A Marriott Bonvoy member writes about a recent award redemption experience – a flight delay caused them to miss the first night of their award stay, so they got the free night certificate back and the hotel charged them cash for the missed night. They were fortunate the cash amount was only $153. I’ve seen it as high as $2000.
If you book an award stay and your flight diverts on the way to your vacation, and you can’t check in as scheduled, call your mortgage broker for a second or third lien on your house if it’s a luxury property – quick!
Hyatt, like Marriott, charges you cash in an undisclosed amount (rather than points) if you have to cancel an award trip inside of the cancellation deadline for your stay.
- Starwood Preferred Guest used to have a friendlier feature where you’d choose the cash forfeiture or just to lose the points you used to book the stay which is what most people assume they’re on the hook for anyway.
- But Marriott charges you cash instead – they do not keep your points.
Three years ago I wrote about the St. Regis Aspen charging points guests $1000 a night for cancelling reservations within 60 days of arrival. Even customers whose flights were delayed or diverted, and showed up the next day, were getting hit with $1000 charges for their missed nights.
- When a guest doesn’t stay on an award, the program doesn’t pay the hotel for the award stay
- The hotel instead goes back to the guest to charge them a forfeiture instead
- Nowhere is the threatened amount disclosed to the customer when making their booking, which is even more egregious
I’ve written about Hyatt’s Andaz Papagayo in Costa Rica, which has non-cancelable rates during certain peak periods. Since those rules apply to paid stays, they also apply to awards. One guest booked nearly a year in advance, several months later needed to cancel, and was surprised by a $7000 cancellation fee. I brought the issue to Hyatt’s attention and they intervened to reverse these charges. However the policy remains in place.
This is something that needs to change – surprise rack rate charges destroy loyalty. A customer may expect to lose their points for a late cancellation, even when the reason is beyond their control (like a flight cancellation or diversion). But to penalize them a second time, after missing part of their vacation, with a cash penalty rate as well (and a secret one at that) is beyond improper.
Stop, STOP bashing poor Marriott! How much more can they take? Tjhose poor people, I feel sorry for them. Can they do ANYTHING right? Ever??
“It’s our policy” … the biggest BS line in the world. Why don’t they just shut down their loyalty plan (bonvoy …it even has a dumb name) instead of dissing and torturing all their loyal customers? They should just sell all their hotels to Hilton … but Hilton would probably be too smart to buy 60% of them … but Marriott could turn those properties into Best Westerns, right?
You’re completely right but given Marriott’s vehemently anti-guest stance they’ve developed over the past few years are you really surprised?
Do any of the credit cards cover these kinds of issues?
@ Gary — Why do people do business with crooks?
one time an embassy didnt get my passport on time when they issued a visa, and I had to miss the weekend (was supposed to fly on Saturday) and I had a booking with Marriott and IHG. When I explained the situation, IHG just gave my money back as one time courtesy. Marriott on the other hadn kept the money, quoting their cancellation policy (which is the worst among hotel chains because you need to cancel 48h before arrival local time). Since then I never stayed at Marriott, easy. I just don’t give my money to nasty companies. I wish people did the same instead of whining here and there. Things would be different
I had a canceled flight and called the hotel and they agreed to cancel with no cost. This was a few years ago, so I dont know if anything has changed since.
And yet last year I had an IHG property booked on a free night certificate and there was a ground halt in Atlanta 20 minutes before I was supposed to connect through there (diverted to Knoxville to sit on the runway for 6 hours – different story). I called IHG at 11:30pm when it was apparent I wouldn’t be getting to my hotel in Fort Lauderdale until maybe the next day, and they refunded my certificate immediately. I now stay at IHGs more often. I’m sure Marriott can’t understand anything I just typed.
Bonvoyed
I had a cancelled flight and missed one night of a free stay. The hotel told me I had to write to Marriott to get the points back. When I did that Marriott told me it was up to the hotel and the hotel refused to return the points
Way to go Marriott… It happened to me… for SUPER BOWL… They did charge me $2000 x 3 rooms but after 3 months of fighting, they still were charging me but AMEX blew them off…
I am NOT IMPRESSED with their BOGUS PROGRAM, I’m PLATINUM and will DROP THEM. They are THIEVES…
This situation once happened to me at a Marriott property in 2019. I had to miss the first night of a week-long reservation due to a flight cancellation. I called the property and spoke to a manager who said that if I checked in online they could just treat it as if I had actually stayed that first night and my room would be waiting for me when I arrive the next day. That is what happened. I wonder if checking in online and not even calling would get the same outcome. Do the properties even track when you first enter your room if you check in online and use mobile key?
