Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - New Residence Inn Point Grab?

Just booked a stay at RI National Harbor, a CAT 4, 20,000 per night. However, the **bleeps** charge TWO 5,000 point upgrade certifcates PER NIGHT making the total cost 60,000 points. And this is a ONE bedroom suite, not even a 2BR. No option for a studio redemption although there are there for cash.

Anyone ever here of this at a RI?? Gone are the days when they might upgrade a PLT for free I guess, now the just take it upfront...

Seems tricky and sneaky to me. The RI redemption used to be a great use of points. Comments?

I would guess that their allotment of base award rooms have been reserved. And now they only have upgraded rooms left for awards.

What you might do is call the hotel (or have the Plat elite agent give them a call.) Maybe the hotel would be willing to get you the room without charging your the upgrade certs given you are a Plat. But note that they don't have to as elite upgrades are technically only supposed to be based on availability at check-in.

Probably not what you want to hear, but there must be more than enough demand at that hotel. I am not familer with it however. Some hotels are all about location. The CY in Paso Robles CA (central coast) is a Cat 5 now after opening up as a Cat 3 4 years ago. The Marriott in Buellton CA is a Cat 6 and the new CY opening in West Santa Barbera (goletta) is a Cat 5. The hotels are nothing special but can routinely charge $200-300 a night on the weekend and sell out, therefore the demand for pts rooms is high.

I have found that RI's in many popular locations really abuse the MR program. Many only offer MR reward rooms for the smallest room category, even though there are only a few rooms at the property in that category. The RI Treasure Island/ St. Petes is a perfect example. Their upgrade charges are excessive. You may be better off using MR ponts for Marriott checks and book the room at the lowest available rates. At the RI TI, the difference in cost between the studio and 1 BR was only $20 per night, but they wanted an additional $120 per night for a MR point redemption.

Another challenge is that the smallest rooms only accomodate 2 people, so if you are trying to reserve an award night for 3+ you are required to upgrade. Many RI's still upgrade Plat members, but these are disappearing as Marriott enforces 'brand standards'.

Many RI's still upgrade Plat members, but these are disappearing as Marriott enforces 'brand standards'.

I don't think that enforcement of brand standards has anything to do with it. Their motive is simple:

They get reimbursed by Marriott based on the number of points they charge for a room, so a room costing 30K a night vs only 20K a night without the upgrade certs nets them more $$.

I am quite confident that the OP is staying when there is a large convention at the Gaylord.

This hotel is not convenient to DC and there are much better choices with easier access to DC, such as the Marriott Suites Bethesda and the Marriott North Bethesda, to name but a few, not to mention the Crystal City properties.

If he really wants value for his reward he will choose these for DC, otherwise, he really wants to be at the National Harbor property and as another poster stated, they are sold out of their regular allotment and he will have to pony up for the upgrade. He can stay a bit farther from his convention and decide upon the nearby Alexandria properties, if he so wishes.


OP -- you should have booked earlier.

Reserve the Bleeps for yourself!

Hi, yes, going to a Youth Karate tournament at the Gaylord, it just came up, doing it as a favor for someone I just started dating, not familiar with the area at all.

Rates are ridiculous, $279+.

The TWO upgrade certificates per night for a 1 BR just seems excessive, I could see 1 for 1BR and 2 for 2BR. Again, studio and 1 BR's are available for cash. Does seem like we'll charge what we please. Do Studios (the basic room) require 1 upgrade cert?? I don't know, can't reserve.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Nobody's bleeping fault but mine... For putting my faith and time into an inconsistent program... Not a big deal. :cool:

Just looked at an upcoming RI award stay and saw a message indicating a mismatch between the attached award and the requirements of the reservation. In the detail, 10k points per night (two upgrade certs) had been added, but not pulled from my account. I called Plat Reservations and was told that the upgrade was complementary and that I was not and would not be charged the extra points.

Having never seen this happen in the past, I think this may just be a new "feature" from the same IT team who has been busy "improving" the web site. If the agent I spoke with is correct, the only way to tell the difference between this and a chargeable upgrade is that they do not charge you, which does not inspire confidence. We'll see what happens.

Maybe this is what the OP is seeing?

Rates are ridiculous, $279+.

Check out the publicly available codes sticky in this forum to see if you get the rate down.

Cheers.

Do Studios (the basic room) require 1 upgrade cert?? I don't know, can't reserve.There are more "upgrade" options than just Studio -> 1-Bed -> 2-Bed. It is possible that the upgraded rooms that are left also include view upgrades, balcony upgrades, higher floor upgrades, etc.

Note that most people are like you in that when they want to make an awards reservation, they probably want to reserve the base studio and hope for an upgrade. Therefore, those awards will tend to run out well before the upgraded award rooms will. So it is not uncommon to see only upgraded rooms as available for awards.

As I mentioned earlier, I would call the Plat line and have them call the hotel and see if the hotel will give you a pre-check-in free upgrade to one of those upgraded rooms. They may not want to do that as they may feel that the upgraded rooms may still sell out. But I've had more than one RI management go ahead and upgrade me without using the upgrade certs before. So it can happen.

Nobody's bleeping fault but mine... For putting my faith and time into an inconsistent program... Not a big deal. :cool:

No, Josh, the program is not inconsistent, right in the rules is the clause that special demand dates might not be available or could incur higher costs, I assume, after selling out standard rooms. You want to stay during a Karate Invitational and the price of the room is a hefty $279. I'm not complaining when the C/Y or R/I in Munich is sold out for award nights during Oktoberfest ... you had better read your program rules more attentively.

Now, for some helpful advice.

1). Keep on trying -- award dates may loosen up -- I have found this for sold out dates in both Munich and Berlin, etc. However, be aware that there may be a 1-2 week cancel prior requirement or even a non-refundable requirement.

2). If you have a car, then it makes no sense in my opinion to stay there.

Better to stay at either R/I in Alexandria, the C/Y or S/H Tech Center in Alexandria or the R/I near the new Renaissance or the aforementioned Marriotts in Crystal City. If you don't have elite status, go with the R/I's parking is fairly easy on weekends in Alexandria and it is a nice town to walk around.