polarpacific

I came across a statistic elsewhere on FlyerTalk that about 1% of Intercontinental members have top-level Royal Ambassador status, and that it takes 60 nights/year to qualify (by invitation).

With regard to SPG, I realise that any specific figures relating to the absolute number of members and distribution by status and number of nights and spend per year are proprietary, so I do not expect the Starwood Lurkers to offer any official comments here.

But do the experienced travellers and FT members have any reasonable estimates of the following:

1. Total number of SPG members worldwide (rough order of magnitude)

2. Percentage distribution by status level (especially proportion of Plats)

3. The upper percentiles for nights/year (50/75/100/150/200/250)


Also:

4. Median and standard deviation of annual spend

5. Global average room-rates by brand



It is just out of personal curiosity to see how our travel pattern fits into the bigger picture.


Thanks

RogerD408

Good luck on finding any numbers even close to accurate. The best you can hope for on FT are wild guesses as SPG is not likely to release these numbers. The age of transparency is far off if at all. As a community, we have a lot of collective knowledge, but unfortunately it is all based upon our personal experiences and I would expect wild swings from one end of the spectrum to the other. Some of us like the high-end properties and others "specialize" in the low-end. Some travel extensively for business and others for pleasure. Even if you got detailed info from each of these groups, you can't merely add them together as there will be some area of overlap.

Your personal status is about the best gauge as to where you stand in the spectrum at this point in time. I know that now that I'm not travelling as much as I use to, I am low on the list, yet just a few more nights and I will have Lifetime Platinum (hopefully before they raise the requirements). And personally I don't really care if I'm the top dog in the game, but how I am treated when I go to use the program is important. If I am happy, all is well with the world.

But that's just my view. I'm sure some others will have their opinions, but that's all you're going to get, no facts. My only absolute is I am happy with the program today.

polarpacific

Absolute figures --

While I don't *expect* Starwood to release exact numbers, I can see the possibility that they may consider it a point of pride to claim that the total membership is a certain level, as this could boost the implied standing of SPG relative to competing programs.


Relative figures --

Since IHG obviously don't hide that their top level constitutes 1% of total members, it is not unreasonable to assume that a similar proportion applies to SPG.

Accordingly, Platinum 100 Ambassador status may represent 1% of total SPG members. On this basis, there may be 10,000 top-tier members worldwide, based on an estimate of 1 million total members.

Both figures may actually be 10x smaller or 10x larger, but that is the point of seeking other reasonable opinions, so as to achieve a 'market' consensus.


What I find really intriguing is Item 3 -- the distribution of annual nights amongst Platinum members.

That is, what proportion of Plats halt at the basic 50 nights/year; what proportion achieve the 75 and 100 sub-levels which trigger specific benefits; and what proportion stay a substantially greater number of 150/200/250 (or for that matter a full 360 nights)?

kamel123

These estimates are far too low. Starwood indeed does not publish figures, but Hilton does.

According to the annual report, Hilton had 127 million guests in 2013 and 40 million HHonors members. Total room count was 678,630.

Starwood states that 50% of their guests are SPG members. Starwood has 349,750 rooms.

Assuming a similar occupancy pattern, this would give 65 million guests for Starwood and 32.5 million SPG members. Applying the 1% estimate (which seems a bit on the high side, but anyway) this would give 325,000 SPG Plats.

ckendall

More data on room count here: http://development.starwoodhotels.com/about/

djohannw

Just to put this into perspective, Marriott has a by-invitation level that comprises the top 3% of their guests on top of the published Platinum level that requires 75 nights annually. There is no published rule on how to achieve that, but sometimes it is reported that you have to be Platinum for consecutive three years and stay more than 100 nights a year to qualify for that level.

Given that this is the highest level there with even higher qualification-limits than SPG100, I think the population of SPG100s is anywhere between 2% and 4% of total membership...

Greetings - Dirk

nongsom

More data from IHG banner
http://loyaltylobby.com/2014/10/14/h...is-ihg-banner/
IHG 63m
Marriot 31m
Hilton 29m
SPG 30m (!!!SPG property only 1:3 or 1:4 of another brand but member are same!!!)

