Interesting article in Forbes this week,

Marriott Rolls Out ‘Hospital-Grade Disinfectant’ In Hotels For Next-Level Cleanliness

Tried several calls to Marriott and got no-where. Told multiple times, nothing we can do.

In the end I gave up, but then on the off chance, I emailed the hotel directly.

I figured it's mostly in their interest that the stay doesn't get cancelled, as if I cancel rather than rebook, I'll inevitably end up using the voucher at a different hotel.

The hotel emailed back within an hour saying they'd changed it, I received a new reservation confirmation, and on the website the booking says there's a certificate attached, which seems promising.

Anything I can do (or ask them to check) to make sure it has actually "worked" and avoid showing up at the hotel and have them tell me, sorry your certificate isn't valid, please pay our ridiculous last-minute cash rate?

Hi peteremcc,

We would like to help check the reservation if you could provide the reservation details to us via private mail or below email.

Best Regards,

Christina Z
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

[email protected]

I cancelled a reservation for the JW Marriott Grosvenor House on March 17 via the Bonvoy customer service number. I received an email from the Hotel the next day, which confirmed the refund amount and said that it would take 3-5 business days to process. I sent a follow-up email on April 4 and received a further response which stated refunds will now take up to 90 days to be processed. At this point it has been 40 days.

How long have others had to wait for refunds?

I booked the Quito Airport Marriot for the night of 3/19 before a flight home.to the US. Marriott cancelled the reservation early on the 19th- may have been because Ecuador had closed its borders. I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway since I was coming in from Bolivia.

I called 3/26. They said I was due a refund but they were "30 days behind". No refund yet. Guess it's time to call again.

It's up to the individual hotel because this is the entity that charged you in the first place. I maintain earlier advice that you are better off contacting the hotel directly to both cancel and follow up on refunds than to go through Marriott CS because they are just the messenger and will have no idea about the individual hotel's processes or the progress of your specific refund.

Le Meridien Bangkok took 16 days for each of my refunds and The Westin KL took just four days from confirmation to it appearing on my credit card account. I contacted both hotels directly by email and had confirmation from both by email. From that point, it was just a matter of their specific refund processes which I'm guessing involved more authorisation sign-offs before the refund was entered into the hotel's credit card machine manually and it electronically hit the hotel's credit card banking provider and thence to MasterCard's systems before arriving at my credit card provider's system and on to my account. This last bit, from the refund being entered on the machine at the hotel, is what seems to take 3-5 days which is normal. Everything before that is up to the hotel's own processes.

Aside from the initial call to Marriott CS, the email contact has be with JW Marriott Grosvenor House employees.

Let us know if you are successful, I'm sure there are a ton of folks (myself included) with bookings made pre March 3 devaluation.

Stay isn't until September, but will try remember to report back.

Lurker has confirmed that it appears to be all ok though.

I can also report that another hotel in which I had a points reservation (with full points, not advanced), was willing/able to change the dates of my reservation even though the points required had changed from 40,000 to 60,000 / night since the original booking.

The first person who emailed back said it couldn't be done, I then pointed out that it was odd that every other industry is asking people to reschedule rather than cancel, yet they seemed to want me to cancel and stay at a different hotel, rather than theirs, which prompted them to reply that they would ask a supervisor at their hotel, who ultimately approved the change.

I don't understand - I had asked Lurker a in march about my kauai reservation - same issue, forced to cancel and my certificate won't work now since category changed. Lurker quoted me the cancellation policy - why is it different now? Appears Lurker is willing to help Petermccc, but I was given the shaft.

I had the same issue in March:

Mar 17, 20, 12:25 am
#384
beagleflyer1977

Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 606
Have a trip to Sheraton Kauai that was booked when it was a Cat 5 using old 7 night certs. Now the prop is Cat 6 - I need to move dates due to COVID as travel is early April. Do I lose the option to use it or move dates, or have to pay additional points?

From Lurker:


As per the cancellation policy, any changes to existing reservations will be subject to availability and any rate differences.

Best Regards,

Christina Z
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

@peteremcc changed his reservation by contacting the property directly, who adjusted the stay. The lurker just checked his reservation looked OK in the system. The answer is likely still the same if you ask a lurker to modify a reservation for a property that has gone up in category. Unless you have a property that is willing and able to modify it on their end you are sol.

Category Change post COVID
 

See posts 542 and 549.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...thread-37.html

Good luck.