dtm1

I may get flamed for this, but (and I'm sure others have said it before), I cannot believe that a stay at a $60 per night property gets the same contribution to status as a stay at a $400+ per night property.

As someone who regularly stays in more expensive properties (St Regis, W and some Sheraton properties), this really bugs me. I have no doubt that I spend a hell of a lot more money on SPG properties than many platinums, particularly those in the US.

Points are managed that way - i.e per dollar spent, why not status?

If Starwood can differentiate between different grades of hotel for points redemption, why can't they do the same for status. For example, a cat 1 property night could be a 0.5 status stay through to a cat 6 being a 2x status multiple.

I know that the stay requirement for platinum simply means that I will not achieve it (many of my destinations do not have SPG properties, or they are not in the right price bracket), so once I have my gold, I look to hyatt or hilton. To my mind, that's revenue for premium properties that Starwood simply misses out on.

I have no problem with fostering loyalty, but SPG should also have a mechanism for assessing total $ contribution and not simply nights.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having this view.

LAXgt

Hilton is has their status either on nights or base points earned.

Richard_SVO_SPG_Platinum

seems like a reasonable suggestion....how about $25,000 USD in annual spend for platinum status.

DCBob

You can get Diamond status for 100,000 base points earned in a calendar year at Hilton Family hotels (that's $10,000 in annual spend, not counting incidental charges at Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, and Homewood Suites by Hilton®).

Based on that, $25,000 seems a bit on the high side.

DCBob

You forgot to mention number of stays in addition to nights and base points.

Yoshi212

I posted about something similar a few months ago. How higher value rooms should get more points toward elite status. Like a club or suite room at a St Regis would be worth 1.5/2.0 elite points while a discount room at the Sheraton/4 points gets your 0.5 points. It'd be similar to EQP airlines give for discount Y/full Y/ J and F.

yulhammeryyz

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9700; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.666 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

By staying at higher end properties you get more points, upgrades are generally better along with services

I don't mind people earning plat from FP stays because they generally will continue to stay there and not dilute anything for those who stay at W's and the like.

It is also on the basis that not all cities have W's, St Regis and Luxury Collection. For business travel I'm often in places that only have FP or similar (like Bolzano, Italy where I'll be later this month)

I think that platinums are treated well and haven't run into any situations where I've lost out to other Platinums

I've been upgraded and extremely happy on the 10 nights I've had so far this month (8 more booked)

pelapela

So OP spend more money than most of platinum members because he/ she mainly stayed in properties like st.regis or LC. But, speaking of suite upgrading competition, those less-spending platinum won't really become op's competitors. They will still mainly stay in FP or aloft since they can only afford to stay in those low end properties. They won't switch to st.regis or LC after they earned their platinum status. Hey, SPG is a really big royalty program. I am sure there is enough space for everyone.

LAXgt

With 100,000 based point at Hilton, you get diamond, of course to get 100,000 based point, you will have to spend some nights at the hotel depending on cost.

KosherKimchee

Unlike airlines where higher fares always trump lower fare for profit margin (because fuel and crew costs dont vary tremendous pp over different flights on a given airline), in the hotel business there are too many variables. A 4 Points in NYC might cost more than a LC property in another country, but on a revenue vs. cost basis, the LC is a more profitable stay for the operator or Starwood.

Keyser

if you are spending $25k a year then in all likelihood you would cross either the 25 stay or 50 night criteria....

inY

Freudian slip?

sunk818

Platinum status by spend should be higher than $25k. I could do that in one month. Maybe $50k or $100k would filter some people out.

Keyser

once again, if you are spending $25k or $50k or $100k in a year then you are likely hitting the 25 stay or 50 night criteria so you are not filtering anyone out....

leftpinky

Your avg stay is $1000/night? What hotels are you staying at?