I suppose if they had just checked in through the app then the hotel would collect the points/certs, and it would never code in the system as a no show stay? Just checkin and try to have the mobile key issued.
What if you checked in via the app. That way shouldn’t only points be deducted instead of incurring 1 night charge?
This is a perfect example why my company didnt renew the contact with Marriott and now uses another hotel chain.
For all the attention paid to airlines, its hotels and rental car companies that are far more egregious in their practices. At what point do we start to regulate and impose regulations on them as is happening more and more with airlines? It’s like large brands like Marriott are just begging for it.
Marriott ……smarten up ……you have no control of your vendors. They pay you for the reservations system and you don’t want further contact over these type of issues. People are finding out they only get #bonvoyed when they deal with you and your antics.
Why cant the guest just do online/mobile check in from the app and be done with? That way, he/she still get to access the room any time after they land (no need to wait for official check in time) and then try to get compensation for the cost of the 1st night hotel room points (in similar value) from the airline who caused this fiasco in the 1st place. No need to bring a third party (the hotel) into an essentially a service failure incident by the airline.
The mobile checkin tips are helpful but still baffled why you need to ‘check in’ to avoid a penalty other than the original cost of your stay. The room is unsaleable in either situation.
If one has trip delay and trip interruption insurance, does it cover this expense?
I don’t put anything past Marriott but I’m shocked that Hyatt is so harsh. I’m afraid to use my 15,000 point Hyatt certificate for the Thompson Madrid because the rate is over 1,000 euros per night!
Hyatt does this all the time….
Not news.
What a scam. If you can’t do business putting your terms in plain language out in the open, you should go out of business. If the market will bear this type of activity plainly disclosed before booking, then more power to them. But methinks it’s kept undisclosed for a reason, and when businesses play gotcha with me, I avoid giving them my custom in the future.
A few months ago I was to stay at an airbnb in Iceland and the flight was canceled (from Greenland to Iceland). I called and all charges were refunded. Not sure if that’s policy or simply a sympathetic host, but something I appreciated. This site likes to blast airbnb pretty often, but here’s a situation, anedcotal to be sure, where they performed much better than some chain hotels do.
At properties with mobile check-in, you just check-in on the app and don’t tell the hotel you aren’t there. Unfortunately, not all properties have a properly enabled mobile check-in. Even the properties that supposedly have it often still require you to come by the front desk and get an actual room key. So much for mobile check-in.
That aside, once again this proves that Marriott is no longer a hotel company. Marriott is merely a booking platform. Over 70% of Marriott’s hotels across all of the company’s brands are managed by either a franchisee or a third-party operating the hotel for a franchisee. Marriott simply can’t control the internal policies of these hotels.
I’ve had several cases where I had a group of 12-15 clients at a hotel for a weekend junket. Something happened where two or three couldn’t make it at all and canceled or were delayed by a day. The hotel has never charged me a penalty because they knew the $3,000 they would get every night in dinner charges was more than enough revenue to cover whatever lost they suffered for a no-show.
Radisson just keeps your points. I think Choice does the same. The major chains do not do likewise and want cash instead. Why? Surely am empty room is not more expensive for the hotel operator than one that is occupied. Effect is punitive for things beyond one’s control.
100K, to answer your question, most premier travel cards (including co-branded) offer travel interruption protection. One must review the card’s specific terms and conditions to determine whether this particular scenario is covered. If a scenario is covered (big “if”), reports are that the wait time for reimbursement is long.
DJ, to answer your question, “why” relates to the fact that the loyalty programs “make a market” in points when dealing with property owners. When a member has an award stay at a property, it costs the member X points. The loyalty program will pay that property owner Y cents per point. Typically, the reimbursement to the property owner (X * Y) is substantially less than the cash daily rate. Given a choice, the property owner (not the loyalty program) is the one who wants the points reversal and payment in cash.
