Starwood to Make Award No-Show Policy More Reasonable

The Wall Street Journal‘s Middle Seat Blog reports that in response to criticisms on Flyertalk, Starwood will no longer charge a customer who no shows (or cancels past the deadline) an award night the hotel’s rack rate. Instead, they’ll charge the hotel’s prevailing rate.

I still wish they would just forfeit the award points that would otherwise have been used for the stay, but at least this is less egregious than their previous practice.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. My cancellation rate for my next Starwood “free night” stay is $1,600.

    Please ambulance driver, let’s stop by the hotel first so I can check-in!

  2. I had the Platinum desk call and beg the hotel to just take the award night instead and it worked, however, that should be standard policy. Give me a break Starwood!

Comments are closed.