The other half and I are planning a trip to Slovakia and the other half would like to stay with Sheraton Bratislava. I don't have any status there and I have never been to any SPG hotels so I would like to know if I can status match with them... Any one have experience(s) at this hotel? What should we expect if we end up staying there? Many thanks in advance for your comments
I believe that since April 1, 2011 (no, not an April fools joke), SPG is only doing a "fast track" challenge. You do not get the status until you have met the "fast track" requirements.
Isn't it rather presumptuous to expect to status match and get elite benefits when you admit that you've never stayed in a Starwood hotel in your life? What would be the business advantage for SPG to give you elite treatment in this case? Remember that status matches are generally once in a lifetime deals and are meant for a frequent traveler to switch allegiance, not to get freebies for one trip.
It may be a bit bold to expect a status match in Bratislava, where there are few American chains. But as a Marriott Gold and a Hyatt Diamond whose primary destinations are large US cities, I could make a strong case for Hilton or Starwood at least to offer me similar elite perks (obviously their business decision) when I'm traveling to a city where I would othwerwise stay at a Marriott or Hyatt, attempting to renew my Hyatt/Marriott statuses for the next year. I do not exactly how that would be executed, and there might be painful transaction costs to me and any given Starwood or Hilton property. But I truly can see situations where a chain where I have no status could make a business case for extending equal benefits. (I do have *wood Gold based on CC spend, but gold is worthless and has not induced me to stay at a Starwood. My one *wood stay in the last 5 years was several Januaries ago the Winnepeg Airport Four Points, which was mercifully connected to the airport).
The situation you're describing is different from the case of the OP in that you would be considering moving most of your frequent travel to Starwood, not planning to take advantage of SPG status perks one time only during a single family trip to Bratislava, presumably never to be seen again by Starwood.
I'd recommend getting the Preferred Plus status from AAA, which gives many of the benefits of Gold, but without the need for a status match...
Policy Change Related to Status Match Requests - Beginning April 1, 2011 With all due respect to opinions given, I don't think that the OP is being presumptuous at all. Isn't that why we are here and what MilePoint publicly advocate: "travel hacking".
I would ask for the match/challange only if I am really plannibg to switch or to use it so that I would requalify. Unfortunately the OP did not mention, which Status he has already should be matched. Otherwise one could think about what would be the best to do. E. g. if he is a Marriott Elite, he could bring the business to Starwood (25 stays per year is a good ratio) and use for the misding Marriott nights the buy back option.
Question of the thread was: Does SPG status match? Interesting comment by @MSPeconomist but we (family) do travel alot and stay in hotels most of the time & these stays are scattered across various hotel brands/chains. Not to talk of the business trips wifey and I make yearly. I hope there was nothing wrong in asking [Never came stealing the status from you so cool down]... and I already got the information I needed from SPG themselves And yes we have stayed in Sheraton before not once and not even twice & another "not-so-thinking-it's-spg" hotel. Didn't just thought about it very well when I posted that because we haven't been concentrating on their program. We just book hotels that we like. Same way wifey was booking Ramada hotel recently and no one knew it has any FS program & this isnt also the first time member of my family is staying at Ramada. If it helps cool your pain, wifey and mother-in-law are off to Vienna soon and will be staying at Le Meridien Vienna & basically because it is near where they are going in Vienna. Happy now? I am sorry if the original post sounded as such to you... I am not taking advantage of the program. If you stay there once and liked it, wont you go back and try their hotels in other locations? That's how we stuck with Hilton and Radisson hotels since that first stay! We are just smiling at your comments here... @MSPeconomist. Simple NO to the question would have gone a long way... You didnt even spend time to comment on the experiences at that particular hotel and what we would expect. You just jumped on the status wagon like you own the SPG program Thanks for your time anyway and many thanks to others who took time to give professional & articulate response to the question. This thread could be closed.
