Is Plat Guaranteed Room Availability really guaranteed, or just a marketing gimmick ?
 

As a new SPG Platinum this year, I'm confused on the Guaranteed Availability benefit. I need to book a room in Tampa at the end of August, which is apparently the week of the Republican Convention. So I just had the following conversation with the Platinum Concierge line:

SPG Plat Agent: "Thanks for calling the Plat line, how can I help you?"
Me: "I need to use the Platinum Guaranteed Availalbilty to book a room at the Tampa SHeraton on August 26-30."
SPG Plat Agent: "I'm sorry, there's no availability that week."
Me: "I realize that which is why I'm calling to use the Guaranteed Availabilty."
SPG Plat Agent: "I'm sorry, the system won't let me overide because it doesn't meet the minimum requirement."
Me: "I don't know what that means, but I do know what 'Guaranteed' means, so I'm not seeing how this is not possible. Please tell me what I'm missing here."
SPG Plat Agent: "Let me call the hotel and see why I can't overide this. Please hold"... ... ... "I just spoke to the hotel and they are completely sold out and have been for months. In fact, she also told me that every hotel in town is sold out that week."
Me: "Uh, okay. Thanks for your help." :rolleyes:

Can anyone explain how this is supposed to work?

Apparently, hotels can request to opt out of the guarantee for periods when they expect to be particularly busy. Since this when the benefit would be most valuable, it essentially makes the benefit useless.

These are some important caveats to consider:

Guaranteed room availability when your room is booked by 3 p.m., 72+ hours prior to arrival. 3

3. Applicable to one standard room booked by 3 p.m. local time 72+ hours before day of arrival at participating hotels. Member must pay regular RACK rate. Black out dates apply. Not available at resorts. Room upgrade and Free Night Award redemption do not apply when this benefit is utilized. Minimum length-of-stay requirement must be met.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

IHG
 

Ditto. Try using Intercontinental Platinum with the same "guarantee" in London at the moment! It occurs to me that the only time you would want to use this perk is during events of peak demand.

Maybe the offer should read "Guaranteed availability except when you want it when it's neither use nor ornament"

William,
I'm not sure what you're saying above. Are you implying that somewhere in these words is a caveat that forgives the hotel from abiding by the guarantee? This property is not a resort, so I just don't see it.

Other than being a resort, these things might also make it not available for the time you want to travel:

• Black out dates apply.
• Minimum length-of-stay requirement must be met.

The Platinum associate told you:

SPG Plat Agent: "I'm sorry, the system won't let me overide because it doesn't meet the minimum requirement."

But, I'm also guessing that because this is during the Republican National Convention, the hotel asked for SPG to allow them to institute a black-out date and it was granted, so both caveats probably are in place.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Edit: Lurker beat me to it.

So this has popped up a time or two. I think the properties are using ordinary terms to describe an extraordinary situation (probably thinking we'd not understand). If an organization has booked an entire property for their event then they should expect the entire property to be reserved for their group. They should not expect the property will give away their reserved rooms to non-group members regardless of rate paid or member status.

How would you react if you were a member of the organization that has reserved the rooms and you are told they gave your room away to someone outside the event? I suspect there would be a lot of legal talk happening about breach of contract or the such.

Waiting to the last minute (or 72 hours before) to book a room is risky at best especially for a town with a special event happening. I have used the guaranteed reservation benefit a time or two and it has gone through. I just hope it came out of excess inventory and did not actually bump someone from their room.

Edit: I see William.already pointed out the RNC angle.

I'm sure you know this, but for the crowd, those dates are the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Every room in town has long been booked by a delegation or event planner.

Assuming you're going for the convention or otherwise willing to pay inflated prices, PM me and I can give you the contact info for the guy our firm bought rooms from. I think he still has rooms available.

So what exactly is the definition of guarantee? I freely admit I dropped out of law school....I just didn't realize it was before they taught us new meanings of the english language.

Become a SPG Plt. You can enjoy the benefits of free lounge access at Sheratons1 seven days a week2, guaranteed room availability3, upgrades to the best available rooms4 and guaranteed 4pm checkout5


1. A lounge is defined as a room with 4 walls. It may or may not have anything else.

2. Unless we feel like closing, renovating or our staff is sick that day.

3. Except when the hotel is sold out

4. Best available rooms excludes rooms that are even bester or if we just don't want to give them to you. Besides, there are 65 PLTs checking in tonight and we only have one suite.

5. Except on days we feel like getting the rooms cleaned by Noon.

I'm sorry, but the excuse that the town is busy really isn't an excuse. If you're going to have exceptions when people REALLY want to use the benefit then exactly what's the point of a guarantee?

I've used this a couple of times, including - to my pleasant surprise - during the Calgary Stampede.

I don't think blackouts are granted willy nilly just because a property anticipates being " busy". Seems to me if one or more organizations buy up every single room many months in advance, it just makes sense the property in question would seek and be granted an exception to the guarantee in that particular situation.

Cheers!

Some of your assertions are just plain silly. But in response to the point you seem to be trying to make, did you not read the Ts & Cs (that you agreed to) when you received Platinum status? It's all clearly spelled out, including the caveats. How can this possibly be news to you?

Cheers,

I like the way you put it!
+1

I never noticed the blackout dates apply part of the Ts and Cs. Hence, they have a legal out. Equally so, however, it completely waters down the value of this "guarantee"...given that it's not absolute, unfortunately - which is ironic.

This benefit isn't something that can be taken to the bank, as a result.

Apologies if this has been asked before, but can one use the SPG50 rack rate discount in conjunction with the availability guarantee?