Is my boss stealing my points?
 

Hello,

Week ago I've stayed in Marriott property. We had separate reservations made on different days with different credit cards. When we checked in we were greeted by our status (he's 1 tier higher). Check in agent confirmed my amex on file for accidentals etc.
Night before check out, my boss told me that he took care of my bill and that I'm good to go tomorrow. He was leaving in the morning and I was leaving afternoon.
Now, week later I went to my Marriott account to see if the points have credited, but my account shows 0 stays and I don't see my reservation in the 'Past Stays' section.
Did he changed something when he 'took care of my bill'? That would be new low...

It's possible to swipe the points if he paid for it. The night credit wouldn't go to him (but I don't know where it would go).

https://insiders.marriott.com/thread/57153

Unless anyone here knows your boss personally then I don't think anyone can definitively answer your question (which isn't to say that they won't speculate endlessly about it).

If you made the original reservation on your Bonvoy account in your name and this is what's disappeared off your account then you will have to phone the hotel to see what happened.

Otherwise, strictly speaking, you have to stay *and* pay for your room for it to be eligible and going by what you described you stayed but didn't pay. The hotel may just be taking a strict view of the programme rules and neither of you got the points for the night. You will only know for sure if you phone them and ask what happened to your reservation and the associated Bonvoy number.

[SPECULATION]
On the other hand, your boss may have asked them to credit the room points (boss won't get the nights) to their account as they were paying and the hotel may have done this.
[/SPECULATION]

Call the hotel and ask for a folio, that should answer your questions. You should have the confirmation number still.

In order to earn SNP, you have to be the person booking the hotel, staying at the hotel and paying for the hotel stay. Sometimes they will be lenient on the booking if say your secretary made the booking for you by booking with Marriott direct.

Im pretty sure you have to stay and pay for the room to get the stay and points. No exceptions.

When I travel with colleagues, I book all the rooms, we check in together and I pay for all the rooms. I have always been honest with them that I will get points from all the rooms and whatnot, and in turn, they benefit from my elite benefits (many hotels in Asia will extend elite benefits to two or even three rooms, definitely always has lounge access for all colleagues if booked under my name). I also offer to transfer some points to their account if any of the colleagues collect Marriott points.

Often my colleagues are happy to get upgraded rooms and free breakfast, late check out, and not have to worry about the bill and never ask me for the points or stay credits. Win-win’

Yes, he could have paid for it and taken care of both rooms. He get's points but no night credit. You get nada.

He can't check out the night before you leave to "Take care of your bill". But he certainly can go see the FD and have your room changed to his billing. Which seems a something the FD shouldn't do without your consent.

Before speculating, check with the property to determine what did happen. Once you have solid facts, you may or may not have a basis to complain to Marriott about changing the folio without your authority and with your boss. But, this isn't the sort of thing I would do without facts in hand.

It's subtle and we can speculate... But yeah... your boss probably knows what he's doing by merging the folios onto his account.

If you contact the hotel you can find out for sure.

It seems like your boss paid for your room, which is slightly different than "stealing your points."

Has this happened before with your boss? Doe he usually pay for rooms when you travel together? If not, at some point maybe say "Hey, I appreciate that you paid for the room, but next time let me pay for them using my card, I like to collect points"

Even if your boss "stole the points", what kind of relationship do you have with them? I.e. are you comfortable discussing it with them? Are you happy with your job and employer in general? Is this just one more symptom of problems at work? Tread carefully.... If other than the possible (probable) point stealing by your boss, you like your current job is it worth potentially losing it over this issue? Furthermore, is your business travel always with your boss? I.e. even if points are "being stolen" on joint trips, if you mainly do business trips on your own (well without the boss), how big an impact is it?

Don't get me wrong, I'd be very annoyed if someone else was getting the points from my business travel. I view the points earned form it as a small bonus to say thank you for being away from your family. Fortunately, I have never had to deal with not getting the points from my business travel (sometimes, including now, less points because I must pay with a corporate credit card rather than a Marriott credit card). However, all of that said are loss of hotel points a big enough issue that you would be willing to seek employment elsewhere? Only you can answer that for your situation...

--Jon

Is this a really small company, like less than 10 people? Does your boss use the points earned for company travel? Satisfying both of those prerequisites would be the only cases where I would be OK with this.

In a corporate environment the justification that you are getting free breakfast and other elite benefits if he gets the points doesn't really jibe with me. If you're traveling you should be accruing benefits and the company pays your breakfast anyways, so it shouldn't even be a consideration. Might be time to look at other job options.

This incident by itself wouldn't push me to find a new job, but OP says "That would be new low," so it seems like he has other dissatisfaction here

Yeah, I was going to ask if the "boss" was also the owner of the company. Technically then, the points for the stay are his. There are a few variations of this scenario that I don't like, but could at least understand. I believe that points are a nice bonus to reward the time I spend away from home and family for work, and often those trips are working 11-12 hour days, plus time sitting in airports or on planes. It's a little petty for an employer to take the points, but it's technically not stealing. Boss is a different story.

IMO it would be somewhat different if the boss owns the company. Otherwise, does the corporate travel policy say anything about this situation? And do you really need the night credits for your own status?

It's possible that the boss is oblivious, isn't aware that the employee collects Marriott/Bonvoy points and status too, or was trying to save employee from having the room charges on his/her own credit card and having to request reimbursement, especially if the trip didn't generate any other travel expenses to be reimbursed (such as if the employer provided plane tickets and charges rental cars to a corporate account, for example).

Thanks for the suggestions. First of all, I like my job and I will not confront him about it. That would be silly. However, it just grinds my gears that the only benefit from travel is being taken away from me for not particular reason. It's annoying because I'm 1.5 year away from being Titanium for life.
It never happened before. I've stayed with him at Hilton property for 2 straight weeks. When we checked out from the hotel he paid for my room (I like this because I have one less thing to put on my expense report). I've got the Hilton points no problem.
I still have the email from Marriott with my reservation confirmation from when I booked the room.
On the check-out day I went to the front desk to ask for late check out (I wanted to check out by 2pm) and to see if I still need to pay. FD agent extended my check out time and she said that everything is paid already. Now I'm thinking that I should have asked for printed copy.
I will contact the hotel and ask them for my folio. If they won't have it then I guess my points went to my bosses account. Again, I will not confront him about it, but I will know what to do next time. Live and learn :)