gabrielz

After being an SPG plat for a dozen years, I've come to the conclusion that Starwood is the most dishonestly run company in my travels, beating virtually every other supplier I've ever done business with. Perhaps it's because they used to be awesome, but I think the corporate culture of petty dishonesty has crossed a line for me. Curious to hear your thoughts:

1. 4/5 times hotels will claim no upgrade availability. A check of inventory will reveal rooms. They will claim that they don't exist but when I press them (sometimes booking it right then), they give me the room. Sometimes (eg at St Regis Houston or Sheraton LAX) staff have just told me outright they are holding the rooms for last-minute revenue bookings.
2. SPG CEO office in an email to me about the above claimed that "unclean rooms" must be the reason I experience this 30 times a year. LOLOL
3. BRG desk for a recent claim denies my submission that a lower rate is available claiming they can't see it. So, I book the room and resubmit proof of the rate. Then they respond claiming that the rate is invalid because it was for a special group (in this case, kayak users), and I put 2 people instead of one. So I complain to Twitter and lo and behold they can magically find the rate and it works for a BRG. Amazing.
4. I raise the same issue about honesty to CEO's office and their response is to be pleased that I got the BRG match, making no reference to the obvious (and documented) malfeasance of their team.
5. In 4 CS interactions with SPG in the last decade, 2 of them were "closed" by central CS before being resolved. There was no further discussion.


I can't imagine any other company where I spend this kind of money operating in such a dishonest way. I've decided that I've had enough personally, and will submit the BRG issued to the NYS AG's office. Anyone else have any thoughts? happy to share my email threads with the community if you think they will be useful.

-G

m0hamed

Seems you missed *subject to availability.

craigthemif

Best thing to do when unhappy is:

1. Rant on internet. Email senior management. Check.
2. Take business elsewhere.
3. Realize after awhile that no other chain offers a 100% free upgrade policy or BRG without verifying rate
4. Come back to original hotel chain since you like the hotels, the executive lounges and the free breakfast

zachary

SPG "the most deceptive loyalty program"?

Sorry, can't agree. The competition for that award is way too fierce.

Flews

Your experience is not even close my experience. I guess I'll be testifying for the defence!

Cheers,

LovetoTravel83

So you realized that only after 12 years?

wobbly wings

And what does "availability" mean? If a hotel is holding back inventory for non-existing reservations, as the OP is reporting and we've all seen at some point, it is blatantly violating the SPG protocol for Plat upgrades. IMHO Starwood corporate should come down heavily on these properties - they just ruin the brand and therefore affect the properties which are playing by the rules.

m0hamed

It's been discussed countless times and I have no wish to repeat what exists in other threads. There are caveats attached to the benefit.

KENNECTED

100% agree!

beltway

... which I've collected for ease of reference in the wiki at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html

wobbly wings

Of course there are. And people are wrong to expect an upgrade just because they show up as Plats. However it's been discussed several times that the upgrade terms to the best available room are systematically being violated by several properties.

beltway

It has also been discussed that there are ways to deal with this effectively. See FAQs 4 & 5.

wobbly wings

And it's been remarked often this is in fact a very ineffective way for busy people on the road to get what they are entitled to. Escalating matters to junior, senior managers and then to corporate may be a way of solving the situation by someone with time in his hands but it is not the way the SPG protocol spells out upgrades should be assigned.

beltway

All true. But if you want the problem resolved, then SPG corporate needs to have the info on specific violations reported to it, absent some sort of advanced mind-reading technology to which I am not privy.

wobbly wings

And I agree with you. But I do not see anything wrong with anyone expecting what he is actually entitled to without having to resort to corporate and making enemies with the property management where he or she is likely to return on the next trip. We have plenty of evidence some properties, mostly in the US, are systematically breaking the rules for plat upgrades. I would just hope that SPG corporate took a little bit more of an interest and reminded them of the rules. Monitoring room assignments of some properties is not that hard since they have access to the inventory.

Let's be clear here. If a room was available in the pool and not given to the guest, the party at fault here is the property not the guest who did not have the time or the willingess to have an argument on the day and escalate things to corporate.