That's the tough thing with Hotels.
Even if US airlines don't guarantee upgrades for their elite members and are "subject to availability", the airlines mare more transparent in how the upgrades work. They try to sell the seats first, and then they have a priority list for remaining seats. And they are quite transparent with the upgrade priority.
Hotels, however, do not have such transparency. There is no standard to define what "subject to availability" is and there is no transparency on it. So I do agree with the common saying that if anything is "subject to availability", it is not a real perk.
Hotels are even able to re-interpret the breakfast benefit even if that is a guarantee, as Marriott provides no standard for what an elite customer is entitled to.
Even the guaranteed 4 PM checkout for Platinum and higher has a loophole. I remember reading a post by a lurker once on FT that as long as a hotel self-identifies itself as a resort or convention hotel, they are exempt form the 4 PM checkout benefit.
Marriott can easily fix these issues by updating their ToS, but they seem to be satisfied by how things are now. So I doubt anything will improve anytime soon.
Originally Posted by
Steve Shavel
Have been an Ambassador level member since merger/Bonvoy creation with over 2000 lifetime nights.
During last 3 years, I have formally requested the use of the Your24 privilege in USA 15 times and it has been granted to me -
NOT A SINGLE TIME.
Have made request via my Ambassador at Fairfield Inns, Courtyards, Sheratons, Renaissance, Marriott, JW Marriott, Delta properties, Springhill Suites, and Residence Inn.
NOT ONCE has the request been granted.
So to be clear, whatever the purpose of this privilege was supposed to be, it isn’t, because every hotel can define their own policy about this, and without any ability by the Ambassador desk to enforce the policy, there is no recourse.
I am sure there are other Ambassadors who have had better experiences with this, but seriously, can anyone explain what voodoo is required in order to be able to use this supposedly Top-Tier privilege?
I was told recently when getting turned down yet again, that time at a Springhill Suites near O’Hare, back in October, that hotels can now use COVID as the excuse to deny the request.
So my interpretation is that there isn’t any actual way to get the request approved and any Bonvoy literature to the contrary is quite flawed in its description.
Happy Holidays / Healthy New Year