bennos

The relative mildness of these changes, combined with a sense that SPG is steadily improving (choice benefits and other changes last year, the Delta tie up this year) are pushing me to shift more of my stays to Starwood where possible (Plat first time this year perhaps?). Other loyalty programs (Marriott, Delta, Hilton had I not already dropped them) are making me feel a bit more like a nuisance than a customer.

HNLbasedFlyer

Very pleasantly surprised the Sheraton Waikiki stays put at Cat 5. Super suprised Moana Surfrider goes to Cat 6 - I never steer people to the Surfrider, has some terrible rooms you can get stuck in, small almost useless pool, and the beachfront chairs in the chained area look uncomfortable.

Flews

Another satisfied customer here. I don't think a single property in my points universe went up. By my math, about 20% of *wood properties went up, 5% went down. So relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. I'm so content, I might even forgive the SOTF!

Cheers,

lily23

Pretty happy as well - no changes for Germany/London/France, which is where I'll be spending lots of time this year!

hotelfanatic

Thank you SPG! I was expecting much worst - I/we can now exhale

mrredskin

not sure how this is considered a pleasant surprise. MANY hotels moving up a category, and C&P going up.

DivMiler

Only one property went down two categories: the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel (from 3 to 1). I wondered if the murder-suicide there could have affected bookings, but that was way back in 2009.

WhyPayRent

Read the posts. Everyone is relatively happy. It is in comparison to Marriott and, even worse, Hilton. Hilton pretty much went to town. (If I were to bet, I would say because of their numerous credit cards allowing for a legitimate devaluation.)

Sure, it could have been better and all future stays are free, but that is not likely. These changes are really not significantly different than prior years.

Agreed that C&P changes is unfortunate. It makes my decision to use just points instead of C&P that much clearer.

remymartin

Given that the St Regis has very good availability at its current rate, I also was expecting it to go down to Cat5. Now it makes no sense to do a redemption with points or c+p because it will almost always be higher in cost. Actually, it will be higher in cost in CASH portion only when comparing BAR and c+p!

Jesperss

48 moving down and 209 moving up and people are celebrating?

CFFrost

It is clearly all relative.

While I am happy that the program was not devalued in the way that Hilton was (and I have stated as much upthread), I am also (like you) skeptical at what the long-term consequences of telling SPG these changes are welcome will be. If this is OK, the next round of changes might be more along the line of Hilton's changes. We should still be telling SPG that we are disappointed at any devaluation.

littlemookie

Yup. SPG had the advantage of coming out with their changes last, and people were expecting the worst after the Marriott, Hilton, and Priority Club disasters. My few favorite hotels didn't change categories this year so I'm overall happy with the list. The real fear was SPG adding categories, increasing points per category, or a significant change to the program. That didn't happen, although the list of hotels moving up is quite significant.

patiolanterns

I'm sorry, but I have to echo the fact that people are looking through this through rose-colored glasses, simply because of what Hilton just did.

Hundreds more properties moving up than down. And worst of all, a large cash and points devaluation on 100% of the properties. Unlike Hilton, they were smart enough to break up all the bad news, but I'm sure it was all decided as part of one big change.

Hotel chains have no need to create new categories to have a really bad devaluation if the categories are already high enough. SPG's categories are already quite high compared to their earning ratios (which is what makes C&P so attractive), and therefore "Normal" increases are so much easier to hide. At least the C&P change was rightly chastised.

I don't think it could be much worse unless we compare it to Hilton. With C&P, it's as bad overall as Marriott.

C&P is hit doubly hard with the higher rates AND the category changes.

In any given year, many properties should move down as properties age. Yes, some should move up due to cost inflation/market changes/capital improvements, and newly opened properties should debut as higher than average. The averaging of this effect is perhaps 25% more properties moving up than down in a year when our points retain their value. This is 425%.

All in all, anything higher than normal, inflationary increases is a devaluation, and we should not be "okay" with any devaluation at all, just because "Hilton did it first!".

KittyCat

Confirming what appears to be the general vibe - all in all fair moves here (even if if one's particular 'target' hotel moves up, the average OK doesn't mean a lot)

Totally, and positively, surprised by the no-change in Germany (Frankfurt and Munich LMs, Westins come to mind), as business looked good there over the past year. Also W Istanbul and Westin Valencia going back to reasonable redemption categories most appreciated. Guess 2012 increases in Europe was the real 'hit' we got, spared this year.

... so, overall very happy spg-er over here, will continue to sob a bit over departure of Dom hotel in Cologne, but anyways

jpdx

This is undoubtedly true. The combined effect of C&P changes and category adjustment is painful. In some cases there's a 100% increase, on par with the worst excesses of the HH devaluation:

W Taipei: Today 4.8k+$90, Mar5: 10k+$180
Sheraton Hiroshima: Today 4k+$60, Mar5: 6k+$110
LM Khao Lak: Today 2.8k+$45, Mar5: 5k+$75.