chrisinacton

Does anyone know what type of information they can see?

SPG Points Balance?
Number of nights/stays total?
Number of nights/stats at that hotel?

Anything else?

Additionally, what criteria is used to determine upgrade? Does SPG point balance trump the cost of the room?

Jumpgate

There are about 100,000 posts on this topic. I'm going to do you a favor and give you a brief summary:

SPG gives each hotel "suggested" upgrade priority of guests with reservations. However upgrade priority is 100% up to the individual properties and they do not have to follow the SPG suggestion. There is no official word as to what hotels use to determine their own upgrade priorities, but anecdotal evidence leads to a combination of Starwood revenue, point balance, and rate paid.

Simplified answer: Nobody really knows, and it varies from hotel to hotel.

KENNECTED

Ask the Front Office Manager

chrisinacton

Thanks Cheap Elite!

tjk1976

I have, on a couple of occasions, snuck a peek at the screen that check in agents use and from what I could see, only the following information is displayed:

• Guest name and contact details
• Guest SPG number and status (but no details like number of nights/stays)
• Reservation details (room type booked, number of nights, notes from reservation, etc.)

They also seem to be able to access information through other screens in their system about previous stays at their particular property, which allows them to answer questions like, "which room was I in when I stayed here last time?"

Incidentally, they often seem to use guest information from previous stays. I learned this when my old home address appeared on a folio for a stay I had at a property which I had not stayed at in quite some time, even though my current address is correct on my SPG profile.

I have also, on a couple of occasions, deliberately asked front desk staff questions about my SPG account and they have typically told me that they don't have access to the information and that I should call SPG.

luvs2trvl

I personally work at a Starwood managed property in the US and here is what we can see..

Most managed (non-franchised) properties in the US use a program called Lightspeed and second one called Galaxy, the latter of the two being the older but more stable system.

When we open a reservation in Lightspeed or Galaxy what we will see is of course the guests name, the length of your stay, and your rate schedule and amount the rate is, along with if you are an SPG member (that is, if your SPG # is in the reservation); if you don't have an SPG number, we are supposed to ask if you are, and look it up if the answer is yes or ask if you would like to enroll in the program. We then have a section for blocking you in a room, or searching for a room to place you in, your credit card details, and an area to add special requests such as a specific news paper, billing (such as if it was direct billed to someone), taking advance deposits for third party wholesalers like priceline, and comments on the reservation (for example, you call in an request a high floor, or certain side of the hotel)

In regards to upgrades, we don't see anything in our main programs as to who SPG feels is of a higher priority to upgrade unless we go into a internal company site for the spg program and generate a report, which then based on that it is suggested to use as a way to decide who will receive an upgrade or not. Even then, it is still a challenge at my property as out of 400 rooms, we only have 18 suites, which three are luxury suites and the rest junior. Add on the added challenge that at our location our suites sell out quite regularly at their full rates, it can be difficult to accommodate many people for the complimentary upgrades. We do our best, but still get that occasional guest who gets in our faces and throws, in my opinion, a huge fit because they did not get a suite upgrade since we did not have them available.

Same in regards to seeing number of stays, etc. We can see how many stays and visits you have had at our specific property, and if we 'click' on the SPG # in the reservation it will give us the number of stays to date at any starwood property and number of nights and the points balance, however it is not always 100% accurate or up-to-date, so we advise the guest to call spg for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Score8

Excellent first post!!!

Thanks for the insights.

RE Huge fits: I think that while there are varying degrees of hissy fits from Platinums regarding upgrades, the only time I have issue is when there are clearly still suites available and yet management refuses to provide this benefit. This is also notwithstanding the fact that it may be pre-blocked for another Platinum. If you peruse the *wood threads, the consistent culprits of non-compliance become obvious (there may be worse, but the Houston St. Regis and, in my experience the Westin St. Francis come to mind). OTOH, properties like the Westin Bonaventure and the LAX Sheraton consistently adhere to the program and actually apologize when they are not able to provide a meaningful upgrade.

There are some guests who will always complain, but all I ask for is a modicum of transparency e.g. what is classified as a Specialty Suite versus a Standard?

Anyway...I look forward to your contributions to the board...

KENNECTED

For the one thousandth time, just because a suite is available that does not mean it is a SELECT STANDARD suite.

tjk1976

I couldn't agree more. I have had many an apology (not to mention Starpoints and comped future stays) from apologetic GMs upon hearing that I was denied a suite when desk staff and junior managers on duty at check in time have acknoweldged that there were suites available but I couldn't have one. The best is when the hotel is showing suites available online yet they won't give you one.

