Bring On the Starwood Lurkers!

Yes. He is a good dude!

That is good news. I look forward to it.

And is encouraging Theytus and what's her name to come on board as well.

"What's her name." ??????? Well that's welcoming.

Theyetus recently introduced Christina Zhou as Lurker III, based in Guangzhou.

Great! William and his team are very helpful.

Definitely agree with this - I have never needed to use them, but feel though they can get things done quicker than going through other channels like contact us or live chat on the SPG website.

As crazy as it sounds - or actually, maybe not so crazy - I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of people have the same feeling. Mainly, that we will all need to only check one board from now on At least, that's my goal. For now, sure you may want to see both because of the size differences. But surely within 2-3 months there will be no need to look beyond MP.

Let's get the site live first and off to a flying start. Then the lurkers will surely be active here.

As a long time poster of another forum I am very familiar with your contributions
I would value your comments on your concerns with Starwood Prefferred Guest or the hotels/recognition you receive.
What are your top ten burning issues that lead to the disconnect?
Do share if you care too.....

Welcome Chris H (thumbs up borrowed from another well known site)
Thank You for your early support of MilePoint!

Other Thoughts
William has historically since the good old days back in Austin always understood the business culture of SPG and the exchange of dialogue between guests regionally better than the folks who later joined him in my own decade plus observation.
I also believe that the lions share of FT members are typically from North America and Europe where the business culture is somewhat different then certain other regions.
This IMO leads to a perception by some members that the other online team members/lurkers may be more or less effective based on the kinds of business behavior communication the online posters are more typically accustomed too.Just being polite,empathetic are not the answers or solutions most guests are seeking.
William to his credit and an early pioneer on FT has been hands on,upfront like it or not here is the good or the bad news approach.His style appeals to many.

The previous poster brings up an interesting observation .I have heard these perception comments before in a few of the focus groups I have attended in the past or just elsewhere online.
Its really a learning curve for all the online lurkers to evolve with and or for Starwood to find the right folks that are best suited in the social media realm to manage effectively CRM online from a global perspective......It is essential that all lurkers share accurate and relevant information to the best of their ability from the most reliable sources internally as to policy, solution and or recovery efforts if applicable.All in a timely manner.

I frequently over the years have assisted SPG customers personally through private channels to help solve partner issues that the lurkers and SPG agents seem challenged with.......I am still a believer in SPG,its program and many of its fine property/hotel offerings .However there are clear areas that need to be adressed that are showing continued signs of slippage outside of the social media world.SPG will always be remembered for leading the way in social media and a first to market in my mind.
Congratulations on your contributions and continued efforts onboard! A great productive year to all.

Best Regards
Milepoint Informed

And he also lurks on the Australianfrequentflyer forum.

William and the Lurker staff have been great on FlyerTalk. I am sure they will extend their presence over to here just as effectively.

I have in the other thread on Starwood sucking lately.. we need to merge some topics here.

The Lurkers really do deserve all of the respect and praise that they get. Any community would benefit from their presence, so hopefully they will make it over to here too.

Well, given that UA Insider, the former CO Insider, has posted already in the UA/CO thread, I'm not quite sure what the point of holding off the participation of The Lurkers would be. Unless there's going to be a big unveiling and red carpet walk. Personally, I think they deserve it, but not sure why they wouldn't be participating during this beta phase.

Where's Waldo no make that where's William?

I have to agree his availability and the other SPG lurkers are a great resource and have kept me loyal to SPG over the years!

Hopefully they will run a "FT" like SPG bonus point earning event just for milepoint members. It would be a great way to track business from this site and give back to some of their more influential customers, who can be brand evangelists!.

Thanks, everyone. I'm here now and Theytus and Christina will soon follow, along with a few other of our Social Media Team members. Our hope is to eventually provide 24/7/365 coverage worldwide.

Best regards,

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

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

awesome to have you here!

Welcome, William! Great to see you here!

Welcome William! I like the new handle, we have to work on your avatar, though!

Incredible. It's good to see your company backs online forums and allocates that much resources to it because I could imagine some old people thinking this would be a complete waste of money especially during these tough times (coming out of the GFC)

William, does this mean that Theytus and Christina will be SPG Champions II and III? Nicknames of SPG I, SPG II & SPG III? Champs I, etc.? While you're all certainly Champions, there was always a certain special something about being a Lurker.

Thyetus and Christina will likely be sharing SPG Champion 2 and SPG Champion 3 will probably be used by a larger group of Social Media Team members. I know that sounds tentative, but we are still working out some specifics. As for the Lurker handle, it seemed more appropriate to upgrade it for this new site, but we'll keep them intact for Flyertalk.

Best regards,

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

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

The term does fit better with the helpful atmosphere over here.