SteamingAlong

Yes that’s how it should be but, at least in my case, the LNF department did not note the reservation to include the free breakfast when they updated the rate.

The reason for my post was to make people aware that they need to closely check the details of the updated reservation to be sure they show all the amenities that their original reservation included. If not they should follow up with the LNF department prior to travel to avoid any potential discrepancies once they arrive at the hotel.

Safe and happy travels to all!

Marco Vigini

yes the same for me. I booked a room with breakfast a Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur and when I checked in they told me I didn't have it. I have to say, also, that when I told them I have it on my reservation, they immediatly gave me free breakfast.
I have also to say that that Hotel didn't get me any upgrade neither good internet (I'm Marriott gold).

carrotjuice

Rule of thumb. The moment you receive the LNF confirmation email, log into your MR account and check the details of your reservation. It should say including BF if your original booking has it. Then take a copy of the printout with you and show it to the hotel at checkin. I've had several incidences of hotels claiming that they don't see the breakfast on my LNF reservations - so this simple act helps put any doubt / disagreements / awkwardness to rest.

cfischer

sometimes does not help because they put the note in the 'not guaranteed' section which has caused issues before. Easiest solution is: Email back to the LNF team and tell them you have an on property issue. When you have multiple nights that works and they can call the property. For a 1 night stay I would pay then dispute with corporate.

carrotjuice

I would rather not have to deal with issues at the property itself. Is there a way to compel LNF to put the details in the "guaranteed' section?

Also when you dispute with corporate, what have you gotten so far in your experience? They refunded the cost of breakfast from your hotel bill? Is it protracted or acted upon swiftly?

nacho

Posted this on Marriott-insider, I'm interested in my Marriott profile after being "warned" twice:

Tried LNF in Bangkok back in October and without luck, made some 1 night bookings and tried without luck. They didn't even bother to reply after 24 hours. Left with a warning about booking multiple 1 night bookings. Ignored it.

Have a road trip coming up, filed 4 separate claims (2x 1 night booking under my and Mr. account with alternate dates to avoid them merging the reservations) as we haven't got out plans settled yet. We don't know which hotel we'd like to stay and for how long and I prefer being able to adjust my stay online rather than calling Plat line.

This is part of the reply I got for approving the claims:

Please note we were able to approve all claim based on the fact that the Holiday promotion was available for three consecttive nights.

Per Marriott Rewards, a "stay" is all consecutive nights confirmed by the guest, from arrival date to departure date, regardless of check-in and check-out activity.

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/terms/earning.mi

Following the same Terms and Conditions presented by the Marriott Rewards program regarding consecutive nights confirmed, the Look No Further(SM) Department must research and review availability at Marriott.com, as well as the comparison source listed, for the entire stay. Comparison rates applicable to only a portion of your entire scheduled stay will not be honored per the Terms and Conditions of the Look No Further(SM) Guarantee:

http://www.marriott.com/hotel-prices/travel.mi
-terms and conditions > verification process > paragraph five

We understand you and partner are aware of these terms due to previous correspondence in October, but wanted to refresh your awareness of our policies for any future reviews.

I feel insulted and had no clue what they are talking about, so I wrote back:

Hello,

Thank you for replying to my claims. I don't understand why it is a problem to submit individual claims - it's more transparent for you to see the comparison - since Marriott is comparing is on a night by night basis. Our travel plan hasn't settled and therefore we don't want Marriott to merge our stays (it's getting to the point that annoys us so much that in order to shorten a stay we have to call Marriott to do so).

It feels like you are writing to us to warn us not to "cheat" - in what way have we done so? That rate pops up regardless of the total number of nights and there is no limit on the length of the stay from what we could see from the rate rules.

You said in October you "warned" us about the paragraph 5 of the verification process - I believe it's this one:

"Comparison Rates applicable to only a portion of your entire scheduled stay will not be honored; nor will they be valid for a multi-day stay if the total room cost of the stay is the same or greater than the total room cost through a Marriott channel."

Even back then I couldn't see the logic to it, from what anyone could understand this paragraph means:
For example
- If it is for a 5 night stay and the first 4 night is $50 and the last night is $60, and the HOL rate only valid on the first 4 nights, then of course the claim wouldn't approved for the last night;
- if the total stay is $200 (100+100) and comparison rate is $200 (150+50), then LNF wouldn't be valid.

None of the above examples apply to any of our claims. I did this base purely on keeping our options open.

Could you please tell us how this paragraph is related to our claims? If Marriott doesn't allow this - please write it clearly in the terms.

In this case - the comparison rate is applicable to the bookings and the total cost of it is still less than the original rate. If anything I would have thought it's worse to book a multi night booking.

I'm looking forward to seeing a proper clarification of this matter and we are deeply disappointed by your interpretation of paragraph 5, not to mention that we feel insulted because we did what we did in order to avoid future hassle of calling Marriott to adjust our stays. I can assure you that it takes a lot more time to do several 1 night bookings that but I still prefer that because I really don't want to call to get my stay adjusted - calling Marriott takes time and I have to dig out all the information before calling.


I got a reply this morning but still no answer to my question:

Thank you for your response. Due to the nature of your inquiry, your email was sent to me for response. I commend you for caring enough to write back and share your thoughts regarding the Terms and Conditions of our Best Rate Guarantee.

To clarify, these direct reservations were not combined, should you view each of your individual Platinum accounts, you will see that they remain in their respective accounts. The comparison reservation rates you confirmed were cancelled to avoid duplicate bookings.

We have also received your additional claims for these bookings. As these are duplicate requests there will be no response to the live/email claim.