KENNECTED

How do you know those are SELECT STANDARD suites?

tjk1976

This could (and probably has) become a thread unto itself.

For me, regardless of the "Select Standard Suites" clause, I'm not normally shy about pointing out that I am entitled to the best available room or suite. If they have suites that are free, particularly if they acknowledge or if I can see online that they have suites available during my stay, I ask why they are refusing to offer me one. I have had every answer from "Because you did not book it" to "We save our suites for Middle Eastern guests" (I posted a thread about that particular experience). Personally, I have yet to encounter a front desk agent or manager who pulled the "Select Standard Suites" argument on me. In my experience, staff who chose to fight this fight with Plat guests are not generally the brightest stars at Starwood, which is why it's usually not too hard to either win the argument and have them or the manager on duty ultimately acquiesce and give you what you want or, failing that, to obtain an apology and some form of compensation gesture after the fact. Many employees and managers will foolishly do what amounts to handing me a loaded gun by making the upgrade denial trivial compared to their poor (often blatantly disrespectful) handling of the request (i.e. the “Middle Eastern” response I mentioned above).

Moreover, it would be pretty hard for a hotel to argue, for example, that the lowest category of suite (i.e. a suite described as a "Junior Suite") at a hotel that has multiple classes of suites is excluded from Plat upgrades. Ultimately, I realize that it is up to each hotel to decide which suites are eligible for upgrades, but on a “bigger picture” level, every Starwood hotel should do whatever is reasonably possible in order to make Platinum guests feel like they are being taken care of. For me, being denied a junior suite does not give me this feeling.

KENNECTED

I completely disagree. If you know that only select standard suites are available to upgrade and a hotel has "x" number of those suites, then the rules are the rules. Granted at some properties were a person might be a regular, then a property might upgrade you to a better room/suite.

If you want a suite, book it.

tjk1976

Disagree all you want, you asked me a question and I gave you my answer.

Like many others, I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on accomodations with *wood, thereby earning my Plat status. It isn't some benefit that was bestowed upon me without me having to earn it and in return, I expect to receive the benefits whenever reasonably possible. I have had experiences ranging from effectively being downgraded from what I had booked all the way to receiving Presidential and Extreme Wow Suites, some of which have rack rates of $5K/nt plus. I make no apologies for being vocal about my expectations.

sbtinme

tjk -- just to be sure we're all on the same page here (and talking about the same things), CheapElite is correct on all points. Did you really mean to say in your earlier post that you are "entitled to the BEST available room or suite" when you check in? If so, that expectation is outside of the standards set by the SPG program.

In my experience, this has rarely been a problem for me; but occasionally it has kept me from getting a suite. However, I consider it completely reasonable that a hotel owner would reserve the right not to offer a 2200 ft sq Presidential Suite as an upgrade to a Platinum member on a standard room rate.

This has always been the rule and you won't find much squabbling about it here. The squabbling associated with this issue tend to be in hotels like the Resort at Singer Island that chooses not to upgrade ANY Plat members since they note that all rooms on site are de facto suites. To me, that seems to not follow the general spirit of the SPG program and that's why I get miffed about that hotel. At the least, there should be a policy of making an effort to give Plats best view rooms, preferential locations, etc.

Anyway, back to the core issue of standard select suites. Regardless of what any of our opinions on the matter are, rules and rules and the rules have long made it very clear that SPG Platinum guests are not entitled to upgrade into suites above the standard select level.

You and I have been lucky many times in the past when hotels have opted to do so anyway, but to demand it or expect it is sure to set you up for frustration and stress.

tjk1976

The last thing I want to do is cause undue stress among my fellow FT'ers, so to clarify any possible confusion, my comment about my "expectation" is that I expect Starwood hotels to live up to their promise to Plat guests whenever reasonably possible (notice that I used that language in all of my previous posts on this topic). "Our Best Rooms. Expect automatic upgrades at check-in, including Select Standard Suites" ^ When a suite is available and I can't have it, it bothers me. If CheapElite and others take a more passive approach, that's cool, but I'm probably more demanding than some (maybe than most).

PS - I have never demanded outrageous upgrades such as to a Presidential Suite and I have always been happily surprised to receive such exceptional upgrades on those occasions when I have. I'm referring more to being denied a 500 sq. ft. 2 room suite when a 400 sq. ft. king room at a healthy rate was booked.