should I get my points back?
 

Here is the situation. Last Saturday, my son and I decided to go to KC (3 hour drive) for the NCAA regionals on Sunday. We decided to get a room and go the day before so we didn't have to drive up and back on the same day. I booked the room at approximately 3:30 right before we left. I used points. Less than an hour into the drive, I blow my tire. I pull over and as we are putting on the spare, I call the hotel and tell them what happened & asked what my options were. The guy on the phone immediately said you can cancel your reservation with no penalty because of the situation. I said great, because I would rather take care of my car and cancel the trip, but I would have borrowed another vehicle once I got my car home if I couldn't get out of the room.

After about an hour, I noticed no cancellation email and my reservation still showed active. I called the hotel again and got the same guy and he said yes, your room was canceled I took care of it. So I was expecting the points to show back up in a couple days or so. Much to my surprise, the next morning I got an app notification that I could check out of my room via the app. So I used the option to message the hotel via the app, which they never responded. I eventually emailed Marriott later that day asking about getting my points back. They still haven't responded and still no points.

I hope you got the name of the rep that you spoke with that cancelled the room for you. Since you are choosing to go through this process by email and messaging, that takes time. Getting a response from Marriott by email can take weeks.

I would recommend waiting until business hours on Monday to call the GM of the hotel. Tell him the name of the person who cancelled the room, and hopefully, the GM can assist you.

Phone contact is essential here. It could take 60-90 days while this gets "investigated" otherwise. Just reach out to the manager on duty (doesn't have to be the GM) on the next weekday and provide at least the exact time of the call (presumably you called from a mobile) and that narrows it all down to a few people.

I would have contacted the property first & ask them to do the refunding of points, & if that didn't work, then contact MAR. You still may want to call the property on Monday when the GM's back in the office. Good luck! (Well great minds & all that; just realized others said the same thing while I was typing this).

Cheers.

Thanks everybody. I will call on Monday. Yes, I called from my cell so can provide detail of exact time of calls. No, he never gave me a cancellation number. Looking back, I should have asked for one.

I wonder what the St. Regis Aspen would do in this situation? :p

A "no show fee" could likely show up in the credit card account.....
This is a tricky situation and it is best to cancel on the website and/or in the Marriott app and make sure the cancellation e-mail shows up immediately.
I personally have kept 100s of cancellation e-mails over the years just in case someone would claim that a reservation was not cancelled and attempt to charge a "no show" fee. Fortunately I have not needed to use any of them. OP...I hope you have the phone conversation recorded somewhere....because I'm not sure if they would do anything without some sort of evidence... It is always best to keep e-mails/recorded conversations to protect ourselves. Otherwise you would be at the mercy of the hotel...

I trusted the hotel operator I was talking to. I had no reason not to believe him. I don't ever plan on recording phone conversations (Is that even legal without telling the person you are talking to?).
If for some reason, Marriott chooses to not honor what I was told on the phone, I just will choose to cancel my Marriott credit card and only stay at their properties when I have to. I have status with HIlton and IHG as well and most places I travel, I usually have good options with all 3.

OP Marriott has nothing to do with this, its a hotel thing.

Your biggest mistake was not getting the Cancellation confirmation #, if there ever was one and from what you posted doesnt seem the person you spoke with ever CXed it. Could be he meant OK I will put you down as a no-show and we will keep the pts as payment

I wouldnt blame Corp for not touching this, after all you have no proof that in fact you ever cancelled it. A record you called the hotel isnt worth much as you could have called to say youd be very late in checking in or to get directions

I take it you missed the game and didnt go, since at best it should take an hour or 2 to get a new tire

Now had you called Marriot to CX it and it wasnt done correctly then it would be a Marriott problem, but as is its a Hotel problem with Marriott imo on the sidelines. I hear you want to put it all on Marriott but thats simply not where the blame should be placed. So I could understand not staying at that particular hotel but not dishing Marriott

I agree. I wish I would have asked for cancellation number. Yes, we missed the game, but fortunately we hadn't bought tickets yet. The secondary market was dropping by the minute, so I had decided to wait until last minute to purchase tickets on stubhub. This made my decision to cancel the trip easier when the clerk said my room could be cancelled without penalty. I haven't called the hotel yet and really not looking forward to it as I bet I get the run around.

Yea you probably will get the run around but simply mark down whom you spoke to the time and date. Then if they dont put the pts back in then contact Corp, or even email the hotel and blind copy Corp cant say if Corp will make you whole but at least they will see your trail and questioning the hotel and hopefully that will help

From the sounds of things it looks like they didnt CX the res only decided to let you off by paying with the pts and probably got their few $s from Marriott as well,

Good Luck

it will be very easy to find out who the agent you spoke to was since you have the time & date of when you called....just call back on monday & let them know what the agent said....try getting hold of him or talk to a manager if required....

I tried calling the manager about an hour ago. Was sent to his voicemail. I am now documenting every time and name I talk to. I did go through phone records and email confirmation of hotel and know exact time of phone calls.

Award booking 15:30 on day of stay is going to be already past cancel cutoff (usually day before stay). Even if booked days out, having a 'flat tire' means throwing yourself on the mercy of the individual hotel. You need to correspond with Hotel not Marriott on this. Suggest you ring hotel Mon-Fri 0900-1600 and ask to speak to Duty Manager and explain what happened.

Whether the hotel generously helps out can depend on many things, often financial impact to hotel
i)If hotel oversold and needs rooms then usually happy to be helpful (unlikely as you booked award on day of stay)
ii)if soldout but not oversold, then this late may be imposible to resell room, so hotel not always helpful
iii)hotel not at capacity, so not losing a room sale due to your booked room. "good" Hotels often refund in this situation if you provide genuine reason (likely in your case )

Possibly .. The hotel staff member you spoke to could well have tried to cancel, but being past cutoff day/timeto cancel, a non management member of staff usually lacks the codes to overide the cancelation cutoff, which is why the room points never returned. Room could have cancelled even so w/o points return and next morning get processed as no show

As noted by replies above, this then goes down as a no show etc etc