Outrageous No-Show Fee Incurred At St. Regis Aspen
 

I booked 2 rooms for 5 nights at the St. Regis Aspen all on points. These were booked back in the first half of 2018 for a recent stay in March 2019. Unfortunately, our flight to ASE was cancelled so we could not arrive until the next day. In particular, we ended up stuck in our layover city (DFW), had to book 2 rooms at DFW and then had to fly to GCM the next day, rent a car and drive to Aspen. Called hotel around 5 PM MST when we knew we would not make it the first night to let them know. They offered to "guarantee the room" so we thought everything was good to go. I would later find out this "guarantee the room" was code for we will charge you $1,000.00 per room (2 rooms) to keep your reservation. No mention of any charge or charge amount during call.

I was shocked to find the $1000.00 charge per room on my folio for each room plus tax ($113.00) on day of checkout. Spoke to front desk, mid-level manager and ultimately higher level manager. I was basically told that this is the way it is and I should have read my T&C more carefully.

I now have taken up the issue with a phone representative on the Marriott Platinum line. He seems sympathetic and is setting up a case. He says that Marriott will contact the hotel and the hotel will have 5 days to respond. I will have to wait and see how this goes.

First off, I find this crazy that I would incur a cash charge for missing my first night when all nights were prepaid on points. There is no way the hotel has lost anything. I have read elsewhere that the hotel could argue that they have lost out on the opportunity to sell me ancillary services/products for that first night. I don't buy this line of reasoning and think that any claimed loss is not even close to the no show charge. I bet I could fight this in a court of law (maybe small claims court) but that is a time-suck.

Second, the mid-level manager suggested that if I run into this issue in the future that I simply check-in to the hotel via the Marriott app. This would likely work to avoid this nonsensical charge but I found this suggestion to be a cruel one since it was provided when arguing the charge and not when I called on Friday to kindly let the hotel know we would be late.

Third, and likely my saving grace, my original booking confirmations clearly state: "If a no-show / cancel charge is incurred, SPG members may request to switch the charge to a forfeiture of applicable Starpoints by e-mailing their request to [email protected] no later than 60 days from the reservation arrival date." To me, this clearly indicates that only my points should be forfeited and no cash charge should be incurred.

Anyone else find this crazy? Any advice on how to get these charge reversed?

Contact the Lurker on the forum. He should be able to offer you help as this is an extraneous situation.

Regardless what the rate rules allow, it is very poor form for a hotel to assess a no show fee when they've been contacted by the guest and advised of a delayed arrival due to a flight cancel. Most properties will make allowances in these situations, particularly for top tier elites. Park Hyatt Chicago pulled this garbage on me many years ago (all flights canceled out of EWR) and it still stands out in my memory.

The stupidity of this boggles the mind! This hotel should be rewarded with bad publicity for that $2000. Make sure you write this up in Trip Advisor.

In contrast, I'll never forget the time I was going to the W in Doha, and due to cancelled flights, I called the hotel after midnight on day of check-in, and said we wouldn't be able to make it. The manager canceled our reservation no questions asked.

As a further data point on this, I have reviewed my "Latest Activity" for my Marriott account. It shows 4 new transactions on all the same day (my actual day of check-in): +360,000 points; -340,000 points; +360,000 points and -340,000 points.

So in exchange for a $2,226.00 no show fee plus taxes, I was given back 40K points (about $300 or so in points value).

Yes, Kacee, this one will stand out in my memory for some time. Even assuming I can get it resolved, I find it shameful that a nicer name brand hotel would use such tactics.

Sounds like you should be invoking this.

Except SPG no longer exists...

I think OP should contact Lurker and he may be able to get this resolved in a much more reasonable manner.

This also feels like it is worthy of a CC dispute and/or invoking travel insurance (if applicable) given that no amount was indicated on the call (per your statement). I don't think this is reasonably a T&C issue insofar as it wasn't disclosed on the call. Also, $1000/night feels a bit high for a "going rate", even at a St. Regis.

Edit: And of course, it sounds like there's a good chance that Marriott will be able to resolve this. Give them a week, there's a decent chance the property gets a "...?" from Corporate on this.

Thanks margarita girl, good advice. That email has already been sent.

Also, in line with your other suggestion, I do plan to publicize this as much as possible to (1) make sure others are aware of this so they can take precautions and (2) publicly shame the St. Regis Aspen for trying to take advantage of such a situation.

OP should be able to reverse the charge and pay in full points. I am sure Marriott will come through. OTOH, $1K/night is actually a decent rate at St Regis Aspen. I have seen it much higher for Superior (standard) Room during ski season.

