TandTEnterprises

Has anyone seen a hotel which blocks off all point reservations for rooms?

The St Regis Aspen is not showing any points reservations available past May 2018. Is this because of the Merger, a Glitch, the hotel opting out of Points Reservations?

Having been to the hotel I love it, and was disappointed to not see any rooms available on points.
Does anyone here know what may be going on?

hopegrad

Hey T&E:

I've seen the same issue with hotels that are listed as all suite and/or luxury properties requiring a call into central reservations to gauge availability. Generally speaking, rooms booked at such properties with points sometimes require a decent increase in points required to book a room. An example, while a stay in an all suite hotel, say category 6ish during low season may require 20,000 per night, the more exclusive category 6 hotels push the total necessary above 30,000 points per night and you'll only know this by calling and asking some direct questions. And, the room types are identical. That said, I know the St. Regis Aspen is a category 7 and should require 30,000 per night low season before the 5 night discount is factored into the math. Is there a possibility the hotel is dropping out of Marriott/SPG after May 2018? Just asking because I don't know. Again, just my experience but I've run into this issue rather frequently as of late.

Tom

3Cforme

Only 'standard' award rooms are ever available for booking online with points. Call for other room categories. That's the SPG convention - unlike Hilton, which shows premiums rooms online (and people complain about the surcharge!)

You might ask Lurker to look into the hotel's management of standard award night inventory.

I am seeing standard award nights (30K points) in the first period I checked.

TandTEnterprises

There are standard rooms available, and it isn't considered "all suite."

I didn't think about them exiting the SPG program at that point, but I suppose that may be a possibility, (albeit one which would really sting for an aspirational ski resort property).

The only option remaining that I am aware of in the program that would be left would be the St Regis Deer Valley. While I haven't stayed there it is a "Ski only" resort and no Snowboarding is allowed.

When I called the SPG Platinum line I got an answer of "Maybe they have not yet loaded the Points Rooms into the system yet, which seemed like a funky answer as I have never seen or heard of anything like this.
Tom

mahasamatman

If you haven't heard that, I don't think you've been around that long. This is pertty standard. Hotels don't always file all their rates this far out.

hopegrad

I'm running into this same situation at the Westin Nanea on Maui in September. The hotel doesn't have any standard issue rooms in the hotel at any point from today well into the future defined as December 31, 2018. My deductive reasoning and conversations with reservation agents suggests SPG or maybe Marriott is engaged in bumping up classification of several properties at least for those that are in elevated tiers. Something odd is afoot. Still, I'd call the hotel directly to see if it will book the rooms for you assuming you're looking to book before December 2018.

slidergirl

Don't waste your points at the StR Deer Valley. I mean, it's rated #13 hotel in PC, behind THE BEST WESTERN on Trip Advisor. In the past 3 years, it has slid from being in the top 5 to #13 . It used to be a quality place. But, it's gone downhill in the last few years with most of management either quitting or being asked to leave. They had all the true Butlers leave, turning the position over to seasonal help they recruited from overseas. Guest and Butler Services use seasonal J-1s who know nothing about the property nor the Park City area, so you get people totally unfamiliar with the area. I'd give it another good year or two to try to get it's act together to what it once was.

Look at the Hotel Park City (it's a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel) and see if you can use any transferred MR points for there. It's consistently the #2 hotel in Park City and right on Park Ave, a little 5 minute bus ride from Park City Mt. Resort (and snowboarding).

CPRich

It's a Vacation property that only has 800 sq.ft.+, full kitchen-equipped villas 1 BR and larger, unlike the other Villas that have 500 sq.ft. Studios with "kitchenettes". The 1BRs at the other villas are also not available on points on-line as a standard room. I'm going with "there are no standard hotel rooms" over a vast SPG/Marriott level-fixing conspiracy.

Did your "conversations with reservation agents" not reveal any rooms at higher points levels, as usual with these types of properties?

platbrownguy

This is very sad to hear. Used to love that place.

Indeed it looks like there is a job posting for GM online: https://marriott.taleo.net/careersec...tz=GMT-07%3A00

hopegrad

I'm a student of consumer protection laws that generally address this type of situation. Also, before reviewing what I know, it's always fun to read the tone used by some here.

Per California law as an example, a hotel advertising a room type for say 20k points per night which the disclosure for his hotel clearly states is a category 6 hotel with rooms beginning at 20k points per night low season, has to at a minimum have some rooms in that category available. The rooms don't need to be available on my dates of need but some rooms have to be available somehow and some way at the property. But, this hotel doesn't have any such 20k rooms at all on site. So at a minimum to address consumer protection laws it may be in the chain's interest to disclose this instead of placing itself in an untenable position like the one I've identified. Doesn't matter if the behavior is common practice or not. There's a simple disclosure issue that need to be rectified. But hey, thanks for the interest. Minimum points needed for any room at the property during low season amount to 40k per night.

CPRich

Maybe something like
perhaps?

Feel free to sue them under California law for this untenable position and let us know the result.

spgplat21

When are you looking to book? Points room at the St. Regis Aspen are pretty easy to come by even during peak ski season so I definitely think it's likely that they haven't loaded the points rates that far out yet.

writerguyfl

If a hotel has decent demand, it's generally in the best interest to wait to load availability for points redemption. That's how we operated in the hotels where I served as Revenue Manager.

The reasoning is it gives the Sales Team more opportunity to sell rooms to groups. Group rooms are almost always more profitable than rooms redeemed with frequent guest points.

Oxon Flyer

Something is definitely up with the rates at St Regis Aspen.

There is no award availability showing online after May 28 2018 (other than, oddly, the night of June 3), and the best available rate for most dates after mid-April is USD 9,498.10.

Kagehitokiri

happens a lot, talk to hotel (reservations/sales) directly