Starwood Preferred Guest: Rosy Retrospection, Or Actually Amazing?

Complaining about Marriott Bonvoy is kind of a popular pastime in the miles & points world (I’m certainly guilty!). The way I see it, two things can both be true — Marriott can be really bad at managing expectations for elite members, and Marriott can also have a lot of hotels that are worth staying at, so you might as well make the most of those stays.

As many people may remember, the Marriott Bonvoy program was only formed in 2018, when Marriott and Starwood merged, and that included the merger of the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs.

Like many other people, I was initially a Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalist, and was bummed when Marriott acquired Starwood. Nowadays when you see discussion about something Marriott Bonvoy does poorly, there’s always someone who comments about how they miss the SPG days. So I’d like to talk about that a bit — was SPG all that we make it out to be, or is there some sort of a nostalgia effect at work here?

This is a trip down memory lane, but I recognize that this hobby has evolved a lot over the years, and most people probably don’t even know the basics of SPG, so I thought this would be fun to briefly discuss.

Starwood Preferred Guest was an incredibly innovative program

Back in the day, Starwood was the “cool” hotel group. It was way smaller than Hilton, IHG, and Marriott, but packed a mighty punch in terms of its brands. It’s amazing that such a small hotel group had iconic brands, ranging from St. Regis, to Luxury Collection, to W Hotels, to Westin (and yes, W Hotels used to be cool, and Westin was at one point a really innovative mainstream brand).

But beyond that, SPG was by far the most innovative hotel loyalty program at the time, and it led the industry in so many areas. SPG Platinum status required 25 stays or 50 nights per year, and had a bunch of industry firsts:

• SPG was the first to offer guaranteed 4PM late check-out for elite members
• SPG was the first to offer suite upgrades subject to availability at check-in
• SPG was the first to introduce no capacity controls on award redemptions
• SPG was the first to offer fairly priced options to convert hotel points into airline miles, since you could transfer points at 1:1 ratio, with a 25% bonus in certain increments
• The SPG Amex back in the day was the go-to card for everyday credit card spending (this was in an era before massive bonus categories)

I think one other thing worth mentioning is that Chris Holdren, who ran SPG, really was a one-of-a-kind loyalty visionary. There aren’t many people who work in loyalty who are as passionate about “their” program as he was. So it’s always nice to know the head of a program really is looking out for members and is trying to make positive changes wherever possible, of course within whatever economic reality that exists.

Do we remember Starwood Preferred Guest too fondly, though?

Here’s what I find sort of funny. I remember Starwood Preferred Guest really fondly, and I miss the program. But as I see it, the things that we most complain about with Marriott Bonvoy are also things that were frequently an issue with SPG.

For one, while SPG had by far the best elite suite upgrade policy at the time, many hotels played games with upgrades, just as they do now. The concept of having to “fight” for suite upgrades was a common practice. Now, a few things:

• I do think that on balance, hotels tried harder with upgrades than they do now
• Elite ranks weren’t as swelled at the time as they are now, so there were just more upgrades available, broadly speaking
• If a hotel refused to upgrade, many people would contact the SPG Platinum line, and they’d actually liaise, and sort of compel the hotel to provide a better upgrade

The other thing is that SPG Platinum members could receive continental breakfast as their elite welcome gift. As is the case today, actual execution of that varied wildly. Many hotels would offer a full, hot breakfast, while other hotels were stingy as could be. For example, I remember staying at the W Union Square. The hotel had a restaurant, but the SPG Platinum breakfast was simply a croissant and a cup of coffee delivered to your room.

My point is simply to say that I absolutely loved SPG at the time, but if I’m being honest, the program had some of the same issues you’ll find with Marriott Bonvoy nowadays. Fighting for upgrades and hotels trying to cut corners with breakfast? That was perhaps an area where SPG properties “innovated,” and that can’t really be blamed on Marriott.

All that being said, I’d absolutely take the “old days” of SPG over the current state of Marriott Bonvoy. If nothing else, Starwood’s smaller footprint meant that the individual hotels and loyalty program at large tried a little harder.

Bottom line

Starwood Preferred Guest was discontinued in 2018, when Marriott acquired Starwood. For many of us, SPG was sort of the “gold standard” for hotel loyalty back in the day, as the program innovated in so many areas, from suite upgrades to late check-out.

That being said, the program wasn’t perfect, and the concept of having to “fight” for suite upgrades and seeing hotels cut corners with elite perks was also a “feature” of the program, given that not all hotel owners were onboard with looking out for members. That being said, on a high level, there’s no denying that the program tried harder.

To SPG loyalists back in the day, how do you remember the program?