nottarockstar

acrophobia

As almost all of my personal travel is with my wife and toddler, this has been a huge headache for me. I’ve found that better properties, such as Alfonso XIII Seville and StR SF, waive these fees when they see them. Most, however, do not. Arguably even worse, if you search for rooms on points with 2 adults + 1 kid, you often get nil in cities in Europe and Asia, even when cash rates are available in basic rooms. That’s the main reason I’m currently sitting on ~700,000 points; I can almost never find a way to use them for personal travel.

wanderlust99

Just call them (the hotel is better than Marriott directly) and they will take them off. We stayed there last month and did not have to pay extra for the kids (after I got the charges removed ahead of time.) Annoying, I know. But worth a few minutes to time to save the $$.

EdofFX

I came across the same issues in Europe and Asia. Sometimes with the extra person charge for two kids, it was cheaper to just get two rooms.

Toukolou

I always book a room for just myself and add my wife to the room at check in. I never add my kids (3 of them, all under 10), nor do we all stand in line at the reservation desk. I don't ever "hide" them though, and not a single hotel has ever said a word. Just leave them off the reservation, entirely. I would venture that most desk agents won't bother telling you that's it's going to cost you an extra $50/kid. Now if you offered the "extra" occupant information upfront, that'll be tougher to get removed, methinks.

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banzani

xar

Same here. I usually just book the room for 2 adults then register my kid (6 yr old) upon check in so that he gets his "welcome gift" + free breakfast. (sometimes i'll just book for 1 person if the rate is somehow lower)
I have done this at various properties (St Regis, JW, Sheraton) and was never "charged" any additional person fee.
Seems like a booking hack if you ask me!

dav3d

Extra Person Fees & Disney World Swan

I just booked a stay at Disney World Swan (8/22) with a combination of paid and free nights. The total was five nights (4 on points +1 free) and three paid nights.

We are traveling as a family of 4, myself Mrs. Dav3d, and 2 teens (13 & 15). I entered the people staying on the Marriot site as requested.

It quoted me a total of around $600 + fees for the stay. Then when I checked out it added $400 in extra person fees.

Though I did see it, I have to say the disclosure on this is really poor. Really really poor. It felt like a bait and switch.

I was very unhappy but the family has wanted to do this trip for a while so I decided to book it anyway but resolved to look into this further.

As a side note my reservation was confirmed by email (and shown on the website) as 4 adults.

I decided to call to ask about the "extra person policy" for the hotel so I called the hotel and selected "reservations". (Pro-tip don't do this - it goes to the Marriot global reservation system.You want to select "guest services" at the hotel you're staying at). But in the process of talking to corporate, I learned that a new Marriot policy for extra person fees just went into effect on August 13, 2019. Apparently, this gives individual properties much more discretion to charge extra person fees beyond two adults in the room (including children), but he stressed the exact policy is up to the individual property and suggested I call Disney Swan in the morning and check with them directly.

In the meantime, I went ahead and linked my Swan reservation with the "My Disney Experience". It also showed 4 adults but allowed me to link the kids profiles I had created.

Next morning I called the Swan's guest services and asked them about their extra person policy. They said it came into effect for most rooms with the 5th person.

I discussed my situation and the representative said that there should not be an extra person fee for 2 children on my reservation, and she changed it so that the extra person fee was removed. End of call.

I thought, yay!

Then I checked online and saw the reservation now listed two adults.

I thought, hmmmm. I hope this doesn't mess up my Disney reservation. (You have to list each person from the hotel reservation to get the extra fast passes, park hours, etc.)

Went back to my Disney World experience site and sure enough, it had deleted the reservation link and I had to reenter it.

It then it showed my Hotel reservation having only 2 adults. I thought "oh crap." But... It allowed me to enter all 4 guests profiles I had made the night before into my plans and tickets.

So it all worked out in the end but what a pain and what a brittle process they have. Marriott's IT department needs a slap.

rickg523

Well, think of it this way. Many people won't jump all the hoops that you did. They'll just pay it rather than jeopardize that trip their kids having been dreaming about all year. After all, they know Disney's going to be an expensive vacay going in.
I call it disgustingly deceptive and it's naive to think it wasn't built that way on purpose.

JohnneeO

At 13 & 15, they are not adults in the Marriott World (meaning they should not trigger any extra person fees), but they are adults as far as WDW is concerned (meaning they pay adult prices for things like theme park tickets, buffet meals, etc.). I am not surprised this duality caused an issue.

dav3d

There is more to this saga/ordeal. It was annoying to have to call a couple of times to get the extra person fees removed but once I got in touch with the right person it was quickly remedied. However, within 48 hours my reservation was "unlinked" from "My Disney Experience" on the Disney travel planning website. Apparently every time you make a change, no matter how small to the reservation this will happen.

You can relink the reservation by adding the confirmation number on the MDE site, but when I did so only *2* adults showed on the reservation for The Swan hotel.

This is a problem because you can only make fastpass reservations and participate in "Extra Magic Hours" if you are on the hotel reservation.

So two more calls to Disney including a supervisor to determine that they can't do anything beyond make a notation in my record - since Swan is not a Disney resort, but a Marriot Property.

Two calls with the Swan to try to address this, first one said they fixed it but didn't. Second call a week later did the trick - this time I specifically asked them to make sure the kids were on the reservation so they would show up for fastpass. (Whatever change they made caused it to unlink again but when I re-linked 24 hours after calling 4 guests showed up - finally)

So it seems you can get the extra person fees fixed pretty easily, but getting the fees waved *and* having your reservation to show up correctly when linked to the My Disney Experience system turns out to be quite a feat of perseverance.

pewpew

Does anyone have more info on this new policy?

yerffej201

Then use a DND sign.

DenverBrian

Perfect! Just what I want - six people sharing a bathroom with no housekeeping service throughout the stay.

myperks

Has anyone used the terms and conditions on Marriott site to get out of paying extra person charge while at the property?