jnojr

I have an upcoming stay at a Sheraton that was booked under some massive corporate program that isn't eligible for credit. Is there an easy/inexpensive way to make it eligible for nights & points?

AAir_head

Easy? Yes; if corporate will reimburse you for making your own reservations outside their “program” (whatever you mean by that), cancel that reservation and make your own.

Inexpensive? Maybe, but probably not; if the corporate-negotiated discount isn’t that great, you might be able to match it or get pretty close with a promo or other discount.

cheers!

escapefromphl

Sounds like they are booking via Expedia or similar, a corporate rate negotiated directly with Marriott will typically include benefits. This is extensively discussed here:

​​​​​​​Marriott Bonvoy Exclusion for stays booked by corporate travel agencies

jnojr

Yeah, that isn't "easy" at all. I can routinely ignore their "requirement" to use their goofy travel agency, but there are two or three events a year where they do a massive booking.

I'm thinking of asking the hotel for a room upgrade, pay the difference, and see if that would do the trick.

jnojr

They book these huge events with "ITA", IIRC. And the rate doesn't count... they really scrape every nickel here.

view-with-a-room

How do you know it isn't eligible for credit? What are the terms and conditions of the booking on the Marriott site. At check in ask for the stay to be associated with the loyalty program and hand the clerk your membership number. Most corporate bookings are eligible or the employees would pursue other hotel options.

myperks

If it’s master billed, then you are out of luck.

jnojr

Because last year they told me it wasn't eligible, and I didn't get credit.

jnojr

I'll add that this stay does not appear in my list of upcoming stays.

mahasamatman

Every time my company books a room for me, I have to have them add my number separately, They never seem to do this on the initial booking. But I've also had cases where a conference booking was made without my number, and I couldn't do anything about it until check-in.

While you should never expect credit for master-billed stays, this is not always true.

KRSW

There's your answer and reason behind it as well. You can negotiate large blocks of rooms with hotels and get further discounts by foregoing the bennies. Since the hotel isn't paying out points, breakfast, and other Bonobos benefits, they're passing some of the savings onto your employer. Trust me, they're keeping some of that savings as well.

Often1

In order to determine whether there is a way around this, you have to figure out what you mean by "some massive corporate program."

As noted, there is a good chance that your employer negotiated the rate and in return for some of its discount, gave up benefits such as points, breakfast, and the like.

The question then is whether your employer will permit you to book your own room and then be reimbursed whatever it is that the employer would have paid. You pay the difference. A good way of determining how much these perks are really worth.

That is, however, a bit of a stretch and I doubt that I would authorize it if I were the CFO. One of the benfits to doing a massive booking is that it may well come with benefits which matter to the employer, e.g. flexible cancellations and it may also have other features of a meeting such as f&b baked into it.

So, bottom line is that there is a research project here. For you.

writerguyfl

It's probably ITA Group. They provide a bunch of different travel-related services, including incentive travel, user conferences, trade shows, and employee events.

https://www.itagroup.com/events

Personally, I wouldn't refer to it as saving nickels. With a huge group of rooms, foregoing frequent travel perks for attendees in exchange for a lower rate could easily jump over $10,000 in discounts during a multi-night event.

Often1

Important point.

Few people realize what those "perks" really cost since they are being paid for by a third-party, e.g. employer.

If one paid for one's own rooms and were offered a bare bones room with nothing more but at a significant discount, what would you do?