dat4life

In February, I booked a room at hotel in Atlanta for February 2019 in hopes my team makes Super Bowl LIII. The cancelation policy of my reservation states cancelations are permitted free of charge until two days prior to arrival.

Yesterday, I received a rather rude email from the hotel stating I should have never been allowed to book the reservation but it will be honored only if I pay in full by mid December. And mind you, this error was magically discovered eight months later. Of course, I replied saying that this was unacceptable and that I do not agree it. The hotel GM's response was basically this is our new policy and pound sand if you don't like it. I get there is high demand for the Super Bowl, and the rate on my reservation isn't exactly primo and the terms are very generous as it allows me to cancel after I know if my team makes it or not. But it what was offered to me on Marriott.com, and I accepted it in good faith and intend to abide by the T&C I agreed to.

What bothers the crap out of me is this: Let’s say the roles were reversed, and I booked non-refundable reservation by mistake. If I asked to cancel the reservation because “I made a mistake” eight months later, they would hold me to the original T&C and tell me to pound sand. I just want to hold the hotel to the exact same standard they would hold me

I have escalated with Marriott customer service, but they didn't seem all too concerned with it and asked me to correspond further with the property before they intervene. Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any other advice dealing with this?

cfischer

there are many many similar threads ... if you search for Super Bowl for example. In short, you'll have to either get the Marriott Executive office involved to intervene or the AG of Georgia ultimately. A simple Email back to the hotel can read that you will be happy to forward their correspondence to the AGs office to have them determine if this is a legally acceptable practice. Most hotels will rather not deal with this ... if they do ... send it in, most GAs offices love these kind of problems.

dat4life

Ah. Thanks! Good tip.

MSPeconomist

UA-NYC

If Deshaun is taking a bus 12 hours to games, the Texans won't be sniffing ATL

mahasamatman

Don't assume that the OP's location has anything to do with his or her allegiance. I spent 17 years in San Francisco and never once rooted for the 49ers or Raiders.

Mister Nice

swag

I suspect that whodat4life is a Saints fan.

dat4life

Touche, mahasamatman. I live in Texas now, but I was born and raised in New Orleans. Of course, if the Saints don't shore up the secondary fast , it ain't happening. We'll see how Apple turns out. This is amazing already, I've seen far far worst.


Will do!

nequine

I've noticed that the Edinburgh Marriott now won't let you book a cancelable room when the Six Nations rugby is on, so I've booked myself into Glasgow instead.

wds17

Plenty of Patriots fans here that would take that room off your hands, no questions.

EuropeanPete

That's some serious brand loyalty.

Often1

Odious as the practice is, it is pretty common. It comes up around the Super Bowl and other major events. Poor planning means that properties don't change their t&c for the dates until they realize that they have rooms they let go for $300 which they can resell for $1,500.

Historically, complaining gets nothing. So long as anything you have already paid is refunded, they will simply cancel and most likely want you not to respond so that they can cancel and resell the room.

None of this prevents you from complaining to the FTC or an AG, but you do need to make a decision about guaranteeing the room as required because you may wind up with a nasty complaint and no room (and then having your team make it !)

Sallycat

Bumping this as I just logged into my Marriott account and have the same issue happen to me.. Unfortunately for me, I CANNOT find the original booking email... and am furious with myself (I keep everything, there's no way I deleted this, I know how this works) - I assume I have zero leverage without the original reservation, right? It was a reservation made on points.

Here is the text from the new reservation. The way I am reading it is, if I call and provide the deposit ($28.69), I can cancel after 12/3 and they'll just keep the deposit. If I don't make the deposit, they will keep the points. $28 is worth it to be cancellable if needed.

Thoughts? Not sure if this buys me any leverage, but some of this information is only found when accessing the reservation via the app and some via the website. The hotel has NOT contacted me about the charges, either.

Rate Details: SPG Redemption, deposit required, non-refundable if cancelled less than 60 days before arrival, eCertificate required prior to check in

Deposit instructions: please send a check or money order prepayment to FOUR POINTS ATL (address information taken out)

Holding your reservation: We will need a credit card prepayment to reserve your room. To ensure that you receive this special rate, we will charge your credit card a prepayment of 28.69 USD when you make your reservation.

RogerD408

It's been a long standing item where the hotel systems do not store the full verbiage of rate details with each reservation.but rather a code to a definition file that can and does get updated from time to time. And when that happens all reservations tied to that code get the new definition the next time you look at it. This was a standard from days when storage costs were much higher (remember the two-digit years?). Most times the property will remember they made a change since the reservation and honor the original terms Sometimes they need to be reminded and that's when you need the confirmation from the time of booking. You don't say what the terms were at booking, so presuming more consumer friendly.

Sometimes, I get lucky and find items accidentally deleted in my trash can. It seem many email clients are offering almost unlimited online storage so the need to clean it up is not as great as it used to be. I have a habit of downloading those items I really want to keep to Outlook on my PC and file them there. With luck my backup will protect me should I loose the hard drive. Good luck.