A Marriott Bonvoy lifetime Platinum member had their reservation cancelled for a stay during next month’s solar eclipse.
Back in June 2023 they made a two night stay at the Residence Inn in Akron, Ohio for April 6-8, 2024.
Was 45,000 points for the stay. Family has been excited. Residence Inn in Akron Ohio just called me and left a voicemail on my phone saying they had to cancel my reservation as they are overbooked and had a system glitch.
Most hotels are booked out and are taking cash only. Just checked east in Erie, PA and hotels are unavailable for point redemption and cost $1891 per night.
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.
Compensation for a Platinum member at a Residence Inn is:
- An alternative stay nearby for free
- Plus $100
- And 90,000 Marriott points
The hotel here is not offering this (or anything). I reached out to Marriott to see whether they expect hotels to honor free night awards booked over the solar eclipse, and will update if I receive a response. The problem, of course, is hardly limited to Marriott.
Last month I wrote about a Hyatt falsely claiming to have been sold in order to dishonor points reservations during the Super Bowl and a hotel cancelling bookings and trying to charge guests triple during the upcoming NFL draft.
I’ve also written about a hotel claiming their regular rates were a mistake when they forgot to increase prices graduation weekend, and about hotels cancelling cheap bookings for a past solar eclipse.
Ultimately the challenge is a mismatch of incentives created by the asset light model of major hotel chains.
- The chain has a reputation, and customer loyalty, and has set expectations through the loyalty program.
- Individual hotels aren’t owned by the chains. They benefit from the loyalty, which is created when all hotel properties honor program benefits. But the incentive of an individual property is not to make that investment – especially during a peak of peak event when they get less compensation for a free room from the chain than they would selling that room to a cash guest.
- This all works when brands enforce their standards vigorously, fining non-compliant properties more than they can benefit from defecting from the chain’s standards. But chains don’t want to be too tough on owners or owners won’t sign up with them, paying them fees.
A hotel chain’s value is its brand and customer loyalty. When hotels are allowed to benefit from that loyalty without delivering on brand promises, the long-term brand of the chain erodes and they no longer have value left.
These sorts of events are outliers, but peak events happen all over the country and the world all the time. And if benefits – and, indeed, reservations – aren’t going to be honored when they matter most (when there are few alternatives left and only at extreme prices) then hotels are no better than Airbnb.
This hotel is going to be reinstating the Plat member’s points reservation. The Marriott guarantee is going to cost the hotel out the ass.
Lying is the new national sport. It used to be limited to a few, now it’s practiced far and wide, by people of all persuasions, both high and low. We live in a post-truth era.
Odd that these hotels never seem to encounter any “system glitches” when it comes time to close out my folio and charge my card.
I have an even worse story. I have family members who booked a Wyndham property on points in Texas’ “path of totality” for the eclipse. The Wyndham website displayed a curious note on the hotel’s webpage telling customers to call the property before booking eclipse reservations. They did, and the property manager assured them their award reservation would be honored. So they booked the motel. The next day, the same manager called them back and said their room type was oversold, but he could move them to a different room category at a paid rate (over $1000/night!). When they refused, he cancelled their reservation. A complaint to Wyndham is still unresolved, with the Wyndham representative so far suggesting there is little they can do to cajole rouge hotels from honoring their commitments.
Obviously, these chains need to do more to reign in the bad actors who mistreat customers and diminish brand loyalty.
I took the cheaper route, prepaying for sub $100.00 rooms (2) last September for 4/7-4/9 in Tyler.
Nothing yet via email but I have receipt in hand if there is any questions when I arrive…
Geez, it would make me nervous to book a Marriott points reservation anywhere if they get a reputation for cancelling free nights whenever they can make more money from a local event — that you probably don’t even know about! Who knows when graduations are taking place in nearby colleges if you’re not there for that? And I don’t care about the total eclipse and therefore have no idea what parts of the world it’s affecting. And this is a little late in the game for the hotels to be figuring out they can make money during the eclipse. Wrong on so many fronts.
I’m not sure I believe this story. I just checked on Hotels.com for availability in Akron for April 6-8 and 7-9 and there’s a ton of room available for around $250. Indeed this particular Marriott is sold out and these people should never have been denied their reservation, but there certainly is a number of other alternative properties available in Akron.
