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Starwood involvement on TUG

Troopers

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FYI, I emailed William Sanders (aka Starwood Lurker on Flyertalk SPG forum) if there's a similar person to him on the SVO side. Below is his email to me:

Actually, no. There is no official SVO Lurker, although they do actively monitor the TUG board and have asked me about my work at Flyertalk. Personally, I get the impression that they would like to make the same commitment at TUG, but real estate has a bit more legal entanglements than providing transient guest accommodations. For this reason, I think they just lack the resources at the moment to make a commitment to doing this as effectively. That being the case, they don't get personally involved at the web site, but they do look to it for feedback, so I encourage you and others to continue discussing your ownership experiences there.

Best regards,

William


Check out Flyertalk if you do not know who Starwood Lurker is. He is very active on the SPG forum and very helpful.
 

Aussiedog

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Okay!

So if I mention here how disappointed I am to learn via phone call to their transfer department that they are sooooo backed up that they have no idea when they will get to my transfer so that I can begin usage of my SBP timeshare - that they will see this?

Great!!!

Ann
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I believe that almost all of the major timeshare organizations - and many other not so major as well as numerous resorts - monitor these boards.

About five years ago were checked in at the Embassy Resort in Ka'anapali (now the Ka'anapali Beach Club). I posted on-line some negative comments about the condition of the resort, and the next day I got a call from the Resort Manager with an offer to meet with me and show me what they were doing in response to the items I had commented on.

He acknowledged that Sunterra did monitor the Boards, and he had received a call from his Regional Manager requesting that he contact while I was at the facility.
 

tomandrobin

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This is good to know that we are being watched. And now that Starwood has its own Forum, maybe they will be able to watch it better.
 

formerhater

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I agree that it is good to hear that TUG is monitored in some capacity by SVO. The question is, what will they do with the information they get from us? Without official representation, it's easy for them to look the other way. Point devaluation and Elite benefit devaluation come to mind. A lot of upset owners on TUG (many of whom also called, e-mailed, or wrote letters too), but not much has changed. So while they may know what we like and don't like from monitoring TUG, if they don't do anything about it, it's all moot. The difference between hotels and timeshares are big though. If a hotel loyalty program misses the mark enough times, the customer switches programs. Once SVO sells a VOI, they're in the $ and will collect regardless of how many disgruntlesd owners sell.

As far as I am concerned, William sets the standard for company involvement in a discussion board. He does an amazing job of representing both Starwood and FlyerTalk members and is an excellent conduit between the two. Far more effective than those silly podcasts. When FT members are in the right, he usually says so and advises the best way to get a resolution. When FTers are out of line in their demands, he'll let them know. If we could get someone half as good as him here, we'd be lucky.
 

califgal

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I fully agree with formerhater. Another William would be great. He does a fantastic job on flyertalk.
 

DavidnRobin

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While this would be great (for some things) - SVO Tuggers represent a very (very) small percentage of SVO Owners - unfortunately.

SPG FlyerTalkers have many more contributors and readers.

What is needed (as discussed previously) is a way to get more SVO Owners to come to TUG. There is power in numbers, and until that number becomes more substantial, well... they may watch (which I doubt), but will have little impact.
 
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