How Easy is it to Obtain Starwood Stay and Night Credit on an Award Redeemed from Someone Else’s Account?
My stay in Iguazu Falls at the Sheraton was on points, a reservation gifted to me by a friend with more Starwood points than he can shake a stick at.
Points for incidentals at the hotel (e.g. my bar tab!) didn’t post automatically to my account, so I scanned a copy of the bill and sent it in for credit. The points were promptly added to my account.
Strangely, though, my stay and night counter for elite status didn’t go up.
Now, it doesn’t matter a great deal for me. I have Gold status through the American Express Platinum card. I’ll earn Gold status on my own, anyway. And I’m not expecting to hit Platinum as tempting as this year’s changes to the program make it to do so.
But it’s the principle of the thing, plus it’s more nights towards lifetime status. So I followed up.
No dice. I was told that since there were no room charges, I get no stay or night credit.
Dear Gary,
Our records indicate the previous email receive with your attached hotel bill was for incidentals as it did not have any accommodation charges. If you have room accommodation charges please send a full copy of your hotel bill and I will be happy to make the appropriate adjustments accordingly.
We appreciate your loyalty and look forward to your future hotel stays. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SPG Program Services – Research Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
That’s wrong, of course, Starwood now counts award stays towards status. I know this because I broke the story and even posted an internal memo confirming it prior to the announcement. So I really do know this.
I replied quite simply,
There were no accommodation charges because it was an award stay!
But of course award stays still count for stay and night credit.
Please adjust accordingly.
Regards,
Gary Leff
Now the problem becomes that my wife’s name appeared on the booking (at check-in we had to present both our passports, so she was registered to the room along with me).
Dear Mr. Leff,
Our records indicate that your award reservation was booked under Ms. [name redacted]‘s account. As it pertains to this stay we are not able to credit your account with stay and night credit due to it being under Ms. [name redacted] account. However, your account has been credited for your incidentals.
We appreciate your continued loyalty with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SPG Program Services – Research Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Of course, nothing ever touched her account and neither Starwood nor the hotel ever had her account number.
I admit, I was starting to show some frustration. And I let them know this.
Seriously, what does it take to get Starwood Preferred Guest to apply its own rules correctly?
My wife, [name redacted], was listed on the reservation at check-in. That’s because the hotel requires all guests to be registered, and they verify with passports. My wife was with me, so her name appeared. But her Starwood number was never provided. The reservation was NOT “booked under her account.”
It wouldn’t matter anyway!
The reservation was booked using my friend [name redacted]’s points. BUT STARWOOD RULES ARE THAT THE GUEST WHO ACTUALLY STAYS receives the stay and night credit, not the person from whose account the miles are pulled.
Again, I am due stay and night credit for this hotel stay. I expect it to be credited to my account….
Do you think that solved it? If it did, I probably wouldn’t be writing a blog post!
Here’s the new hurdle I faced:
Dear Mr. Leff,
I apologize for any disappointment this may caused you. However, As per the terms and conditions of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, members must have reserved the room in their name, stay at the hotel and "pay" for the room for any reservation to be credited to their account. If any condition is not met, the stay would not be eligible for stay or Starpoint credit. As stated in your previous Mr. [name redacted]’s paid for this room with his starpoints. The only eligibility towards this stay would be your incidentals which I have credited your account with.
We appreciate your continued loyalty with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXX
SPG Program Services – Research Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Oh boy. Now I’m really frustrated, because the agent isn’t just confused, they actually don’t understand the rules of the SPG program. So I had to explain to them that award nights count towards status for the person who actually stays in the room.
And I admit, I’m not proud of my frustration here. I’m certain this person means well. They don’t deserve my snippiness. And yet as normally controlled as I am, I’m not sure my response was as measured as it should have been.
We’ve truly entered the realm of the bizarre….
You write that “per the terms and conditions of the Starwood Preferred Guest program,” because the room was paid for with someone else’s points, and I stayed in the room, I am not eligible for stay/night credit – I am only eligible for points on incidentals.
This is simply false. Please see the Starwood Preferred Guest FAQ on award stays/nights counting for status. The recipient of an SPG free night award receives stay and night credit towards elite status qualification per Starwood policy!
Q: If I want to gift an SPG Award stay or night to someone else, who gets the elite status credit?
A: If you (giver) decide to gift an SPG Award stay or night to someone else (receiver), the receiver will be given the stay/night credit toward elite status qualification. If the receiver is not an SPG member, he or she can enroll and receive the stay/night credit. You, the giver, will not receive any elite credit for that posted stay.AGAIN, please credit my account with the appropriate stay and nights as requested. This issue has taken three additional emails after the credit didn’t post on its own…
I guess once they finally ran out of objections it was ok to give me the credit. This last email seems to have done it.
Dear Mr. Leff,
Your account has been credited for stay and night credit from your stay at the Sheraton Iguazu Resort and Spa.
We appreciate your continued loyalty with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SPG Program Services – Research Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
I’ll rarely ever give up. I almost always prefer to deal in writing, it helps avoid a moving target and also means I can forward previous correspondence especially if and when I don’t hear back as expected.
Question, though: having had to go through back flips to get Starwood’s policies honored, should I be compensated with some Starpoints for the trouble? What say you?
Update: I did email asking for points for the trouble. They haven’t replied, but posted 500 points to my account. Meh.