I am fairly confident that I could get this covered under CC travel insurance. Flights were booked with points but taxes/security fees were paid with CSR card. I am planning to make a claim anyway for other expenses related to our delay (e.g., hotel at DFW, food, etc.). However, I feel strongly that the St. Regis Aspen should not be allowed to get away with this so easily.

Good suggestion on disputing it via CC dispute. I may try that if other avenues are not successful. I too am optimistic that it will get resolved but who knows.

I don't normally get so fired up but this one just really irks me.

Just for the record...the option to pay no-show fee in points has gone away post-merger. Every points booking going forward is subject to a cash no-show fee. Agree with others who think it is poor form to charge any no-show given the situation. But well within the letter of the current T&Cs so once the property chose to charge a no-show not surprised charging a credit card is how they went about handling it. Luckily the OP has the original T&Cs that both parties agreed to at time of booking which allows for points in lieu of cash for no-show. So this should be relatively straightforward to address.

ETA: I also agree that $1000 per room is about right as the charge for one-night no-show penalty for this property during ski season.

As a hotel manager all of this is 100% kosher. I understand that the OP is upset but it is all within the T&C. It also follows the cancellation policy. I have worked in many a resort (beach and ski) that have had greater than normal cancellation periods. It is very difficult for these hotels to resell rooms at the last minute. A city property is much different. All in all this is why travel insurance was created. No need to cry over spilled milk.

See my post just below yours. Seems St Regis really doesn't want point use as they are ripping me off too

Also why should the no show change the fee from points to cash? The guy like me already paid in points and then because a plane doesn't arrive the hotel can just bill him whatever they like in cash? Ill be disputing my charge with Amex *(post below also on this crappy St Regis). Will also be posting all over about this crappy St Regis. Seems this is their policy. This property hates point use (They've told me this before) and Clearly this is their retaliatory method.

I agree here. Op, Just take it up with your travel insurance and sort it out by yourself. The hotel is doing the right thing here all according to t&c. Is it the hotel's fault and loose money when airlines are not doing what they are supposed to?
Otherwise tons of people would just call their hotels and tell them their planes have been cancelled etc if that would be a valid reason to cancel a non cancellable reservation. Would be a mess.

this same hotel sent me a notice after I booked 2 rooms during xmas that if I cancelled my penalty would be 32K.

Except starwood used to allow points forfeiture as a no-show penalty and the OP booked when this policy was in effect. So this is not within the T&C at the time of booking. It very much is the T&C now...hence the confusion from the hotel.

hotelboy and joakgarp, with respect, I think you are both missing the point.

The rooms were already paid in full in points. The hotel is not out anything by me not showing up until the second day of my 5 night stay. Likewise, sean1397's rooms were fully paid for in advance with points. Please help me understand how the hotel is losing money when we don't show up on the first night of a reservation that is fully paid. The hotel need not do anything w.r.t. reselling the room so it is irrelevant (at least how I see things) as to whether reselling is an option. Further, at least in my specific situation, I let the hotel know that I would not arrive until the afternoon the next day. Optionally, the hotel could have sold my rooms for the 1st night and made some extra dough if there was demand (i.e., they would receive whatever value they get from my points booking plus optionally cash if the room could be resold).

sean1397, I feel your pain. My family prefers Airbnb's and similar rentals. This will only further push me in that direction.

Sorry, but why the hotel charges a no-show fee is not relevant. This argument was made over and over back when Starwood agreed to allow points as the cancellation fee. Marriott has reversed that policy. The fact is that marriott hotels do charge a cash no-show fee and clearly communicate that at time of booking. Your case is different because you booked at the time when you could pay no-show in points instead of cash. But going forward you should recognize that cash no-show fees are standard for marriott and you should expect to pay them or choose not to book using marriott points.

Eh, waiving it in exchange for evidence of the airline cancelling the flight would seem to be a reasonable compromise. It isn't like flight status is top secret information (flightaware.com is always there if all else fails), so requiring a copy of original booking confirmation/check-in combined with a flight status report showing a delay that blows a connection (or a cancelled flight, etc.) wouldn't be an unreasonable middle ground.

"We would also like to bring to your attention that a 30-day cancellation policy is in effect for the dates of your reservation. If changes are required within 30 days of your arrival date, cancellation penalties and additional fees may apply. Due to our remote resort destination we strongly recommend you purchase travel insurance. Please note that a monetary fee will be assessed in the event of a cancelation within 30 days prior to arrival in the amount of $2,000."

This is from their very friendly welcome email.

Just bend over and take it? I don't think so.
Yes. A good property - one that actually cares about providing quality service - will cut their guests slack here. Especially when the guest has a substantial relationship with the chain, as reflected by top tier elite status.

