I understand your confusion. I work with a local youth group of more than 100 kids. We have a couple of youth trips a year and I have tried to work with Marriott's Event and Meetings coordinators in the past. I almost always find that they quote higher prices than I can get by reserving the rooms myself. And the real kicker is if you reserve them yourself, you get a cancellation policy of 6:00pm day of arrival. But they want you to pay more and once you sign the contract, you are stuck. If things change, you pay a change or cancellation fee.

Last year, I ended up calling the GM of an RI directly and worked with him. He actually gave me a good rate, some bonus points and gave us virtually every 2-bedroom suite in the hotel.

So basically, I haven't been impressed with Marriott's Event and Meetings group and now tend to stay away from them completely.