All posts tagged: SPG

The SPG and Marriott Rewards merger has finally happened

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While it seemed like a regular weekend, 18 August (or 19 August for this part of the world) was probably the day where members have been looking forward or dreading, depending on which side of the fence you were on. Both Starwood and Marriott reservation engines were down most of the weekend, with SPG pushing out an app refresh. Starwood.com now also points you to a new Marriott site. What happens now that the merger is complete? To recap, this is the key phase where the points, benefits, elite tier qualifications, hotel categories are aligned across all three programmes: Marriott Rewards, SPG and Ritz Carlton Rewards. These are the key changes that you will see: After the merger is completed, your SPG account will be given a new number the first time you try to log in. Once inside, you will see that your balance have tripled (converted on a rate of 1 SPG point to 3 Marriott Rewards points). People who are familiar with Marriott will also notice that the booking flow and design …

SPG members alert: 2018 is your last year to earn SPG Gold with 10 stays

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2016 and 2017 were good years for me – I had status in not one, but two hotel programmes, all thanks to Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood hotels. But obviously good things don’t last. In what seemed like a seemingly long week for SPG, Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards members, all was finally revealed early today when details of the changes to unify both programmes were announced. If there are five key takeaways, they are: All three loyalty programmes are unified essentially with point, elite tiers and earning requirements aligned across, and you can transfer points freely from one to another, or earn elite-qualifying nights from one portfolio towards another programme. Marriott will only rebrand all three into a single programme in 2019. There will be six tiers in the new programmes. For SPG, this means a new Silver Elite tier at 10 night. Gold Elite will now require 25 nights, while Platinum Elite goes for 50 nights and Platinum Premier Elite at 75 nights. All elite qualifications will be made based on nights, and not …

REVIEW: W Taipei, Wonderful Room

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tl;dr: If you need to try a W Hotel in the city for the first time, this is a good choice Small but very comfortable rooms by W’s standard Great proximity to shopping areas at City Hall and Zhongxiao Road Full spa facilities, including jacuzzis, steam rooms, sauna and even a cold plunge pool Small pool surrounded by Kitchen Table and Woobar, not a fantastic location On-property signature restaurant serving up Chinese cuisine Over the weekend that I was in Taipei, I took advantage of W Taipei’s Super Sunday special offer to bag another stay, in order to requalify for my SPG Gold next year. A little more about the promotion: This is not listed on Starwood’s website, but instead have to found on W Taipei’s offer page itself. When I reserved, the going rate was about NT$5,800 for a night’s stay with breakfast, which is arguably one of the cheapest rate you can get a W hotel stay at. Definitely worth the splurge even if you are usually a budget traveller. W Taipei is …

REVIEW: W Bangkok, Spectacular Room

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As the year was coming to a close and in need for a few more qualifying nights to renew my SPG Gold status, I booked a night with W Bangkok for a weekend stay after a couple of working days in the capital city of Thailand. W Bangkok is located along the commercial zone of Sathorn, near the Chong Nonsi BTS station. A stone’s throw away from Silom, the location is great for those who needs easy access to the city centre where Siam Paragon, Central World and the likes are located, but quite a hassle if you wish to café hop along the Sukhumvit area. This Starwood property is a Category 4 hotel, the lowest category for the W Hotels brand (there are only eight Category 4 W hotels globally, with four in Asia). The hotel runs 31 floors high, featuring 403 guest rooms and 34 suites. For this stay, I booked myself into the entry level Wonderful Room. Being a SPG Gold member, I was upgraded to the Spectacular Room instead. And of …