Booking new hotels is always a risk. Hotel openings are delayed more often than not. When you make a reservation far in advance, there’s a decent chance you’ll wind up getting moved – if they honor your reservation at all. Check you email for updates on new hotels you plan to stay at!
That is, if they let you know about opening changes at all. One guest tried to check into the TownePlace Suites by Marriott Murfreesboro. Marriott even let them know it was time to check in! But their attempt to do so was… unsuccessful.
Platinum Elite. Booked a hotel two months ago on points for my first ever night away completely ALONE in 5 years since having my child… Arrived at the hotel, just now, for check-in,and it’s not finished being built!!! Doors locked, furniture still in wrappers, pool not finished, construction underway.
I received all the check-in emails and app reminders. Phone not attended – just a full voicemail.
Called customer service and they wouldn’t help.Said they can’t “walk me” since I’m not able to go inside to be “walked” by the staff. They were willing to rebook me at nearby Courtyard for double points of what I already spent. They emailed current hotel for eventual points refund since they cannot be reached to cancel reservation.
You might think, but they booked through Marriott. That’s guaranteed! Why should they have to spend double the points to stay somewhere else that night? At a minimum shouldn’t their reservation get them a room somewhere, without additional charge?
Marriott’s Ultimate Reservation Guarantee only applies if the property is “open and operational.” Marriott’s program terms state,
A Participating Property must be open and operational for the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee benefit/compensation to apply.
For a true delayed opening, the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee does not apply. There’s no published requirement in the Bonvoy rules for an unopened hotel to “walk” you or pay cash and points compensation, regardless of whether they notified you in advance.
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.
When a hotel isn’t open yet, they’ll usually contact you in advance. They may offer assistance in booking somewhere else but they may not offer compensation. This varies a lot.
Here, though, the hotel appears to not have been open but didn’t notify the customer in advance and that’s a whole different level of disservice (it’s worse!).
Sometimes it’s not new hotels that have this problem – the property closes, it changes brands, or it gets converted to a different use… but no one bothers to tell the guests.
- By the time one guest reached the Holiday Inn LaGuardia it wasn’t a hotel anymore but nobody bothered to let them know.
- Another guest showed up at their hotel but it was no longer accepting guests, since it had been turned into a homeless shelter (actually somewhat common in New York).
- And Marriott took a guest’s reservation but the hotel was shut down, parking lot empty and phones disconnected.
Just because you make a booking doesn’t mean you have a room. Unfortunately you may need to do more due diligence than making a reservation on a hotel website and showing up.
Basic travel rules:
Don’t fly Frontier
Don’t stay at a Marriott property
Don’t rent from Hertz.
Follow those three rules and 90% of your issues will go away.
@Ron is onto something. @Gene, do you concur? Perhaps, @Matt would add, ‘please consider Delta,’ @L737?
@Ron Nailed it!
Possible remedies include (1) a complaint with your state attorney general or state consumer protection regulatory body and (2) a lawsuit in small claims court.
@Ron. This website needs a like button.
I’ve been following those 3 rules. Never flown on Frontier so that one is easy. Hertz used to be fine pre-bankruptcy.
@Ron with the mic drop!
@1990 — A @Matt appearance twice in one day!? Surely we aren’t worthy
@Nick Thomas — Interestingly, you didn’t suggest initiating a dispute through your credit card company, (which, I understand, if it were merely using points, may not help), or contacting any federal regulators (but, as I understand it, this administration has tried to eradicate them all, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and, probably, also, Federal Trade Commission, if applicable.) Yeah, the real takeaway is that these loyalty programs need better regulation to prevent such abuses of marketing, abuses of and/or breach of contract. Sucks to have to escalate to the point of suing anyone, though, sometimes it must be done. Thank you, at least, for not wasting anyone’s time with contacting the lame-as-can-be Better Business Bureau (worthless.)
This seems an awful lot like all of the elements of fraud on Marriott’s part.
@ron yup. It took me forever to leave Hertz, and boy am I glad I did! Overpriced and shitty cars.
I stay at a Marriott as my last choice, then again Bonvoy is connected to Manchester United so that’s a massive strike against them.
@L737 — We just need to believe… trust in @Matt!
And to think, most of us used to be extremely loyal Marriott Rewards members.
We stopped using Marriott in April of this year after we had a flight canceled until the next day. I booked 2 rooms at the closest Marriott for my clan. Outside looked like the pictures. Inside was a disgusting mess. I asked for different rooms, and was told they all were lacking. We’re talking stuff smeared on bathroom walls, huge nicks in furniture, burn marks on outlets that didn’t work, it was bad. Once home, I sent the pictures to corporate. I got 2,000 points, even though each room cost me $280. We’re done with Marriott. We even canceled our Marriott card.
A few years ago I booked a new not yet complete Hampton hotel close to Miineta Airport in San Jose. About 1 month before the stay I received a call from the manager who informed me the hotel would not open on time. He asked me to pick another Hilton brand hotel and he would personally book my stay and pay for it. He followed through and send me all the details
He also said to contact him after the Hampton opened and he would give me a deal (never needed to go there so haven’t followed up) but I would surely stay there for how they took care of a (potential) customer.
This is the way it should be. My stay was FREE and I wasn’t left helpless trying to rebook at the last minute.
Wait a second. Am I missing something? The potential guest, a platinum elite; booked via Marriott’s platform and is somehow at fault for not performing some type of diligence to check that the hotel was actually open for business? Both Hilton and Hyatt will only let you book stays for when a property is open and accepting reservations. Marriott stance is ridiculous (as well as anyone blaming the guest), their property/affiliate on their platform, their fault. All the negative press I see on Marriott convinces me every day to stay elsewhere. Hilton diamond and hyatt globalist here (earned the hard way with actual stays).
Second bad thing I read about @Marriott today. Terrible service. This is shocking and insane.
Thats called “were a hotel that always drops the ball on this and it gets expensive for us therefore we are covering our behinds in our policy in order to avoid any accountability whatsoever.