Marriott has published benefits, and even a benefits ‘guarantee’ for Bonvoy elite members. If a hotel cheats you, they’re supposed to owe you cash. But at the same time, the chain – in their CEO’s words – is most interested in “net rooms growth” and that means appeasing owners. They want to be the cheapest brand for owners to sign up with, and the easiest one to work with.
As a result, we have a Rube Goldberg set of benefits for breakfast across each region and brand. Some of those are exceptionally cheap. Marriott’s Courtyard brand only promises US$10 per guest (up to 2 guests) per day as a food and beverage credit when Platinum members and higher are staying in the U.S., Canada and Europe. It seems that even this modest offering is a step too far for some hotels to honor.
Credit: Marriott
One guest tweeted a photo of the breakfast coupon at the Courtyard By Marriott Halifax Downtown where the pre-printed US$10 has ‘US’ blacked out, and the property would only honor 10 Canadian dollars (US$7.21) a 29% devaluation. However they deleted the tweet because – after complaining to the hotel’s General Manager – the property made a one-time exception for them.
@garyleff @OneMileataTime Courtyard By Marriott Halifax Downtown is adamant they will only give 10 CAD not USD for the F&B elite welcome gift benefit. They even try to hide/erase "US" mention on the front side of the voucher pic.twitter.com/o5RgzUphJ2
— Elite Riff Raff (@EliteRiffRaff) April 11, 2025
I'm open to repost the tweet. I think the hotel deceives all customers into taking a 10 CAD (instead of 10 USD voucher) , unless the customer complains to management, or the staff is not properly trained
— Elite Riff Raff (@EliteRiffRaff) April 12, 2025
In the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Platinum elite members and above can select a welcome gift of 500 points (total for the stay) or a US$10 food and beverage credit for the member and up to one guest per day. Breakfast often costs more than that, but the credit can be used at any time.
Since the terms of this benefit aren’t being honored by the property, guests are entitled to claim the elite benefit guarantee, which in this case is $50. That’s what this guest should have done rather than just fighting for the $2.89.
That said, doing so can be a dangerous game – when one Platinum member requested their $50 guarantee because a Courtyard property wasn’t honoring the food and breakfast benefit, the hotel called the police.
As I wrote at the time, Marriott hotels just ignore elite breakfast benefits with impunity and will continue to do so until Marriott does something about it. Even before the pandemic I described understanding the Marriott breakfast rules as “like something out of a Fellini film.” At Courtyards it’s something that takes a general manager – or the police – to sort out.
So, I’m no fan of getting Bonvoy’d, but the there should not be outrage that a hotel in Halifax, Canada, will only honor Canadian dollars, not US dollars. It’s their country and currency. Yes, it should be relative to the conversion, but that’s less a US-Canada problem, and more a Bonvoy problem. So, let’s please not make this into a ‘Canadians hate Americans’ thing, because even if they do (and they probably *should* hate us these days based on how we are treating them), it’s a Bonvoy issue.
Or… if we’re looking for a pretext to invade our neighbors and former allies… I think we may have just found it. Like, it’s not about land, resources, respect, sovereignty, etc. It’s about how this one hotel is not living up to the expectations of the Bonvoy loyalty program. It’ll be just like Russia did to Ukraine—time to de-Nazify Canada! /s
Some Courtyards and AC Hotels in Europe shave 10% of the $10 per person by using a poor exchange rate. Solution is simple. Even US$10 pp is pretty cheap to begin with so I just avoid AC and Courtyard. Not worht the effort to have to discuss with fornt desk who are just following instructions
Hilton still provides complimentary continental breakfast in Canada (and anywhere outside the U.S.) to the elite member and up to one other guest in the room. I recently stayed at a Hilton in Canada where for a $6CAD up charge one could get a full buffet plus made-to-order items (instead of cold buffet items only).
@1990 Hope there isn’t a Hong Kong Marriott trying the same trick, HK$10. That would be less than US$2. The Canadian hotel is wrong.
just don’t go to canada. problem solved
Why has nobody filed a lawsuit?
