Starwood

I initiated a transfer of points to Aeroplan and Lufthansa 2 weeks ago and although the points have been withdrawn from my account, the transaction has not been completed. I have spent at least 4 hours on the phone with various representative and supervisors, promised follow up and assured the points would arrive soon and nothing has happened.

Everyone I have talked to now states there is nothing more that can be done, except to wait. Seriously? That is not an acceptable answer. I joined starwood for the flexibility of miles transfer and the experience I have had is deplorable.

If starwood was not ready to merge with Marriott without disruption in member services, then it should have been delayed or members should have been notified in advance that point transfers would be delayed. This essentially makes my points and this program worthless.

Stayed 2 nights (10/22/2016) at Element/Starwood in Summerlin Nevada with our young children. After our stay we noticed a charge for smoking marijuana in the room!

We do not smoke... especially illegal substance. we believe this is a scam. Has this ever happened before?

The manager Julie Cassidy (800) 328 **** - was not at all helpful. She said that it was confirmed by her staff but would not supply us with even the most basic information. I can tell you this situation and statement is false and without merit.

I want the charge reversed and an apology for the mix-up with either another guest or their staff smoking in the room and blaming us. Such a scam or perhaps an additional profit center!

Hello,

My name is Daniel. I recently booked a stay at the Westin Mission Hills Golf and Resort this past weekend with my family for my birthday. I have stayed at quite a few Starwood Hotels over the past few years and I must say the experience I had this past weekend was by far the worst.

On Friday night I placed a call to the front desk due my room temperature being over 83 degrees. The AC unit was not working. I had my 11 month daughter in the room and it was extremely uncomfortable. After about an hour the engineer came in was able to set the AC but shortly after the room temperature was back into the 80's. I called front desk once again and I was told the engineer would come back but never did. I was never offered another room and also we dealt with the heat throughout the night. I was a resident in room 420.

On Saturday, I thought since it was my birthday that I would rent a cabana, which I did. The charge for the day was $200. My family and I was able to relax in comfort. We left about 2 hours to rest and before dinner and then movie by the pool. I spoke to an attendant at the pool and asked what are the procedures when we leave and come by. The attendant stated they would watch the cabana so that no items would be taken. My family and I returned to the cabana about 745p for the poolside movie only to find that our drinks were stolen an no one knew what happened. I was very disappointed. We decided to leave.

After the pool, we went back to our room only to find that the temperature in the room was still high. I was able to adjust the AC but the degrees never dropped. I called to have an engineer come out and no one ever came. Again, my family and I toughed it out and stayed throughout the night. No room was not offered to us.

I have always been a big supporter of Starwood Hotels. Starwood is the first place I look when travelling. My birthday experience with my family was real bad and I will not recommend anyone to stay there. The goal should be to make patrons feel welcomed and comfortable. I felt like I was taken advantage of.

Went to Starwood and like others listed - there was no ownership of their commitments. I called the number on their website that was listed directly to their hotel.

Spoke with 2 ladies and 2 different times and was advised I could pay in cash. They would hold the room and once arrived be able to pay with Cash. We cancelled our room at the Embassy downtown after staying their 1 night because I have always stayed at Starwood Hotels. Check In at 3pm and I go in and the room isn't ready at 3:30pm.

Then I come back an hour later to give them time - not upset and being patient; to be informed I cant pay in cash and they tried running my card for more than what was provided to me by both ladies I had spoke with prior. I was without a room due to not being able to add another 14.00 dollars on my card where I loaded the amount of the room just incase. They had already processed $160.00 for the amount of the room of $134.10. We missed the bank and everything so we couldn't add anything else but if we would have know we would have.

We even offered Cash but they wouldn't accept it. CASEY the Manager is a JOKE. She wasn't concerned that we had checked out came there and now had no room and wouldn't do anything to fix the situation caused by them. She stated " you maybe called someone else to book the room instead of them directly" but the number went straight to their front desk unless the Hotel number they provide is a 3rd party.

Who knows but honor who ever had booked with you. The one guy even knew it was bull *** - he called CASEY and you could tell she blew him off like "Deal With It". He seemed very uncomfortable that we couldn't get our room and had been there twice to be told we needed to load $14.00 dollars to get our ROOM. CASEY was cold and could have cared less.

