I agree that if the reservation doesn't show a request for the double beds, then the guarantee shouldn't kick in.
But I'm thinking this situation is a little different. The OP requested double beds. The reservation states none available. Now here is where the issue comes in. The reservation
should state "double beds requested, not available." If that is the case, then the guarantee
should kick in. The issue is that when the reservation was made, the OP was Gold, so no over-ride was made. Now the OP has made Plat. Marriott's reservation system should now recognize that fact and update the reservation accordingly. (Actually, per my experience it won't, but the hotel will see the request and change the room accordingly at checkin.) Personally, I thought it was nice that the OP actually tried to notify Marriott of the elite level change. One shouldn't have to do that, but it can certainly help especially if the purpose is to actually get the requested bed type and not try to game the system.
Now there is one other situation and that is if the hotel doesn't have the requested bed-type at all (i.e. King bed request at an RI with none.) If that is the case, then the guarantee doesn't kick in, and that is as it should be. But I doubt this is the situation here.
Originally Posted by
craz
Otherwise, all I need to do is find a hotel that is out of a certain type of bed for that night and switch my profile to reflect that type and book what is available and then ask for my $100 as they wont have what my profile says.
If in fact MR will pay off depending on what ones profile says rather then what is available and booked, MR is STUPID
The guarantee isn't about what's in someone's profile, but what was requested on a particular reservation. In this situation, the OP's reservation should show the bed-type request. This is a similar issue as with a sold out hotel. A Plat use the 48 hr Guarantee to get a room. The hotel will hold back some number of rooms for various reasons, the Plat Guarantee being one of them. I suspect that the same thing holds for bed-types as well. Before they really book out all "double beds" they may stop guaranteeing them and show them as requested. That way, if a Plat asks for a bed-type (within the timeframe allowed by the gurantee) , the Plat can get the bed-type without the hotel having to mess with someone elses reservation.