Originally Posted by
aaupgrade
When you called did they say that this hotel was granted an exception by corporate? If standard rooms are available, which they are, They can't just decide to restrict award availability on their own; they must have corporate approval!
You are confusing SPG's last room available rules with Marriott's No Blackout days.
No hotel for any night (that I know of) is forced to offer every single standard room they have available for awards. A history lesson might be helpful here.
Back before Marriott changed to their 'No Blackout Dates" rule, Marriott had two types of awards. They had their standard awards to which a hotel only had to offer a very small number of room with and didn't necessarily have to offer those awards for every night of the year. Along with that standard award, they also had a 'Stay Anytime" award. Those awards were more like the SPG's last room available, but cost 50% more than normal standard awards.
When Marriott changed their program a few years ago, they did away with those Stay Anytime awards. But they also increased the number of standard award rooms that a hotel had to offer each night. I do believe there is a "process" whereby a hotel can petition Marriott for a reduction in the number of award rooms, but I think that it requires Corp approval.
But the end result is that today, a given hotel does NOT have to offer all standard rooms for awards. They only have to offer a set # each night (which is more than they used to offer back in the earlier days of Marriott' program) and once that number is met, they don't have to offer any more if they don't want to.