It’s somewhat difficult to come up with a hard-and-fast number to measure the value of an upgrade. I mean, is it easiest to give more subjective star ratings (ex 5 Stars), letter grades (ex B+ or D-) or a strict percentage? When measuring the rate or chances of getting upgraded, it makes the most sense to use a percentage. If 19 out of 20 people get an upgrade at a particular property, then it’s reasonable to say the chance of an upgrade at said property is 95%. But then, what about the value of an upgrade?
It’s not an even comparison to say that going from a Standard Room to a “Suite” at a Four Points by Sheraton (Starwood’s budget brand) is the same as going from a Standard Room at The St. Regis Washington, D.C. to a Caroline Astor Suite. One way to possibly measure this is to examine the difference in room tiers at a property. For example, the Four Points Standard Room is a Tier 1 room and you were given a Tier 2 out of 2 tiers max. This would be a 100% tier upgrade. But, at The St. Regis, going to the Caroline Astor Suite might be an upgrade to a Tier 5 (from the Standard Room of Tier 1), but, if the max Tiers possible are 9, then you’ve just received a 4 Tier upgrade or 44% increase. Again, somehow the Four Points percentage sounds better.
From another approach: In the Four Points example, it’s possible that the Standard Room can be booked for $70 but the Suite was attainable for just $85, whereas going from a Standard Room at The St. Regis to a Caroline Astor Suite might be a $400 increase in value. You need to find a way to measure the value of an upgrade as well as the chances of an upgrade.
How we calculate % ratings
So, we’ve settled on two criteria:
- Did you get upgraded? Yes = 100%, No = 0%
- What was the value of the upgrade?
- If you booked a Deluxe Room at the Plaza Athénée Bangkok for around $166 but received a Deluxe Suite at check-in (valued at $348), then the value of your upgrade was $287-$166 = $121
- Then, to convert this difference to a percentage, we take the value of your upgrade ÷ your original room value = Upgrade Value or, in this scenario, $121 ÷ $166 = 72.9% (anything over 100% we reduce to 100% max).
Your “Overall Upgrade Quality” is calculated by taking an average of these 2 percentages. In the above example, upgraded = Yes or 100% and Upgrade Value of 72.9% = 86.5% Overall Upgrade Quality.
How we calculate values
Calculating Room Booked Values and Room Received Values is an approximation: it is next to impossible to know what the value of a given room would have been when you made your original booking. For instance, if you book a room 3 weeks out at $200 and then receive an upgrade to a Junior Suite at check-in, how would you know the cost of the Junior Suite 3 weeks before?
We calculate room values by:
- Checking a similar time period and length of stay for a future stay.
- Then, note the first available “flexible rate” (i.e., the first non-prepaid rate) in the given Room Booked category and the first in the Room Received category.
- While not perfect, it allows us to capture the difference in value between 2 types of rooms while keeping the variables as equal as possible.
Example: The first rate we could consider is the “Flexible Rate” of $605 for this property
Have a Starwood Platinum Upgrade to report? Click here to submit a stay or send an email to jeffrey@weekendblitz.com.
