Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Hotels and Places to Stay > Marriott | Marriott Bonvoy
Reload this Page >

Time for me to move on - charged a cancellation fee after being told I wouldn't

Time for me to move on - charged a cancellation fee after being told I wouldn't

Old Apr 14, 2019, 7:28 am
  #31  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
Originally Posted by EuropeanPete


Not really the point though, is it? The OP asked if cancelling without penalty was ok and was told yes. I wish my customers were as undemanding as some of the people on this forum are.
I noted the ambiguity in a post months ago and said somebody needed to sue. I got criticized for being lawsuit crazy. Now we can see if the OP has the stuff to go through with it or just came here to vent.

As for the agent telling him there would be no penalty, agents don't have the right to change the T&C's of the reservation, which is between the OP and property, not OP and Marriott.
3Cforme is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 7:35 am
  #32  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: QF LTG, SQ EGTP, Bonvoy LTG
Posts: 4,834
Originally Posted by kkl
Call up customer service and they can give you an exact time to cancel by.
We actually called the hotel specifically and called to double check and got a different answer and called again and got a third answer. (11:59pm day before check-in, 11:59pm second day before and 4pm day before). In the end the first answer prevailed after a fourth call. Ridiculous though. SPG had it right and it varied by hotel as well.

Surely Marriott can still give the hotels the right to set their own cancellation policy and time, yet at the very least record that time in the system somewhere, even if members cant see it, so customer service can. Oh hang on, that might be asking a bit much of their IT.
wrp96 likes this.
lokijuh is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 7:40 am
  #33  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,327
Originally Posted by kkl
Call up customer service and they can give you an exact time to cancel by.
Yeah. Call three times and get three different answers. You'd just be wasting your time.
wrp96 and ethernal like this.
MSPeconomist is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 8:41 am
  #34  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Haze gray and underway
Programs: UA 1K 2MM, HH Diamond, Marriott 'clink clink' Titanium
Posts: 1,782
Originally Posted by ethernal
My reservations and contracts are booked through Marriott. The hotels use a Marriott platform to manage room inventory, billing, and invoicing. I book my rooms through a central Marriott system. All of the hotel webpages are hosted on a standard Marriott page. From my perspective, my primary contract is with Marriott and not the hotel. The hotel is the channel that Marriott uses to fulfill its contract with me. Of course the hotel operates within a framework and has significant independence within that framework - they set the specifics of a cancellation policy for example. Perhaps that is not the actual legal construct of the hotel reservation, but that is what it feels like to me. If Marriott does not want to set that expectation, perhaps they should not set up their booking structure to make it seem that way.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I feel like this is the fundamental difference between Starwood and Marriott. With Starwood, corporate would have closed with the hotel to make sure this issue is resolved. With Marriott, you're probably right - I am forced to go through the hotel. Marriott takes no ownership of protecting the guest. But of course, I can't even contact the hotel via e-mail anymore. So I guess let me call and have no audit trail of our discussion and just hope they do the right thing.

I am not okay with that, especially when Marriott is the one who told me that I would not be charged a cancellation fee. In my eyes, the hotel didn't do anything wrong. Marriott is at fault here, and they should fix the mess that they created.
I started to drift away from Marriott as it became more corporate and less family and began paddling away with the Starwood acquisition. It's customer interactions like yours that reinforce my decision. That said IMHO the HH and IHG programs aren't much (if any) better or different. I still spend 180+ nights a year on the road. I just spread them around better.
Dublin_rfk is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 9:27 am
  #35  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,295
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.
That is absolutely false. Marriott is the only major chain that does not clearly state the time of day by which a reservation must be canceled to avoid charge.
Kacee is online now  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 9:45 am
  #36  
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Montral, Canada
Posts: 1,610
Originally Posted by Dublin_rfk
..
I still spend 180+ nights a year on the road. I just spread them around better.
I also spend more time in hotels than in my own home ~225 nights annually. As I mainly stay with the major players, I would be interested to learn from your experience. Do you stay in boutique hotels, Airbnb, smaller chains? I'm not being facetious, I really am curious. Do you find that you get a better ROI?
flyme2 is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 9:54 am
  #37  
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Montral, Canada
Posts: 1,610
Originally Posted by Kacee
That is absolutely false. Marriott is the only major chain that does not clearly state the time of day by which a reservation must be canceled to avoid charge.
And that is why I would interpret their ambiguity to the most lucrative definition and then challenge them should their version of the T & C differ from mine. If they cannot precisely define 2 days before date of arrival, I'm sure there would be a small claims court somewhere that could assist. OK, now I am being facetious, sort of
MSPeconomist likes this.
flyme2 is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:03 am
  #38  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by clublounger
I think we are all owed a screenshot of what the confirmation email stated as the cancellation policy.

The OP has not been clear or convincing that he cancelled within the allowable timeframe. We are only fed a bunch of what was and what might have. been.

Be forthcoming OP.

Seriously? I assume you're trolling. The language I'm citing is common to all reservations.

Maybe I'm feeding the troll, but here's the full walk. I have censored out rate details / pricing and the hotel because it is a non-published rate.

You could of course claim I am lying about the fact that Reservations promised that I would not be cancelled as I do not have a recording of that call. But I promise you that the agent reiterated multiple times I would not be charged a cancellation fee. Marriott has the call recording, so they know the facts there.


