mattsteg

When people choose to spend their money with a particular hotel based on its membership in SPG, which specifically state an entitlement to upgraded rooms, including the room-category, if available upon checkin for the length of the stay.

If the hotel doesn't want to abide by the terms and conditions of SPG, then it needs to leave the program and deflag.

Attitudes of over entitlement are certainly an issue, but when the specific entitlement under debate is one specifically promised by SPG you're barking up the wrong tree.

ZenWorld

+1

MSPeconomist

+1,000,000

rooivalk

Once you've checked in, the suite is taken out of sellable inventory and won't be available on spg.com. That's how you know whether you are the first, second or last.

rooivalk

+1,000,000,000

Starwood Lurker II

While it might be common, it isn't encouraged especially if the guest is able to see that prior to the stay.

What I can chip in is hotels aren't supposed to preassigned available suites in the first place. Thus if a Platinum guest arrives and there is a best available room in the hotel's inventory, it should be given to the Platinum regardless if it has been preassigned for other Plats or not.

Bingo!

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

Starwood Lurker II

Wow. I have been cross-reading between this thread and the following:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...pgrades-7.html

I hope I have been posting on the right thread, *dizzy*.

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

Starwood Lurker II

A property may notify Customer care in advance if there is a service issue and that they anticipate that the guest might file a feedback.

Personally, it makes no difference to me because even if the property did not notify Customer Care, thorough investigation would still be carried out before resolution is decided.

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

ZenWorld

Perhaps SPG + Starwood looks into this further in light of the feedback and examples given.

Plats should not be facing a tug of war with Front Desks over this upgrade benefit, and hopefully not to the extent where a Plat needs to call the bluff of Front Desk to get evidences that the Front Desk is lying blatantly.

I read that some Plats gets it regularly, yet some do not, or will only be able to do so after much pressing. Perhaps SPG can do an online survey for the Plats on this issue?

wharvey

While I never like to see a customer or company rep call each other liars, it appears as though - in this case - the customer was appropriate in this description of the situation.

Fighting for "promised" benefits should not have to happen... and that is one reason I have stopped working for status in programs. It is not worth the cost to only have to then beg for what was promised by the program.

It is clear that this is an ongoing issue with this property and apparently SPG is willing to let it continue. I am just surprised so many top customers here continue to give this hotel their business in light of their treatment of top elites.

CNWO4LIFE

Really? The what is the purpose of being a member of a loyalty program? Just to be crapped on and say thank you?

chinatraderjmr

Starwood does the same thing. Mostly people that they think are "gaming the system" by asking for comp during every stay. The letter basically says "sorry we are unable to satisfy you.....get lost"

chinatraderjmr

what if it's a suite that is not supposed to be in the upgrade pool anyway. As a regular guest, some W's will pre block a WOW suite for an arriving Plat (not cuz of being a Plat but because of being a long time guest of that hotel). Why shouldn't the hotel be able to do that? It does not take away from any Plat that might arrive before me since they would not get a WOW suite anyway?

MSPeconomist

This has happened to me at least three times at a W: the hotel preassigned a suite above their standard suite to me and several days before my arrival. It's also happened (double upgrade through upgrade to Presidential suites) at some LHW and FHR properties where I have been a repeat guest, but I can't recall having noticed it at other Starwood brands recently. It happened at a RC where I had not been a guest previously, but I presume this was a combination of FHR and Marriott Platinum Premier.

Euc-

Working in the hospitality industry and to answer the original question of the OP, yes; hotel employees can report guests. However, this is generally only done in extremely severe circumstances.

What does happen on a regular basis is that a note will be placed with your profile, which can be visible to all hotels within the same chain (This does depend on the system the hotel/chain uses). This note can contain pillow and linen preferences, if you like a slice of lime or lemon in your diet coke, had troubles during your stays, what those issues were specifically, investigation results as well as compensation to the guest. You can imagine that guests who have a long history of causing "trouble", will be looked at differently by the front desk agents, then guests who do not have such history. Granted, this is not the way it should be especially within the luxury hotel industry however it is human nature for this to happen.

There are however stronger methods then warning notes that hotels can implement: blacklisting from the hotel or the entire chain. Where I currently work only the General Manager (or his representative) and the Duty Manager have the authority to remove guests from the premises (either voluntarily or with police assistance) and "blacklist" a guest at the hotel. Should we feel the need to blacklist said person from the entire chain this needs to go through the Vice President of Ops as well as the CEO of the Hospitality Division (corporate) and should be backed-up with sufficient reasons.

Examples of cases where blacklisting occurred vary in degree of severity, some examples that I personally experienced (with different chains and different hotels) are:

* Guest (despite several warnings to temper his language) continuously uses extreme profane language to staff for no reason at all;

* After guests girlfriend turned down his marriage proposal and left the hotel, the villa where the guest was staying in was literally destroyed (think smashing windows with the TV, finding FF&E in the swimming pool) and was set on fire (half of the villa was destroyed). Guest then left the resort without settling his dues;

* Streaking (and filming it) during breakfast in a packed restaurant in a GCC country, one of the locals called the police who came to arrest them.


Please note that I do not work for Starwood, nor did these examples happen within Starwood, or any one single chain for that matter. These are examples which have happened during one point in my career and not recent.