Originally Posted by controller1

Really? Do you not have any current Marriott reservations?

It's the boilerplate language on each reservation. The issue is prior to what time of day must the cancellation be made. Here are a couple of examples from my reservations:

You may cancel your reservation for no charge until April 21, 2019 (2 day[s] before arrival).

You may cancel your reservation for no charge until May 13, 2019 (3 day[s] before arrival).

Originally Posted by controller1

The issue is prior to what time of day must the cancellation be made.

Originally Posted by ethernal

Barring a miraculous change in tune from Marriott, I just finished my last paid stay at Marriott this past week (except where I have no other options - which I know will sometimes happen given Marriott's size).

I had a reservation at a former Starwood hotel. Back in the old days, it had a very clear cancellation policy when I booked it. It would say "You must cancel by 6 PM local time on [Day Before Arrival] to cancel with no fee." Now, all hotels have the incredibly vague "You may cancel your reservation for no charge until [Day Before Arrival] (1 day[s] before arrival)." What does "arrival" mean? Who knows? It isn't defined anywhere in the T&Cs (despite "arrival" showing up everywhere). While still not as clear as Starwood, Marriott could have even used "standard hotel check-in time" which is at least a specified time I can look up for each hotel. Instead, no, it is vague "day of arrival".

As such, I've been unnecessarily stressed whenever I have had to do a late cancel (and I've been avoiding them entirely). Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to change plans (had to switch cities anyways, had the opportunity to stop by home for the night rather than a hotel), but I didn't make these plans until the day before.

When I decided to try to make the change, it was 5:45 PM local time for the hotel - which was very close to the old cut-off window - so just to be safe, I called Marriott reservations (yes, shame on me, I should have called the hotel - but that's not the point). I asked the reservation agent to confirm that I would not be charged a cancellation fee given the current time and she said "yes". I stayed on the phone with her while I cancelled the reservation and asked her again when the app popped up "You may be charged a cancellation fee - continue?" and asked her to confirm again that I would not be charged a cancellation fee - and she did. She promised I would not be charged a cancellation fee. So I cancel, and I booked a new flight (had I not been able to cancel, I would have just flown to the original city I had the reservation in).

The next day, I receive a folio with a cancellation fee. I was surprised given that I was reassured that I would not be charged. I called back to the Reservations line asking them to take care of it given that they had promised I would not be charged. The new agent said that "there is nothing that I can do, but I can ask the hotel to waive the cancellation fee since you're a Platinum member..." It doesn't matter whether I have status - it matters that I was charged a cancellation fee after being told I wouldn't.

But I figure, that's okay, Reservations has no power to fix anything anyway, and this is why I have an Ambassador. I dropped my Ambassador a note to go fix the issue (given the promise of Marriott that I would not be charged a cancellation fee) and assume it will get fixed.

Yesterday evening, I received a note from my Ambassador saying that "unfortunately there is nothing we can do given the cancellation policy stated by the hotel."

I am absolutely flabbergasted. I honestly don't blame the hotel here (which is why I am not reaching out to them directly). Marriott is at fault here, and they should make me whole. They have a vague cancellation policy - so vague their own reservation agents don't know the rules and misinform their customers - and then take so little accountability for that they refuse to make a customer that stays nearly 200 nights at their properties whole.

I am going to escalate this to customer care, and if I do not receive a resolution of this within a few days, I will be contesting the charge with Amex. I have already cancelled all future paid Marriott stays (after this week) and am looking elsewhere. I feel like I've put up with a lot of abuse over the merger in the past year, but this is a straw too far. Unlike Starwood, I don't trust Marriott to protect me as a customer. They only protect the hotels, not me.

Originally Posted by mikebor

On a quick different note - I think your ambassador was terrible in the response and I would ask to speak to their supervisor and change ambassadors after complaining about the lack of assistance. I wouldn't want an ambassador like that.

Originally Posted by Kacee

It's certainly easier for an ambassador to say "sorry out of luck" than to make the effort necessary to fix the problem. Which is the path Marriott has basically encouraged Ambassadors to take by hopelessly overloading them.

Originally Posted by writerguyfl

Anyone is free to actively avoid spending money at any company. But honestly, you're not going to find a different story at another hotel group. They all operate in the same manner. (Even Starwood when it was Starwood.) They may have different procedures, but any situation that results in loss of income for a hotel requires input from that hotel.

The only ways for a hotel group to become the final arbiter on policy overrides at hotels is if they change franchise agreements or own all their hotels. Neither of those scenarios are realistic.