I don't typically book Marriott properties (except when I get them through Priceline Opaque) for no real reason other than that I've simply focused on other programs over the years. Anyway, a rare situation came up where I had a reservation at a property in June booked at Marriott.com. I found an alternate property that I preferred, so I needed to cancel it.

I tried to cancel at the Marriott.com site but two consecutive days I got errors when I clicked cancel.

Finally I called the 1-888-236-2427. After about a 10 minute hold I got a representative. He pulled the reservation and said it was cancelled. I asked him for a cancellation number and he said that typically they send an e-mail confirming the cancellation but he did not have a cancellation number. I need some sort of proof because this is a $400 rack rate room and since I am cancelling well within the cancellation period I wanted proof of cancellation to keep for my records.

I check hours later and that e-mail never came. I go back to the Marriott.com website and the reservation still shows as active. I try to click cancel. Error again.

So I call again. The representative says the reservation shows as active. I am then asked if I want to cancel it. This representative cancels it, asks me if I want the cancellation number, then tells me an e-mail will go to my e-mail address showing the cancellation. That e-mail came right as we were wrapping up the call.

I've cancelled lots of rooms over the years with Hilton, IHG, Choice... never have had to go through this amount of hoops to do a cancellation. With those chains, it has always been as simple as going to the website and the cancellation is just done immediately. With Marriott, it seems to be different. First a non-functioning website, then a representative who fails to cancel it when asked, finally on an additional call the cancellation gets done. Is this typical?