WScottsdaleInsider

I was wondering why Starwood lets the hotel decide if they want to participate in SPG or not. Do other chains have this. I've never heard of a marriott or hyatt not participating in Marriott rewards or Hyatt Gold Passport. Come on. Im specifically talking about the Resort at Singer Island. When starwood manages these hotels should take everything starwood brings including SPG. This isnt fair to SPG gold and platinum members. What is the point of even choosing them if they do not participate. Unless you are trying to retain your status, there is no benefit. I dont think these hotels should and feel they are cheap and just dont want to upgrade in order to make more money and sell you an upgrade. This is one of my biggest complaints with Starwood.

MilesTalk

I'm not sure what you mean here as you do not even get stay/night credit at a non-SPG particiapating hotel....

icarius

From the onset, the logic seems reasonable but if someone bothers to read flyertalk or actually reads the fine print on spg.com, there is a long list and its listed under point 5.1. Generally, any hotel that looks like a convention or resort are suspect properties. But at least spg doesn't have some weird unknown discounted rates that don't earn points.

Starwood Lurker II

Hi,

The Resort at Singer Island does have limited participation in the SPG program.

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holtju2

With Marriott only Ritz doesn't earn points but they do not come up with the search anyway.

With Hyatt there is only one property that I am aware in Australia that Hyatt manages but where one cannot earn points.

With Hilton I am not aware of any property where I cannot earn/spend points and same with IHG.

etsmyers

I thought I remember someone telling me that the Atlantic City Hilton does not participate.

mecabq

I can only assume that the reason is that the hotels have leverage -- Starwood benefits from them being associated with the brand, and they'd rather have them in partially than not at all. Presumably the hotels benefit, too, but I guess not enough to incur the costs of granting SPG amenities.

I agree that it's frustrating. All of the Le Meridien properties in Dubai (and also the nice resort in Fujairah nearby) do not participate; the Sheratons in Dubai, do, so I just assumed that this was a legacy of the Le Meridien acquisition a few years ago.

I have also never heard of a Marriott, InterContinental, Hilton, or Hyatt (before the examples cited in this thread) not being part of the program.

Starwood Lurker

Starwood Preferred Guest doesn't do this. In the past, a former Chairman & CEO exempted The Lanesborough, a St Regis Hotel. When the Chairman & CEO says "jump", the marketing program usually asks, "How high?". Regardless, whether they participated or not was not optional as far as the program is concerned. Then there are those hotels who have never participated in a frequent stay program (some Le Meridiens, for example) and were grandfathered in under the same conditions, those hotels who cannot participate (for legal reasons), those hotels who are independents and unbranded, and those hotels that SPG has asked not to participate because they did not play according to the rules.

Other than this, I don't find the list to be that excessive. We are talking about 19 or so properties out of 860, after all. What is that? 2%? But, I said this before and I'll say it again here...we never stop working on trying to convince those hotels who do not currently participate (provided they can or we want them to) to participate in the future.

No disrespect intended, but that's really not relevant to this issue. Marriott Rewards and Hyatt Gold Passport both have black-out dates on award rooms. Shall we follow suit because they do?

I think you need to clarify this for me. The Resort at Singer Island participates in SPG at Category 5.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

ACfly

Quick question:

For those Starwood hotels that do not participate in the SPG project, do they at least respect the SPG Upgrades and Platinum benefits? i.e Lanesborough

dtremit

Out of curiosity -- what is the appeal (to Starwood) of having non-participating hotels under the brand umbrella? It has always seemed odd to me, for instance, that the Parker Meridien keeps Meridien in its name but doesn't follow the brand standards -- it would do just fine as just The Parker, I'd think. Take the SPG brand out of the name, and the hotel gets the separate image it seems to want, and the consumer knows exactly what he or she is (or is not) getting.

danwhy

No, they do not participate.

Starwood Lurker

No, if a hotel does not participate in SPG, no SPG benefits are available.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Starwood Lurker

The appeal is that Le Parker Meridien was a Le Meridien-branded property before the merger and remains so afterwards to maintain its tie to Le Meridien as a brand. It did not participate in Moments, so it was not forced to participate in SPG either. There is plenty of notice these days, even to the casual observer, that this hotel does not participate in SPG, but remains branded as a Le Meridien hotel.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

dabbagmm

If we can't force some hotels to offer amenities and upgrade, how about asking SPG at least to count the stays and nights at such properties. Sometimes the points dont matter but a night/stay credit is important to attain/maintain Platinum.

Starwood Lurker

If that is the case, then I would choose an SPG-participating property rather than trying to pound a square peg in a round hole.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]