The original reservation email:



The rate details from the app::



The call to Marriott at 5:43 PM (the calls the next day were to try to fix the issue):


The cancellation email (note it took place during the same time as the call):


And finally... the invoice with the cancellation fee:


Happy?
makin'miles and strickerj like this.
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:11 am
  #39  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by Kacee
Yes it seems deliberately ambiguous. Is it check-in time, 11:59 p.m., or some other time? I've not been bitten yet, but the lack of clarity as to the precise cancel deadline has always made me nervous (and likely caused me to cancel some reservations earlier than I had to).
Yes, it seems too easy a thing for Marriott to fix for it to be accidental. This has to be by design. Either to allow hotels to set arbitrary cancellation windows to trick guests (which is bad) or alternatively to discourage people from cancelling within their rightful window (I know I've been discouraged). This is not some mom and pa hotel chain, this is the world's largest hotel company. They can configure their systems to specify an exact cancellation date.

Originally Posted by freed0m
If the decision is up to individual property, Marriott can’t provide a precise time, just like cancellation penalty. It is not up to Marriott to decide without change of contract between Marriott and properties
At least with Starwood (as others have noted), the terms of cancellation always had very specific times for when the deadline was. And it varied by hotel. Sometimes it was check-in time, sometimes it was noon, sometimes it was 6 PM. If Marriott cannot guarantee what the cancellation time the hotel set is, they should just move it to a day before to be safe. Living in this ambiguous la-la land is not okay.
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:16 am
  #40  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by mikebor
Haven't read any other responses to your post yet but I had to chime in. I get your frustration I really do, but the thing you are against doing imo will resolve this for you. You have an Ambassador, you are the highest level of customer. Call the hotel, ask for a manager and explain it to them. I'm willing to bet that they will understand and refund you the cancellation fee. Calling random untrained(sadly) reservation agents imo will get you nowhere and high blood pressure to boot.

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.
I've been pretty happy with my Ambassador overall. Unlike some here, I can actually get her to respond. I pretty much never bother her for anything except to get stays/points posted, and on rare occasion ask if she can try to get an amenity for me if I am traveling for leisure rather than work.

Perhaps she could have tried to push this further, but I have a feeling that Ambassadors are no longer empowered to actually fix customer problems - either because of workload or because of lack of overall corporate care. Even back when it was Starwood, they couldn't really truly "make" anything happen on their own. That said, whenever I had an issue like this (never had a cancellation fee, but I had a hotel accidentally charge me an extra day after a late checkout), it was promptly taken care of with no issues. I feel like this should be an equally "no-brainer" type fix.
MSPeconomist likes this.
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:18 am
  #41  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by EuropeanPete


Ive not tried this recently, but I would suspect it to be extremely unlikely that customer service would give you anything that would align with the propertys expectations.
Yes, clearly customer service does not know the actual cancellation time - at least not consistently - as evidenced by the fact I was told that I could cancel any time that day and not be charged a cancellation fee.
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:21 am
  #42  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by 3Cforme
I noted the ambiguity in a post months ago and said somebody needed to sue. I got criticized for being lawsuit crazy. Now we can see if the OP has the stuff to go through with it or just came here to vent.

As for the agent telling him there would be no penalty, agents don't have the right to change the T&C's of the reservation, which is between the OP and property, not OP and Marriott.
I could certainly take this to small claims court and prevail. My case alone is obviously not enough to drive a class-action suit which is what would be required to make Marriott change their policies here.

Of course, as soon as I take them to court, my account will be cancelled. I still have points that I would like to burn through before that happens (although I could of course do an airline transfer).
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:23 am
  #43  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: DL DM, SPG Plat 100/LT Gold, Marriott Plat, National Executive Elite
Posts: 2,988
Originally Posted by Kacee
That is absolutely false. Marriott is the only major chain that does not clearly state the time of day by which a reservation must be canceled to avoid charge.
It used to be 6 pm under SPG.

Now, if it doesn't list a specific time, I assume it means by 11:59 pm the day listed hotel local time.

This has never done me wrong.

If the app gives me the warning that they MAY charge a fee, it means they definitely will. When that happens, I either call the hotel directly to cancel, or if later at night and I don't want to risk an error with the overnight crew, I call and have the phone line do it themselves.

They have a waiver code to put in there to assure no fee will be charged. That's the best bet if it's an hour or less to cancel deadline expiring
btonkid12345 is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 10:26 am
  #44  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,991
Originally Posted by btonkid12345
If the app gives me the warning that they MAY charge a fee, it means they definitely will. When that happens, I either call the hotel directly to cancel, or if later at night and I don't want to risk an error with the overnight crew, I call and have the phone line do it themselves.

They have a waiver code to put in there to assure no fee will be charged. That's the best bet if it's an hour or less to cancel deadline expiring
That's interesting - I've had a slightly different experience... I've cancelled early in the day and received the same "You may be charged a cancellation fee" pop-up in the app and not been charged a cancellation fee.

The fact that they have to use a waiver fee to deal with their own ambiguity on cancellation times blows my mind.
ethernal is offline  
Old Apr 14, 2019, 11:13 am
  #45  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NYC - upper West Side
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium Elite
Posts: 1,597
I agree with the OP. It is DEFINITELY time for him to move on.
He will soon find out that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the septic tank.
Nevertheless, the more elite members (especially Platinums) that leave the program, then there is that much greater opportunity for the 99.9% of us who are satisfied with Marriott Bonvoy to get upgrades. As a bonus, there will be a lot less drama here on this Board.

Best of luck....

Newman
Newman is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.