Many airlines, hotels, and rental car companies all ‘overbook’ meaning they sell more seats, rooms, and cars than they have. That usually works out just fine. They know some people will cancel or no show, and they want to use up all of their inventory.
Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and too many people show up. They have to turn away some people who have reservations.
Usually you can get moved somewhere, though it’s a hassle to waste time going to a hotel you can’t stay at and then going somewhere else. This is especially onerous late at night when you only have a few hours to sleep.
Crazy: One Marriott Called Security To Help Deny Reservations To Platinum Members
A reader shares his experience checking in at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg. He presented his ID and credit card. The associated thanked him for being a Bonvoy Platinum member. And then “summoned security over” and told him he was being walked.
- The hotel didn’t arrange alternative accommodations
- He wasn’t the only Platinum member they were doing this to, either.
There was another platinum who went through the same experience also trying to check in
Hotel Refuses To Honor Marriott’s Ultimate Reservation Guarantee
Marriott’s “Ultimate Reservation Guarantee” requires that
If for some reason we’re unable to honor your reservation, we’ll pay for your accommodations that night at a nearby hotel and compensate you for the inconvenience.
All Elite members receive: $200 USD + 90,000 points
Ultimately the reader found a room for themselves directly 22 miles away at Chicago Marriott Naperville. They’re paying out of pocket, since not only couldn’t he get the hotel he’d booked to pick up the cost, “the associate lost it when I showed him the policy.”
Starting yelling, said he had never seen the ultimate reservation guarantee, said it wasn’t real and that he didn’t have to rebook.
I had him speak with a Marriott agent…employee yelled at them that he didn’t have to do anything other than tell a guest to leave when it’s a walk
What Happens When You Get Walked
Generally when you’re ‘walked’ by a hotel (declined a room despite a reservation) you’ll be entitled to be put up at another comparable hotel. The hotel you’ve booked won’t charge for the room you did not get, and should cover the cost of the room night they arrange for you somewhere else, plus cover the cost of transportation to that other hotel.
That’s true at most chain hotels. Independent hotels may not handle it the same way, unless they’re luxury properties. And at best Airbnb might give you a $100 credit towards another property for the night.
Once your hotel has rooms available, they’ll expect you to return. If you have a 3 night stay and they’re only overbooked the first night, you get one free night somewhere else not three.
Elite members of a hotel loyalty program who get walked can usually expect points for an additional free night.
Sometimes there simply won’t be any rooms available nearby, or the hotel won’t bother to book you somewhere else (for franchise properties they might just be avoiding the expense) you’re on your own, and will need to complain to the hotel chain after the fact seeking reimbursement.
How To Avoid Being Walked
Whenever I review contracts for events, I always insist on a ‘no walk’ clause in the agreement. We’ll be paying the hotel enough money that – as long as you know to ask – they’ll generally agree to refuse reservations to other guests, and not event guests.
The next best thing to a contract that forbids the hotel to walk you is having elite status with the chain, although that didn’t help here. The hotel simply wasn’t following procedure. Other guests (like those who booked through online travel agencies) should have been walked first. They should have provided and paid for alternate lodging, and they should have compensated the guest.
You can reduce the likelihood of being walked by checking in online or via the chain’s app. A checked in guest may be less likely to be walked, especially if you get a room assigned and can use mobile key!
Checking in earlier in the day helps avoid being walked. The hotel might plan in advance for being overbooked, and walk non-status guests earlier in the day. But often they don’t know yet just how overbooked they’ll be, and those who check in later when the hotel has given away its rooms face the greatest risk. Earlier in the day the hotel may still have rooms and discretion about whom to walk, so if the front desk clerk is denying you a room, escalate.
I worked at the front desk for several years when I was in college. If we had treated any guest this way, especially one with elite status, we would have been fired. That’s what should have happened to this associate.
This article omits far too many relevant details. Like, did this just happen in the last few days of distant history? What was the resolution and did the hotel have a specific excuse if felt mitigated their behavior (for instance, Marriott Central Reservations had continued to sell rooms in a sold-out property, or there was a force majure even, or many guests had just not left)? Did Marriott make the jilted guest whole? Was there even an attempt to contact Marriott? We are left wondering if this is SOP for the hotel or a dozen unexpected things happened.
This is helpful. Experience across Marriott properties in the last 18 months has overall declined, with some cases creating absolute chaos or inconvenience. I’ve just spoken with our travel team and senior leaders and we will be removing Marriott from our approved and preferred hotels lists. We are a large tech company with greater than 15k hotel nights booked per year.
