Frequently Asked Questions: Starwood Preferred Guest

Starwood Preferred Guest is the award-winning hotel program that offers extraordinary experiences, rewards and recognition wherever you travel. Members have access to exclusive benefits and flexible reward options for magnificent vacation getaways. All of this comes with the added benefit of no blackout dates on Free Night Awards. So, if we have a standard room on the night of your choice, it’s yours.

Members also experience rich rewards throughout nine distinguished hotel brands including Sheraton® Hotels & Resorts, Four Points® by Sheraton Hotels, Aloft®, W® Hotels, Le Méridien®, The Luxury Collection®, Element^SM, Westin® Hotels & Resorts and St. Regis® Hotels & Resorts - more than 1,103 participating hotels and resorts worldwide.

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Our competitors black out certain hotels and resorts during peak travel times throughout the year, making it impossible to use reward points to book a room. As a Starwood Preferred Guest member, you’ll never encounter a blackout date for Free Night Awards. Unlike our competitors, we don’t limit the number of rooms available for redemption. So, if we have a standard room available, and you have the Starpoints – it's yours.

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At over 1,103 of Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ participating hotels that encompass seven brands, including Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Westin Hotels & Resorts, and St. Regis Hotels & Resorts. You now have over 1,103 hotels and resorts in more than 100 countries to earn and redeem Starpoints.

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Membership is free.

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Becoming a Gold Preferred Guest member requires 10 eligible stays or 25 eligible room nights in a calendar year. Members at this level receive all the benefits of a Preferred Guest® member plus more Starpoints (three for every eligible U.S. dollar spent), automatic room upgrades, little extras like 4 p.m. late checkout, and more! See complete details.

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Becoming a Platinum Preferred Guest member requires 25 eligible stays or 50 eligible room nights in a calendar year. Not only do Platinum Preferred Guest members receive all the benefits of a Gold Preferred Guest member, they can also take advantage of additional privileges such as automatic upgrades to our best available guest room – including standard suites – at time of check-in for the entire stay, Complimentary High Speed Internet Access, and complimentary access to the hotel gym. At Le Méridien, Westin and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, members can also take advantage of complimentary access to the Executive and Club Level floors.

Additionally, our signature Platinum Concierge ^SM provides members with access to an extraordinary range of services with one simple phone call. Members can make reservations, secure upgrades and redeem awards, book opera tickets or even find a babysitter with this exclusive service. See complete details.

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Starwood Preferred Guest will send you a membership card after you’ve had your first stay at a Starwood hotel or resort. You may expect your card to arrive approximately four to six weeks after your first stay.

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You can Replace Your Member Card quickly and easily on SPG.com. Simply follow the instructions and print out a temporary card which you can use until your new card arrives by mail.

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You can register for online account access at anytime. Registering a Username and Password is quick and easy.

Once you’ve completed the simple process of creating your Web site username and password you’ll have online access to manage your account information, view your account balance and much more.

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Preferred Guest members earn two Starpoints and Gold and Platinum Preferred members earn a 50% Starpoints
bonus to equal three Starpoints for every eligible dollar spent at participating Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points
by Sheraton, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Westin Hotels & Resorts, and St. Regis Hotels &
Resorts.

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Members can earn Starpoints for up to three rooms per stay when 1) each room is paid for by the member and all
charges are settled at check-out; and 2) one room is occupied by the member.

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You can earn Starpoints for food and beverage charges of US$10 or more in participating Starwood restaurants, even when you’re not a registered guest, when you present your membership card.

You can also earn Starpoints for goods and services with our partners: Avis, SIXT rent a car, Hartmann, or TD
AMERITRADE.

Transferring points from an American Express® Membership Rewards® or Diners Club Rewards account is another great option for supplementing your account with additional Starpoints.

Using the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express (for U.S., Canadian and UK residents) is one of the fastest, easiest ways to earn Starpoints.

Additionally, you can now buy Starpoints! Add them to your account, give them as a gift or use them as employee or
customer incentives.

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Starwood Preferred Guest Members can earn miles with their frequent flyer program by visiting spg.com/moremiles
or by calling 888-627-7143 (in the U.S. and Canada) or 353-21-4539579 (International toll line) and enrolling in the
Airline Direct Deposit Program. After switching from points to miles, you will automatically earn miles during your
stay at the same rate you would have earned Starpoints.

When Starpoints are transferred to a frequent flyer account, both accounts must be in the same name otherwise the
airline will reject the transfer. This is for the member’s protection so that no unauthorized transfers may occur. Once
Starpoints transfer to an airline, they may not be returned to the Starwood Preferred Guest account.

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You can redeem your Starpoints in a number of ways including: Free Night Awards, Cash & Points, Fifth Night Free,
Room Upgrades, 50% off Regular Rack Rate or Nights & Flights. Remember, the Starwood Preferred Guest
program is the only program without blackout dates on Free Night Awards – if we have a standard room available,
you have a room!

Additionally, your Starpoints can be redeemed for Instant Awards ^SM – in-hotel indulgences that vary by hotel and can include anything from an elephant ride in Thailand to a Westin Heavenly massage in Maui and more!

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Absolutely. Through our network of partners , you have the opportunity to use your Starpoints for air travel, ground
transportation, and gift certificates from some of your favorite retailers – from iTunes to Starbucks to Amazon.com.
You can even donate your Starpoints to charity .

