Land-of-Miles

If you add your Frequent Guest number Amex FHR (and I presume others) will push it on to the property. FHR and Virtuoso rates are full qualifying rates and also include all normal status benefits and promo participation. It can be very hard to apply SNA's to Amex FHR bookings though/

Dav77

kaizen7

arlflyer

It probably isn't an either-or proposition though. Many of the customers (big $$$ spenders) who book these properties aren't ever going to consider direct booking. They don't go fire up Orbitz or whatever. They work through travel agents and concierge services, of which Virtuoso and FHR are the chief examples. So it's about what property they pick (at their price point), not necessarily the booking channel. The property is trying to win the customer from another property, not from another channel. There may, in fact, be little overlap in the customers across channels. Not to mention the huge volume they push (again, of this particular customer type).

Dav77

blitzkriegs

EuropeanPete

cmd320

I somewhat disagree. I've never used HC, however in many cases I find the FHR benefits to be equal to or better than anything I would ever receive in a reservation through Marriott directly. This is most notable at properties classified as resorts. I've never booked an FHR rate that was more than $10 different than the standard refundable rate offered by Marriott and the benefit of breakfast alone at an RC would outweigh that many times over. When you add guaranteed 4pm checkout (something resorts almost never honor) and some kind of property or spa credit, that makes it a considerably better value than what Marriott offers its elites on their own. Now you could make the case that at a non-resort hotel the 4pm checkout should be guaranteed anyway, however that's about it. As noted, even Marriott elites don't receive complimentary breakfast at RC hotels.

nexusCFX

This is my experience as well. Virtuoso/FHR is just the BAR, so unless the hotel has special rates, which is generally not the case at RCs, you're just losing on the discount between the member rate and the regular rate which is always small. The only time I book RCs through marriott is to use my club upgrade certs. In every other case the FHR/Virtuoso rate has been a much better value.

Just an example I thought I'd check. I'm staying at the RC Berlin in May. For my dates, the current member rate for the base room at Marriott would come to 920 EUR for 3 nights. Virtuoso would be 939 EUR for 3 nights. An extra 19 euros to get breakfast, a $100 credit, and a contractually obligated one category upgrade if available? It's a no-brainer even as a platinum member just for the upgrade priority.

Although for the record, I used a club upgrade cert so I'm actually not staying on that rate, but I would have.

dayone

What rate are you paying?

nexusCFX

Less than that, as the rate back when I booked was lower at 260 EUR a night. At that time the BAR, Virtuoso rate, and the Z38 club upgrade + $100 credit rate were all the same, and the member rate was five or six euros less per night. For me club level at RC beats free restaurant buffet which is why I went for club upgrade instead of Virtuoso.