Starwood Reservations is incompetent

okwiater - It is not "complaining for complaining's sake." I have very specific goals, which I posted above.

Again, you continue to put the focus back on me, and ignore the issues with reservations… Are you a lawyer? :rofl:

We used to have a lawyer that posted here, and every time anything negative about Starwood was posted he did the exact same thing: Attack the poster - deflect attention from the issue with Starwood.

On a similar topic, it does seem that it's quite often during a call to SVN that the rep needs to put me on hold to check something. Of course, what they're doing is asking someone else my question since they don't know the answer. It all goes to inadequate training on their complicated reservations system. Thankfully, I am now able to avoid more of that by booking online, but I have no doubt the quality has not improved and this would be a barrier to successful renting.


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Ken - From my conversations with Reps., I believe that the view is difficult to determine, because of Starwood's clunky reservation system.

Apparently, the view is not clearly stated and the Rep. has to do something like this:

-Is this an home resort reservation?
-Was the reservation made 8-12 mos. before check-in?
-Was the 2 bdm. split into 2 confirmations, within 8 mos., making it "appear" to be a Staroption reservation, when it's actually a home resort reservation?

It's ridiculous that a Rep. should have to go through a multiple step process to determine a view in their system. It is clearly stated on the owner's confirmation - it should be clearly stated in the computer system.

Knowing this, Starwood should either provide better training, OR fix their programming!

I been an SVN member for 10 years and have been fortunate to have more positive than negative experiences with SVN reps. However, in the past couple of years, I have contacted SVN several times and have experienced more negative than positive experiences with the knowledge of the reps. They are very friendly, but often put me on hold to find out more information. Part of the problem in the last call I made was the inability of the rep to access the correct information.

There was no intent to go 'jarta' on your post, but as I expected there was more to the story than what was originally posted (for one - making it sound as if it were an Owner and not Renter that called...)

I agree that the Associates can have lack of knowledge due to poor training, or lack of caring as underpaid dweebs. I luckily have had zero issues with a renter calling SVO/SVN and confirming a reservation (this has been done many times with both my OFD studio and WKV rentals for ~7 years now). Should the Associates know better? Of course they should know better. That wasn't my point. It is often how the question is stated, or the approach used.

I suspect the Renter wasn't being clear/concise in the conversation - because view location on the confirmation is basic knowledge. Should the Renter have to be? Of course not, but that is the risk we take in renting out our HomeResort VOIs.

As to the Jarta reference - he might have had challenges with his approaches, but at least he used common sense in his arguments.

Of course there has to be trust for the Renter. However, if I wanted to scam someone, I could just cancel their reservation and they would be SOL. There is nothing a Renter can do to protect themselves in this case. {except insist upon an ESCROW account}

Again - the best solution is to contact management at Owner Services and explain what happened - so it reduces the risk of occurring again. Will it resolve it? Of course not.
Complaining here will certainly have no resolve other than to make others who are renting aware of the potential confusion.
Peace. (and Go Dubs!)

To be honest, I don't bother verifying the rental reservation anymore.

There needs to be a rental contract and I pay by credit card. That way, I am protected if the contract is breached. Is it 100% foolproof? -- likely not. The cc company could say I am beyond the window for disputes even though I believe the clock starts when your reservation starts in most cases.

But I like my chances given my history with AMEX and getting backing from them when things go wrong.

I understood Denise's initial post -- my experiences have been hit or miss. You'll get the most knowledgeable rep one day and a clueless on the next. All luck of the draw...

-ryan

DavidnRobin said:

I suspect the Renter wasn't being clear/concise in the conversation - because view location on the confirmation is basic knowledge. Should the Renter have to be? Of course not, but that is the risk we take in renting out our HomeResort VOIs.

Click to expand...

David - The renter is a Marriott owner who knew exactly what to ask for. She understands timesharing and she understands that she is renting from an Ocean Front Owner. She asked what the view is, got the wrong info., read the confirmation to the Rep., and asked again, and got more wrong info. There was no confusion on her part - she knew what she what she was doing - it was the Rep. who was confused.

*I have edited my first post to make it clear that it was the renter who called, but originally it did say that the "guest called." There was no intent on my part to conceal who called - it just wasn't the point of the post, so I wasn't very clear about it.

However, it doesn't matter who called - this Rep. would have told anyone the same thing.

This exact same thing has happened to me - I have had the same experience of having to call, and argue with a Rep. about the view on my own timeshare - it is not rare.

It shouldn't make a difference WHO called. We have anecdotal evidence here that both RENTERS and OWNERS have been given incorrect information. One owner had purchased an event week with an upgraded view, and when she called to put one side of HER UNIT in someone else's name, she was told that because she was splitting her reservation, it would be considered an SO exchange, and view wasn't guaranteed. Which is completely contrary to the ONE guarantee that Starwood can NEVER interfere with, and that's the right to use what you bought. That kind of misinformation is inexcusable. Can you imagine the angst that that owner felt, after paying tens out thousands of dollars extra for that view, that she wasn't entitled to it?

Bottom line is that the CSRs are poorly trained, and it needs to be corrected. We pay top dollar in MFs and everyone at SVN should be well versed with their own program so that they aren't giving out misleading information. THEY should be the experts.

I do agree that this matter should be brought up with the Starwood management. Obviously additional training is in order.

A complaint was made - but I guarantee that they saw it here first.

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Update: After a verbal complaint, and a negative "customer service survey," Starwood reservations sent the owner of the week a separate email, guaranteeing the Oceanfront View on the reservation, to send to their guest.

The guest was satisfied with this resolution of the problem.

Hopefully, Starwood will also do some retraining to avoid this situation in the future.