I have personally experienced situations where hotels have rooms available for sale at rack rates, but no "stay anytime award" availability. I too, was originally under the impression that as long as the hotel had standard rooms available for sale, you could get one as long as you didn't mind having to pony up the extra points. Apparently, in actual practice, this is not the case, or not always the case.....even for platinums.

As for the OP, I'm sympathetic to the frustration he must feel. $300 per night seems extreme and unfair...regardless of market situation, etc. Rudeness is also inexcusable and very un-Marriott like.

But the main issue brought up here was points redemption. In this regard, I don't feel Marriott or the hotel has done anything wrong. Others have offered good explanations as to why the lack of availability exists and have offered excellent suggestions for dealing with similar situations in the future.

As for the matter of "not knowing which teams will be in the tournament". No, you can't blame the individual teams/team moms, etc for gobbling up the rooms. But the liklihood is that event organizers reserved a block of rooms for participating teams use. Overlay the possibility of another event or events going on in town, coupled with the regular compliment of business travellers, and its easy to understand how the hotel finds itself in an extremely tight, if not impossible, availability situation.