KosherKimchee

I got to about 90 nights last year and burned out from work and just stopped traveling from November 2017 thru EOY. My ambassador (hit 100+ in 2016) has been amazing and has been ridiculously helpful/proactive so far in 2018. Of course, I'm about to lose her when I drop back to Plat 75. Should've done a mattress run in December, kicking myself now. Wish there was some way to buy back status sorta like the airlines do. YMMV of course since some ambassadors aren't good, but my ambassador is totally worth whatever it costs.

estnet

IME - no, changed ambassadors a few times (due to incompatible working hours), then got one that seemed to do the minimum and when I actually had a real problem just stopped responding to my emails (for a really hard request - like the email for the GM at a property)
The one thing that appears different was that any email sent was responded to quickly - usually by someone else and this was a problem b/c they often complicated things by not knowing what had gone on before or just confusing the issue (too many cooks).
Didn't requalify this year due to a lot of Marriott stays - but if I do this year I won't use Ambassador again (of course thismay be a moot point). Clearly others have had much better experience.

supergabe

I got a nice cake, handwritten note, and a bottle of wine ^

Out of curiosity, what benefits are people getting out of their Ambassador? Mine has come in handy one time to get availability on a sold-out hotel. The only other time I tried to use them was to ask a hotel to let me change a reservation at 6:30pm (after a 6:00pm cutoff), and the hotel wouldn't budge.

broadwayboy

I have just gotten an Ambassador in Dec 2017 and received a welcome email shortly after my 100th stay. Other than an email wishing her a happy New Year, I have not yet actually reached out to her for any requests. I have directed all my requests directly to the hotels and all have been handled perfectly well.

I have been reading all these comments about Ambassadors doing amazing things - wonderful welcome amenities, better upgrades, notes, etc. Am I supposed to contact my Ambassador about my stays, or is it part of the Ambassador's task to check on my reservations? I have just completed my 21st stay this month and should be a Lifetime Platinum next week. Should I "inform" her that I will be an LTP, or is it something that she'd see herself? It'd be nice to be acknowledged as an LTP member, but I feel weird if I have to tell her about it.

yyznomad

You mean 100th night, unless every stay you did was exactly one night?

Often, they are proactive, but it doesn't hurt to give friendly reminders or hints. When I gave a subtle hint that I was approaching my 1,500th Starwood night, I received a nice gift waiting for me after checking in at an European Starwood.

But the more clients they take on, you will notice their level of personalized attention/service wanes a bit.

(and an early congratulations to joining the LTP club )

broadwayboy

Oops, correct. 100 nights in 2017.
I recall filling out some pre-arrival form at some luxury hotels (non SPG) where they ask for your preferences - firm/soft pillows, red or white wine, chocolates, etc. I think that helps tailoring a stay better. I honestly just don't understand how Ambassadors are supposed to help us enhance our stay if they don't have a clue what we prefer. For local assistance, isn't a hotel concierge better? I was traveling with family last week and stayed in multiple rooms. One email to the hotel fulfilled the request of suite upgrade and adjacent rooms. I also had some stay posting issue, but one email to the hotel solved it. I guess I am too new to this Ambassador thing to really understand the benefit of it.

yyznomad

The info is/would be in your global profile.

If you ask the front desk one of your SPG properties, they will be able to see your preferences. All of my preferences are there and I was surprised to find this out when the front desk person at some random property I stay at started reciting all of my preferences in detail... down to the type of Scotch that I like.

NWAsilvELITE

I was waiting to see what happened after reading this thread and last week I received an email from my Ambassador introducing himself and asked if there was anything they could do. Had some requests for an upcoming stay at Disney and they took care of it via email without hesitation. Also had him do a couple other things at a couple other hotels and it was dealt with quickly also along with a follow up email.

JY1024

Totally get where you're coming from. Before I had an Ambassador, I was generally able to contact the hotel directly via email/phone and make arrangements and indicate preferences for my stay. Certainly nothing wrong with that model.

As for your point about how your Ambassador is supposed to know...maybe you just haven't had your welcome call yet, but I had a nice little chat with mine, where she asked all sorts of things about preferences of amenities in the room, water/wine/beer preferences, birthday/anniversary/special occasions, preferences for room upgrades and room location, types of activities I'm interested in whilst traveling, if I had a sweet tooth, etc. Sure, you can still contact properties yourself to give them details of your upcoming stay or work directly with the property to resolve billing/points issues. But for other guests, they prefer having one point of contact at *wood who can help them with booking stays, making sure preferences are passed to the property (now whether the property actually does anything with those preferences is a whole different matter), restaurant/activities reservations, billing/points disputes, etc.

yyznomad

This.

I also find that a good ambassador is just that... your ambassador. If you have a really good one, they make for a good "middle wo/man" to assist with billing issues, other issues, etc.

Calling properties directly is not always viable especially when you are 14 hours apart, there may be some language barrier, etc.

itsaboutthejourney

How often do you get that wine or specific type of water, etc? Those things have become few and far between, even on special occasions.

Someone supposedly 'in the know' about the SW/Marriott integration tells me Marriott will do away with the program anyway, so maybe the program's decline is a sort of lag until that becomes official? If my insiders are wrong (as they were about AMEX) then perhaps Marriott will give the program some teeth, similar to the guarantee when a property doesn't offer you a Platinum Amenity or room preference? Either way, somthing has to give as my experience is that this program is a shadow of what it once was.

r415

I wish my ambassador was like that. My ambassador will do something if I specifically ask him to, but otherwise is not proactive at all, and never reaches out before or after stays, even though it's something I stated I wanted in the welcome survey. I tried to switch, but I guess the lurkers can only pass it onto the ambassador team, who hasn't bothered to respond to me.

Starwood Lurker IV

Hi r415,

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't heard back from the team.

I would be happy to contact them in order to request a new Ambassador for you. Please send an email to our address with your account details and your Flyertalk Username so we can further follow up.


All the best,

Alice Kons
Specialist, Social Media
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, LLC
[email protected]

yyznomad

This is disappointing to hear if true. But then again, I'm not completely surprised.
I am Starwood LTP and have also been Marriott Platinum Elite in the past. Starwood hands down wins, IMHO.

EWRFlyerAL

I got an Ambassador for the first time this year. So far I am far from impressed. I asked her today for rates if I wanted to book a paid suite at a specific W for an upcoming stay. She came back and gave me the rates for Starpoints and paid for Wonderful rooms. No mention of a suite and of no use. I went on SPG.com and booked it myself.

I asked about an upgrade for a stay that I have today and she cut and pasted the verbiage about best room at time of check in, blah blah.

We'll see if this gets any better. If not, I'm going to ask for a replacement.