I would have never responded the way she did. Normally the HOTEL isn't even full but we come there due to the location but I would prefer to stay at the Embassy going forward, they were kind and very accommodating. I promoted Starwood to people who knew nothing about them but I will gladly share the experience we received. When I even type this it sounds even more disappointing.

I'm not mad at all just very concerned that they couldn't take the cash for the room and switch the charge for the incidentals for the room so it was covered up to $160.00 - the incidentals was $25.00 - not joking at all. Seriously when I say this is a real scenario. I read other comments and how no one responded or cared to call them, they can forget me caring about staying with them. I can only imagine how the other staff is treated and if they work for CASEY I'm sure its very unpleasant.

Learn how to treat someone and remember " you can always be in someone else's shoes - how would you want to be treated?" Only someone with a heart can answer that question. I have paid for so much for other people and I will continue to help others no matter what I experienced today.

My husband and I were booked through our travel agent. We stayed at Rancho Mirage in Palm Springs for 5 days.

We did not know this was a time share through Starwood. We attended a meeting with a time share rep to see what the cost and how time share ran. We were with RCI for 6 years. We were told an hour of our time was needed.

3 hours later we had two people trying to hard sell. The sales person became very rude and obnoxious at this time saying inappropriate comments about how long we were going to live etc. We were looking for a time share eventually but needed to think about it and make financial decisions. This was not the answer the agent wanted.

I was thinking of joining but after that fiasco I was insulted, berated and treated like crap. A lost sale For Starwood as it put a very bad taste in my mouth.

Email is my preferred method of communication. tools2u@***.ca

- On Monday, September 8th around 3 pm I checked in Element Houston Vintage Park. I went to my room and noticed that the closet (was a cabinet type) could not accommodate hanging my suits without being wrinkled and it was also the room next to the elevator.

- I called the front desk and talked to a young a lady (her name was Diamond) explaining the issue. She asked that I come down and that she would relocate me to another room.

- I grabbed my stuff and went down to the front desk. The receptionist told me that she would be right back and went to the back room. Right after that a gentleman (later found out it was the general manager) came out for a few seconds and measured me up (I was in jeans and t-shirt) and went back to the room without saying a word. After this receptionist came out from the back room and said that this is the best they can do and that they are overbooked.

- I asked if I can talk to someone. She went back and the same gentlemen came out and told me that this is the best he can do and stated “if you don’t like it I will check you out”. He never offered to situate me at another place. His arrogance and his tone of voice was shocking especially after finding out that he is was the general manager of the property.

- I went to my room and set for a few minutes trying to figure out what just transpired and called to talk the general manager. He was busy. I left a message to call me. He called back later on I and asked him “you are just going to check me out without even offering another place.”. That’s when he said that he will check the Web and see what’s around. I told him that I can do that (I checked the properties around and everything was sold out). I told him how disappointing it was for a general manager handling the whole incident. That’s when I realized that he did not care a bit about anything that just happened.

I called Starwood customer service and they the representative offered me points basically to go away. I told her that was not why I was calling then she open a complaint.

Two days late I received an email from Consumer Affairs Executive Division . This person never got in touch with me but rather called the general manager and concluded that I was unreasonable. I replied back and explained that his general manager was untruthful and explained that I never asked for an upgrade. All I asked was to be relocated to another room. How I got treaded by the general manager was horrible. I have spent more than 250 days in Starwood properties and I never dreamed that one day an employee let alone a general manager of Starwood organization is capable of treating guest like I have been treated.

My anonymized letter to Starwood:

"I'm sorry to say, you've lost me as a customer. I recently booked a stay at the Sheraton "A" Hotel; the day after receiving my confirmation e-mail, I received an e-mail that "changes had been made to my account." I called SPG customer service to find out what changes had been made. Your representative assured me “there probably wasn’t any changes.” So if my account had been hacked, “there probably wasn’t anything to worry about.” When I told her this, she said there was nothing she could find out, and could only give me an e-mail to contact to inquire about the changes. In my head, all I could wonder was “What’s the point of this customer service line, if all they’re going to do is forward me along?” I asked if it had to be me, or if a Starwood person (her) could do it, since this seemed to be more Starwood’s issue than mine. She flippantly said it would be the same as if I reached out, but I still saw it as more of a customer service issue – It is my job to pay you for my stays; That’s where my responsibility ends. Some time after, she reached out via e-mail to tell me her manager had run down the problem, and that the “change” was that the hotel had changed my phone number by a digit. It seemed odd the hotel would be inside my account at all, but I shrugged it off.