In regards to the following term:

"Comparison Rates applicable to only a portion of your entire scheduled stay will not be honored; nor will they be valid for a multi-day stay if the total room cost of the stay is the same or greater than the total room cost through a Marriott channel."

When a reservation is confirmed, internally the number of nights is essential. Most of our hotels choose to reduce the nightly rate if the number of nights increases, thus making a longer stay less expensive.

When we review a multi-night stay, we compare the total, room only, cost. If this is lower, for the entire stay, there is a valid claim scenario (granted it meet the rest of the terms of the Look No Further(SM) program). Once it has been validated that the total cost is lower, we then adjust based off the nightly rate(s), not 25% off the total amount found.

As your stay is indeed a multi-night stay, we must take the entire stay in the same room type, and compare it that way to the third party site (regardless of multiple confirmation numbers confirmed). If we review it single night by single night as it was confirmed, this is “comparing to a portion of your entire scheduled stay”.

XXXXXX, it is related to your claims as we must review all claim the same to remain fair to each guest that submits a claim, to our hotels that participate, as well as our team members that are reviewing each claim.

I recognize you both frequently submit claims to the Look No Further(SM) Guarantee, therefore you understand that we do our due diligence in validating claims when applicable. I hope that you will continue to submit claims to the program and that you enjoy your upcoming stay in XXXXX.

Thank you for choosing Marriott.

I was speechless when I saw that (bolding mine) - to be honest, I use LNF somewhat, but not to the extent that they will recognize our names - I can easily think of a handful doing it even more than us.

The funny thing is that what I'm doing is exactly the opposite of what they don't want - using multiple night stay to score a lower rate and then adjust my stay. What I'm doing is paying single day rate which is normally higher.

Why can't I do Monday night, Wednesday night under my name and Tuesday and Thursday night under Mr's name - we will be paying with different credit cards and since Marriott accounts are individual accounts, what's wrong with that?

Also this is the ONLY way to avoid Marriott merging all the reservations together - I have tried to cut the first and the last day of a forced merged stay and calling Marriott is not fun.

I wrote back and ask for a further clarification.

This is really unacceptable.

YoungBubbie

A reason I could come up with for them having a problem with thinking you are trying to "game " the system with the one night bookings is in regard to achieving a mega bonus as they would be considered 2 stays for each of you as opposed to one stay for one.

That being said, I don't blame you for doing it that way if you are uncertain about your plans. You can't change your LNF reservations so doing it this way protects your rate. I've done something similar in the past so as not to lose it.

As far as them knowing you, I was only kidding when I once said that LNF must have PITA in my file. Now I'm not sure. Maybe they really do.

nacho

For this one, maybe. But I did file 8 claims for a Marriott in Thailand (4 a night stays under 2 accounts as we needed 2 rooms) - this is for 1x4 nights consecutive nights and we wanted to keep it flexible so we decided to break the reservations from 1 to 4. First they ignore our claims, then I wrote and they sent a rejection and warn us about breaking the spirit of the guarantee This one certainly not "gaming" the megabonus as it's a 4 nights stay.

Again have we committed a crime? I don't think we have violated anything. Next time I might try not log in and use another name to file a claim to see if it works better. It's freaky to see someone said that they recognise my name

Seriously they are not giving out free nights like IHG does, I'm still paying - just a bit less. If they do have a quota system, let us know.

I still haven't heard from them - someone at the Insider tried to reach out - their typical "I understand your frustration and please DM your information" and then disappeared. They should hire Lauren from Hilton.

sdsearch

Several other hotel programs limit their BRG to one a month. Do you want to "push" Marriott into adopting a similar policy?

nacho

The only one that I know of is IHG. BW has it once a month for the $100 GC, SPG is once a week I think.

I don't want to push Marriott into doing anything like that - but just the fact that they recognise our names and put remarks on our profile is already a bit like that.

They still haven't answered what I have done wrong by making a 4x1 night bookings vs doing a 4 nights booking.

I just don't want to get into this ridiculous argument every time I have this problem - I want my flexibility in adjusting my stay.

sdsearch

Well, Choice is another one:

Jermyn

I've just started dipping my toe into the water with the Marriott LNF and so far things are going quite well

I've consistently received repsonses within 24h and hit a 2 for 2 success rate last week!

3 nights at RC Budapest from 340 EUR to 177 EUR per night
1 night at the Prince Sakura hotel from 47,530 JPY to 20,400 JPY

On the second one I did have to email back and forth several times for the correct rate adjustment, my comparable rate showed the all in price including tax but the LNF team were taking this, deducting 25% and then adding 18% tax back on top.

I got there in the end though!

alexperi

I made a booking on marriott.com for a Fairfield Inn, and then found it for about $50 cheaper on booking.com. Same room, same everything. Submitted a claim which has been denied. I have been back and forth with them by email, even actually made the booking on booking.com and sent it to them, but they are still "verifying".

Any advice here? I have gone over everything I submitted and it is 100% clear to me that this is a valid claim.

Thanks in advance!

CL9

If my claim is denied and my first email to them for second try is not successfully, I cancel the booking and make a new booking.
Hoping to get an other employee aproving my claim.

cdancer20

Just did my first LNR with Marriott after having experience with Hyatt, Starwood, and Hilton.

It was pretty seamless. I matched to otels.com (a no-no for Hyatt like most other websites are.)

JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai
Marriott.com : 665.00 AED ($181.07 USD)
otels.com : $111.07 USD
Final price: 305.97 AED ($83.31 USD).

Definitely a great rate anywhere! Beats having to use my SPG to Marriott points (35k Marriott points a night)