Another great example of why it does not make sense to give exclusive loyalty to one provider.
Few companies are consistent in the way they treat their elites, some programs are mere illusions.
When a hotel exhibits this behavior, it is time to boot them from the program.
This is why I no longer chase status at ANY brand. Clearly covid is over and these companies will do anything to gauge however they can.
@Gary: You’re wrong here, the hotel is NOT failing to meet the platinum guarantee. As I’ve learned the hard way, the Marriott Platinum reservation guarantee only applies if you do not get a room when you show up at the hotel. It does not apply if the hotel cancels the reservation in advance. I’ve had personal experience where the hotel called me at 7 PM on the day of the reservation to move me to a different hotel and Marriott said that didn’t trigger the guarantee since I was already reaccommodated before I got to the hotel.
So the hotel doesn’t owe any compensation if they cancel hours in advance, much less days in advance: Marriott’s platinum reservation guarantee only applies if you actually show up and get walked.
I once booked an award stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in New Orleans. That was during a conference. Hilton Honors called and said that the location made a mistake and was not honoring awards but was charging maybe $100 more than usual for stays during the conference. Hilton Honors said, without prompting, that they would pay for the stay and that I would have the number of points that was originally asked for deducted from my account. Very fair to honor the award.
The key phrase in the benefit is “we’ll pay for your accommodations that night”… If they tell you before day-of, no benefit. Days after the first night, no benefit.
A Marriott property in Albuquerque also did this to me 6 months ago.
@Christopher Raehl – they may not have paid out for you, but I don’t read the program’s terms that way at all. You had a confirmed reservation. The property unilaterally cancelling it before you show up at the hotel front desk for check-in doesn’t change that.
The idea is you can’t show up *without having made a reservation* and expect a room and claim compensation when they don’t give it to you. You first must make a confirmed reservation to trigger eligibility for the guarantee.
If they are denying you the guarantee because the property cancelled before you arrived that is, I think, a rather implausible reading of the program terms. However in my experience Marriott will go through backflips to justify whatever a hotel does rather than advocating for the member.
@Christopher Raehl & @Gary: Marriott has pulled this stunt on me as well. Claiming they owe no compensation if they notify in advance other than finding comparable or better accommodations nearby, since there was no inconvenience to me if I did not show up to be “walked”. Each time this happened I got them to move me to a better (more expensive) property for my entire stay at the rate I originally booked for the entire stay, though at first they wanted me to move back to where I originally booked when it became available (I told them they would need to compensate me for the time & inconvenience of moving). It seems like willingness to help/accommodate depends on the individual property more than anything else and Marriott corporate is disinterested in getting involved.
@Gary – I disagree. The ultimate problem is that Marriott consistently refuses to force adherence to their own terms that hotels agreed to beforehand. I would email the hotel to explain that if they do not reinstate the reservation forthwith then I would book another hotel at a much higher rate, then sue the hotel in small claims court for the total of the new reservation cost plus the compensation they are required to provide.
Allowing hotels to act like odious swine by ignoring rules that apply to them simply encourages them to act dishonestly.
I booked an Airbnb in Buffalo for the eclipse. I booked back in November and rates were high, but not extravagant. Last Tuesday, the host cancelled and tried to say it was because the property was being managed by someone else. Basically, they were just relisting it as if it was a new listing to try to charge a higher rate. I have read many Airbnb horror stories and was worried I was SOOL but I was pleasantly surprised. It took multiple contacts and about 24 hours. But it was able to make a new reservation for another property that fit my needs and Airbnb covered the price difference. Now I’m just nagging them over and over trying to get them to take down the new listing so that this guy can’t make money off of being a shady son of a biscuit.
See the following post for my horror story with a Marriott property and canceled reservation.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/1962846-springhill-suites-new-york-jfk-airport-jamaica-master-thread.html
Starts at post 4.
I will say Marriott CS at least came through.
Wyndham’s Iban hotel in Dallas sent me a “Thank you, your reservation has been cancelled” email for a 2 night points reservation for the eclipse.
