Life_Platinum

I just tried to book a Starwood hotel in Catania Sicily for May '09 and the pull down menu would not allow me to choose my Starwood AE card for payment. I then called the Platinum Concierge and they told me this is indeed true, Starwood cards are not honored, but I was able to use another hotel (Mxxxxxx) Card. Uncle Bill will laugh all the way to the bank if he hears that Starwood Properties take his card and not there own.

How can this occur?

KENNECTED

What did the Platinum Concierge say when you had them on the line?

sbm12

I assume that they just don't take AmEx, right? It happens some times. Hardly the end of the world.

Life_Platinum

The Concierge told me that this property does not take Starwood (AE) cards, but that Mxxxxxx Hotel Cards are fine! She booked it for me with my Mxxxxxx Hotel Cards.

She also could not figure out how to enter the Starwood Card into the hotel system, as it rejected the Starwood Card.

Is this another issue for William?

KENNECTED

Thats exactly what I was thinking and was hoping thats what the PC told Life_Platinum.

Not every business takes every credit card. This is not an "issue" in my book.

ttlax

Agreed, there are plenty of places, especially in Europe, that don't take Amex.

oc1

It would be nice for Starwood to offer a Visa/Mastercard option for U.S. card holders, since there are many merchants in the U.S. that don't take Amex too. But this has been raised before.

Savvy Traveler

Agreed. ^

And this issue happened to me when I booked the Sheraton Aleppo. They just don't take AMEX, so I gave them a Mastercard.

Seems pretty silly that you can't use a Starwood-branded credit card at a Starwood-branded property.

Flying Lawyer

It does not come as a big suprise that you can't use Amex in some countries of the Middle East. However, it is not the end of the world: In most of the world there is no SPG branded CC at all.

scubadu

The fact that it was a "Mxxxxx Hotel Card" is irrelevant. The branding logo on the card is moot in this case. The issue is that this property likely doesn't accept American Express as a form of payment, but they do accept Mastercard and/or Visa. That is the salient point. Your continued reference to their willingness to accept "Mxxxxx Hotels Card" seems to be implying that they accept the competitions credit card but not their own. That's not really accurate; they accept MC/Visa but not American Express. It's completely irrelevant what marketing logos are on either the Amex or the MC/Visa. If your Mxxxxx Hotel card had instead been an Amex they would not have accepted that either.

As others have stated, Amex is not necessarily widely accepted in Europe.

No

Regards

Savvy Traveler

I know that AMEX acceptance is not as widespread in some parts of the world, but it still strikes me as intellectually inconsistent. Starwood pushes this card and its branding very heavily, and IMO they should require all SPG-branded properties to accept it.

KENNECTED

How do you "require" a franchise in a country (region/area) where AMEX is not accepted to accept a card?

Savvy Traveler

Are there entire countries where AMEX is not accepted? I don't work in the credit card industry so I don't know. If that's the case, an exception would have to be made. But in places where competitors (Hilton, Marriott, etc.) accept AMEX and a *W property doesn't, they should be required to do so.

redstorm

I wish the Starwood American Express card was available in Canada.
Not knocking my MBNA Starwood Mastercard. Have to charge 30,000 to get 30000 points though instead of getting a point per dollar. I would love to get
the double points using it to book my rooms with Starwood with the Amex.

Bondiboy

And, THEY would be???

I sincerely hope that the above is a statement of rash frustration and not a thoughtful response that reflects business/financial sense.