Happy

I am quite surprised that this property actually allowed award redemption for the extremely high demand dates around the New Year - many properties at desirable locations DONT even release any award nights, or if they do, very scanty and often must be 2 nights together, i.e. the New Year Eve and the New Year Day...

They must have dropped the ball when managing the inventory under the Marriott system then later realized they had opened up the dates that should never have award availability.

This reminds me a few years ago the SQ J and F availability on its long haul flights was blocked off from the partners access. During its migration of the reservation and within the 48 hours period SQ forgot to block off it from Partner access - as a result, MANY people were able to book the SQ J and F longhaul routes thru UA, and other Star A partners, with UA being the most naturally.
SQ chose to honor those bookings but then SQ had a lot more seats available than the 42 rooms Al Mah has, plus no way SQ could sell all those J and F seats thru revenue tickets while Al Maha probably can, during the high demand New Year dates. Those from Mainland China would probably buy up the packages widely available thru travel agencies hawking on Taobao.

pete.th

This was my first thought. There is absolutely no way I'm canceling on my own. The email was infuriating, but I'm choosing to take the more diplomatic approach now and I'm still hoping for a friendly resolution. Maybe I should point the GM to this thread. If he's already seen it there was no way he would respond like he did... or maybe he had seen it. Who knows nowadays with Marriott.

Cathay Dragon 666

Word of advice as I've been following this. The time for politely and diplomacy is over. I'm not saying you should turn into a thug. But it's time to clearly spell out what do you want, how do you want it, and ask them to either provide it or you'll escalate it as high as possible, including legal actions. Thuggish properties like this thrive on bullying polite and civil people, and usually they will bend over for people that are meaner and tougher. I don't like it either, but unfortunately that's how it works sometimes.

I would say:
1) Provide me with the X points and cash you are entitled to based on Marriott rules and regulations
2) The comparable hotel you need to put me in (I wouldn't stay there, or if you do make sure you document everything as there might be revenge payback involved).
3) Give them a set time to respond - say, either give me a firm yes or no in 3 days so I can proceed accordingly, I won't wait on you for your treachery.
4) If not, great, I've documented everything and rules and law is on my side, see you in court. And yes, I'll call all major news outlets and social platforms to expose your treachery.

arlflyer

I would not advise this kind of language. While probably not meeting any legal definition of blackmail, it is likely to be treated by a property manager as such. They will seize up, go running to legal, and you wont hear another word from them.

Dr. HFH

I disagree. There's never a reason, let alone an excuse, for being impolite. You can convey all four of these things firmly but politely.

rdurlabhji

I wouldn't threaten them with it. If OP does not get an acceptable outcome from the hotel, I would simply DO it.

MSPeconomist

kaizen7

I guess the 2nd best option for OP is asking Al Maha GM to book him into Al Wadi property (with full board terms just like Al Maha instead of OP cancelling Al Maha and rebook Al Wadi.

And for hoping Al Maha to have cancellation, I would say it will be difficult as I can guess many people want to stay there during holiday and cooler month and willing to pay cash instead of points (myself included)

schley

I don't want to read the whole thread, thus has the OP contacted Marriott Bonvoy yet? It would be a good kicking the tires on how MB is going to serve their customers as clearly this GM isn't.

eyeball1

I wonder if the GM is playing a sort of numbers game. E-mail all the points reservations asking them to "voluntarily" cancel. He is probably assuming enough will do so. For the ones that fight back he will leave alone.

hockeyinsider

Given the generic, copy-and-paste nature of his email, it's pretty obvious that he is doing this.

hotturnip

This is the most exciting thread in quite a while.

Seems pretty clear to me that (as someone mentioned) there was rate management screwup and there were not supposed to be ANY award rooms over these dates. They're not actually sold out--they're just not wanting to give award nights.

Definitely respond with exactly what you want.

"As the Al Maha is the party who made the error, it is your responsibility to take care of the guest. It is not my responsibility to correct your error for you. Please book comparable reservation(s) at the Ritz-Carlton that you mentioned, ensuring that all expenses will be taken care of by the Al Maha, in order for it to be equivalent to the all-inclusive resort accommodations. Also, as per Marriott policy, please provide me with XXX points and XXX cash compensation [add link to policy]. I'll look forward to your written confirmation of this resolution of the problem."

I doubt you're going to get this. I actually doubt you're going to get anything from this hotel, except canceled reservations and disappointment. But you may subsequently be able to get something from Marriott, if their customer service will ever answer the phone and not hang up on you (which seems unlikely).

SkiAdcock

Perhaps if you had read the thread you'd have the answer to your question & how OP is dealing w/ all this Aka, if you - (actually a generic you) are going to take the time to post to a thread, then geesh, read the thread.

Cheers.

moondog

This thread is neck and neck with Aspen

C17PSGR

How did you conclude they are not actually sold out?