Originally Posted by
The Road Goes On Forever
The processing times for domestic credit cards versus international credit cards versus debit cards are very different. It's all processed by properties the same way but a lot of people only use debit when they travel and the processing times on that type of card is always significantly longer then using credit.
Regardless of what loyalty program you want to talk about, John Q Public has next to no idea about how anything works in the industry from the benefits and devaluations of the parent company's loyalty program to whether the property is franchise owned/corporate managed or franchise owned/franchised managed or the rare unicorn of corporate owned/corporate managed. To the overwhelming majority of the travelling public you're just staying at "The Marriott" or at "The Hilton".
99% of reservations are made via a channel that is directly affiliated with the parent company and not directly with the property which is why people start there for any type of problem resolution. There is also prevailing misconception that if person X contacts corporate, then somehow they will expedite things or roll over the property to make a resolution occur faster which in 99.9% of cases couldn't be further from the truth.
My John Q public family members and friends do NOT act the way you think as you would do. The first thing they do in situation like that, is to call the property as they immediately think the property SHOULD refund their money. None of these John Q public folks think to call Marriott or whatever programs, because guess what, none of the John Q public members even belong to a program.
Those who keep arguing about contacting the program administrators because you book thru the program website, pretty much because YOU yourself think that way since you are a member or most are elite members. You actually have very little understanding on the John Q public group thinks. At least none of those in my extended families and friends who fits to your John Q Public description, do not ever think of they would call Marriott or whatnot. They call the hotels who put through the charge. Straight and simple! And Very Intuitive, not overthinking it like many here do! They saw who charged their credit cards, they called that merchant. Since it is always the property that charged their cards wrongly, they called the property as Marriott's name never appears on their cards! Why such a simple, very Common Sense type of matter would become so much complicated in those who pride themselves as knowing all the in and outs in travel to process is beyond me.