CommentatusMaximus

I've been on a two week business tip including two weekends. I stayed weekdays at a property near my office and went to other properties downtown on the weekends. Each Friday I checkout and leave most of my luggage with the front desk and pick them up again when I return on Sunday. No problem at all. Quite a reasonable request IMO and easily handled, so why not?

uanj

My emails to my ambassador last year were never answered overnight, usually took 2-3 days and more often than not were answered by someone other than my ambassador. I did not find they were helping me that much, just creating some angst whether they were going to understand my request and look into it. And why have different ambassadors answering each time? Isn't the idea supposed to be that they want to learn about your needs and preferences with that one-on-one contact? If that is all they can do I will just use the platinum chat line. It is slow and at times laborious, but I get an answer in under an hour, no need to wait and wonder for 2-3 days.

flyerbjorn

Do you get the same rates on spg.com with your corporate code as Concur? I do.

Sam P. Goodman

I'm wrapping up my one and only year as a P100 (made a big push to get lifetime). My ambassador was nice and generally helpful when I contacted her about something. I'm a fairly low maintenance traveler and like to do my own planning...there were generally two kinds of issues I relied on her for. One was missed stay credits/errors. It was nice to be able to just e-mail her and get it taken care of. The other was complex award reservations (higher room category/travelling with a kid). Now that I'm about to be ambassador-less, I'll go back to the usual route of taking care of those.

I'm not aware of any special treatment during any of my stays as a result of my ambassador. I wasn't expecting a lot, but as others have mentioned, it's kind of weird that they ask you about preferences (drinks, snacks, even kid's birthday), but nothing ever materialized on that front.

It was nice having a single point of contact for issues, but I think I'll survive without. I had a billing error on a stay this past weekend and thought, "one last thing for my ambassador?" but the GM's address was listed on the bill so I e-mailed him directly. It was resolved within minutes.

So, I guess for me, the answer to the question in the thread title is no.

Cerberus

I'm not sure actually. I don't know my corporate code. Where do I see this on Concur?

I know there are many variations on my company/firm name because of the different jurisdictions so I'm kind of wondering if that's causing it too.

broadwayboy

I am sure there are some pro-active Ambassadors out there, but I think this program is a bit over-hyped with their video marketing. Let's see how my first year being a LTP Ambassador goes, but in my head I've already planned to not exceed 75 nights and will share the love to Hilton and Marriott (before full merge). If they decide to add a choice of Ambassador OR a different benefit, then I'd aim for 100 nights.

vicmag76

I am in my second year of the Ambassador program, and it's been a huge disappointment for me. My ambassador is not proactive at all, and I find that I get better results by reaching out directly to hotels or reaching out to the Ambassador desk when she's out of the office. Last year, she asked me to fill out a profile, and when I mentioned my birth date, she said that it was too bad that it had passed or she would have done something for it. Well, when my birthday came this year, I didn't hear one word from her. Based on my experience with her, if things don't change, I will stop once I hit 75 nights this year and spread out the rest of my stays to other program. Is there a way to go about getting an ambassador replacement?

Cerberus

I'm still in my first year with the Ambassador program. I honestly do rely on my ambassador quite a lot more than my own corporate travel services as she is quick to respond, handled multiple bookings, changes in transit, etc. For my birthday recently, I got a rather nice surprise box waiting for me at home a few days prior. It was an amazing fluffy waffle style bathroom monogramed with my initials along with a very nice handwritten letter.

TerryK

I envy you. As we can see from various posts, it really depends on who your ambassador is. I got nothing for BD. I suspect there is a customer scoring system built into CRM. Depending on your profitability/importance score, you get different ambassador and are treated accordingly.

broadwayboy

If what you suspect is correct, I will make sure to stop at 50 or 75 nights and will not aim at 100 anymore. Reading some blogs about welcome amenity signed by Ambassador made me think I would get extra special treat at check-in. No such love for me. My ambassador would just forward all my restaurant requests to the hotel concierge anyway - I can do all that directly bypassing a middle person.

FlyingTomboy

Just had one year of it, my first, and likely my last. The ambassador program was useless for me. I tried. I genuinely gave lots of chances, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. Continuing with 75 nights again is fine with me and go to other hotels throughout the year.

schley

In short no. If you need a lot of business travel with several stays a week it can be helpful to manage the chaos, but for leisure I say not needed and not much value given.

longtimereader firstimeposter

Has anyone else seen this service go completely downhill? I haven’t heard from my Ambassador since November (not even when I requalified in December) and finally emailed them today regarding a rather serious issue with a hotel. My Ambassador did not even respond, someone “helping them today” responded with a reference number and told me I would get a response in 5-7 business days.

I’ve had the ambassador service for 4 years now and have never been impressed but this is a new low.

yyznomad

Have you asked for a new ambassador?

Starwood Lurker III

We would like to forward your feedback to the Ambassador management team if you could provide your account details to us via private mail here or by email below.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

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