A couple of days I wrote about the SPG offer in the Asia-Pacific, where the promotional mailer and the website stated that if you booked by March 31, 2012, you could get an upgraded room for $20 over the ‘standard rates’. As the offer is made out to be, it just needs to be prepaid. However, when I tried comparing, all I could come up with was 60-80$ upgrade offers, no less. The Loyalty Traveler had a similar experience with this promo.

I wrote to SPG to bring this aberration to their notice, and here is what I heard back a while back:

Here is the response I received today:

I immediately contested this:

To which SPG responded with finality:

I immediately looked up the T&C again. Everyone out their running a promotion stuffs the fine print to protect themselves against exigencies. However, here, it seems like the terms being advertised are differently being interpreted by the chain than by everyone else (the audience?!?)

Now, this is something I’d have not expected of Starwood, ‘misselling’ is the word? Their website is full of $20 upgrade promotions, and now their response says $20 is not applicable. I’m not clearly appreciative of this business practice.

Have you guys had any luck with the $20 upgrades on a consistent basis? Or is it just a hit and run for you guys as well. Do share your experiences here.

Related Posts:

• $20 upgrades at SPG properties across AsiaPac (Book by 3/31, use by 12/31)–Works or not?

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If you’re looking to visit any of the Asian countries in 2012, SPG has been offering a promotion valid till March 31, 2012. The chain is offering a 20$ upgrade on publicly available best available rates to Club Rooms, Suites and Villas on the use of promo-code: DALYUP. Here is a link to the promotion from Starwood Asia Pacific.

What do you get? An upgraded room as per the category you choose, access to the club lounge, which also means free complimentary breakfast and evening hors d’oeuveres.  Essentially, an upgrade which would usually be offered to the platinum elites of SPG, and sometimes, depending on the hotel front-desk, to the Gold elites as well.

How does it work? If you choose the upgrade offer, you need to prepay for the duration of your stay, which is a non-refundable rate, and will also turn up when you are browsing the rates tab at the hotel of your choice.

However, on checking up the promotion for various properties, I found the offer was not working out as being publicised. Either I am missing something, or there is a technical glitch or something is wrong somewhere.

Check out the rates I looked up for the Westin, Kuala Lampur for a random date in September. It shows the best available rate to be MYR 510 (~USD 164)

When I picked up the Upgrade offer, for the same date, it shows a room rate of MYR 675 per night (~ USD 218), however still cheaper than the approximately MYR 800 (~ USD 258) for the night if you booked without the offer.

I hopped on to another hotel to check the price as well, this time in Jaipur where the best available rate looked like INR 5000 (USD 100):

However, when I picked up the upgrade offer, the rate shot up by USD 84, ex taxes (INR 4200):

Here as well, the rate went up massively. I do have a couple of more examples but they all turned up for a massive spike in the rates and not the $20 as the promotion stated. However, almost always, the rates were considerably lesser than the regular rates offered for booking an executive room/villa/suite via SPG.com.

Read More…

I love SPG’s Starpoints. Who doesn’t? And SPG just decided to give away some more of those with all your stays at 25 recently renovated properties in the USA and Canada via this new promotion

Simply stay from March 20, 2012 to June 30, 2012 at these participating properties to get 1000 bonus Starpoints per stay:

CANADA
British Columbia
Four Points by Sheraton Kamloops
Ontario
Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Mississauga
UNITED STATES
Arizona
The Phoenician, Scottsdale
California
Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel
The Westin Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego
Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles
Colorado
The St. Regis Aspen Resort
Florida
Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City
Sheraton Lake Buena Vista Resort
Hawaii
Sheraton Kauai Resort
Illinois
Sheraton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel
Indiana
Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel at Keystone Crossing
Massachusetts
Sheraton Needham Hotel
Michigan
Sheraton Detroit Metro Airport
Missouri
Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center
Nebraska
Sheraton Omaha Hotel
New Jersey
Sheraton Parsippany Hotel
The Westin Governor Morris, Morristown
New York
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
W New York – Union Square
Pennsylvania
Sheraton Society Hill Hotel
Texas
Sheraton Dallas North Hotel by the Galleria
Virginia
Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner
Sheraton Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel
Washington
Four Points by Sheraton Downtown Seattle Center

Registration is required by June 15, 2012 at the promotion page, however you won’t receive a confirmation email. Only valid for paid reservations and not award nights or cash+points.

This promotion is stackable, so you could also club it with some other SPG promos, for instance, the 500 Starpoints per night for declining housekeeping at Sheratons.

Related Posts:

• Earn 500 Starpoints per night for declining housekeeping at SPG Sheraton properties

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