Passkey reservations
 

I haven't found anything else in the forum, but does anyone have insight into whether reservations made through Passkey qualify as direct bookings? I booked a room for a conference by calling elite reservations, but they said it was a passkey reservation and elite benefits and points may not be honored. Then I called back to confirm that and they said the opposite--that it would be honored.

As long as there's not some stipulation in the group rate(like part of the contract) making is not eligible to earn points, it is the same as booking direct it's just a different booking method but it's still booking with the hotel directly. If you called the hotel to book that same block they would send you to central res. which would then use passkey to book the room for you. So it's still a direct booking in that context.

OP - did you wind up staying on this reservation and did you earn points and did your elite benefits apply?

Thanks,
RM

FYI: What happened in the past at one hotel isn't going to be a predictor of what will happen in the future. As noted, the method used to create a conference reservation (Passkey) isn't the deciding factor on whether elite benefits apply. What matters is the contract. Some group contracts will provide benefits and other ones will not.

And to make things more convoluted, some hotels will ignore a contract that says no benefits are required and provide them anyway in an effort to keep frequent guests of the hotel group happy.

yes and yes. While the above post may be true, this worked for me.