FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Is there a consistent incidental hold policy?
Old Jul 31, 2008, 3:20 pm
  #26  
SkiAdcock
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Originally Posted by Marriott Concierge
Thank you rahmanbar for sending a personal message alerting me to this thread. I am sorry to say I had overlooked it. I hope this answers your questions.

The hold is determined by sum of three factors, the length of stay, room rate and tax, and something called the incidental factor. The first two are simple math, you take your room rate and tax and multiple it by the number of nights you will be staying. However the incidental factor is less constant. This amount is based on the typical spending habits of the property’s guests. This means you can expect to have a much larger hold at a resort location than you would typically have at an Airport location because guest tended to spend a lot more on incidentals. Likewise guests typically spend more at certain international locations than at many domestic locations.

Once the incidental factor is created, like Socrates said, there is no human determination of what the hold amount will be. The hold is determined and processed by the hotels system based on the factors mentioned above.
Marriott Concierge, a few things:

* I've stayed at the Ren LHR on single night stays (Sat night on the same rate) multiple times & the hold has been different each time, so I'm still not quite buying the there is no human intervention part.

Also, if someone is staying at limited service property that has no incidentals in which case factors #1&2 apply but not #3, why is there an additional hold on them, such as I experienced when I stayed at at the Springhill Suites to attend the Freddies in April?

Also, some other FTers give examples of human intervention as well.

* Your guests should NOT have to 'guess' on what holds are, especially since it varies by properties. To me it:

a) should be added to the reservation confirmation. The res conf already shows room+tax totals. A line should be added that says this property also puts a XX additional hold for incidentals, whether that be per night or overall.

People have a right to know what amount of their available credit is going to be put on hold so they can plan accordingly, and that includes the incidental hold.

b) have a sign at the properties where it mentions holds (ie, room rate+tax and XX) at the front desk, as VA1739 mentions the Fairfax Marriott does.

* I'm not sure if it's the hotel or the cc, but I think holds of 7 days is longer than what it should be, whether initial hold at check-in or after check-out.

Last year when I only brought 1 cc w/ me to the AMS Marriott, I had calculated room+tax+exchange rate & what I thought a reasonable hold would be, which also left me an available $1,000 for any meals at off-property restaurants. It wasn't until I checked my cc available credit in the cc that I discovered the $1,000 hold, which meant I had nothing available. Now my bad because I only brought one card. But I was not told on the reservation or at the front desk about the 75E/night hold. And I was sweating bullets because I needed the 'hold' to drop off before I checked out, because I did have the available credit for the stay, but not if the card was run through a second time (ie, a "double" hold). It dropped off on day 8 & luckily I was departing day 9. But I didn't know what I'd do if it hadn't or what the hotel would do.

* Also, I would appreciate it if you would pass the contents of this thread along to the appropirate management at HQ so they're aware of our concerns/issues, or provide a name so that we can write ourselves.

Thank you.

Last edited by SkiAdcock; Jul 31, 2008 at 3:31 pm
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