Companies like Marriott and Delta have figured out that majority of their clients are slaves to their elite status. So they figure out new ways to screw you because they know you’re not going to leave.
Only way to make them take you seriously is to actually leave, but I don’t see a lot of people doing that so be prepared to get screwed in a different way next time.
Hello everyone. There is a swift and simple solution. If a hotel or car rental breaches you agreement, just file a civil claim in small claims court. I don’t anytime this happens and have been awarded. 3x the damages pursuant to breach of contract and u fair business practices plus $2,500 statutory damages pursuant B&P 17200 et seq. The second they are served it’s no longer in the hands of customer service it’s sitting with an attorney that wants to settle an immediately. Bingo no stop whining and do something!
Last time I was at the Sheraton Orlando North hotel as titanium for bonvoy elite I had a the worst experience the front desk call security and police on em just because I ask her for a Starbucks breakfast voucher! And when i called Manager I ask him to look at the camera he said there’s no need they lies about to report to bonvoy! I just felt like a lot a Marriott property don’t really honor they guest! And she was so rude calling me greedy cause book with Priceline not bonvoy! This hotel is a3 ⭐️ i think bonvoy should investigate how they treated people cause a lot people complained about how disgusting this place is bad management!!!
I agree with Sean’s post. Too many entitled elites acting immaturely. If you can’t put up with contacting a manager the next day and/or making a call to Marriott to get it fixed right there then maybe traveling for a living is not for you. The posts requesting lawsuits and demanding knee jerk firings on the spot is really overkill.
I was almost walked twice. First time was at Pittsburgh airport marriott there was a second Mike sherman checking in that night. Hotel incorrectly assumed a double booking. They were going to walk me. At 2am. When I said okay but you have to pay me $200 they offered a rollaway bed in the ballroom. I took it, as I just wanted to sleep. I knew any available hotatbygatbtime would be a flea bag worth avoiding
Not an ignorant overworked employee. Maybe the employee had accepted a $20 tip in selling the room to someone else. AND DOESN’T want to talk to supervision!!!
That’s why he got angry. I may be wrong….but I don’t think his anger has to do with “what’s right” for the corporation…..but what’s already happened.
AND HE DOESN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT !!!!
This story is completely false. A hotel isn’t calling security to escort you from the premises unless you’re disruptive.
Richard Nunn, United Airlines MileagePlus CEO
The loyalty program I admire the most is Marriott and Bonvoy.
Why would anybody call Marriott? There’s no one to speak with that can resolve the issue on the spot. No one is empowered to do anything. The best case scenario is that they will “open a file” which means that perhaps nothing will happen but it certainly won’t be happening right then and there as it should. Calling the manager the next morning is not going to resolve the inconvenience. This is one of those instances where they deny you boarding at an airport against policy. If you want to get on the plane, the time and place to put up a fight is right then and there. Not with customer service and not by calling reservations. After some thought, and since I’d be expressly entitled to it, I probably would have just taken the $200 right out of the drawer and told him to go ahead and call the police and make sure that he calls his owner at the same time. At some point, you can’t fix stupid. Why are we programmed to be sheep and just put up with stupid? Many people do this in all situations. I’m tired of it.
I agree with Jay. Can we find out what happened as far as resolution? Never seen an article with so many unanswered questions. I’m Titanium with Bonvoy and recently did a Hilton Status Match Challenge because I believe Bonvoy properties don’t care about providing upgardes, allowing you to use your suite nights, or honoring any of the amenities the program promises to deliver anymore. So far, so good with Hilton.
I had a similar overbooked situation recently and to my great surprise Marriott handled it poorly. They only focused on trying to send me to a Comfort Inn near their property. For whatever reason the Comfort Inn manager would not accept the transfer. After an hour I found a hotel on my own and left. What is much worse they would not honor the reservation guarantee and provided no compensation. After several weeks of emailing them to complain, the opened a case then closed it the next day. Their email response was comical – we really dropped the ball but we can’t compensate once you leave the property. I thought it was a bad joke at first.
Jerry : I don’t understand. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent : We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.
Jerry : But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent : I think I know why we have reservations.
Jerry : I don’t think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.
Rental Car Agent : Would you like to purchase the renter’s insurance?
Jerry : Yeah, you better give me the insurance because I’m going to beat the HELL out of this thing.
Why isn’t there legislation covering this? Airlines are responsible to take care of their passengers and even pay hefty compensations if they are overbooked, but hotels legally can just do f-all, say sorry and that’s it. This definitely needs attention. That being said, in this particular case hotel did have a policy to deal with this in place but apparently a crazy agent just chose to ignore it?
