GUWonder

There was a small brouha in the office today when an SPG Platinum-holding vendor of ours was complaining that a Starwood hotel had told the SPG Platinum's spouse that if the card holding spouse does not show up they will be stuck with a huge bill for the upgraded room. Is that right and is there any option since I am likely going to have to get this person to work through the weekend and do not want to be stuck with risk losing him to go travel cross-country just to check-in and come straight back or have to fit the bill for cancelling his vacation any more than we already have?

Thanks for the advice. [I feel sort of like this is also a personal headache since I turned the person onto SPG when their firm will pay for any other hotel without issue too. I also do not want to pay several thousand dollars more than we have to since we will be stuck with the bill in the end for cancelling the vacation.]

[This message has been edited by GUWonder (edited Mar 18, 2004).]

craz

why not have the spouse that seems already to be at the hotel, and it also seems that the other isnt gonna be there(dont know if he was gonna be there from get go or did the res this way to get the up for his wife). simply to downgrade back to the orginal room that was booked, Unless she has been there for a few days already.

Starwood Lurker

If it was me, and I knew the member wasn't going to be in the room, I'd advise the wife to ask the hotel to downgrade her accommodations to what was booked originally.

I've never heard of this before, personally, so I don't have much other advice I could offer. The upgrade is for the member, so if he isn't going to be there, my guess is that they will try to do this.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

GUWonder

The Plat-card holder may still go there, but I would rather not have that happen because I would like to get this deal closed so I can head back abroad. At this point if they fly out still, I am going to be stuck for even a larger bill at the end of the day and lose time so they can decide to go fulfill this formality. If we finalize the deal by tomorrow night, then this may be a non-issue, but as the paying client I find that I am being painted into a corner of putting things on hold for a few days or let them go on their pre-planned vacation.

The spouse has been there for one night already, I think, or checked in this morning.

GUWonder

I suggested that they tell the hotel to downgrade the spouse. [I guess I save money and hope they don't pay me back by being unhappy.]

Update: They are going to fly out there tomorrow night. I guess spouse has more clout than client while client is stuck with the bill and lost productivity.

[This message has been edited by GUWonder (edited Mar 18, 2004).]

craz

William, beat you by a min I see. Thats NOT the problem, if I can up with the same exact advice as you, it MEANS Ive been spending too much time here on these boards.LoL

GUWonder

... too true. [Time to burn some miles and points to "get away".]

cxn

Why not allow family accounts like Hilton.

Christian

Vulcan

Better still. What if both spouses are Platinum, like my wife and I, and the "wrong" Plat shows up.

travelinman

The world as we know it comes to an end! What kind of question is that? Obviously, if you are both plats, you are both entitled to the upgrades, but I guess that was not the purpose of the post...it was really to awe us that two human beings, joined in legal marriage could attain such status. Impressed!