KENNECTED

(clears throat) Humm Ummmmmmm. Well I am CHEAP! However, I agree with fireworksboy, holdout for atleast 12k, so I can get an ugraded suite reward out of the deal.

sc flier

I think that this is a new hotel directory. I don't recall being able to get a list of all hotels in an entire region on one page on the old site.

You can even see a one page listing of ALL SPG hotels. ^

Select future properties are included in the directory. ^

Non-participating hotels are, too. ?

thor17

My problem is that is shows too many of my reservations, including cancelled ones. And the cancelled ones are interspersed with the current ones (they're sorted by date), not like before where they would list the cancelled ones on the bottom, after all the current ones. It's really confusing to figure out which are my current and which are my cancelled ones without having to click on each one.

itsaboutthejourney

(what I think are bugs have been posted in the bug forum):

Positive

• much more "web 2.0" like
• Photography as always, stunning, main page large picture is a great idea.
• The purple color is soothing
• The customize mySPG is an excellent idea
• Clicking rates to sort high to low, low to high, etc. now works!
• Auto-fill of common city names in search is great!

Search/Book Issues

• Similar issues as fireworksboy posted. Search is retarded: the two different rate type pull down menus don't make sense, and if you choose an option that has your SET code, but want to switch to AAA, you have to go back into the field for your SET and delete any data in the field. Way too many steps for researching different rates. Check boxes would have been much much easier. Placement of the "update room list" button is out of sequence for someone using it.
• A matrix showing ALL rates laid over room types would be better than having to do separate searches for different rates, writing them down and comparing. i.e.: AAA, SET, promo, prepaid, etc. No improvement over the "old" SPG.com.

The Competition

• We should not be here in 2007 discussing such basic issues, we should be asking Starwood for online promo registration tracking, online promo progress/qualification, spg50 booking, online upgrade booking using points, downloadable folios, text alerts, etc. etc.

Initial Summary

The new site looks pretty. It's nothing revolutionary in terms of new features or ease of use, while at the same time Starwood continues to show poor execution with its web presence. Starwood still makes it very difficult to research different rates in an area with multiple properties. Based on that obvious flaw, the long-term feedback here on FT and my personal experience with the "gurus", I don't feel that Starwood's web team fully understands the customer experience at spg.com. I think Starwood's web customers deserve an apology and waiver of points/elite benefits not being provided if booked via a 3rd party site. Bonus points for the aggravation of using spg.com would be a good gesture as well.

KENNECTED

I think this is a situation of getting used to a new look/layout.

Have you set up "MySPG"

When I click the "my stays" link the page expands to show you an upcoming stays tab and past stays past.

On the upcoming stays page it indicates if a stay has been cancelled.

I'm not sure how this is confusing.

jcherney

Just got on the new site. It's really moving quickly for me. I'm using XP and Firefox 2.0.0.5

Everything showed up properly for me, but as others have said, the frequent requests to login are most annoying. I haven't dug as far into the site as many of you.

troyintn

Hilton has changed websites several times now, overall their has been no point to it as some features got better and some got worse. My first thoughts wiht SPG are the same it seems to be change for changes sake. Yes some of it is nicer, but overall I do not see any great leap forward.

thor17

On the My Stays tab, before expanding it to "See All", the cancelled reservations are listed interspersed with the current ones with no indication that they are cancelled. Only upon expanding it does it show which ones are cancelled. But even that I believe they changed very recently. When I looked at that in the morning, I swear it didn't indicate whether the reservation was cancelled or not.

danwhy

Coming back tonight I found the site to be about twice as fast as it was last night. Also had no issue looking for C & P availability at the W Montreal. Things seem to be getting better and this is an improvement over the old site although it isn't all I could have wished for. Hopefully it's on a good platform that will allow SPG to keep making improvements as they can and or want to.

Wexflyer

So if it is publicly posted, why did you remove it?

Rom Sac

Any chance that Starwood will allow us to access our bills (folio) on the web site, or start emailing them to us? Marriott does this now, and it's very convenient.

schnitzer

is it me or is something wrong with the new spg site? it's loading R E A L L Y S L O W....

KENNECTED

Excellent question! I would love this feature.

KathyWdrf

What makes you ASSUME that this is somehow the web development team's fault?

First of all, it's quite possible that Starwood management does not WANT you to easily find the cheapest rate in an area with multiple properties! They probably WANT to make it a difficult process, so that the average user will give up on finding the best deal. @:-) Second, even if such a radical change were endorsed by management, the amount of programming effort could very well be more than management would want to pay for.

Based on my experience with other hotel chain websites (Hilton, Marriott, and several others), I haven't found one yet that makes it quick and easy to find the best rate at multiple properties. @:-) Substantial time and effort by the user are always required. I don't think that's an accident, nor do I think it's necessarily somehow the fault of the web development team for the particular site.

As for the expectation of an apology in the form of points etc., well, dream on!

sc flier

I think that some FT users may be particularly interested in this new feature:
Search by hotel name.

For example, search for "Alfonso" to find out where the Hotel Alfonso XIII is located. Or search for Suites Galleria to pull up the Sheraton Suites Galleria-Atlanta. It's not perfect, but it's a nice big step. "Suites Atlanta" does not work -- perhaps because "Atlanta" is tacked on as a hyphenated addition to "Galleria."