I'm not arguing that the hotel should have been more gracious in applying it's no-show policy...i'm just saying that if they do apply it, seems there are no longer any legs to stand on to expect just the points forfeiture.

boolean64, I hear what you are saying re the T&C if I had made that booking later in time (e.g., after August 2018). Like many, I have other bookings that are not under the SPG T&C (they were made after August 2018) so I will need to be careful with these. I think a work around is simply to check-in to the hotel remotely via the Marriott app for properties that allow such checking in. Maybe the T&C state that you have to be physically present but I doubt anyone would notice.

My point above was simply to rebut the statements made in support of the "no show" fee. Statements were made that it was fair b/c the hotel could not easily resell the rooms on short notice. I simply countered to say that it is inherently not fair. The hotel has no loss from me not showing up. Even the loss of potential ancilary charges is specious b/c this would be offset by lack of expenditures by the hotel on my rooms (e.g., no housekeeping, electricity, amenities, etc.)

I would add that there is an additional concern: when booking 5 nights on points the 5th night is of course free. If the hotel charges you a no-show fee in cash and "refunds" your points you probably would not get any points back b/c 4 nights would be the same as 5 nights. Regardless of what the T&C indicate, there is something not right about this. For whatever reason, I did get a few points back (20K per room) but it might as well been nothing when compared to the cash charge.

Also, regardless of the T&C, maybe we could all agree that this is a very lousy thing to do (charge "no show" fee on prepaid reservation). To me, this is a very serious and surreptitious points devaluation.

The St. Regis is just following its contract you agreed to when you accepted the terms and conditions. You had ample opportunity to cancel before hand if you did not like the terms they were offering. What would have happened if somehow you did get to Aspen and they had sold your room?

Which has happened to many people throughout the years, and are they compensated at $1000+ for the night?

Are you kidding us ? The hotel was already paid with points for the room, what does it change to them that the OP was staying in or not ? Nobody is asking them to cancel without charging the night...

I have no problem with a hotel charging a no show penalty. The fact Marriott does will add to my increasing reasons to leave the brand but if a hotel is gonna charge a fee it needs to be clear and disclosed. It cant say there may be some terms somewhere else that you may or may not have seen and you may or may not have read and they may or may not have a set rate.

Id have no problem if when I booked my room it said on the booking page if you do not check in by 11PM on Monday you will be charged $1100. All it says is your points are non refundable. The manager says the $1100 fee is on the booking page and the confirmation email. It is not.

A hotel can charge whatever it wants for cancellations but needs to show this amount in advance and then I just won't stay there.

I dont see how advising hotel of delay and late arrival is a no-show. Op did not request to refund the first night either. Any respectable hotel would have checked him based on reservation dates.

By the way, based on my experience here last month, I am also pretty sure this hotel hate point stay and do everything they can to provide bad service to customer redeeming points here. And if they can rip them off a little bit or more, they will.
I mean, how dare you stay here without paying 2k$ per night ? You are cheapening their product !

The hotel does not get paid in points until the guest arrives. If the guest does not arrive the hotel is not paid.

Leave the room empty then. If the OP paid for 5 nights and missed one due to a flight issue, what exactly do you lose? its not like the OP is asking for a refund or points back. They paid, .... happened, you lost nothing. If you don't get points, thats something you and other managers should fight with Marriott about.

Hiding behind obscure and ridiculous T&C is a cheap move. Fits right in with Jeff Smiker, Doug Parker and that group. This is kowtowing to weak policies and sticking it to someone who did everything right and got the short straw - basically a flat track bully move.

Would everyone agree if this hotel wants to charge $1100 or $5000 or whatever it needs to clearly tell you when you book that if you do not show up by X time on X date you will be charged this? Id have no issue if this is the case but no where does it say this. I will post my confirmation email tomorrow when this site allows me to and all it says is the points are non refundable.

This is an excellent point and one that all the defenders are ignoring.

Although within the T&C, charging a cash fee instead of just the points is very consumer-unfriendly. I'd argue that if the hotel doesn't get paid by Marriott when the guest no-shows, that's a flaw in the agreement between Marriott and its hotels.

If the hotel is not full, the the cost of the unsold room is minimal, and the hotel should be satisfied with the payment in points. If the hotel is near capacity, then the payment they get from Marriott is close to full rate.

It's still bad to charge this fee when someone completely no-shows, but when the guest has a documented airline irrops and shows up the next day for the rest of the stay, it's completely egregious. What a dreadful way to treat a loyal customer, by both Marriott and the hotel.

The hotel would have been paid in point if they just checked the guest for the whole stay, however they preferred to charge a no-show to extract more money from OP. You can maybe defend them legally but in no way you can say it is a normal and honest thing to do...