Residence Inn Oversold
 

I wanted to get some thoughts from others as to how I should best proceed in my current situation. I have a reservation tomorrow at a Residence Inn and just received an email from the hotel that there was a system error, which allowed reservations to be pushed through despite the hotel being oversold. I will be traveling with my wife and two young children for a wedding, and there aren't other good options for a hotel nearby. I can check in on the app at this point, but I wanted to see if that would do any good in helping me secure our reservation so that we're not one of the guests that need to be relocated. Bottom line, is there anything I can do to help our chances of not being relocated? Titanium status.

Not that it changes anything, but out of curiosity when did you book the room? Regardless, call the property and ask to speak to either the Front Desk Manager or the General Manager. Politely remind of them of your status including the guarantee if you're walked (Room Paid for by the Property, $100 Cash, and 90,000 points). Politely and firmly explain other accommodations in the area won't meet your requirements for attending the wedding. Be polite and firm. While it is unfortunate the hotel oversold rooms regardless of the reason as a titanium member you shouldn't be one of the guests inconvenienced by a walk. Good Luck.

--Jon

P.S. When traveling with my family, my risk tolerance is different. While what I stated above is %100 correct, there is still a risk you could get walked anyway. While it isn't right, if you can proactively find another accomodation on your own that is acceptable, you may want to negotiate with the property to still compensate you. Sometimes family harmony has to take precedence over other considerations. Only you can decide that for your situation.

Check in early, in person.

Thank you for the info. We booked the room in early February. When you say to negotiate with the property to still compensate you, is that in addition to the $100 cash and 90,000 points?

This along with Jon's suggestion of reminding them you are a Titanium elite member and what it would cost them to walk you. I doubt that every person checking in that day will be a Titanium or higher. If you remind them of the cost to walk you, only if they have no other choice will they do so as it is so expensive to do that. And checking in later means they probably have already checked-in lots of others. If they forget about your elite status and run out of rooms, you may get walked no matter the cost to them.

I believe it does matter as these benefits are only for bookings +48 hours before check in-which the OP is way beyond with a Feb reservation.

Does that mean that if we're walked that we wouldn't be entitled to the $100 cash and 90,000 points?

No. It means that you booked more than 48 hours in advance and you would therefore be entitled to the guest compensation (if walked.)

You received excellent advice much earlier in the thread: (1) check in (in person) at the earliest available opportunity to avoid being walked, and (2) remind them that your Marriott status is in the February reservation and that it will be costly to them to pay out under the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee (the $100 plus 90k points.)

Thank you.

I assume the property is trying to pull the trick that actually the OP doesnt have a valid reservation due to a system error, hence, the compensation rules wont apply.
Anyway, I would push back.
Its quite late for the hotel to discover that "system error". It is more likely that the hotel secured a profitable contract for many rooms and hence tries to push out the other guests.

dgreen12 is correct-sorry I was confusing. In your case, you are well within protections of the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee. Booking 48 hours or less before arrival, changes things.

The official policy can be found here:
https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/mem...s/guarantee.mi

I think it has already been covered in some other replies. Just to be complete, what I was suggesting is if you decide to do so and are successful making alternate accommodations, you could negotiate with the hotel to still provide some compensation. Normally if you voluntarily cancel a reservation (defined as you initiate the cancellation), you are not entitled to any compensation. So you would be negotiating that in consideration of your voluntarily cancelling your reservation in advance to help them with their overbooking, you would like compensation. You should be specific about what compensation you want, perhaps asking for the 90K points. That would still be cheaper for them then the full walk compensation (paid night in another property, $100, and 90K points).

--Jon

Worry about making sure your kids have a place to sleep now. You can fight about what you are or are not due later. The mistake here is thinking that a FD clerk at a RI cares about the cost-benefit analysis.

This is a risk tolerance issue. If I could not obtain a commitment for a room now, I would look at the alternatives, poor as they may be. You can argue later about what you are due.