A little over a week later, I received a reminder e-mail about my upcoming stay, only this time, it was reminding me of my stay at the "B" Hotel, not the "A" Hotel. I immediately called your customer service again, and spoke with a gentleman that informed me I may have been bumped and re-reserved at another hotel. I assume THAT was the mysterious “change” to my account, and explained why the hotel would be accessing my information before my stay in the first place. Now, I understand this can happen, but how would I have ever known? No one ever reached out to me. Further, he informed me my original hotel still had availability, but only for two night stays, whereas I wanted to only stay one night. When I asked if he could make a special exception since that’s where I had originally booked, and I had already been inconvenienced by Starwood customer service. He said I could try calling if I wanted to… again, shunting the responsibility to the customer. He also had the gall to ask if I had considered staying at another property in the area that had one-night availability, albeit a $300+ more expensive charge – never even offering to try and get me a better rate given my inconvenience. Thereafter, he suggested canceling the reservation entirely, and seeking accommodation elsewhere; now, his heart may have been in the right place, but after booking a reservation, how does leaving me with NO reservation solve anything? I told him now, and finally succumbed to the conclusion that I’d now be traveling over an hour out of my way to simply have a place to sleep. Upon arrival in Hotel B City, they seemed surprised I had a dog, again, despite my previous reservation (it seems not all of my reservation had made it’s way over, probably a result of the fat-fingering of my information, where my phone number was changed). I was then informed of a $75 fee, when I had previously been told Providence had a $50 fee. I asked if it could be adjusted since I had been bumped; there response AGAIN was “you could reach out to the Providence hotel and see if they can transfer us $25.” I resigned to my room, and tried calling SPG customer service.

I had previously requested the gentleman I spoke with summarize the entire situation on my reservation so I didn’t have to re-explain. However, the customer service agent (I took note of her name given this absurdity – we'll call her Jennifer) asked I go ahead and re-explain because she saw no notes, so therefore either she was ignoring / unwilling to read it, or the gentleman never put it in. I re-explained and said at this point, all I was requesting was the $25 difference. She first told me there was no hotel in Hotel A's city, and asked me to go on Starwood’s website, and look up the hotel’s code. I did, and she exclaimed “Oh, I didn’t know that was in a different state" – I told her that was part of my problem. She flippantly told me “Well, I don’t know what you think I can do. I’m in Texas. You can try calling both hotels.” When I told her I didn’t understand what customer service’s function was if they were just going to forward me along, she interrupted me, and when I asked her to please let me finish, she said “goodbye sir” and hung up. The only reason I KNOW she hung up is I got a message from your Estara “click-to-call” that my call was ended – So I still had a connection. Maybe her headset just cut out, who knows.

So, today I called SPG customer service simply because I didn’t understand my stay’s folio and just wanted to know some dates and codes. I spoke with another gentleman that simply said he had no idea what those codes are, nor what problems I had (I have a hard time believing you all don’t have a system that tracks calls against my account or reservation), and that I should just call the hotel. I again told him I didn’t understand the point of their customer service at this point, after having called so many times. Finally I just asked him if he could close my account and FINALLY, SPG customer service said they could do what I asked for. Unfortunately, I told him if I could do it myself, I would be.

You all have lost me. I liked SPG’s rewards program. I appreciated that all Starwood hotels were pet friendly. I like the brands. But this situation has burned a bridge. Now I will simply tell others (friends, families and other forums) what happened to me as objectively as possible, and always qualify it as a personal experience. But I will point out that you all had numerous points at which this could have been resolved (7 by my count) and never took advantage of those opportunities. Please let me know if you would like to discuss any of the above, but if your customer service has taught me anything, you aren't likely to do so. Farewell, Starwood. We had a good run."