Different scenario: when a member has a cash stay, the property owner must buy points from the loyalty program at Z cents per point. A property owner’s points buy price (Z) is more than its points sell/reimbursement price (Y). Thus, the loyalty program is a market maker in its points when dealing with property owners and is profiting in the bid-ask spread.
When a child learns that there’s no consequence to bad behavior, the child continues its bad behavior.
For all of the complaints about hotel loyalty programs, their revenues are at or near an all-time high. A disaffected Marriott member moves to Hilton or Hyatt. A disaffected Hilton member moves to Hyatt or Marriott. A disaffected Hyatt member moves to Hilton or Marriott. After all of the pissing and moaning and moving, they are no worse off. Accept it: they don’t care about you. Why would they change? Why do you expect anything different? Morpheus asks: Will you be Mr. Anderson or will you be Neo?
Can anyone confirm (Gary, would Marriott tell you if you called comms and asked?) that the mobile checkin works in this scenario? It’s a good hack. And yeah, the whole “you need to come by the desk anyway” thing is baffling when it happens.
In June I could not test negative for Covid to fly Lufthansa Munich -Chicago. I was charged $557 no show fee (for all 3 nights) at the Hyatt Place in Evanston IL. I wrote to the hotel Manager including proof of not being able to fly. I never received a reply from Hyatt despite being a member since 1982. Loyalty over the years has no value and I will never stay in a Hyatt again.
I had to cancel with Marriott when I was at the airport and forgot to cancel a duplicate reservation and I was in the 24 hour mark. Marriott called the hotel and the hotel said OK. I had to change a non-changeable reservation with Hilton and called the hotel directly and they moved the reservation out 10 months. I recently had a stay at Cedar-Sinai Hospital (#1 in California, #2 in the US), they gave me the VIP Suite, the best room in the hospital where the movie stars stay. It is all on how you ask.
Deregulation at work!
@Jake – I am not sure what you think was deregulated here?
This exact factor made me super nervous when earlier in year had a 5 night stay at Marriott Wailea in hawaii where missing the first night would auto “charge” our card for over 8k! The hotel has a 45 day cancellation policy so we had to go.
This was after a nonstop flight from EWR to Maui where if for any reason there was a cancellation or something that caused us to miss reaching there in time would trigger the charge, and United our carrier was at the time cancelling many flights due to labor shortages.
Felt like playing roulette that we actually make it there on the day, and luckily did work out!
Booked a “free night” award at the Andaz 5th Ave hotel in NYC, missed the cancellation deadline and got socked for a few hundred dollars. A rate advertised by Hyatt as a “free night” ended up being far from free. And there was nothing in the booking at the time mentioning a cash penalty for failure to cancel prior to the cancellation deadline. Very customer-unfriendly move by Hyatt too.
Señor Leff,
Some people consider increased government allowances for big company mergers/acquisitions to be a form of deregulation.
Major hotel group hotels in the US used to have much more customer-friendly cancellation policies before the hotel sector became more concentrated/oligopolistic. Industry concentration became easier for companies as the US courts became even more corporate-friendly than they already were, as the US DOJ and FTC became ever more reluctant to block M&As.
@GUWonder – I guess if your benchmark is the Obama DOJ saying ‘ok fine’ to Marriott+Starwood and that inaction is deregulation, then that’s a position of sorts. But deregulation presupposes a time of greater regulation, when were hotel chain mergers more actively opposed? And remember that the EU signed off on Marriott-Starwood, too.
For what it’s worth, when I booked five nights at the Le Meridien Beach Plaza in Monaco over the Grand Prix weekend at the end of May this year, they made this clear and it was around a $13,000 cancellation fee. And then in January they sent out an email specifically stating this and giving another opportunity to cancel at that point without penalty.
My solution has been to book a stay at a cheaper hotel for the first night after arriving on a long trip. After all, I don’t really sleep on long flights and I’m too tired to enjoy a nice hotel, so I book next to the airport and just relax. Then move on to the better hotel the next day. Plus there’s less stress in worrying about the penalties in the event of a flight cancellation.