A reader booked a prepaid rate at the Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly, which was recently converted from the MacDonald Hotel, Manchester and before that had been offices for British Telecom.
Despite making the booking directly with Marriott, submitting credit card information to guarantee the reservation, and receiving a confirmation email, the hotel reached out to demand separate payment. And it sure looks like phishing or a scam, like someone had gotten hold of new bookings and was trying to steal money.
From: Reservations
Subject: Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly – reservation XXXXXXXX, for the XXXXXXDear Guest,
Thank you for choosing Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly for your upcoming stay. We are eagerly anticipating your arrival at our hotel.
To confirm your reservation under the advance purchase rate for the specified date, kindly click on the payment link provided below. Please note that the link is valid for 72 hours.
https://fplynx.com/[random string of letters and numbers]
Should you require any assistance from our team before your visit, please do not hesitate to reach out to us via email. At Marriott, we are committed to Wonderful Hospitality. Always.
Kind regards,
Credit: Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly
The reader called the hotel using the number on Marriott’s website – they knew better than to trust anything in the email they had received, or even numbers they’d find on google.
The hotel front desk confirmed that this is “how they do advance purchase reservations.” The reader managed to get transferred to the woman sending these e-mails, who explained that “since they are new to Marriott and have recently transferred payment systems this is how they take payment for advance purchase rates.” They do this “to protect the hotel against chargebacks” and there’s no alternative option.
The guest here was smart enough to push back further and the hotel converted the booking to pay on arrival at the same rate.
However this is very much not standard and strikes me as very troubling. I wrote about a similar issue where a guest prepaid like this for a booking and the hotel claimed not to have received the money.
There, it was Marriott’s Hotel La Semilla that demanded prepayment via Paypal for a discount – and then claimed to have no record of the payment.
- The person they communicated with at the hotel “first posed as the front desk, then as the general manager of the hotel asking me to pre-pay via PayPal.”
- The hotel explained away not seeing the Paypal-prepaid booking as having been “hacked.”
- Eventually, Marriott corporate got involved, and the hotel suddenly “found” the Paypal payment.
I would not be comfortable with a separate demand for payment through a link like this. At all. You provide your credit card information with the Marriott booking, and they should honor that (whether they charge the prepay amount in advance or not).
In any case, no additional steps beyond completing a booking with Marriott should be required to have a secure booking with Marriott.
We see this all the time with foreign hotels. If you involve Marriott, they don’t allow it, and then they follow proper processes.
Stayed at 3 Protea hotels in South Africa recently and despite booking via the Marriott website and CC on file they all required pre-payment via a bank payment/CC portal link as standard.
Wow. As opposed to the commenter above, I have never seen this at foreign hotels, and I have booked many. Marriott needs to lay down the law, or people are going to avoid Marriott. Scammy.
I wonder if they’re cutting Marriott out of revenue this way. Or perhaps then claiming no elite benefits or points are provided because the reservation wasn’t booked through Marriott. Has anyone noticed that all the weird things happen with Marriott? You don’t seem to hear of these things with Hilton or Hyatt.
I’m the reader that reached out to Gary. Thanks Gary for the story!! (I’m kinda nerdy excited that I kind of made it into one of the posts)
I reached out to Marriott via their online contact form and was sure to explain what happened and specifically asked them if this was corporate policy, if corporate was ok with this, and more.
The response and ensuing back and forth is a joke. Clearly the front line CSRs have no grasp of the issue or my concerns.
Here’s their first response:
“Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for contacting Marriott Bonvoy®.
I have reviewed your reservation. The rate selected was a special advance purchase rate. This discount rate has special terms and conditions, including a requirement for a full room and tax pre-payment, usually within 24 hours of booking. Hotel team can deduct the amount of the reservation from your credit card provided while booking.
We truly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
We value your loyalty towards Marriott Bonvoy® and thank you for being a Marriott member. If you require any further assistance, I will be happy to assist you.
Best Regards,
YYYYY
Marriott Bonvoy® Customer Care”
I replied to that email with this…
“Hi,
You did not answer my questions or address my concern at all. You do not understand my concern or the issue.
I am aware that I booked an advance purchase rate. The problem is that despite booking that rate via the Marriott website and already providing the required payment information via the Marriott website the hotel contacted me via email sending a separate link that they tell me I am supposed to use to pay. The hotel should deduct payment from the card details I already provided via the time of booking on the official Marriott Bonvoy website. Why is the hotel sending me a separate link telling me I need to use this non marriott bonvoy website to pay when I already provided the required payment at the time of booking via the official website. That sounds like a scam and I’m surprised Marriott Bonvoy is ok with that. The hotel should not be asking me to pay via a separate payment link. If I book an advance purchase room via the Marriott website, provide payment details via the website, and get a confirmation from Marriott then the hotel should not be contacting me telling me I need to pay via a different link or website to confirm the reservation that Mariott’s official website has already confirmed.
Why is Marriott ok with this?
What is Marriott going to do about this?
Why should I book a room via the Marriott Bonvoy official website if that room and booking won’t actually be guaranteed and some hotels are going to try to require I confirm the booking and pay via a different website other than the official Marriott website?
Sincerely,
XXXXXX”
In response to that Marriott send the below this morning (still missing the point and lacking a basic ability to understand my questions or the issue at hand.)
“Dear Mr. XXXXXX,
I have received your email regarding your recent stay at the Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have initiated a customer service inquiry for our property leadership team to review.
For your reference, this is the case number: -redacted-. Please allow up to five business days to provide you with a response.
Your loyalty is highly valued, and we are committed to resolving this matter to your satisfaction. We are grateful that you’ve chosen Marriott.
Best Regards,”
I replied yet again telling them they did not understand and that it was about a booking for a future stay and I clarified that my question is not for the management at THAT property but rather my questions and concerns are for Marriott Bonvoy Corporate to address.
My experience and their responses thus far are just making a stronger and stronger case against using or trusting Marriott Bonvoy.
We had something similar happen a couple years ago with Alaia Belize (a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel). We confirmed the booking through Marriott website. A month before arrival, I was sent a sketchy looking “sertifi” email asking for my CC info again and signature to charge 1 night deposit (with no other official emails from the hotel about this).
While trying to sort this out with the hotel (who informed me it was real and apparently required within 48 hours of receiving it). 48 hours later, and still weeks ahead of the cancellation window, they actually canceled my reservation entirely – which I only found out about via a standard cancellation email (as if I had cancelled it myself).
I was amazed by all of this, and complained to Marriott about this practice – but they only offered to try and get my reservation reinstated. As a Titanium member, I chose to stay at a non-Marriott property instead.
My friend received a call from “Singapore” airlines saying her flight was cancelled and she’d have to pay $1800 to reschedule.
Just a scam!
Links in emails are a known way to get hacked. Years ago, I noticed that one of my company’s servers was being encrypted by a ransomware virus and notified a person high up in the IT department. My work station was confiscated and all files on it lost. The server was trashed and the back up files were used to create a new one. The ransomware was introduced by a clerk clicking on a link in a fake invoice email. She was not clever about such things.
A year ago booking.com got hacked and the hackers sent out emails, purporting to come from the hotel, asking people to re-enter their credit card information. It was a scam.