Originally Posted by
missydarlin
Do we know that there is actually any rampant enough abuse to need to manage it? Or is this more of a "I didn't get the nights I wanted, so there must be someone scamming the system" kind of thing? Do we really think there are people booking 40 nights at top properties?
Well, let's get real - this is FT. If people can get away with booking 40 or 400 nights "just in case" they most certainly will, sooner or later. The number of properties in demand is relatively small after all.
The unfortunate reality is that it doesn't make any difference to GP if someone makes speculative bookings or not - if people make last minute cancellation they have less to pay to hotels.
Hotels on the other hand do lose because of those cancellations as they can't fill the rooms at the last minute (especially at places like Maui with no last minute visitor opportunities) and it shouldn't surprise anyone that they become rather disinterested in offering award inventory - speculative cancellations costs them money.
Other loyal but less "aggressive" travelers as a group suffer even more - first there is inventory hogging by fellow members and then hotels start reducing their award inventory in response to that hogging - a double whammy. Obviously once you run into that problem you will start thinking that perhaps you too should book a few extra nights ahead of time just in case (I admit I did just that last year at PH SYD after failing to secure PH Tokyo the year before). Obviously that doesn't make the situation any better.
Not pretty...