I have been staying recently in Florida and am on a government project where we are told we have to book the government rate. We have written authorization for this rate as it is a long term project and have had to hop around hotels to whoever is offering the government rate for the week.

I have been working on this project for the last 6 months and show my government ID at check-in to verify eligibility. Over the past few weeks, I have been asked if I had a tax exempt form for my stay and I informed the person checking me in that my stay is not tax exempt to please charge me the taxes. I found this strange to ask but maybe someone wanted to make sure that I had the best rate. This is happening at both legacy SPG and Marriott properties.

Fast forward to two days ago and I tried to check in and then I was told I HAD to have a government-issued credit card in order to check in using the government rate and that the only way to have a tax-exempt stay would be to use this credit card. I told the check in person that I did not need a tax-exempt stay so that was not necessary. The check-in person apologized for the inconvenience but said they had a big meeting the day before I checked in and were given a new directive to only accept check-ins booked under the government rate with a government-issued ID card. They did not allow me to check in under that rate and said I could just cancel the reservation. I told them that was fine and walked my Lifetime Titanium Elite self (Over 2000 nights) to the Hyatt a couple of blocks away where the rest of the team stays on the government rate and that was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for me for Bonvoy. (The Hyatt is brand new construction and goes out of their way to have our team stay there on the government rate.)

Has anyone else run into this issue or is this the new way that Bonvoy trying to say Bon Voyage to more customers?