Originally Posted by
Klimo
I was just checking some nights in Italy at cat 6 and 7 hotels for sept/oct and there are blackout dates everywhere for free nights and free + cash. I've never seen that before. Is this what the new program will be like? I was looking through the SPG website. If this is true, then it's totally worthless.
Are you sure the dates are blacked out? Or are there no rooms available for another reason, such as the hotel already having booked the available points rooms? These are two very different things.
Blacked out dates are where the hotel has prearranged with Marriott to not offer points redemptions and are relatively rare, for example in the host city during the NCAA final four or in State College PA the weekend of a home football game or if a group has rented the entire hotel for a convention. Marriott needs to grant the blackout and hotels are pretty limited in both the circumstances in which blackouts are allowed and the number of blackout dates per year.
In most other cases a room not being available can change so you would want to check back, whereas if the hotel is blacked out there will usually just never be rooms available. A blackout will also usually void the 48 hours room guaranty for Plats. You would ordinarily not know the difference between points rooms no longer being available and a blackout without knowing what is going on in the location at that time or asking the hotel directly.