Starwood Lurker III

Hi nongsom,

You are correct that Suite Night Award requests are put in queue to be processed chronological. But the system is fully in charge of approving or denying these award requests.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

UKTraveller4Fun

Which is one of my big frustrations with the system, the more frequent a traveller you are the less likely you are going to be able to make a booking a long way out, thus decreasing your odd's of SNA's actually being of use to you.

So its like a double negative, you can apply for a lower percentage of upgrades the more you stay and there is a good chance they are less likely to be approved when you do because you apply nearer the time!

Add in that due to SNA's hotels now have less upgrades to offer and checkin for the times you dont use SNA's and the more you stay the more the SNA system punishes you.

Thats how SNA's reward loyalty!

nongsom

I didn't agree with you
If look deep in root of SNA you may understand situation
SNA is design for plat that Really Want Suite.
If someone really want suite they will not request suite just few days before travel.For example situation like Honeymoon or Birthday Celebration you must plan it for a long time and request SNA early.
If SPG SNA system are queue it chronologically Plat that book room and request SNA 12+ month will most likely to get suite.
BUT !!! SNA are run only 5 days before check-in and 1 time/day at 3 day follow with last day that SNA are more frequent system scan.
So this is possible trick SNA system by Room Assignment Agent that just only close hotel inventory before SNA system scan hotel inventory and pre upgrade regular plat guest of this hotel.
That is my understand/knowledge of SPG SNA system
Sorry for my poor english.

travelswithmyself

Firstly, please don't apologise for your english, I think it's fine!

Secondly, I get your point about closing off the hotel inventory, but you must remember, guests arrive EVERY DAY. Not just the days when YOU are arriving. There will be regular guests, regular plat guests, and requested SNAs competing every day for upgrades. Not just for your particular trip

I just can't believe that the hotel will waste it's time blocking inventory, because they would have to do it daily in that case.

dingo

This benefit is tainted by the oh so frequent requirement to contact a lurker to get the benefit to process. That's being polite and giving the hotel the benefit of the doubt.

I am at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta. The Jr. Suite is the only SNA upgrade option available. The Parlor Suite is smaller than the Jr., but it is not an option. Why is that? Why pick the larger suite as the only upgrade option available?

And in my case, the Parlor Suite was available for booking online all week long but the Jr. was not, and my SNA's did not clear.

Oh, and the hotel did not upgrade me to the Parlor Suite, and the front desk told me no suites were available...but I can still book a Parlor Suite right now...and could have all week long.

I love the concept of SNA's, just not the application of them being left up to the individual hotels or perhaps the whims of the hotel staff.

FozBoy

No, there is no assurance that if you book well in advance your SNA's will clear. That's because SNA's are trumped by paying reservations.

Up until the day the SNA sweep takes place, all the suites on the SNA are available for booking by paying guests, so you might very well have filed your SNA request months ahead and still get nothing… and because you've filed your request way ahead in anticipation of your wedding anniversary or your birthday celebration you missed the opportunity to apply SNA's on all the other stays you booked in the meantime… and so at the end of the year you basically got nothing or close to nothing off of this supposedly great SNA certs.

There is of course an easy way around this, and Starwood with its scheming worthless SNA benefit really deserves to have the taste of it: when you book your stay just book with a flexible / cancelable rate ALL the suites available in the pool of suites for SNA's, so no suites are available for booking by paying guests during the period of your stay. Then 6 days prior to your arrival cancel all those suites bookings so that when your SNA sweep takes place all, or almost all, the suites in the SNA pool show availability for the period of your stay and it's way easier for you to have your SNA's clear.

I have put an 8-day SNA request for a stay coming up in November and I promise that if those SNA's don't clear then that's what I'll start doing… with this SNA crap I feel Starwood is just taking me for a ride, selling me the illusion that if I stay at their properties 50+ nights every year I'll get 10 guaranteed upgrades the following year, when that's absolutely not true.