Same issue. Aloft Buffalo Airport April 7th-8th. Room with good rate and cancelation. Noticed it was canceled on Friday-no notice. Bonvoy confirmed property canceled and no notification. They “opened a case”. Property directed me to the GM email. They wouldnt take any calls. I am sure I wont get anything, but as a LTT, I am making some waves. They are selling rooms for 4X my rate.
Also had the Aloft Buffalo Airport problem. I am supposedly getting a $150 voucher, but re-booking will cost me $1,000 more. I booked over a year ago. Also no notice from the hotel or Marriott and just happened to see it in Bonvoy app.
Bonvoy has gotten as devious as the rental car companies minus filing false police reports. Hilton may have mediocre status benefits on paper, but they have yet to cancel one of my reservations or walk me. There were a few times that reservations were honored with Hilton that I was afraid would not be. I cannot say the same for Marriott or IHG.
If the hotel chains are intentionally canceling points based booking and not honoring the compensation and this is happening to multiple people in with each each chain if would fall under a class action law suit
I’m afraid its like the teacher who fails to gain control of the classroom. In the case of Marriott, resulting from of its ‘greed, growth and hotel owner love-fest’, Marriott has lost control of the hospitality element of its business model. As with the teacher, it’s very difficult to regain that control and things simply go from bad to worse. Just watch…
For those with accommodation cancellations, there are alternatives but they are not as good. You could stay farther away and rent a car to drive to the area of totality. Make sure to leave enough time to get to where you want to get. If you want to camp, there are probably ways to do that. I was thinking that an enterprising farmer could make some quick cash allowing camping for a night or two at a rate that a low end hotel would cost. The biggest variable will be the weather.
Akron’s a dump
@Gary: That may be your interpretation, and I believe Marriott intentionally wrote the benefit exactly the way they did so that people will assume your generous interpretation is the correct one, but your opinion doesn’t count, Marriott’s does. And Marriott’s interpretation is that the benefit only applies when you try to check in AT the hotel and are walked. Marriott does not believe the benefit triggers if they contact you and cancel the reservation before day of check-in, and they do not believe the benefit triggers if they contact you day-of check-in and preemptively move you to a different hotel.
This is not a case of Marriott not enforcing their terms. Marriott *IS* enforcing their term’s, and Marriott’s terms are advance cancellations ARE NOT covered by the ultimate reservation guarantee. It has nothing to do with the hotel.
@Christopher Raehl – I understand the realist position that the terms are whatever Marriott says they are, but it IS a case of Marriott acting contrary to the language they’ve used in their document.
After I booked a regular reservation a year out for April 7-9 at the Comfort Inn, Gatesville TX, at a decent rate, the hotel suddenly canceled a few months later, stating the hotel was unexpectedly planning renovations just then, so someone on staff claimed, the room had been sold in error – sure! Then I was a Diamond member with Choice, but I have quit that brand because it’s known for such stunts, too.
Someone is going to be enterprising enough to hire a lawyer and go into court demanding “specific performance.” Normally, you can’t get a court to require somebody who breaks a contract to honor the contract as written if monetary compensation can redress the injury. Here, however, if there are no other accommodations available, no amount of money can address the injury of not having a place to stay to see the eclipse. If I were the general counsel of a hotel chain and this lawsuit landed on my desk I might feel compelled do whatever I had to do to find a room for that customer rather than having to be in court the next day (given the short timeframe) to answer for this.
@Gary: My point is your article claims this is an issue of Marriott not holding their hotels to Marriott’s standards… It’s not that the hotel is supposed to do something that they didn’t, it’s that Marriott intentionally used optimistic language to make the benefit sound better than it actually is and the hotel isn’t supposed to do anything at all.
Itvs not a case of a handful of hotels, it is the program-wide policy. Your story should be, Marriott Ultimate Reservation Gaurantee only applies to getting physically walked. Call Marriott out for the grossly misleading “benefit”.
@Christopher Raehl – I disagree. It’s not that the benefit language misleads about what the benefit it, it’s that Marriott doesn’t hold hotels to the language.
City Express (Marriott) in Mazatlan tried to cancel our two night stay during the eclipse on points. The reservation was in my wife’s name with no status. As an Ambassador member, one email to my rep fixed the problem. We had reserved like 6 months ago. Greed is worldwide.