Troopers

Any recent DPs at the JW in HK or the two Courtyards in Japan?

Happy

I am at a Springhill now as the first stay of a Plat Challenge. The FD swipe machine cannot process my Marriott gift card because the connection keeps timing out. The gift card is the older gift card before Marriott switched to using Visa format, so it has a 20 digits string, plus 1 check digit, starts with 3086 and we know Visa starts with 4.

FD manager tried to manually process it however my gift card has too many digits like 20 or 21 incl the check digit while a credit card has only 16 digits. She knew she need to add 1 digit in the front to make it either an AMEX or Visa, and then drop a group of digits to make the whole string only 16 digits but she could not remember the details as the swipe machine would automatically converted it according to her. She called support desk but the other end did not know how either. Worse the support desk end kept thinking the manager was asking about how to sell a gift card while the manager kept repeating that the system could not process a customer's gift card which has a lot of balance on it,.
At the end the manager asked the support desk to check further and called her back.

Meanwhile I am coming here to ask if anybody remember how the older gift cards are processed. May be I would get some answers long before the support desk would call back.

Would really appreciate if anybody knows the trick could post.

Happy

Update -<br />The FD manager called support desk again 30 min before her shift was up at 10pm. She insisted the help desk guy to go find a solution for the guest NOW, instead of waiting till tomorrow, because it was Not Right that unable to process a guest's Active Marriott Gift Card with high balance, that the guest intends to use it for all her bookings in coming weeks. The help desk guy told her she would be put on long hold. She said not an issue, just do your best to find the solution. After 20 min on hold the help desk guy finally found the instruction on how to do it - the generation of my gift card cannot be used via swipe, but requires manual processing by the payment screen, using ALL digits on the card, including the last lone single digit that is displayed away from the main groups of digits, as if it is a check digit - need to enter that one too - once the FD did that, the card was recognized and she was able to take the payment out from the GC.

I cannot say enough praise for this lady who would not give up and would not be brushed off by the Marriott Help Desk, but insisted to find a solution for her guest on the same day and not pushed it to next day next shift. She took it upon herself that she needed to find the correct instruction on how to process this type of Marriott GC so I can tell the properties on the How To in the future should other properties also dont know how to process it.

Now we know, for the gift cards start with 308616 requires all digits to put in the system in order for it to be recognized.

We also find out there are 4 groups of "Legacy Cards" with specific numbers as the first group. They have 15 digits only, and the property would need to call and give the GC number to the help desk which should (emphasize this word as that might be too high an expectation!) be able to recite the replacement card number to the FD and then it can be manually processed. This mechanism is even described in the FAQ on the Marriott gift card site. Unfortunately it does not mention the mechanism on the 20 digits card which I have.

Finally I recommend anyone who has a high value Marriott GC to register it on marriottgiftcard.com. It helps that my card is registered under my name and address that matches with the profile of my membership account.

SkiAdcock

Thank you so much for the helpful info! Also, which SHS so we know they employ a good FDC?

Cheers.

Happy

Springhill Ft. Lauderdale Airport and Cruise Port. It is located just off I-95 on Stirling Road. They have complementary shuttle to the airport but not the cruise port which they charge $10 per person.
There s a Hyatt Place, a Hilton Garden Inn. on the same side of the road within 5 min walking, and a BW plus another brand on the other side of Stirling. The FD seems to know their guests as when the guests return they all say hellos to each other. The FD was busy not due to check in, over the 2x long time I was there, only 2 groups of guests checked in between 7:30 and 8pm. But they were busy as many existing guests bought items from the mini mart, seemed like every 5 to 10 min someone would drop by to pay for something.

All rooms are equipped with a minIfridge and a microwave! What is lacking is a safe which I have not found one in several Springhills we stayed the last 9 months. May be that was not a designed when the brand was developed but a safe should be a standard feature these days. The Hyatt Place at Marathon Key we stayed at right before the hurricane last year also does not have a safe.

Breakfast is comparable to a Hyatt place. What is surprising is they have full assortments of very fresh nuts and dried berries for your cereal and oatmeal toppings. They also have 4 waffle machines so nobody needs to wait for one. Though I can see the breakfast area could get cramped on a Monday morning with cruise passengers come to stay on Sunday after their cruises ended (generally on Sundays). This morning when we came down at 8:30am there were tables and all the high top were available.

SkiAdcock

Again, thanks for info. Might be worth contacting the GM or filling out the survey praising the FDC that went to bat for you. Good luck w/ all your stays.

Cheers.

Happy

Planning to do that as well as post a review on TripAdvisor. Haven't received the survey yet but will definitely give positive feedback on the survey. I always provide positive feedback on survey if there is above and beyond assistance received from the employees during a stay. Good employees should be recognized, so they know their efforts are really appreciated.

derby44

Used Marriott gift cards in Cancun last month with no problems. Best of luck.

MasterGeek

Brendan

VERY fair! The hotel puts the charge thru in its home currency. Then Marriott's intranet "Marsha" converts it to the currency of the GC (usually USD) at a rate within 1/2 % of the mid-market rate ! If you want to preview it, enter your GC# on the Marriott Webpage that checks GC balances, then ask for your balance in various currencies.

susieling

Thinking about using gift card (first time user) to pay my upcoming trip in LA (Marriott Marina Del Rey), is there any limit on how many GCs or how much can be paid by GCs for any stays? Thanks!

Counsellor

I have used multiple cards to pay my bill before with no question, and have never heard of any maximum number.

dw

With all of the SPG properties being fully integrated into Marriott's platform by mid-December, does anyone know if Marriott gift cards will start being accepted at former SPG properties?

Tamrod

I was looking into buying Marriott cards. There are two options. "Egift" or "Voucher". How do you use them? are there advantages or disadvantages to them? They say "Stay, Dine, Spa, Golf" on them.

cfischer

there should absolutely be no difference.