thegasguru

+1

The couple of times I've used it for anotherwise "sold out" Marriott property, the Plat CSR said "well, let's just use the Platinum Overide", and viola, I got a room. And it's been a standard room, at a standard rate. In fact, the last time was at a Residence Inn, and within a 48 hr window, not 72 hrs.

VickiSoCal

Yep, using it for my husband next week in downtown Atlanta- with a 165 rate. His buddy who is gold has to cab it in every day from mid-town. Plat override rocks!

begemot

thanks! My point is they only offer me a "platinum override" for a suite. I realize for any type of room I'll pay the "back of the door rate" I'd just rather pay that rate for a normal room them a suite.

Hoope01 online and by plat line they say the suite is what they offer for plat guarNtee/overide. Is there something in writting that says plat override should be a standard room?

Genevaflyer, you've got mail.

thegasguru

begemot...are you calling the hotel directly, or the Plat line for the reservation?

You might have better luck with the Plat concierge service. In general, my experience has been that if the locally-owned property either doesn't understand some aspect of the T&Cs...or doesn't WANT to understand...then talking to the Plat concierge at corporate will often help.

begemot

Hi thegasguru,

1. I first called platinum reservation line who said they see the suite as guarantee platinum offer.
   
2. I then asked them to call the hotel for me to try to get regular room as plat reservation.
   
3. After a couple min on hold plat res came back on the line apoligized and said the local hotel front desk claimed no rooms at all and they didn't know what a plat guarantee was.
   
4. I then asked plat reservation line to book suite, wrote gm with my res # asking for regular room and have not heard back yet.

Bege

hhoope01

By chance did you log into your online account (using your Plat credentials) and try to reserve a room online? The online tool will actually bypass all the "people" and give you the Plat override automatically. (In fact, it can sometimes cause confusion when Plats see a room but no award inventory. They think the hotel is doing something shifty to get out of offering award rooms, when in reality the Plat is getting an override room.)

If you tell us the hotel and the dates, someone here can verify if we see something different and can make the reservation or not.

Note it is possible that the hotel has a Marriott approved black-out of the override. This happens when an event or group reserves virtually all the rooms at a hotel. Usually this is a big event like the Superbowl or the Olympics, but it can be just a local company having some "event" and blocking out a particular hotel's inventory.

GenevaFlyer

Hi,

I did check, and for 2 of the 3 nights in question, I only see the suite being offered, whereas the 3rd night shows a normal room at a special event rate.

I'm thinking that this is indeed a MI authorized override, but maybe the Plat desk can look into it.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

begemot

Hi FT,

So the GM wrote me back today and agreed to put me in the normal room at the special event rate. I'm of course happy about this.

Thanks all for help and advice.

Bege

lapo1234

Glad to hear that it worked out.

thegasguru

w00t!!

USirritated

To answer Trojan's 10 year old question, which was really never answered.... Special events are any type of event where basically the whole town is likely to be sold out of all hotel rooms, and especially for any events where there will be an abundance of Platinum guests (thereby bumping one Platinum guest for another Platinum guest invoking the guarantee, and that bumped guest then calling to make another rez, invoking the guarantee, thereby creating a vicious circle).

Examples of this would be dates such as the Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett's stockholders) Annual Meeting (I checked, virtually every room in the Omaha Marriott was taken by Platinum guests, who have standing reservations for every year at the same time) where I tried to get rooms for myself and family, and best we could do was 8 miles away in Council Bluffs, Iowa (not bad, not unreasonable). Another example of a special event would be a major sports event, such as the Super Bowl (where every room for 50 - 100 miles will be sold out).

Keep in mind, while the Platinum guarantee is for the person booking the room with that status, and the hotel hopes to have their standard 2-5% no shows/cancellations, so as not to have to walk anyone, the hotel must allow for the possibility of walking one or more guests, those actually bumped by the guarantee, to another hotel nearby. If it is a special event such as either listed above, there will be no reasonable, nearby, comparable open rooms (meaning from a FS Marriott to FS Hilton or Westin; OR from a Courtyard to a Hilton Garden Inn or a Hyatt Place) for those guests to be booked into/walked to, thereby making the guarantee impracticable or impossible, or a practical impossibility. Marriott can't strand people without a hotel room anywhere, that would be a logistical and public relations nightmare!

Marriott does not use special events as an excuse for not allowing the guarantee on some dates, it is simply a matter of being realistic, almost not being able to violate laws of physics.

RobertS975

OK, I am trying for the JW in Cancun for a week in February. The web doesn't even offer it because it is sold out. I called the Platinum reservation line last nite and she said that she was unable to book. No special event, just high season in Cancun.

Will try the hotel directly, but probably wait till Monday to do it as I assume managers with authority are off on weekends.

But why couldn't the res line get me a platinum override?

socrates

Because there is an event at the hotel

jisaac

Would like the JW Marriott Ihilani in October and cannot book it as a Platinum. Is this high season considered worthy of blocking?

hhoope01

High season or low season isn't the issue. If there is some event occuring where that "event" has effectively taken over all the hotel's inventory, then that hotel will have an exception to the 48 hour room availability guarantee. The event can be something huge like the Superbowl or Olympics. The event can be something much less widely known like the annual Basketweavers convention. The issue is that the event has taken over the hotel's room inventory and the hotel is contractually obligated to offer all its rooms to that event.

These events could happen during the hotel's high, low or mid season. But for the nights of the event, the hotel no longer controls its room inventory.

Note his does not apply to smaller "events" that may reserve a block of hotel rooms, but not the whole hotel's room inventory. I may have a group coming and sign a contract with Marriott for 20 rooms for 2 nights. In this case, the hotel still has room inventory to play with as my "event" doesn't use up all the available room inventory for the hotel. So it wouldn't affect your ability to invoke the 48 hour Plat room guarantee.