What's Inside Starwood's Secret Loyalty Program (Hint: It Involves Suites)

March 12, 2010 at 8:20 AM | by juliana | Comments (2)

Now we're really hoping Starwood's new loyalty program gets cool W kaleidoscopes to carry around with them.

Yesterday, USA Today had the scoop on the new super secret loyalty program from Starwood Hotels.

This secret program is different from the existing SPG program and much of it is still under wraps. All that Starwood would say yesterday was that the members of this top-secret program (who are only invited by Starwood to join) would have access to Starwood Ambassadors. These ambassadors act more like concierges who can custom-tailor hotel experiences for the guests. But of course, we wanted to know more.

So we called out for folks to tell us more about this VIP program--in short, we wanted our own Deepthroat. We asked and we received. A reader wrote in last night:

I am a member of the Starwood Ambassador Program (was contacted a little over a year ago about the program). Basically, my "ambassador" (who I can call directly to make reservations and also acts like a concierge) is able to access my reservation record and calls the hotel manager on the day of my arrival (or the day before) requesting a room upgrade, along with water, soft drinks, beer/wine, fruit, or cheese plate in my room (or whatever else I've told him that I enjoy).
Even through I was already a SPG-level Platinum member beforehand, the probability of getting an upgrade (e.g. to suites) has increased tremendously since the Ambassador program started - probably because by calling the hotel manager on your behalf, you're first in line for any available upgraded rooms.

This sounds amazing. Or should we say, "suite?" And for someone who's earned Platinum SPG status, those room upgrades are probably hard-earned. (We did watch "Up in the Air" after all.)

Also, now we know that Starwood did reach out to high level members of SPG. So if you're a card-carrying SPG member, you probably had to be very high up there to be contacted.

However, since Starwood did mention they were also going after members of competing loyalty programs, we'd be curious to hear how those people were contacted as well. (Hint, hint.)

Are you a member of the Starwood Ambassador program? Do you want to share what it's like being part of such a VIP loyalty program? Send us an email here. Anonymity and privacy completely assured. Thanks!

Comments (2)

Return to » What's Inside Starwood's Secret Loyalty Program (Hint: It Involves Suites)

I am not a SPG platinum or a member of the ambassador program but I can tell you this sounds like it crushes Kimpton's Inner Circle program. Kimpton promises benefits like room upgrades and wine/treats upon arrival and while they use to do it (circa 2008) the last year or so they have really fallen off and only about 25% of the time do they remember to do any of the inner circle benefits -- last time they even forgot to give my loyalty account credit for my stay!

The big question is what are the qualifications one needs to be invited to the Ambassador program? Aside from being SPG Platinum of course.

I am a starwood employee and i have never heard of this program. Perhaps they haven't fully rolled it out in every market just yet.

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