CPRich

It's like when your spouse send you a text that says "Will you be home tonight? We need to talk", and it turns out to be something trivial.

The devastation of three recently announced hotel chain changes makes these changes much less painful, relatively.

I actually have reservations, or plans for reservations, at three of the properties that are decreasing. I save my points for family vacation properties, so the large number of 2/3/4 increases are pretty irrelevant to me. And as noted above, Cat 5 and 6, 12 up, 22 down (assuming this is correct) is much more relevant to me, and quite a positive.

starflyer

Ouch! This one hurts. I regularly stay at 4 of the MOVING UPS and ocsasionally at 6 or so more MOVING UPS. Couldn't find a single MOVING DOWN I've ever stayed at.

I like SPG better than any other program so I've been extremely loyal, but it might be time to at least look around and check out the competition, which I haven't done in years.

Medved

+1

sbtinme

Wow -- you've just mentioned the two worst Starwood hotels in this part of the world! You considered these places highlights? Even at a crazy cheap price ($$$$ or points), both of these places are a half step up from marginal dumps. I refuse to stay at either of these places any longer on principle. I didn't realize that there was anyone out there who'd look forward to burning points at either place.

hotelfanatic

Maybe not here - but go over to MR and HH forum and you will be back partying like 1999

SPG could have followed their lead by adding extra cats or increased the cat level of 36% of their properties.

Would I wish there was no changes, heck yeah - but this is acceptable IMHO.

CPRich

As I suspected, lots of 2, 3 and 4 movement up, net down on the 5 and 6s. My stay patterns work very well with these changes. And I still have a CAt 1 down the road, just in case.

jrothenb

Originally Posted by jrothenb View Post
In particular, some disappointments for me include all of the Massachusetts devaluations, especially Springfield and Boston Logan....

Y'know - reading your reply to my post, I had a little bit of a chuckle because you're of course correct. Inferior though they may be to some of the gems in the chain, most properties have their uses, and these two have been quite helpful to me over the years.

Would I prefer to stay at St Regis Mauritius over the Four Points Revere? Mos def. Was I glad that I could crash for 3k points when my flight got cancelled and could get free parking for days? Again, mos def.

allset2travel

CPRich,
Good summary ^ Thanks.

Booked a couple that are on the way UP.

dcstudent

I'm ok with these changes. *wood seems to be the fairest with their changes, especially in comparison with some of the other hotel programs. For one thing, unlike Hilton *wood didn't create 3 new categories and double (almost) the points required to redeem at the top category (95,000 vs. 50,000 before). As for whomever said 80% of hotels are going up, that's not quite a fair statement. 80% or so of the hotels that are changing category are going up. In fact, around 75% of *wood hotels are going nowhere, up or down.

I'm not saying I'm happy that so many are going up, but I'm also not surprised and I'm ok with this list.

Hotels going up that I find questionable

Le Meridien Versailles (Montreal) 3->4: Doesn't make sense to me. Tired hotel in need of renovations. Rates often far lower than W/Westin/Sheraton.

Sheraton Virginia Beach Oceanfront 3->4: Rates pretty low here last year, but they did just finish a complete refurb of the rooms and common areas and I assume this is why they are getting an increase (in anticipation of higher rates)

Hotels going up that make sense to me (That doesn't mean I like it, I just understand it)

Westin Richmond (VA)
Sheraton Harrisburg/Hershey
Four Points by Sheraton Perth
Four Points Barcelona (was a great steal for redemption while we had it)

Altaflyer

Yes a total joke. It's a timeshare for crying out loud!!!

Starwood Lurker II

One would need to wait for availability in order to cancel and rebook even though you already had a booking made previously.

[email protected]

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

dsquared37

The only one that really affects me at first glance is Aloft Bangkok. But I called their move up as soon as they pulled all their C&P availability so it's not a surprise (to me).

bertheike

The ALOFT BKK already was not worth the price @ kat 1 ( in compar. with 4P ), as no plat. benefits at all. How them can thinking to be the same level as 4P or even ROS in BKK ? But Iam happy that the other BKK hotels not moved up ! Specially ROS is a real nice one @ kat 2 ( weekends points only, otherwise C&P ).

schley

Sheraton Baltimore going from 3 down to 1? This place sounds dreadful if they are adjusted down to a Cat 1. Anyone stayed here ?

schley

This is absolutely true. The c and p increase combined with a cat increase is deadly. I hope no one was planning on going to Fiji :

Sheraton Denarau Villas
ASIA/PACIFIC
Fiji
SHERATON
4 OLD
6 NEW

This is REALLY painful for both point redemptions and c and p after March 5.
Now- 10k points or 4k and $60
March 5 - 20-25k points or 10k and $180!!!!!!!!

That is a HUGE devaluation at that property. It sounds like the Taj Mahal.