@derek — Bah! Would be far worse in Vietnam. 10 dong would be 0.00039 dollars.
@FNT Delta Diamond — Sue over the a $2 difference? Good luck finding a lawyer who will take that on. Someone else suggested a class action lawsuit over a similar silly change in policy. I recall it was over Southwest expiring credits. Again, not likely to prevail. We simply need to regulate these programs better so that consumers stop getting screwed. But we won’t, because the anarcho-capitalists are in-charge, and to them, regulation is a sin.
@1990 there’s no outrage at the conversion. There’s outrage at the 1:1 exchange which is inappropriate, which results in failed delivery of a published benefit. It should be a $10 USD credit per the terms. A $14 CAD voucher would in good faith meet those terms. A $10 CAD voucher does not.
@Don G — Problem not solved, either by boycotting Canada or by ignoring the actual issue which is that Bonvoy benefits aren’t consistent. Above, I preemptively mocked folks like you who would inevitably disparage our neighbor and former ally. Shameful.
@Uncle Jeff — I understood the underlying currency conversion issue, but that is a pretext. As you also seem to recognize, the real issue here is indeed the ‘bad faith’ within the Bonvoy program, whereby that company doesn’t ensure consistency among its properties. So, one more time for everyone, it’s not really a Canada (or any other country where this happens) problem. Yes, I’ve also added some spicy banter above, because I suspected folks, like @Don G, would hate on Canada regardless.
Expect nothing from Marriott and you’ll never be disappointed.
A lot of hotels that sit on the value end of the spectrum continuously try to play fast and loose with elite benefits. This weekend I arrived at a value IHG brand at 1:30pm to check in. Despite being Diamond elite with IHG I was told I had to pay a $75 early check-in fee if I wanted in my room before 4pm.
I asked the nice lady behind the counter if I could have a hit of what she was smoking. She was not amused, but she did finally relent and gave me a room. 😀
Yeah unfortunately I am not surprised and this is a situation that can just as easily happen in another chain, except maybe Hyatt which has more rigorous standards
I gave up staying in Hilton hotels because the daily food and beverage credit was just not being delivered as agreed by hotels. This wasn’t a currency conversion issue, all hotels were in the USA. Sometimes with the backing of misinformed corporate reps, hotels exclude tax and gratuity from the credit. So if you order a $2 coffee with your $15 credit, you’re on the hook for tax and tip.
IHG has never been big on loyalty benefits, I thought a new exec wanted to change that but no material progress has been made. Actually scratch that, the material progress is do you want 600 points or a bottle of Gatorade when you check in. Wow! (Sarcasm)
@Unintimidated — On rare occasion I’ve also had Hiltons argue that F&B doesn’t apply to taxes and gratuity but I’ve always successfully had them honored as very conveniently Hilton’s official FAQ for F&B explicitly states that the credit can cover those.
I’ve had the same issues across Canadian Marriott’s. Specifically the courtyard Ottawa East.
The IHG Ambassador $20 credit at Intercontinental hotels also suffers from a poor exchange rate advantageous to the hotel rather than the guest, but in IHG’s mild defense, they clearly state the conversion in their overall terms and conditions rather than letting hotels use whatever rate they want:
A restaurants and bars credit of up to USD20, per stay, valid in select hotel restaurants, bars and minibar, excluding in-room dining. Benefit not applicable in Mainland China. Currency & credit vary by country and are subject to change by IHG in its sole discretion:
United States of America USD20, Euro currency member states EUR15, United Kingdom GBP15, Thailand THB600, Australia AUD25, Japan JPY2000, Saudi Arabia SAR70, Malaysia MYR50, Indonesia IDR180,000, Vietnam VND280,000 (excluding Danang which is VND460,000), Hong Kong HKD135, Korea KRW20,000.
All other countries: a credit of USD20 will be converted to local currency at local hotel exchange rate of the day, except Mainland China.