FinnishFlash

True. But I guess most business travelers use their corp. rate so I need to ask: Does this new policy affect corp. rates as well?

As mentioned earlier, many (or at least some) hotels already have something else than 6pm day of arrival, but this far my corp. rate policy has been 6pm day of arrival at those properties, too.

VickiSoCal

I think assuming that most business travelers have a corporate rate at every hotel they travel to is a stretch.

SkiAdcock

Agree. The big corps might, but smaller firms probably don't & the self-employed certainly don't.

Cheers.

FinnishFlash

Mmm, alright. Maybe I was a bit too egocentric there or whatever the word is in English. My employers have been big corps and thus corp. rate available chainwide.

CJKatl

Why? Obviously there is a reason, but I'm just not seeing it. The way I travel, it's not that important to be able to cancel at the last minute, except for IRROPs, which Marriott seems to do without issue. I can easily accommodate on the few trips where I might have previously waited to make the call until the llast possible minute. Hopefully this isn't coming across as snarky. I really want to know and am just not seeing it, but based on your response, there is a reason. I'm just missing it.

Thanks.

SkiAdcock

As someone mentioned above, one example is a prospect or customer cancels or postpones a mtg the day before (day someone would be traveling/arriving at hotel). Current cancel policy they can cancel DOA w/ no penalty. New policy would require prospect or customer providing 2 days notice on cancel or postponing mtg; otherwise, the biz traveler gets dinged for 1 night, which they may or may not be able to bill client for/would have to eat the 1 night. In cities like NYC, SFO, CHI, that could be a hefty penalty.

Cheers.

VickiSoCal

I would assume the people who are saying this are dealing with capricious clients. Road warriors who primarily travel to visit other offices within their own company, or to trade shows, or to meetings that they are more in control of, probably don't deal with this as much. I have found almost all chains/hotels to be flexible with regards to flight situations that are beyond the traveler's control.

Ysitincoach

I dealing with last minute changes to entertainment and sporting events, or situations where I'm able to get out of an event quicker than previously thought and take a charter or late commercial flight home.

So if I can get out of a noon or 2pm basketball game and cxl before 6pm, I'm golden. Under the proposed Marriott changes I'd be charged a penalty since they're not as flexible.

Wouldn't this also prevent the old trick of moving the reservation to the next day and then just canceling it within the new day's rules, that way the hotel staff don't get dinged on their end with a cancellation that resulted in no fee?

SkiAdcock

Someone posted something on Insiders that I thought I'd post here as a heads-up/recommendation.

They wondered if the hotel would honor DOA cancels on reservations made in 2014 for 2015 stays. I said they should - but that it's a good idea to print out the confirmation email showing all the ressie details, including the cancel policy, and to make sure they have it with them in case or can fax it in case there's a problem.

Cheers.

CJKatl

Thanks for the examples. I get it now. the irony is I had a customer cancel at the last minute last week, but didn't realize until now that under the new policy, I'd have to eat the hotel night. It turned out mine was the second night in a city and, because a flight had canceled earlier in the day, I couldn't get home a day earlier, anyway, and wound up staying in the hotel the second night, but you would think I would have realized that was the situation to which everyone was referring....

Often1

Many people have last minute cancellations for all kinds of reasons. But, who ought to bear the burden of that inventory spoilage? The property or the business (or its client in some cases)?

Pushing people to cancel earlier, may well open up inventory which is available to you for your last minute trip, or to someone else who needs it.

SkiAdcock

Or it may mean a hotel that is not 100% full gets additional revenue. Not every single hotel is full 100% of the time, and when you think about it that's when the new policy would be of benefit to Marriott/allow them to manage inventory.

Now that I think about it I'm more convinced this is grabbing some revenue in terms of fees - especially because a hotel that wants to continue offering DOA is now required to apply for an exemption from the new policy from HQ.

Cheers

kklems

It will also affect those folks that are driving long distances. If you run into issues/accidents on the road, or other delays you might not have traveled as far as you had planned. Late night driving while fatigued is never safe but under the new policy you can't cancel and book a closer Marriott.

I know sometimes I will plan to head out 4-5 pm for a 8 hour drive and will get held up at work so I can't leave at a decent hour. It was nice to rebook a room in another town closer to my starting point rather than drive late at night or when I am fatigued. Alternately some people get an earlier start and might want to continue on down the road. I will have to look closely at each hotels policy but I know I tend to not book prepaid rates and prefer Marriott's current flexible policy.

OU812

Unfortunately I don't think hotels with a more restrictive cancellation policy, say 3 days before arrival will change to the 11:59pm day before arrival cancellation policy. Also, I wonder what impact, if any, this will have on the early departure policy.

Regards,

RIP...

Jon Maiman

I am in sales and do a lot of road trips for my job. There are many times where I am not sure which set of customer meetings will get confirmed until the day of the meeting. Being able to book multiple reservations with a 6PM cancellation time has been very useful to guarantee myself a place to stay regardless of how my meetings turn out. I try to be good about it and cancel the unneeded reservation(s) as early as possible in the day. A comprise that would still work reasonably well for me would be to move the cancellation time up to 3PM or 4PM local time. That would give the hotel more time to resell the room and still give me enough flexibility. The day before is too early, since I may not have my schedule finalized until the morning of the travel day.

--Jon