I hope Starwood changes this policy for one of guaranteed upgrades at the time of booking and, if that's what it takes, I for one would be willing to forgo guaranteed upgrades on award bookings, as they do on Marriot or whichever other chain.

nongsom

Thankyou

It's base on my upgrade experience.
I will explain more here. IME one time i get upgrade to SSS of SPG hotel at 3 or more month before my check-in date(on spg.com) and few day before my check-in date.
Hotel upgrade me to above SSS to villa.
But it happen on low season of this hotel.That why i said hotel can pre block SSS for some guest if they are sure for capacity.
But in general of my experience i can see upgrade on SPG.com only in morning of check-in date.
I guess for some hotel that will do is 10-14 days before check-in.
Check they inventory (after sale) it they really want to upgrade plat guess with SNA (someone with SNA request early/regular plat guest maybe get priority)

The hotel not waste it's time because it is duty of Room Assignment Agent.
She/He must do it everyday and maybe show this assign room to Room manager/GM to confirm room that assign.

RogerD408

This type of action can cost you your membership. It's nothing short of fraudulent activity and depriving the hotel of revenue. I'm not sure if criminal action could be taken as well. The airlines have caught on to this a long time ago and have implemented steps to prevent it and have closed accounts of those that have tried.

nongsom

That exhibit for situation that you are really want suite and you will get more priority.


IME i can explain your situation ,
Hotel X have room-type 1,2,3,4 and suite-type A,B,C,D.
1 and A are lowest price/highest number of room.
In normal situation lowest price room/suite are easy to sell right?
This is room inventory/hotel income strategy for each hotel.
IF SSS is suite-type C. What they can do when no C suite-type available ?
They can upgrade you to room-type 2,3,4 if it available and SPG can't blame the hotel because they don't brake the rule.
BUT Great hotel/GM maybe give above beyond regular situation then

1.upgrade guest who book suite-C to suite-D and upgrade plat guest on suite-C.

2.upgrade plat guest to suite-A,B/upgrade Regular plat guest for suite-D and assign room for guest that buy suite-C(if room available).
In 1. and 2. situation depend on policy/believe that who is the most generate income for hotel in future.

When i try to apply SNA
A.Hotel-X show room-type 1,2,3,4 and suite-type C for selected to upgrade and IIRC website show if checked all room type will give more chance to get upgrade.
B.Hotel-Y show only suite-type C for upgrade
C.Hotel-Z show only suite-type A for upgrade AND!! they send automatic email for sell upgrade for this suite-type A at discount price

C is the worst case that happen to me and indicate for me that Hotel-Z Really don't want to upgrade plat guest

nongsom

TRUE it's fact

Yes Because it is SPG SNA system not Diamond Suite Upgrade of Hyatt.
IF your birthday or celebration day is 25-Dec,31-Dec,1-Jan in super peak period of hotel you can expect to very low percentage of SNA success upgrade

Yes you can do this BUT hotel will call you and ask for guarantee deposit for sure in abnormal booking style like this.
In case of your success with 1st time and 2nd time maybe not and your account or booking style may be monitor and have additional rule of booking this room type (no flex-rate available,30% guarantee deposit)

Can you understand point of view of hotel ?
If 1-day SNA it very easy to success but for 8-day SNA it's very hard for SNA success.
When hotel Upgrade with SNA what happen ?
1.hotel can't sell this room and lost income
2.hotel get some SPG credit to reduce management fee
and i believe 1. are almost always more than 2.

IMO i don't think SNA crap but you didn't really understand SNA and hotel upgrade system

The thing that you really want is Hyatt Diamond Suite Upgrade and SPG didn't sell you illusion but you are not really understand SNA

It's maybe The Next Enhancement of SPG Program.
I guess it will call "Life Time Gold/Platinum Suite Upgrade" and condition are most likely DSU of hyatt

You can choose another chain that suitable for you but base on my knowlage and if i'm not wrong
Marriott and Hilton are not have policy for suite upgrade
IHG are only 1 step upgrade with out lounge benefit
IHG Ambassador are guarantee 1 level upgrade at Intercontinental BUT they room type are very few different without lounge benefit
IHG Royal Ambassador are guarantee 2 level upgrade with minibar benefit and without lounge benefit
IMO Hyatt is your choice DSU is suitable for you but my knowledge on DSU is limit.
Maybe you can check on FT forum for problem with DSU

nongsom

FozBoy !!
My database that knowledge about you
9 Years SPG elite
Frequent guest on W ?
Location Base on EU(italy,switz,france) or USA ?
Have a problem with 2013 Requalification gift?

