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I booked 7 nights at the London Marriott Park Lane 4 months ago for roughly 570,000 points. When I logged into the app today I noticed those points had been refunded to my account. A call to Marriott customer service revealed that “someone” cancelled my reservation but I could rebook it today for roughly 850,000 points. I did not receive a cancellation notice via e-mail. Was told that they would reach out to the manager at Park Lane and only he could decide if he would give us the room at our original, confirmed rate.
My questions are;
– How can they not honor the rate of the confirmed reservation? We didn’t cancel the reservation and they literally said “it was cancelled on the internet” and could offer no other explanation
– could this happen again? Luckily I had enough points to cover the new rate, but I’m concerned if this happens again, I might not have enough points to cover the new charge, or it could be cancelled again on short notice and I’ll arrive in London with no hotel
-if I book with a cash plus points option, instead of only points is Marriott less likely to “cancel” my reservation again?Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
That is pretty shocking! I’ve not had that happen to me, but I did have a fantastic value Bonvoy redemption booking in Istanbul in June during the Champions League Final weekend, and the hotel did email me in advance to make sure I was coming. I have an even better value Bonvoy redemption for Paris for one of the Rugby World Cup games next month, so I’ll be watching that closely!
In your case, I’d definitely contact the hotel yourself, and ask if they know anything (but without accusing anyone of anything). I do not think Cash + Points would help and it could definitely happen again – even on a cash booking. Having said that i cannot see any conspiracy by the hotel (it could have been accidental!) My understanding is that the hotel does not get more money if you use more points- The hotel gets one set low amount of cash for a points redemption if they are not busy (around 90% full) and a much higher rate if they are above the threshold. It is based on the average rate, brand, popularity for redemptions etc – not the points rate. Bonvoy themselves are the only ones to benefit in this case, as you are burning more points for the same reward
Don’t put up with it. Complain to Marriott and demand reinstatement at the originally booked rate.
I certainly wouldn’t have given them the extra points I’d have gone straight to Marriott,
Who wants to stay in a hotel that would be that sleazy? What else will they do to you when you’re staying if you let them do this?
Accidental, my ar$e.
You should definitely pursue this. Log it with Marriott, via phone and email, but also give the hotel a call, as they are the most likely culprits.
Did you receive a cancellation email?
How soon is the upcoming stay?
Don’t put up with it. Complain to Marriott and demand reinstatement at the originally booked rate.
I certainly wouldn’t have given them the extra points I’d have gone straight to Marriott,
Who wants to stay in a hotel that would be that sleazy? What else will they do to you when you’re staying if you let them do this?
Accidental, my ar$e.
I’d be asking Marriott to assist me in paying originally booked points price for an alternative property. Not this one. Who knows where the shady practices end.
Ha – I knew the conspiracy theorists would jump in! Why would the hotel do it on purpose? The money the hotel gets does not depend on the points rate – on the contrary, if they are close to the 90% threshold, they want to entice a few more bookings, so a lower cash or points rate is better as they get more money for ALL the points redemptions they have that night. I had a quick scan of Tripadvisor and Flyertalk, but no one else seems to have had this issue. Looking on Reddit there is nothing on Park Lane, but one or two cases of mystery cancellations – none with rebooking though. For what it is worth, I have also stayed at this hotel and experienced really good treatment as a Titanium (at that time)
Talk to the hotel and then go to Marriott and insist on them restoring the booked rate. Looking at the posts from Marriott employees, you can ask them to check ChangeHistory or ResHistory to see who made the change or if it was systematic. I assume you checked your email spam folder and the credit card you used hasn’t expired? Though, that wouldn’t explain the rebooking.
I’m intrigued! Keep us updated please!
One quick correction, it seems like there were a whole spate of these around Dec 2019 / Jan 2020, and it was an Marriott IT issue
https://frequentmiler.com/like-a-thief-in-the-night-watch-out-for-marriotts-latest-naughtiness/
I think Marriott themselves are the issue, not the hotel, and customer services will the best route to solving it
Marriott bonvoy have been pretty shocking in customer service recently. I’ve had a case go on for over 2 months where they haven’t still resolved my issue even after raising on Twitter. They made the case worse by an agent transferring some random person my points and it took over a month to reverse that separate issue. It depends on when your stay is, but I’m not sure central will be swift in resolving. Good luck with it.
Don’t put up with it. Complain to Marriott and demand reinstatement at the originally booked rate.
I certainly wouldn’t have given them the extra points I’d have gone straight to Marriott,
Who wants to stay in a hotel that would be that sleazy? What else will they do to you when you’re staying if you let them do this?
Accidental, my ar$e.
I’d be asking Marriott to assist me in paying originally booked points price for an alternative property. Not this one. Who knows where the shady practices end.
Your solution is more intelligent @Blair Waldorf Salad. But I’d not be sure of getting the correct message back to the hotel about trying on these abusive practices that way.
Of course if I could be sure Marriott would do that and if they’d put me in an at least comparable property nearby, whilst billing the hotel an extra charge for the admin and wasting lots of the original sleazy hotel’s time,…then yes I’d look at it.
Don’t put up with it. Complain to Marriott and demand reinstatement at the originally booked rate.
I certainly wouldn’t have given them the extra points I’d have gone straight to Marriott,
Who wants to stay in a hotel that would be that sleazy? What else will they do to you when you’re staying if you let them do this?
Accidental, my ar$e.
I’d be asking Marriott to assist me in paying originally booked points price for an alternative property. Not this one. Who knows where the shady practices end.
Your solution is more intelligent @Blair Waldorf Salad. But I’d not be sure of getting the correct message back to the hotel about trying on these abusive practices that way.
Of course if I could be sure Marriott would do that and if they’d put me in an at least comparable property nearby, whilst billing the hotel an extra charge for the admin and wasting lots of the original sleazy hotel’s time,…then yes I’d look at it.
How do you know the hotel is abusive and sleazy!? You are imagining malice that probably doesn’t exist. If it was a regular occurrence then it would be all over FlyerTalk, TripAdvisor and Reddit, especially as Park Lane is the 3rd most popular hotel in Europe for redemptions! Have a look yourself and you’ll see there are no complaints. It was probably something simple like an expired credit card or fat finger
Well we have heard about enough incidents with Marriott Hotels, also IHG, where hotel tried not to provide correctly to the loyalty member, and Marriott or IHG were contacted to remedy this (though even that didn’t always work). Going to the chain makes more sense than having an argument with the hotel IMV.
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