Originally Posted by
Kacee
Yes it seems deliberately ambiguous. Is it check-in time, 11:59 p.m., or some other time? I've not been bitten yet, but the lack of clarity as to the precise cancel deadline has always made me nervous (and likely caused me to cancel some reservations earlier than I had to).
Yes, it seems too easy a thing for Marriott to fix for it to be accidental. This has to be by design. Either to allow hotels to set arbitrary cancellation windows to trick guests (which is bad) or alternatively to discourage people from cancelling within their rightful window (I know I've been discouraged). This is not some mom and pa hotel chain, this is the world's largest hotel company. They can configure their systems to specify an exact cancellation date.
Originally Posted by freed0m
If the decision is up to individual property, Marriott can’t provide a precise time, just like cancellation penalty. It is not up to Marriott to decide without change of contract between Marriott and properties
At least with Starwood (as others have noted), the terms of cancellation always had very specific times for when the deadline was. And it varied by hotel. Sometimes it was check-in time, sometimes it was noon, sometimes it was 6 PM. If Marriott cannot guarantee what the cancellation time the hotel set is, they should just move it to a day before to be safe. Living in this ambiguous la-la land is not okay.