You can also use your Starpoints to bid on money-can’t-buy experiences and events with our member exclusive
online auction site, spgmoments.com .

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Keeping track of your Starpoints is easy. You can sign in to your account on SPG.com or indicate in your
preferences that you’d like to sign up for eStatements to get updated account information delivered right to your
inbox.

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We allow Starwood Preferred Guest participating properties up to seven days from your date of departure to credit
your Starwood Preferred Guest account with eligible charges. If your stay hasn’t appeared in your account after that time, please submit your stay details using our missing stay form for us to follow up on your behalf.

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You may Report a Missing Stay online , contact our Customer Contact Center or send us an inquiry via e-mail .

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We allow Members to obtain credit for stays up to 30 days prior to enrollment. To credit your account for a stay, we
ask that you send a copy of your hotel bill or credit card statement. Please ensure your date of arrival, length of stay
and membership number is included in this information and fax to: 519-633-8557.

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Eligible room rates (see ineligible charges for further details) food & beverage charges, laundry & dry cleaning,
telephone & in-room faxes, in-room movies & in-room video games.

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Ineligible charges include, but are not limited to: taxes, service charges, gratuities, parking, recreational charges
(includes charges related to golf, spa, watersport rentals, etc.) and any part of any stay prior to June 1, 2008 that is in excess of 30 consecutive or any part of any stay after June 1, 2008 that is in excess of 90 nights. In addition, certain types of room rates are not eligible for Starpoints credit. These include groups or conventions settled through a Master Bill, airline crew room charges, tours or pre-packaged deals through travel agents, wholesale rates, and rates from third-party bookings such as, but not limited to, priceline.com, expedia.com, etc.

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A "stay" is defined as one or more consecutive nights at a participating property paying an eligible rate. A "room
night" is defined as one night at any participating property paying an eligible rate.

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It’s a one-night confirmable room upgrade to a suite or select premium room.

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You can request an upgrade when you book SPG Starpoint-eligible room rates, Free Night Award stays and/or Cash & Points stays.

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Platinum Preferred Guest members who stay 50 nights annually receive 10 Suite Night Awards. We also occasionally offer Suite Night Awards as a reward earning in a promotion.

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Yes, please check your Suite Night Awards activity page to see when your Award(s) expire.

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You may request an upgrade until 2:00 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive.

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We’ll start looking for available upgrades five days before your stay. If we find one, it’s yours, and we’ll email you at the email address on your SPG profile as soon as possible.

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If we can’t find an available upgrade five days before you arrive, we’ll email you an update and keep checking. If your request can’t be confirmed by 2 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive, we’ll notify you via email and credit the Suite Night Award(s) back to your account.

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If your upgrade can’t be confirmed by 2 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive, we’ll notify you via email and return the Suite Night Award(s) to your account.

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You can cancel a request until 2 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive, as long as the Suite Night Award(s) haven’t already been confirmed for use on a reservation.

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Once your Suite Night Award(s) have been confirmed, the Award(s) are only returned to your account if you cancel your reservation. Please note that after 3 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive a reservation cancellation will result in the forfeiture of all Suite Night Award(s) applied to the entire reservation. This is in addition to any other cancellation penalties applicable to the reservation itself.

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We will credit your Suite Night Award(s) back to your account. Please note that after 3 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive a reservation cancellation will result in the forfeiture of all Suite Night Award(s) applied to the entire reservation. This is in addition to any other cancellation penalties applicable to the reservation itself.

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You can request an upgrade to a suite or select premium room as designated by the hotel. Premium rooms include rooms with great views, or larger rooms. The option to request an upgrade appears when you’re making a reservation and a member can choose which rooms they would like use their Suite Night Awards for.

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The number of Suite Night Awards must match the length of your stay. So, if your stay is five nights long and you only have three Suite Night Awards you can’t request an upgrade.

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If you book a Buy 2 Nights, Get 1 Free offer, for example, you would use three Suite Night Awards for your stay. The same would be the case with Free Night Awards. If you redeem five nights, and get the fifth night free, you’d need to use five Suite Night Awards. The number of Suite Night Awards must match the length of your stay even if some night(s) of your stay are free.

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You can’t buy Suite Night Awards.

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Your Suite Night Awards are for your use only. You may not gift or transfer them. However, if you’re traveling with family and require two rooms you may request an upgrade for both rooms as long as you have enough Suite Night Awards to cover all nights for each room. Please note that both rooms must be confirmed under your name and you must stay in one of the rooms.

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Yes, if the additional rooms are part of your reservation you can request an upgrade for them as long as you have enough Suite Night Awards to cover the entire length of your stay for each room. One Suite Night Award is required per room per night.

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At this time, you can’t request an upgrade for multiple-room reservations online. However, you can do so by calling SPG customer support.

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Suite Night Award(s) may be cancelled until 2 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive, as long as the Award(s) have not already been confirmed for use on a reservation. Once your Award(s) have been confirmed, you must cancel the entire reservation to have all the Award(s) returned to your account; however, after 3 p.m. local hotel time the day before you arrive, a reservation cancellation will result in the forfeiture of all Suite Night Award(s) applied to the entire reservation. This is in addition to any other cancellation penalties applicable to the reservation itself.

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