eightmillionmiler

It sure looks like these are hotels that sign with SPG to get the volume that comes from the brands -- people like me booking their property based on affiliation -- but then are working hard to chisel out of the obligation to SPG guests that comes with it. They sign a contract in bad faith and then work hard to skip out of the costs, while still reaping the benefits. It is a kind of payment that is hard to audit, hard to spot when they fail to deliver because of the lack of any transparency into room categories and avialabilty, and therefore ideal for ethically challenged businesspeople who will try to get away with whatever they can.

Look carefully at the start of the paragraph above -- "It sure looks like" -- as I am not making the accusation against so many properties. It looks like a duck, walks like a duck, but it might not be a duck -- we have no way to check or audit so no duck verification test is available. As others have said, simple incompetence and poor training could explain it, yet how many times do you get more than you deserve versus how many times less? Hard to credit random factors when the distribution is soooooo skewed.

And to the staff of those good properties where we all experience a real desire to live up to the promises that the hotel made to SPG on our behalf -- thank you! We appreciate your honesty and your interest in customer satisfaction.

VL83

Mike: I've not only heard of paragraphs, but have written five books and dozens of professional articles, all with appropriate sections and paragraphs. The ongoing comments to which you refer stem from my newness to the mode of presentation and format of Flyertalk. I hope your momentary frustration, here and in the future, will not impede an effort to see if the writer has interesting things to report.

sbtinme

VL83 --

Welcome to FT! We're glad you're here.

You're coming on V E R Y S T R O N G above. I am not aware of a single bulletin board format (FT or otherwise) out there where one simply lays out hundreds of words in one fell swoop without an effort to make it more efficiently readable by breaking it down into bites.

I look forward to your contributions to this board in the days ahead!

dingo

To no one in particular:
Let's not spiral off topic with personal back and forths...please. There are good comments in these posts regardless of formatting and the content of the dialog is more important than the content of the dialog on how something is posted. If folks find the content interesting, my hunch is they will read through.

Starwood Lurker

Not exactly. The executive suites at this hotel may not be considered to be standard suites, so the possibility that they upgraded you to it based upon your unhappiness with the condition of the first room has to come into consideration.

But, you are probably right about one thing...in the 5% that I have been able to factually document, the fish usually stinks from the head down.

And, Mr. Sanders is my dad.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

VL83

[QUOTE=Starwood Lurker;7169103]Not exactly. The executive suites at this hotel may not be considered to be standard suites, so the possibility that they upgraded you to it based upon your unhappiness with the condition of the first room has to come into consideration.



William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

Dear Junior: As an apologist for Starwood hotels, you are considerably less than a thorough success. The "executive suites... may not be considered standard suites," you say, by way of pathetic explanation. All right, let's assume that executive suites at that Westin in Long Beach were reserved for only princesses. However, you omitted entirely, in your response, an accounting of why I was assigned, despite being a Plat member, to a room that was so dumpy that I felt forced to request a reassignment - which I have done only once or twice before in my entire history of very extensive travel (see my various elite levels). One explanation, which I'm sure you will be reluctant to offer, is that all "non-princess" rooms in that hotel are dumpy. I can accept that possibility far more than your offering of something special about executive suites. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to invoke your agreeing with my essential position regarding GMs, which you phrased in terms of a fish's head. Recall, if it is not too inconvenient, that I have been upgraded to a FULL suite at every (with one exception) Luxury Collection where I've stayed in Europe, and I've stayed at most of them.

Starwood Lurker

Maybe no other rooms were available?

Maybe so.

Not necessarily. The Westin Long Beach only has four standard suites and the executive suites are not among this pool of availability.

Not sure how I am supposed to recall where and when you've been upgraded when I don't know who you are. That wouldn't be as inconvenient as it is impossible.

Have a nice evening and thanks for playing.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

ldsant

Folks - please try and keep things civil - thanks!

ldsant
*wood co-moderator

MIKESILV

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

Dear Junior: As an apologist for Starwood hotels, you are considerably less than a thorough success.


Civility ???

mike

Louie_LI

Wow, for someone who just joined FlyerTalk, you are very quick to judge William's contributions here. There are many who would disagree with you.

bigguyinpasadena

"let's assume that executive suites at that Westin in Long Beach were reserved for only princesses."
And this just might be the crux of VL83's distress-she/he is not a princess Maybe a pretender to the throne/princess wannabe with the attitude she thinks befitting of a royal-but just a wannabe.
Now lay off William-he is a great asset to this Forum and is far from an apologist for starwood.

bigguyinpasadena

Guilty as charged.Glanced over and saw it was a DYKWIA tirade.