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Marriott's No Blackout Policy, Post-Merger General Discussion Thread

Marriott's No Blackout Policy, Post-Merger General Discussion Thread

Old Jan 15, 2019, 5:38 pm
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by 3Cforme
They do. I don't believe it is anywhere close to market rates. Once the allocation of award rooms is gone they may prefer to hold out for cash. SPG allowed using more points for premium rooms but one had to call in.
My understanding is that it's a very small amount that basically covers housekeeping costs for a room that otherwise would have been empty, but if the property is very full, it's close to the rack rate. People have accidentally gotten folios before showing what Marriott/Hilton/Hyatt paid the property for an award stay. IIRC the criteria for "very full" is pretty high though, something like 95%+ occupancy?
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 6:32 pm
  #62  
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Originally Posted by nexusCFX
My understanding is that it's a very small amount that basically covers housekeeping costs for a room that otherwise would have been empty, but if the property is very full, it's close to the rack rate. People have accidentally gotten folios before showing what Marriott/Hilton/Hyatt paid the property for an award stay. IIRC the criteria for "very full" is pretty high though, something like 95%+ occupancy?
Yes, twice I've received those folios at the same property. One time, when occupancy was low, the reimbursement rate was $39. Another, when the property was sold out, the reimbursement was something around $250.
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 7:57 pm
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by nexusCFX
People have accidentally gotten folios before showing what Marriott/Hilton/Hyatt paid the property for an award stay.

What is a folio?
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 8:49 pm
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by iowa guy
What is a folio?
It's the list of charges incurred during a stay, so basically the invoice for your room and anything charged to it like room service, concierge services, minibar, dry cleaning, etc.
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Old Jan 17, 2019, 9:32 am
  #65  
 
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I get the same message for the Westin Madrid. "We’re sorry. This property is not taking redemption bookings at this time. You can either book a cash reservation or search for another property."

Westin is not in the list of brands excluded from the no-blackout policy, and the hotel isn't even changing category this year. Standard rooms are definitely available so this is total BS. I was planning to use points for 2 nights and Ritz 60k certificates for 2 nights.
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Last edited by rrgg; Jan 17, 2019 at 9:45 am
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Old Jan 17, 2019, 4:37 pm
  #66  
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Bizarre as I have stayed multiple times w/points, and they seem to have great legacy Starwood service
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Old Jan 18, 2019, 7:06 am
  #67  
 
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Residence Inn by Marriott Madison West/Middleton has blacked out a bunch of dates which seems a bit absurd, first, it's the Residence Inn, second, it's Madison. Come on Marriott, this is just stupid.

Standard "king bed studio w/ sofa" is available as a standard rate during the dates I'm looking at, but "We’re sorry. This property is not taking redemption bookings at this time. You can either book a cash reservation or search for another property."

Marriott should just quit messing around and do away with their t&c's since they're clearly worthless.
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Old Jan 21, 2019, 9:46 am
  #68  
 
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Bizarre as I have stayed multiple times w/points, and they seem to have great legacy Starwood service
I received a response to this and they decline to say why they won't accept a points reservation. They're clearly breaking their own rules.
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Old Jan 21, 2019, 6:44 pm
  #69  
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Seems like they are adjusting to the looser / less consumer friendly Marriott policy quite nicely
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Old Jan 21, 2019, 7:36 pm
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Seems like they are adjusting to the looser / less consumer friendly Marriott policy quite nicely
I never saw that phrase in the past written at Marriott. Although I guess they could easily say, "We're sorry, all of our award reservations are currently booked" and it would accomplish the same thing while technically abiding by at least what their previous policy was.
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Old Jan 22, 2019, 7:17 pm
  #71  
 
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I think the hotels blocking rooms also has something to do with the "points advance" option at Marriott. I am holding a couple points booking (in Maldives and Bali) not knowing which one I will be going to (still waiting for flight availability for December). I don't have enough points in my account for both the reservations. I read in another thread about someone booking rooms at W, Westin, St Regis in Maldives. the hotels probably don't realize that the probability of cancellations given points advance has gone up (and they probably also don't realize that people are booking without points in the account). I do sympathize with the hotels reacting by blocking rooms knowing Marriott won't enforce the no-blackout dates policy.

I actually quite liked the old "you need to have the points to book" policy at SPG, that came with real no BS no blackout policy. Love the days when SPG made the hotel open up inventory when the hotel played tricks.

I am LT PPE (hopefully, when they get their act right) with 70-90 business stays annually, but will be limiting business stays at Marriott given the nonsense about no black out dates. I feel silly to say this (would have never said this in the old SPG days) but Hilton is looking a lot better.

they should call it "no blackout dates" and in fine print indicate "we have no planned failure of electrical power supply days".
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Old Mar 19, 2019, 8:14 am
  #72  
 
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So much for no blackout dates

Trying to book points. Surprise to find a city with 8 Marriott group hotels to have only 2 of them offering points stays (which both of them are too far from where I wanted to stay). But then I switched to cash stays and all of them pop up, with standard rooms available for booking across all the nights I wanted. Called a couple of them, basically the conversation goes like this:

Me: hello, why are you blacking out dates for points redemption even when you have standard low-rate rooms available for cash booking, isn't that against Bonvoy no blackout dates rules?

Hotel: no it's not, we are within the rules

Me: doesn't sound right as I read the no blackout dates rule right now.. (reading the rules)

Hotel: you can file a complain with them, thanks for calling, bye bye

Am I missing something about blackout date rules? Has the rules changed? I remember I never had an issue like this when it was SPG.....
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Old Mar 19, 2019, 8:22 am
  #73  
 
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Agreed... availability of points redemption nights is vastly reduced across marriott brand properties worldwide.

...and if you think that's bad, try finding a "cash & points" rate. Almost impossible.
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Old Mar 19, 2019, 8:34 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by est-gratuite
Agreed... availability of points redemption nights is vastly reduced across marriott brand properties worldwide.

...and if you think that's bad, try finding a "cash & points" rate. Almost impossible.
I can understand lack of "cash and points" as it is not a guaranteed benefit. But Bonvoy (ex-SPG) markets NO BLACKOUT DATES everywhere as a key benefit to the program, and it was easy during the SPG days, but apparently something happened after the merge and now No Blackout Dates seems to mean nothing.

It would of been ok if it's not a published guaranteed benefit and a major marketing point.
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Old Mar 19, 2019, 8:38 am
  #75  
 
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From my understanding the scam here is Marriott allows their properties to allow as few as 1 redemption night and still claim no blackouts. So unlike SPG where all standard rooms were bookabke with points you could have a property with 50 standard rooms but only 1 available for redemption. To be fair, some SPG properties had a very limited number of “standard” rooms but at least there was some transparency.
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