SPG hotel (1223)
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefe...regionName=all
North America (637)
Africa (36)
Asia (286)
Central&South America (54)
EU(164)
Middle east(45)

-Top 3 are NA Asia and EU total 80+ percent of SPG hotel
-Base on data on IHG banner show number of members
http://cdn2.loyaltylobby.com/wp-cont...N3cl-suY7Z.jpg

SPG 30m

I will apply 80:20 Rule
assume that 80% of this area number of total SPG member
SPG member at those area are 24m
20% of SPG member are plat 4.8m
but only 1000 hotel on this area

And if you base on EU 15% of SPG hotel with 15% of 4.8m plat
720,000 plat with 164 hotel what is the chance for upgrade ???

Johnny Rocket

I don't know whether you're just incredibly naive or just stupid?

Firstly, nobody on here is going to congratulate you for trying "scheme" or get one over on Starwood.

The people on this forum are loyalists through and through... and though we all have our frustrations with the system (and SNA's are well documented) to have you trying to game the system... well, you are not going to get any applause on here!

Secondly, now that you've outlined your methods, SPG will likely audit your account. The folks on here are pretty much hand-in-glove with those at the SPG program. Your Flyertalk handle will be (or has already been!) matched up... and likely placed on the SPG Account Watchlist.

Thirdly, People did this with American Airlines Upgrades... it's well documented onver on that forum. Passengers would book fully flexible fares and then cancel on the day the upgrade sweeps took place. Guess what! AA found out pretty quickly. The patterns are obvious to computer algorithms - and the members were suspended as a result.

You are playing with fire - but that's how some people get their kicks on here, I realize that!

UKTraveller4Fun

I am afraid while in principal what you say makes sense it doesnt really work in my experineces at least.

I would never use SNA's for a important event as they are simply not reliable enough so for a birthday or honeymooon its pointless.

A hotel could indeed preupgrade more than 5 days in advance but most hotels do not do this as they only tend to look at reservations coming up in next couple of days. Plus there will be some value from SPG for a cleared SNA to a hotel so it is more in their interest to have an SNA upgrade than just a Plat upgrade.

Thus is I am a Plat that stays 50 nights a year I can upgrade 20% of my stays with SNAs, if like I you stay 100 nights a year you can have 10% upgraded and if your nearer 150 nights like me then its just pathetic.

Now this is bad enough but my biggest issue is that before the SNA's existed there was a reasonable chance of getting an upgrade when you arrived at a hotel, now more often than not they do not upgrade because SNA's have taken the rooms and thus normal upgrades on arrival are decreased as well.

So while yes I agree it is possible for a hotel to help its regular stay guests by pre-upgrading more than 5 days ahead this means firstly you must book at least 5 days ahead where you stay the most but also means the hotel has to decide to proactively look at its guests arriving more than 5 days ahead.

Even if some hotels do this it does mean at any hotel you do not stay at regularly your chances of an upgrade without SNA's has been reduced considerably and the more you stay the lower percentage of stays you can use SNA's as demonstrated above and thus the more loyal you are the less the SNA system rewards you.

travelswithmyself

I understand your frustration. But going by what you say here, it means the system is working. Rooms are being taken up by SNAs which means SNAs are being cleared which means SOME members are getting to use their SNAs.

Perhaps it is simply because the sheer number of Platinum guests have overwhelmed the system, which is probably why P100 came about.

Looking at it another way, even if those SNAs did not take the rooms, there would have been another Plat guest competing with you for a check-in upgrade, since SNAs can only be from Plat guests. Would you have had a better chance at an upgrade? Really can't say for sure either way.

Hopefully the enhancements to the programme hinted at some time ago will provide something that satisfies everyone.

nongsom

+1
If need something for sure i will not bet with SNA,but if i need more chance try SNA

+1 this is reason why regular upgrade of plat are significant decrease.
Hotel will get some value back from SPG.
Hotel GM is responsible for income so this is the easiest way to increase they in come compare with previous plat upgrade.

So there are plat75 (4th*point,Your24) and plat100(Ambassador,Maybe useless by someone). Everything are have consequence you reduce of plat upgrade but get plat75 and plat100 benefits.

+1 that exactly right in today situation.
Did you believe in Equal Exchange Theory/Rule ?
When you got something you will loose something.
Before SNA,Plat75,Plat100 you get more regular Upgrade
After SNA,Plat75,Plat100 you get less regular Upgrade compensate with
4th*points,Your24 and Ambassador.

Loyalty program aim to maximize reward customer who generate highest income.