rylan

This is purely another cash grab... easy way for Marriott to screw biz travelers and stick it to them when something changes last minute or an event is out of the traveler's control such as a flight disruption.

CJKatl

I have had hotels tell me when I've canceled after the deadline that the hotel is full that night, and if they are able to sell the room, I will not be charged. I do not ever remember being charged in that circumstance.

IME, Marriott has been flexible with cancelations past the deadline when those are caused by transportation issues. If you were driving and needed to break earlier than expected, I'd imagine there would be flexibility if you check into a different Marriott property.

SkiAdcock

No, it says in the verbiage that the more restrictive (3-days etc) will not be changed by the new policy.

Cheers.

ohmark

In other words, standardize only when to Marriott's benefit.

SkiAdcock

Yup. And it's kind of crappy that hotels have to apply for exemptions to the new policy.

Cheers.

pokee

I am cool with cancelling the day before BUT it is nice when you can cancel the same day. I've had a couple of times where I've had to cancel the same day because I was on a road trip and didn't make it that far by that day, so cancelled late in the afternoon.

Personally, I'd say it should be up to the hotel, depending on season and average inventory...and that's typically how it's been up until now...

ohmark

For what I do (or did prior to retirement), the new policy would, in many circumstances, require me to book hotels with less restrictive rules. Same day cancellation of my business would not be typical but, also, wouldn't be extraordinary, and I travel (travelled) on fully refundable airline tickets. And requesting reimbursement of Marriott's cancellation fee might generate a question along the lines of why I didn't book a property allowing same day cancellation. In that scenario, I would be tempted to book the competition (to the extent that the competition had a more consumer-friendly cancellation policy). I understand that I have the alternative of requesting/begging/pleading with the property to forgive the fee since cancellation beyond my control, but not inclined to want to do that, especially on an occasional basis.

I assume Marriott expects competition to match its new more onerous policy and, thus, minimize the whatever damage to Marriott's business. I'm sure that's one reason for letting the cat out of bag early. (Like airlines with trial balloon fare increases.) I also wonder if Marriott will eventually go to a cancellation policy of charging different room rates for rooms with more lenient/onerous cancellation leeway (at least something different than the current discounted essentially non-cancellable rates).

socrates

the system for years now has traded what policies were in effect for each GNR at time of booking

socrates

The hotel's freedom to make business decisions has not changed as a result of the brand's standard's being changed, the hotel's ability to make business decisions remains the same

SkiAdcock

"Marriott, in fact, is telling franchised hotels that if they want to opt out of the new policy and continue offering a “day of arrival” cancellation deadline, they must request permission to do so."

Only if Marriott provides permission

Cheers.

socrates

I have a copy of the memo - that is not at all the intent nor is it what MI said in the memo.....MI is not required to provide permission, every hotel regardless of management is permitted to make business decisions for their property, MI is making the system change globally (doing the work for the hotels is all they are doing) to make it easier for the hotels however should a hotel wish not to be included in the global system change they'll need to let MI know, there is no permission needed to make a local business decision.....even if a hotel should have MI include them in the global system update they are free to make changes anytime they wish based upon local business factors......I had a boss many years ago tell me "hotel's are street corner businesses and need to be run as such"...that is still very true today - if Bethesda tried to mandate everything they'd fail and they've always realized this, after all that's why hotels' have local business leaders

Now none of the above has anything to do with agreeing or disagreeing with the decision to make this change, I can remember when the Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand changed to requiring all reservations to be guaranteed (no 6pm reservations) - same comments were made but in the end it helped the business, I think this change overall will be good but each hotel mush decide if it's the best decision for their hotel as they did when the brand standard was to do away with 6pm holds 20 some years ago

pinniped

This will kill off a lot of my business stays at Marriott. Our corp travel engine flat out won't allow us to book a hotel without a 4PM (or later) day-of-arrival cancel policy. We do not have a Marriott systemwide corporate rate, although we have local rates with a lot of Marriotts. However, many of my existing business stays at Marriott are simply the AAA or other "best available" rate.

We have ways of getting out-of-policy exceptions, but they involve hassle and justification. I'll just pick a Hilton or Starwood before I'll deal with that...

Ironically, my best chance at staying at a Marriott on a business trip might be Manhattan, as I believe the system allows special rules for Manhattan...and I suspect this might be one of them.

writerguyfl

I think a lot of people see Marriott International (MI) as a massive multi-national corporation with thousands of locations. Yet, in reality, many of their hotels are owned and operated by other companies as franchises. (I tried finding franchise statistics, but failed.)

As socrates points out, decisions like cancelation policies are made at the hotel level. It's just a guess, but I would imagine that MI doesn't even have the authority to force all hotels to do something that's not already in the franchise agreement.

Maybe it's because I used to work in hotels, but I don't see this change as some nefarious plan "for Marriott to screw biz travelers". With the exception of a scant few oversold nights, hoteliers would rather have an actual head in a bed over a fee for canceling too late. A live guest might produce additional revenue by eating/drinking or using other hotel services. Additionally, a real guest isn't going to contest the no-show charge after the fact.

The industry standard is that hotels don't penalize guests for things outside of their control (like flight cancelations). Changing the cancelation deadline isn't going to suddenly make hotels stop helping out their guests when a flight gets canceled. Sure, some outliers might. But, those are probably the types of places that already do a poor job of taking care of guests.

dwcatty

Here's another. I am an attorney, travel out of town for court appearances that are anticipated to last several days. For numerous reasons (settlement, motion to continue, shorter than expected hearing) often time my cases resolve the day I arrive and I turn around and drive home. Now I will not be able to make a reservation at a Marriott property but either book elsewhere or travel without a rez and hope the Marriott affiliate still has a room.

TomBrady

I didnt think this was that big of a change. I didnt realize so many of you were doing same day cancellations.