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has an extremely bad consumer services. The Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Bolzano, Italy is one of the hotels of this company. One employee did not give me proper attention, I complained to a manager Matthias Perathoner by email but he never responded to me. I tried to call Starwoods customer services but they refused to answer me saying that I made the reservation through hotels.com and not directly through them. In similar circumstances Hilton Hotels provides customer services even if the reservation is made through an agency.

The Bolzano hotel states on their Website that “The staff always has the inside scoop and will point you in the right direction.” But the hotel employees care less about customers than collecting their salary checks.

I am 77 years old and cannot afford strenuous treatment. This will be the first and last time that I go to one of the hotels of Starwood because I need to be treated like people, not like dirt. If they want customers they have to learn to provide proper attention by their staff to their customers.

I paid that company regardless if I did through an agency or not and their staff has a complete lack of responsibility.

in December I booked hotel reservations for 2 nights 2 rooms for january 13th & 14th, thru Expedia.com. I was very cautious of policy because it clearly said prepaid, the other rates had no cancellations in RED really big letters.

I was very comfortable paying, knowing f I had any changes I would not lose money. My job changed my schedule and I was not able to attend that specific date, so I canclled 3 weeks before my event, I received my confirmation stating 2 nights cancelled and 2 rooms cancelled. A month later I received my statement and saw they had charged 1 night per room because I canclled. I called to dispute it and they insisted it was the hotels policy, I advised expedia you advertise no cancellation fees, i filed a complaint with cosumer affairs and received no help from anyone I was determined to contact CEO and advise expedia has false advertisement and stole my money...

i lost $320.00 ..

never gave a concern for the loss of money a customer had, If i was notified when i cancelled or advised i was going to be charged fees, i would have known and made every effort to attend . I had friends go the same weekend, and they could have used the room.

Heads up to all Atlanta tourists... The Westin Buckhead (3391 Peachtree Rd NE Atlanta, Ga), adjacent to Lenox mall, employs convicted felons!

One such felon, who works in the Banquet department, has been convicted of credit card theft, credit card fraud & firearm possession! As a consumer, I find it disturbing that a brand such as Starwood Hotels would allow these type of individuals to represent their establishments. I wonder what type of background checks, if any, are being conducted!

In this economy, there are probably thousands of well qualified, honest & hospitable people that would make great employees! Starwood/Westin is not some *** brand of hotel that shouldn't be able to hold their employees to a higher standard.

Besides the minor problems of incredibly itchy sheets and one very rude front desk girl...There was someone in the hotel smearing fecal matter all over the elevators. SERIOUSLY, there was A LOT of *** behind the blankets hanging on the elevator walls.

It took the hotel an entire day to get around to cleaning it, although they were aware of the problem since early morning. In the mean time they didn't bother to shut down the elevator, just let people ride on it unaware of what was causing the repulsive rankness. I personally asked the staff why the elevator wasn't disabled and their response was, "too much traffic". I called an elevator up in the late afternoon, when the offensive elevator responded the poor maintenance man scrambled out of it for fresh air.

He was almost in tears describing the disgusting mess he was cleaning that had caused the suffocating smell all day. The next day I was doing laundry and when I retrieved my clothes from the dryer I discovered that someone had put *** in the dryer with my clothes while I was in my room. Obviously it was disgusting and beyond comprehension in repulsiveness. Once again, the hotel left the laundry room accessible to the public placing an "out of order" sign on the offensive dryer.

Management didn't do much of anything about our situation. We travel for business most of the year and are Platinum SPG members, spending more time in their hotels than at home. We had been in the hotel 3 weeks at this point (if you stay 30 days you get state tax back). We felt it was reasonable to ask that a week of our month long stay be compensated; being that we spent a week dealing with the two incidents and the ensuing repercussions.

Although I used to love working at an Aloft and met my fiancé while doing so, I will NEVER stay in an Aloft again. As a matter of fact we have decided to spend our 10 months a year at Marriott and Hilton rather than stay at an SPG property ever again.

We have been faithful patrons, spending tens of thousands of dollars a year. However, due to their neglect in handling these situations we lost all faith in the SPG brand.