FAQ: How do I book an award for someone else when I won't be present?
 

The reservation needs to be made for this Wednesday night for a one night stay for some friends that are traveling and tight on funds (a touring band.)

I am not going to be there because they are a couple states away, and don't know how I am supposed to go about doing it for them.

Has anyone ever done this before, and is it possible? How does one go about it if it is possible?

Thanks in advance

Call Starwood. Book the award with them, and have them put the name of your friends in the record. Then, send your friends a copy of the reservation, with an attached note saying that you are gifting it to them. Give them your phone number so if there is any problem when your friends check in, the hotel can call you for authorization.

Yes, I know that sounds excessive, but I had problems when I gave a night to a friend, following the first steps, and the hotel did call me to be sure that I authorized it.

As mentioned its possible, MAKE sure they add your friend's name to the reservation. I called once to make an award reservation for a friend of mine, they said it was noted, I called again later to verify somthing else and the phone agent told me there was no other name listed than mine, and they (the 2nd phone agent) added my friends name to the list.

You can also double check if their name is on the reservation by going to spg.com, the section where you retrieve reservations, enter your friends last name and the reservation number, if the reservation pulls up on the site then you know their name is on the res. Their name should also appear on the confirmation email you get, but YMMV on the email part.

definitely put their name on the reservation or else you could run into trouble. my wife checked into an award stay hotel sicne she arrived before i did and they gave her a huge hassle. i even had to personally call in order for her to get into the room. major pain- and she even had a copy of the reservation and confirm number.

I used to work at a front desk, and we once had a spouse show up to check into her husband's room. As it turned out, the husband was planning on sharing that room with someone other than his wife. (His wife had found out about his secretly scheduled rendezvous and had come to foil his plans.) As you can imagine, the husband was not very happy with us after we checked his wife in.

Right or wrong, it quickly became a strict policy that ONLY those with their name on the reservation may be checked into the room.

Yes it's possible. I did it for my parents once.

I have done this several times. Every time I have just called the hotel ahead of time and added them to the reservation. Never a problem.

SanDiego1K's advice is sound. I've had more than one occasion where I asked to add a second name to the reservation because I was gifting the award, the CSR said they had done it for me, I called back and the second name wasn't there. Don't know why some CSRs have such difficulty doing this.

However I've never ultimately had a problem, I just make sure the person's name is on the res as the second guest.

Thanks for the story :D

I'm headed to Seoul - I just made a reservation online and then realized that the reservation is in my name, but Mrs. jib71 will be the one checking in.... she arrives a day before I do. :eek:

I will be somewhere in the skies over Siberia when she gets to the hotel... so I really want to sort this out now.

An SPG call center agent told me that she cannot change the reservation because I made it online. :rolleyes:... and she gave me a little lecture about "the deadline has now passed to cancel this" - it is a non-refundable rate. (Well that's fine - I don't want to cancel it - I just want make sure my wife is allowed to check in).

Another SPG call center agent (yes, I called twice) told me "Oh that will be fine. She can just show up with a print out of the reservation." Yeah... right. I doubt it.

I have put a remark into the "special request" section of the online reservation - which states that the person checking in will be my wife (and I have put her name there). Is that going to be enough?

Any advice on how to handle this?

If you can get the email address of the hotel, send an email requesting confirmation that she can check in. Make sure she has a copy of the confirmation with her when she checks in.

Just make an SPG account in your friend's name with your address. Then call SPG and transfer the points from your account to their's. Then have them make the reservation themselves. Done and done.

Jib I would call again, say you want to add your wife's name as a guest in the room.
This should not affect the reservation number or anything, I know because when I recalled SPG to add my friends name, they sent me a new confirmation email, it had the same reservation number etc etc, the only difference was my friends name was now added to the reservation as a guest.

I would say that this is best advice yet. ;)

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Thanks for all the advice.
I emailed the hotel. They sent me a very prompt response with Mrs Jib's name added to the reservation as a guest - and a note from the person in charge of reservations at the hotel to reassure me that "there will be no problem for Mrs. Jib71 at check-in". That's a nice touch. ^

Book reward for another person ?
 

I'm sure this question has been answered before but I couldn't find it when I did a search. Can a book a reward stay to give to somebody else (bother, friend, etc) ? Do I have to be present during the stay ??