Starwood Lurker II

There are two ways to find out.

(i) Refer to William's answer below.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17931907-post36.html

(ii) Reach out to your ambassador. I believe that they are always ready to answer your inquiries. Thus do make full use of their services.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Social Media Specialist
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

Keyser

i'm sort of in a similar situation thyetus....will reach out to my ambassador....thanks....

william, i have had an ambassador assigned to me for most of last year....i am definitely not in the 100 nights a year category....how do i know what the criteria was under which the service was originally granted to me????is this something my ambassador would have an answer to????

Flews

Personally, while it would be nice to have an Ambassador if I stayed in a hotel 100 nights a year; I really, really hope I never have to spend 100 nights a year in a hotel!

Cheers,

Pa Kettle

Seems to have answered this here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17932569-post45.html

Keyser

thanks for the post....while it doesn't answer my question, i guess i know where william is coming from....

mecabq

I had 324 hotel nights last year, spread over multiple chains (and a few non-chains). These changes to SPG probably make it my favorite program, and definitely incent me to hit 75 nights, but not 100. The "ambassador" does not seem very valuable to me; I would rather spend those extra 25 nights getting Diamond status, or close to it, in Hyatt or Shangri-La.

SC Alum

^ good quote ^

what if most of them were for family vacations?

Flews

Good point. Although we have two dogs at home as well. And they aren't two thrilled with the 30 or nights a year we already spend in hotels on family vacations as it is.

Cheers,

yosithezet

Why not?

mecabq

Because I enjoy shopping around for my own hotels, don't mind booking on the web (or direct with the hotel, where I often have a corporate negotiated rate), and tend to not need many ancillary services at the hotel. Having to work through a middle-man will, more often than not, probably be more trouble than it's worth. YMMV.

stargold

Having a third party middle man, such as a travel agent, who has no real inside information nor clout? Yes, I would agree with you. Probably more hassle than it's worth.

But effectively having an employee of the chain who is empowered to speak on behalf of high-value customers, who presumably will be able to exert influence on individual hotels in the chain? A very different scenario altogether, and a lot more valuable as far as I can see.

Besides, I'm pretty sure you can simply continue doing all the bookings through your usual methods - from reading people's experiences, it would appear that simply having the Ambassador talk to the hotel in advance is enough to make a substantial difference to the quality of the stay/service.

In any case, if you're a 324 hotel nights/yr kind of person, 25 nights a year (75 vs. 100) is pretty much insubstantial, isn't it? I mean, with 324 nights to play with, you're not going to miss out on, say, Hilton Diamond just because you did 25 extra nights with Starwood.

Dr. HFH

I'm a similar sort of traveler; but I've been using the same PLT Concierge for nearly two years, now, and it's great for me. I don't need any special services from a hotel, but when there's an issue with rates, availability and the like, she calls the hotel instead of me. Saves me time; and the hotel also knows that it's not going to have to pay 10% to a travel agent, which probably helps get problems resolved. She knows my travel habits/preferences (e.g., room type, how high in the hotel, etc.); so I can just give her dates and hotels by e-mail and she does the rest. It appears that under the new rules, I'm going to get an Ambassador. I wonder if s/he will be as good as my Concierge....

flo0816

In my opinion this is a very smart move by SPG. I currently stay around 140 nights/year at Hilton and only 40-60 at SPG. The new improvements will very likely give SPG more of my business this year.

yosithezet

You can provide the Ambassador with information about your corporate negotiated rate when you first provide them with your personal preferences. Even when I book online my Ambassador picks up on it and reviews to make sure everything is in order. She'll alert me of better rates that might be available and when I need to cancel a reservation I just drop an email and it is taken care of. That said, I'm just as likely to cancel online. Also, sometimes I'll book something online but I am only seeing twin rooms or accessible rooms. I'll make the booking with that rate and drop a note to my Ambassador asking her to work with the hotel to get me into a normal King room. It just makes life easier.

Keyser

this last week my ambassador got me early check-in at 3 properties (one of them was as early as 7am)....she managed to get me a c&p rate at a property that was not offering one at the moment....& i have definitely seen an improvement in how i am treated at the hotel ever since my ambassador started making my reservations for me....definitely worth the trouble than booking myself....