Starwood Lurker

This was posted in another thread and I really thought it deserved it's own:

Thanks for the suggestions, which have been passed along to SPG. FWIW, they do usually update these once a year - after the category changes have been announced - and, while I don't have a timeline for when we can expect to see that work completed, you can be assured that someone is working on it.

Usually, only those awards that see a lot of traffic are "promoted". I know that it was at one time when it was new, but this one never had much traffic even when it was "promoted", from what I understand. If you have a better suggestion as to what these could be referred to, then feel free to offer some examples.

Yes, I'm sure that SPG would like to see more examples of what you would like to see as elite member aspirational awards. So, anyone with any ideas should feel free to post them in this thread. I will be sure that SPG is made aware of them; however, I can't promise that any will actually see the light of day. Still, it would be better for you to be able to tell SPG what you'd like for these to be than for them to guess.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

itsaboutthejourney

I second this suggestion. ^

Other examples where two sister/adjacent properties might be considered the same for 5th night free:

1. Vancouver & Whistler
2. Grande Bretagne, Athens & the island properties
3. Hotel des Indes The Hague + either Amsterdam property

ENIAC

Diplomat (or one of the upcoming Cat 5 hotels in the area) and the Westin in Key West.

Palace, LM SF or W SF and the Westin Verasa Napa.

3Cforme

I just got back from two haciendas, and I think a 5-for-4 award across multiple haciendas would be fantastic Any kind of flexibility in cities/regions where Starwood has multiple properties (think of all the options in Bangkok!) is very welcomed.

trueflight7

Reduced Starpoints for the European Holiday (to account for no peaks!)

Forstbetrieb

Also the list of European participating properties needed to be updated...

Hotel Goldener Hirsch,*Salzburg, Austria
Hotel Bristol,*Vienna, Austria
Le Méridien Vienna, Austria
Le Méridien Brussels, Belgium
Le Méridien Limassol Spa & Resort,
Limassol, Cyprus
Hotel Kämp,*Helsinki, Finland
Le Méridien Garden Beach, Juan-les-Pins, France
Le Méridien Nice, France
Le Méridien Etoile, Paris, France
Trianon Palace & Spa, A Westin Hotel, Versailles, France
The Westin Grand Frankfurt, Germany
The Westin Athens Astir Palace Beach Resort, Greece
Hotel Villa Cipriani, Asolo, Italy
Le Méridien Chia Laguna, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
Le Méridien Gallia, Milan, Italy
Sheraton Diana Majestic, Milan, Italy
The Westin Palace, Milan, Italy
Hotel Excelsior* Naples, Italy
Hotel Des Bains, Venice Lido Resort, Italy
Hotel Pulitzer, Amsterdam* Netherlands
Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel & Conference Center, Schiphol, Netherlands
Le Méridien Hotel Des Indes, The Hague, Netherlands
Sheraton Algarve Hotel, Albufeira, Portugal
Le Méridien Dona Filipa & San Lorenzo Golf Course, Almancil, Portugal
Le Méridien Ra Beach Hotel & Spa El Vendrell, Spain
The Westin Palace, Madrid, Spain
Arabella Golf Hotel Son Vida* Mallorca, Spain
Hotel Maria Cristina* San Sebastian, Spain
The Westin Valencia, Spain
Sheraton Stockholm Hotel, Sweden
Sheraton Neues Schloss Hotel-Zurich, Switzerland
Westin Turnberry Resort, Scotland, Ayrshire, United Kingdom
Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, Edinburgh,* United Kingdom
Sheraton Belgravia Hotel, London, United Kingdom
The Park Lane Hotel, London,* United Kingdom

and the changes in categories are not reflected.

Forstbetrieb

Same in Germany or Italy. There is for example the possibility in milan for hopping. But I could be also nice to split into four, five. six or even seven different cities or even to different countries in europe.

Sam P. Goodman

Add another vote for Hacienda hopping here. Now that they're all the same category and generally priced the same, it should make the accounting easy too.

boston aa flyer

Personally, i would love to see all the W Offers be offered with a "point rate per night"

soitgoes

What I would like is a create-your-own mix-and-match fifth night free award. It would work like this--pick five nights of hotels of any category (or categories 1-5) anywhere in the world within let's say a two-week period (or some similar time frame) and receive a point reduction equal to the lowest point cost night (or alternatively a 15-20% point discount).

I doubt it'll happen, but it would address one of my major disappointments with the fifth-night-free program: I rarely spend five consecutive nights in the same city.

If it would be too difficult to provide such a discount at the time of booking, perhaps it could be that members have to apply through simple web-form or phone call after all the nights are completed and the credit could be applied at that time.

trueflight7

Or even 5 consecutive nights in the same Starwood region (WEurope, NY, FL, British Columbia, South Asia etc)


It'd be a great way to experience two or more hotels in one trip!

CIT85

Along the lines of the flexible 5th night free award, it would be nice to expand concept of the European holiday award to Asia, where you can mix and match any number of hotels over a 7 night period. This would allow for multiple cities in China, for example, in one award.

gleff

Agree on And think that A BKK property + a resort or two in Thailand would be great.

But I'm not sure these should really be considered aspirational awards as much as 'travel packages'.

Starwood has some truly aspirational properties, that for a variety of reasons are more or less out of reach. The archetypical example here are the so-called 'all suite' properties in Category 7. When SPG created Category 7 and managed Bora Bora Nui, an entry level room could run 70k points a night there. Interestingly, a 6-night GLON award runs 175k HHonors points now that that hotel is managed by Hilton. To a rough approximation, that's a 6-night stay for the equivalent of fewer Starwood points than SPG was requiring for a single night. (Similar awards are bookable at the Conrad Maldives, for instance, while Starwood continues to price the W Retreat there at more points for a single night than Hilton asks for 6 nights, adjusting for standard valuations of the two currencies.)

How about a "Category 7 holiday" for elite members where Category 7 properties could be booked at Category 6 prices? And for the 'special' category 7 properties charging double points, perhaps that holiday would either mean (a) charging regular category 7 prices or (b) charging double the Category 6 prices?

Yes, I know I'm asking for a lot. This would be costly to provide. But in many ways it's just a temporary or perhaps once-a-year giveback of something that members used to have in the not-too-distant past. Remember, Category 7 is a new innovation. For that matter, so is category 6 as well as double points for all suite properties.

These high-end resorts are out of reach of even the most prodigious Starpoint earners with the thriftiest of bents. And they are the true aspirational awards.

sbtinme

I'll toss my hat in the ring as a strong supporter of the hotel-hopping idea, as well. I think most of us are thinking 5 days since that's been the SPG program since day one; however, I'd be thrilled to see a discounted seven night option that allowed one hotel hop, as well.

The ability to hop hotels within a designated region on one award stay would be an exceptional addition to the SPG program. I can think of plenty of places where this would be a great option, but more times than not, I'd like it to span over seven nights, not just five.

I would much prefer to see something along these lines -- that would appeal to a great number of SPG members -- than to see an "aspirational" award option that would appeal to very small percentage of us.

Thunderroad

^^