Same thing happened to me at a Courtyard Auburn and got zero help from Bonvoy support. Basically told me it’s hotels decision and tough luck…
Marriott has gone downhill in the last two years. As a Global Travel Manager that spends over 30 Million USD on hotels a year. They sure know how to piss off their corporate clients. They refuse to offer a chainwide discount that all other hoteliers offer to large accounts. With the 2025 Hotel RFP season in full swing, we have shifted the bulk of our preferred properties from Marriott to Hilton who are happy to work with us. Not to mention Hilton has been much easier to work with and happy to steal marketshare from Marriott
As a front desk personnel at a Marriott property, this article and some comments are disheartening to me. Marriott employees go above and beyond and strive to ensure all their guests feel welcomed.
This article does not state enough details about the incident. Shame on you Gary Leff for making an attempt to dishonor Marriott and devalue the name. It’s distasteful and does not represent the guest service experience we deliver. My guests are treated like family and I ensure that especially during difficult times, they are accommodated.
My BS detector is going off here. Maybe this is 100% truthful but it sounds awfully one sided and exaggerated to me.
As a lifetime titanium member I agree that Marriott is going downhill fast over the last couple of years
The attempts here by some individuals leaving posts suggesting that’s not the case or that Marriott treats all their customers so wonderfully is simply not accurate. Mayra, some Marriott employees may go out of their way to treat their customers well but that is not an axiom at Marriott properties now days from my extensive experience and the fact that Marriott is doing nothing to address situations where hotels don’t follow the so-called brand standard will just mean that this will continue for the foreseeable future. I too have began utilizing Hilton for more of my stays where I find better treatment overall.
I used to work in guest services on the overnight shift for a Marriott hotel in downtown Chicago. It was a night when there was a citywide sell out due to Lollapalooza. We were already oversold three days out. I logged into the main system and turned off reservations for those days. I worked those oversold nights and I had to walk people to O’Hare!
A few days later I was fired. It was out of my job description and wasn’t really supposed to be done by me. I was fired for not allowing the hotel to be more oversold. It’s just mind boggling. 5 years of working there with perfect attendance and performance reviews ( I even won some awards!) down the drain.
Your experience at a Marriott depends on the franchisee that owns the property and the management company that runs it. Marriott owns no hotels and only manages about 25% of properties for owners, and this is on a downward trend. This is why Marriott is going down the tubes.
Someone nobody – 30mil? Fug outta here, ya clown.
Titanium for life Bonvoy member. Fairfield Inn Memphis, I checked with the app, and then texted the front desk via the app to tell them I would be arriving at 4am, and I was taking advantage of my 4pm checkout. Also requested a room on 2nd floor and the end of the hall. Hotel texted me back they would block me a king room on second floor end of hall. Drove all night, horrible rain storm, arrived around 4;30am and night clerk tells me they are sold out, no room for me. Says no other rooms in the area. I travel for work, and I was a desk clerk in my youth, so I told him it was his responsibility to find me a room. He starts looking online, finds a room but the arrival date is same day, check in time 3pm. I tell him he has to call hotels asking for rooms open for immediate check in. It was now 5;15am. I was super tired but I was also on my phone calling hotels. He tells me he found a room at Holiday Inn, and gives me walk letter. It’s not far, I drive over and they have a room for immediate check in, but they refuse to accept the walk letter from Fairfield Inn due to non payment in the past. Also desk clerk never called the front desk of Holiday Inn to even confirm. I pay for the room on my credit card and spend the next few months trying to get my $200 bonvoy guarantee and the $174 I paid to Holiday Inn. No help at all from hotel management, Bonvoy was no help, finally I was able to find the hospitality company that owned the property and contacted them, almost 9 months later I received my check for $374.
In my opinion, there are far too many facts missing for me to believe this “story.” I just cannot believe that a hotel counter host would immediately call security without ample provocation from the guest. I believe “stories” like this one fall under the “fake news” category.
Could it be that you’re trying to get more circulation for your blog by shading the truth? After all, you’re posting this unbelievably outrageous story on Facebook simply to tempt more clicks and boost your circulation.
You should try some due diligence research before posting your self-serfving bile.
P.S., no, I am not an employee of Marriott or any other hotel or chain. Nor am I related to or associated with any employee of any hotel or chain.
Overselling in general isn’t a big deal, every major company does it to maximize their revenues. But of course it has to be resolved smoothly when guests are affected. That employee probably didn’t had the correct training by the looks of it. So Is it really worth to condemn a whole chain because of one employees mistake?