Corporate Travel No Longer Eligbile for Points???
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: UA -GS 4.5 MM, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 116
Corporate Travel No Longer Eligbile for Points???
I just had a very strange call with a service representative. I booked the Brussels Airport Sheraton via our corporate travel website (Concur). For some reason the reservation does not have my loyalty number attached, been having this problem with Marriott, think it has to be a subtle mismatch in name. No problem, in the past I have simply called Marriott/Starwood and they would add my loyalty number to the reservation. I called today and I was told they could no longer do that, I had to wait until I checked into the hotel. I told them that was unfortunate since the hotel would not know my status until I arrived and hence not provide any of the benefits. So they offered to send an email to the hotel to add the loyalty number. If this was not odd enough, I was then told that I wouldn't receive any points as the reservation was booked through a third party (my corporate travel via Concur). To receive points you have to book through the app or their website. I pointed out to the representative that this couldn't be true or you would be impacting virtually all of your corporate travel customers. I was informed that she checked with one of her colleagues and that she was correct. Has anyone heard of this? If this is true, I'll just book all of my hotels with Hilton and Hyatt who don't have such an incredibly bad policy.
#2
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
I just had a very strange call with a service representative. I booked the Brussels Airport Sheraton via our corporate travel website (Concur). For some reason the reservation does not have my loyalty number attached, been having this problem with Marriott, think it has to be a subtle mismatch in name. No problem, in the past I have simply called Marriott/Starwood and they would add my loyalty number to the reservation. I called today and I was told they could no longer do that, I had to wait until I checked into the hotel. I told them that was unfortunate since the hotel would not know my status until I arrived and hence not provide any of the benefits. So they offered to send an email to the hotel to add the loyalty number. If this was not odd enough, I was then told that I wouldn't receive any points as the reservation was booked through a third party (my corporate travel via Concur). To receive points you have to book through the app or their website. I pointed out to the representative that this couldn't be true or you would be impacting virtually all of your corporate travel customers. I was informed that she checked with one of her colleagues and that she was correct. Has anyone heard of this? If this is true, I'll just book all of my hotels with Hilton and Hyatt who don't have such an incredibly bad policy.
#3
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,994
Some specially negotiated corporate rates do exclude elite benefits but this is rare. Is this a hotel that your company has a special rate with? If it is just a generic corporate rate it dose seem odd.
#4
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the air
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Gold, GHA Tit, BA Gold, Turkish Elite
Posts: 8,712
I’m guessing it’s just Marriott customer service making stuff up again. It’s usually best to ignore them, as they’ve not been provided with any of the corporate programme terms.
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: UA -GS 4.5 MM, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 116
Yes, it is the generic corporate rate (and we are a large corporate customer >70,000 employees) code for Marriott.
#7
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 40
When you made the reservation did you make sure you used your corporate rate? I've noticed that some of the rates offered in Concur are through third party sites like Booking.com in addition to the corporate rate offered. Sometimes the Booking.com rate is actually cheaper than the corp rate, so it might be easy to accidentally click on that instead.
#8
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: IAH
Programs: Delta Platinum & 2MM, Marriott Lifetime TIT, Hertz Pres Club, IHG Gold, *A Gold
Posts: 1,253
Same thing happened to me. I’ve been fighting with Marriott for several weeks. I booked through Concur (as always) and they called me a liar twice and said I booked through Expedia.
#9
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,095
When you made the reservation did you make sure you used your corporate rate? I've noticed that some of the rates offered in Concur are through third party sites like Booking.com in addition to the corporate rate offered. Sometimes the Booking.com rate is actually cheaper than the corp rate, so it might be easy to accidentally click on that instead.
Cheers.
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: UA -GS 4.5 MM, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 116
Interesting thought. I did just look and it shows our corporate code number as the rate. So at least for me that's not the problem.
#11
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Posts: 4,911
curious as well and I was able to replicate this possibility as we use concur as well. My random check of a hotel does indeed have the lowest rate on top and says “booking.com rate no benefits apply” and is within policy but our corporate rate listed down the list is slightly more expensive and not in policy .
#12
Join Date: May 2010
Location: TPA
Programs: All The Programs
Posts: 2,203
Sure this will fix itself once more companies book via booking.com on Concur. The whole point of these programs is to influence business travelers, which obviously can't really happen in this case.
#13
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
My impression is that concur is a portal, not an OTA, but that as a portal it can be configured to book directly with Marriott or through booking.com/expedia
#14
Join Date: May 2010
Location: TPA
Programs: All The Programs
Posts: 2,203
That's not correct. Concur is an online booking tool that pulls inventory from the GDS. It can also be configured (as of recently) to pull non-GDS content from sources like booking.com, HRS, etc. Marriott cannot currently offer content directly to Concur (nor does Hilton, etc).
Any my point was: Hotels will always want to influence travelers. If a large number of corporate bookings come via booking.com, then the hotels will need to adjust their tactics to continue influencing travelers.
Any my point was: Hotels will always want to influence travelers. If a large number of corporate bookings come via booking.com, then the hotels will need to adjust their tactics to continue influencing travelers.
#15
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
That's not correct. Concur is an online booking tool that pulls inventory from the GDS. It can also be configured (as of recently) to pull non-GDS content from sources like booking.com, HRS, etc. Marriott cannot currently offer content directly to Concur (nor does Hilton, etc).
Any my point was: Hotels will always want to influence travelers. If a large number of corporate bookings come via booking.com, then the hotels will need to adjust their tactics to continue influencing travelers.
Any my point was: Hotels will always want to influence travelers. If a large number of corporate bookings come via booking.com, then the hotels will need to adjust their tactics to continue influencing travelers.
But, I'll accept its booking through the GDS rather than from Marriott.com but that some companies are having it configured to pull through other sources. Of course, Marriott promotes that it is always lower than those other sources .....