craigthemif

Easy to answer...

As of December 2018 you cannot BRG any Design hotels...

Very few, if any, people around here are going to be "pushed back to the OTAs". A BRG policy is nothing more than:

1. marketing for the masses
2. a game to get an extra 25% or 5k points for those who understand the value of earning points, status credit, etc.

By all means cancel all of your reservations and become a free agent. Then wonder in 2020 and beyond why you're no longer earning free nights, getting free breakfast or a suite upgrade.

theOtherHolmes

UKTraveller4Fun

I have been doing this for 15 years plus and have liftetime Titainium plus Ambassador since it launched, I know what the BRG scheme is and what it has become. My issue is tht Marriott are just so anti customer focused, my Ambassador is amazing but anythign I ahve to deal with Marriott direct with is simply so much hard work and gets nowhere. I have even got emails from corporate office saying they are bad and unable to do their job due to understaffed and not able to get answers to simply queries.

As a lifetime Titanium my suite upgrades and breakfast is very safe, equally I actually tend to book suites when I need them anyway! I have 65 odd nights this year and well over the Ambassador spend threshold already, but not sure I will bother with the other 35 nights as I have been a 'free agent' the last 5 weeks as decided not going to be foolish to be loyal when its clearly such a one way street!

As for free nights I would take no more free nights and deal with a company who can be bothered to respond to its customers in a sensible and reasonably manner over a few free nights here and there!

UKTraveller4Fun

I am hoping your correct, I have as usual emailed back to request a supervisor advise on this and if it is a change in policy. Issue seems to be that every BRG now takes a conversation to get the rogue agents to follow their own rules! This was a bit different as the agent actually took the time to list details and their exact reason for denial, hence my concern they ahve now been told to match cancellation policy exactly!

Will let you know the outcome!

joakgarp

I must stress the supervisors are actually great to talk to and very service minded. I can only say good about them the few times I've been forced to escalate after LOTS of replying forth and back with Marriott's few rogue agent.
I think folks here in this thread should do the same. Don't start a dialogue with the brg agents as some of them are out in the blue thinking they are beyond the rules and denying left to right; instead escalate the claim directly to a supervisor if you are not happy with the outcome of your claim. By escalating to a supervisor you are letting the supervisor know what's wrong in the brg chain as well and what can be improved for future claims.

There's also a hot line to call (I'll update the Wiki with the phone number if it's not there already) and ask for a supervisor to get back to you. I think my latest phone call a few months back said a supervisor will get back to me within 48 hours but it was rather 15 hours. It's also possible to ask for a reply by email which I suppose a supervisor prefers as well.

Edit: Our small little wiki is now updated and also with the information that the BRG does not apply to Design Hotel properties. I've noticed recent times some new comers asking about claims for Design Hotels.

UKTraveller4Fun

Fully agree on the supervisors I had got to know a few over the years on the SPG side of things, quite a few have now left however the ones I ahve spoken to recently are usually pretty good I just simply don't have the time to battle it out and find so many mistakes now. Recently I had a BRG where they forgot to give me the 25% and took a lot more effort than it should of to get it put right! I do feel for the supervisors I think they basically have a lot of new / poorly trained people working below them who cant understand common sense or even the t&c's of the program they are enforcing!

bjm5

I received a email from the hotel today that's contradictory to my approved BRG claim 2 days ago. Should I contact Marriott BRG regarding this or just ignore the email since my confirmed reservation has the correct discounted rate? Some one at insiders.marriott.com suggested me contact support there, but I just don't want to deal with the hassle if there's nothing I need to worried about.

My claim was rejected the first round because the rate disappeared when the agent checked. It worked the 2nd time after I replied to the rejection email. I was wondering if my reply email went to the hotel which caused the confusion, but it's addressed to [email protected].

Email from Renaissance
Email from BRG two days ago

bjm5

dup message removed

DaveMidknight

I think that if your reservation was already updated by the BRG agent, your rate is safe. I am guessing, from the email the hotel send you, that the Front Office supervisor has no clue how a BRG claim works or that the program even exist.

Sometimes a hotel has also send me an email after an approved claim, but normally they just reconfirm the approved rate (not always in a friendly way). But I never had any problems paying the approved rate at the hotel.

traveller909

Hi,
Need help if any experienced member can give their valuable inputs.
I am getting a better rate for a "The luxury collection" hotel from the hotels(ITC Hotels) website directly as compared to rate on marriot website for that hotel with exactly same inclusions and cancellation policy. I only need to register for a freely available membership from that particular hotels loyalty program which I have option to do it for free right now or even at check-in.

This hotel does not seem to be in exception list except if they count ITC hotels website to be a "marriot website", which I am not sure I cant find any relation of ITC hotels and Marriot hotel on thier individual websites.

Any ideas if this BRG claim may work or not?

MePlatPremier

GalaxyChris

I got the same non sense email from one hotel in Bali last week.
Print the BRG confirmed rate email (this is what matter) and enjoy your stay.

xar

Finally another success after 3 stays of no LNF. Not a significant savings but i guess the thrill of finding a LNF beats *

Hotel Name: Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers
Date of Stay: July 2019 (2 nights)
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 2
Room Type: Standard - Deluxe Rm
Marriott Brand Website Rate: $THB7500
Competing Rate: $THB4995
Took the BRG Award: 25% as the savings was around 80 USD.

gborz

So, after four unsuccessful rounds, I made a flexible booking with the european OTA at the competing rate - which the BRG agents were unable to verify before - and sent them the booking confirmation. They were able to check the details and based on that, finally accepted my claim. Right after that, I cancelled the flexible booking with the OTA.

Hotel Name: Element New York Times Square
Date of Stay: Nov 2019 (3 nights)
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 2
Room Type: King Guest Room
Marriott Brand Website Rate: $954
Competing Rate: $886
Actual Approved Rate: $666
BRG Award: 25%

Still, I have no idea how would this work with a prepaid rate. I think all BRG agents should have VPN access to validate non-US rates, because the current situation feels like a bit discriminative.

UKTraveller4Fun

Something I have noticed a lot more of recently especially at resorts is that any advance purchase rates need booking 60 days or before, after that you can only book member rates with 1-14 day cancellation policies. The OTA's still seem to have plenty of Advance Purchase rates for the same resorts but you cannot BRG as no way to make a comparable booking on Marriott.com

Seems maybe the resorts have found a way to offer what they wish to the OTA's and avoid issues of BRG's. Used to be 14-30 day advance purchase was the usual on spg.com. Not sure how it was for Marriott properties, but a definate shift from the SPG ones!