? Because if you can't "trust" it's promises then why bother?

RogerD408

ALL hotel rooms are capacity controlled, can't be helped. It's been stated many times that a property decides what rooms are available for SNA processing and it's not the same as what they are willing to sell. From what I see SPG has created a set of room types designated for SNA inventory and the property needs to load that data just like for rooms they wish to sell. I think a lot of the confusion is choosing to use the same names, so this WOW suite is and that WOW suite isn't...

Dr. HFH

I think that these are fundamentally different in nature from SNAs, -- see following.


First, define "half decent." Then, don't forget that in some hotels this is a continental; where in others it's the full breakfast.


Not all hotels have club floors, and even in the ones which do, I don't believe that they're guaranteed. The rules say, "Upgrades to best available room at check-in, including Standard Suites." And, "Club- and Executive-level privileges where available."

Then they go on to clarify about upgrades that they areAnd they clarify about Club bennies thatSo, yes, -- if you want to be certain of receiving this stuff, book it.


Well, there's already been some debate on FT about the definition of "high speed." And this is what the rules have to say on this issue:No guarantee of "high" speed, or even the fastest available speed in the hotel.


I'll agree that the rules may not be what we'd prefer. However, while the bar may be low, perhaps even too low in light of what some of the competition is doing, IME the promised bennies are delivered nearly all the time.

MSPeconomist

Part of the problem seems to be that there can be room type subcategories. Maybe more importantly, the categories and subcategories do not match up between the hotel's computer system and SPG. Last summer I had a situation where the senior suites in the hotel were all one category when booking on spg.com (and sold for the same prices), but for SNAs, there were three labeled as view suites and one with no view specified, so two different categories of senior suites that could be chosen for SNAs. I picked only the one with the view, which was confirmed, but the hotel apparently didn't get the message and gave me the one without a view (which was inferior in several dimensions). It took a while to convince the hotel that I had specifically not requested that suite; I had to insist that they follow my steps in creating a dummy booking and SNA request to show them what I was seeing on the spg website.

It would be so much better if inventory were transparent and consistent.