hockeyinsider

Here is the St. Regis Aspen's response on Trip Advisor:

This was what they responded to:

Kacee

My post referred to Arne Sorensen's statement that guests need an ID to make a reservation, not to check in. Or perhaps you're unaware that making a reservation and checking in are two separate processes.

calguy77

I have to say I really wish guest like this could get banned from Marriott. It's clear your retaliating because you didn't get your way. This entitlement of reward members and guests is what is driving rates sky high. You can try to justify your review by trying to say you didn't pass judgement based on getting charged for a no show, but, it's too late to do that. You probably got status because of a credit card and aren't a true rewards member that earned it. It's so easy to see real BonVoy members vs. the fake credit card entitled rewards members. I was recently in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, clearly the city was sold out, hotels were packed and I knew upgrades wouldn't be an option. As an Ambassador i'm grateful when I do get an upgrade. While I was checking in a "Gold" member with a Amex platinum was throwing a tantrum because the agent said they had no rooms to upgrade at this time. The part that pissed me off is when she told the agent, you better give me an upgrade or I'll write a bad review on social media about this. The agent held firm and finished checking the guest in. I wanted to say something but I couldn't. When she checked me in, she mentioned she didn't have upgrades. I said that's fine, completely understand, busy weekend. She seemed relieved that I didn't act like the previous lady. People need to remember this program isn't about entitlement, read the terms. Based on availability. Just like the OP, they are tyring to change the terms to better fit their needs. BS.

mysterym

sub'd!

i get the feeling this hotel is trying to pull a fast one on folks and they get away with it often

i think marriott has a whole lot of work to do based on what i've read, including removing these punitive charges and letting people just forfeit the points instead of allowing hotels to charge up to $32,000 from an undefined 'no show'

GrayAnderson

The problem is that the OP didn't change the terms. The terms were changed on him after-the-fact . That's before we get to any of the underlying philosophy about bad customer service and so on. Before we get to how good or bad a contract is, unilateral changes are a real problem, and frankly so are contracts that allow one party to do them (since I would further argue that a change like this is not something that a rational person can agree to, and at some point you reach a stage where you have an obvious lack of a contract due to a lack of a meeting of the minds).

Antarius

theres a HUGE difference between being entitled and willing to bend over and take whatever ........ Marriott wants to pull. One is demanding an upgrade and one is calling out terms being changed retroactively in a slimy customer unfriendly manner.

The inability to differentiate between the two... I dont think I can help with that. FT is pretty anti-DYKWIA. The fact that this thread is 99-1 or thereabouts, shows that even us non "credit card elites" think that this is straight up unethical.

I hope someone socks you with a 32k penalty (as reported by another poster) once when something out of your control happens. Let's see what tune you sing then.

Gadot

chill
thought it was a typo as I never saw arne' note - but technically you can't check in so if you don't have one, making a reservation is worthless unless you have one

C17PSGR

Obviously, Arne doesn't spend much time making reservations or seeing how the system works. There is no need for an ID to make a reservation or collection of passport information when making a reservation. But, at my legacy Marriott in South America last night, they were making copies .....even though I have stayed here several times before,

Now ... back to the St.R. ... its not clear to me they "changed" the T&C. Looks like many people are posting the email from the hotel with the cancellation warning of the cost, just as one of the bloggers as noted. Most hotels won't apply such a stupid policy because they think beyond this particular guest. This is all about the blockchain ....

rny321

Because the penalty for a no show or late arrival is so high, it should be disclosed before the reservation is completed and not in a follow-up email. Ski trips are especially vulnerable to weather delays and it is almost inevitable that some guests will arrive late due to events beyond their control. As someone who travels from NYC airports, sometimes connects in Chicago, and terminates at smaller ski-area airports, I expect that something will go wrong with my travel plans. If all hotels had similar cancellation policies, I would probably book a lower cost hotel for the first night as a precaution. Since I frequently use Uber or Lyft, instead of renting a car, and family ski trips involve a low of equipment, I would hate to move after one night. Fortunately, few hotels have similar policies and I will simply stay elsewhere.

ethernal

After reading through this thread, I am not sure what is more mind-blowing... the fact that this is something that the St. Regis Aspen did, or the fact that there are actually people on this forum crazy enough to view this as acceptable.

I am glad I read it though. I had no idea that the old SPG policy of a guarantee that points could be used as your cancellation fee no longer applies. That is a huge devaluation given that it creates material risk. This is especially true if your point usage is primarily at aspirational properties that have extremely high room rates. I honestly can't understand why Marriott would have such a non-common sense policy.

I understand that there are byzantine hotel reimbursement policies between hotels and corporate for point redemptions, but for an average guest, the guest would assume that they have "paid" for their stay in points and would - at worst - be out the points. Even in the instance of airlines, one is never out an extra 'penalty' for not using the service - you are merely not refunded. It is a highly unnatural outcome - I doubt any guest would want to pay cash (often at rack rate) over having their points deducted. This is the logical, common-sense conclusion. The fact that hotels only indicate this is not the option in an email separate from the reservation makes it even crazier (given how non-common sense the outcome is).

Even putting that aside for a moment, the fact that a hotel would do this to a guest that is not even truly cancelling - and who called ahead to notify the hotel of the situation - crosses the line from questionable to downright unconcionable for any organization that wants to consider itself even moderately customer friendly. The fact that the OP has a high status with Marriott is merely a cherry on top - one would expect that, in the event of any ambiguity in circumstances, that status would help in ensuring the hotel/corporate rules in favor of the guest.

Absolutely unbelievable.

strickerj

From the looks of it, this is the email confirmation that's sent now, but it wasn't when reservations were made under the SPG terms.

pentiumii

Agree with you completely ethernal. In my case, the penalty was about $2500 for two nights when the actual dollar rate never exceeded $800 per night from the time I made the reservation to the date that I had reserved. So, they are even trying to make money on it and they get to totally decide how much penalty they would like. Obviously some people are just trolling, and others can't imagine ever having enough points to actually book such a room so I believe that accounts for some of the comments. I liked your interpretation and appreciate your comments.

Kacee

I'm pretty sure the primary intent of these absurd prepay policies is to discourage award bookings. If the property gets to actually collect from an unfortunate customer who has to cancel after the deadline, that's just an added bonus.

In all events, this is IMO the absolute worst post-merger development yet.

Zorak

Your posting history indicates you are or were a Marriott employee/manager, which IMO puts a bit of a self-serving spin on the above remarks, besides them being a non sequitur as Antarius pointed out.

sethMCOflyer

To me the main issue is that neither OP nor Marriott is able to identify what T&Cs they agreed to when they made the reservation. If Marriott is unable to pull up a record of exactly what the customer agreed to, the entire thing is null and void. You can't hold a customer to a contract that you're unable to produce or verify which seems to be what's happening here, lots of conflicting T&Cs from different time periods, some from the hotel, some from Marriott.

The current booking agreement with Marriott seems to be "whatever we feel like when the reservation dates come around" which is 100% not enforceable.