EricH

kamel's estimate is far too high. Elites stay far more than non-elites. If SPG Plats stay five times more nights than non-elites, then his 325,000 estimate becomes 65,000. If they stay ten times more, then it's only 32,500.

sfozrhfco

This is only part of the equation. Of the assumed 32.5 million nights stayed by SPG members, this is not UNIQUE members. It is simply somebody that gives an SPG number at some point during the stay. One member can have up to 1,095 of these nights per year assuming 3 rooms every night of the year. Everybody staying more than a night reduces the number of active members in your assumption.

nongsom

I will apply 80:20 Rule
IHG
20% of member are Plat(20%)
20% of Plat are Plat Ambassador (4%)
20% of Plat Ambassador are Plat Royal Ambassador (0.8%)
SPG
20% of member are Plat(20%)
20% of Plat are Plat50(4%)
20% of Plat50 are Plat75(0.8%)
20% of Plat75 are Plat100(0.16%)
Base on data on IHG banner show number of members
IHG 63m
Marriot 31m
Hilton 29m
SPG 30m
Base on data on IHG banner show number of properties
IHG 4500
Marriot 3400
Hilton 3800
SPG 1000

TravelinSperry

Interesting. So let's assume it's 32,500 SPT Plats. The ROS Bangkok told me they get ~6 Platinums per day at their property (although this info is a few years old). What does Starwood have, ~900+ properties? That means (assuming each property sees 6 platinums per day) that 5,400 SPG Plats are staying at a given property nightly or about 1/6 of Plats stay on any given night.

I likely can ask a few other properties I'm friendly with how many Plats they get per day to see if the number is similar. Might be able to back into the number.

flymonthly

Carrying this one step further would mean that Plats average about 60 nights per year (365/6). Seems a little high to me, but in the right ballpark.

MSPeconomist

Your one million members estimate is surely way off. By comparison, DL has well over 80,000,000 FF members, of which (it was reported to us at the time of the merger), about 2,000,000 were elites (people speculate that this number has gone up). When DM [the top published tier at 125,000 status miles per year or 140 segments and, starting soon, $12,500 spend on DL fares (roughly--I won't repeat the technical rules here) per year] started then, DM was supposed to be about 2% of elites (NOT all members) and numbers around 40,000 were reported initially (and have since gone up, we believe). The new unpublished 360 level might have about 3,000 people, according to speculation in the DL forum here on FT.

In all of these guesstimates, it's important to note whether the percentages assigned to top levels are percentages of all members or percentages of those with elite states. Most programs have many members who are inactive or only very minimally active, but they have signed up for an account because they once made one trip or one stay and the account was free.

MSPeconomist

Don't look at percentages of total numbers but percentages or elites or top tier elites.

Marriott's Platinum Premier unpublished level is stated to be the top 3% of Platinums, not the top 3% of all members or even all elites. IIRC my annual membership package contains a letter or welcome statement saying this and it's been stated elsewhere as widely reported in the MR forum of FT. However, nothing is specified about how that 3% is evaluated. People believe it's spend plus a requirement of having been Platinum (75 nights required) for three years. IIRC at one time, PP meant that only nights over 100 rolled over, versus nights over 75 for ordinary Plats, but this rule has changed, so perhaps one can be PP with only 75 nights but lots of spend.

At least on FT, people believe that every PP is personally approved by Bill Marriott, with his office evaluating Plats and setting the standards every year. This would be impossible to do for 3% of all members, which would be a couple million people.

RogerD408

Yes, to be Platinum Premier you are by default a Platinum. MR is very generous with extending Platinum status for HVC. Once I moved from one of our sales offices to corporate, MR granted Platinum status without earning it. I wasn't in a position to influence travel decisions. I did take advantage of the status when I did travel and even at one point made PP status for one year after I retired. Fortunately that was the last year PP really meant anything in my mind (20% off dining).

Numbers can be made to tell you anything you want. There is a lot of duplicates within all these categories, from single members booking multiple rooms to members belonging to multiple groups. And even multiple members from the same household that often travel together. That and the limited granularity of data captured by the property systems, it's all guessing.

I was with a marketing group that produced catalogs. One side of the house didn't care what was in the book as long as it made a loud sound when dropped on a table, the other was meticulous to make sure the data was current and cared about quality. I called this the "Thud Factor". Bigger is not always better.