jjLDNY

As of last year I began travelling internally a lot more for work, and in that time decided on Marriott given their network. This year I was tracking for Amb by around April May time, however given events this hasn't been the case. Status extensions are great, however when you're looking to move up the ladder, not so much.

So, I wanted somewhere to stay, and I wanted Elite Nights. Homes & Villas seems to be the move for me to find something sustainable long term, as well as accrue nights. Keen to hear whether anyone here uses H&V to accrue nights at all, and their experiences using the service now that it has been out for a little while, and particularly given current events of COVID-19, it seems a way to continue collecting Nights and points even when hotels are not available in most parts of the world.

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I have just booked a 2 bed apartment for a month, and after receiving confirmation from 1 third party agency (Agency 1) after they asked me for my reasons for staying. I then received another email from an agency (Agency 2) who provided homes on their behalf saying that the apartment was not available (money has left account at this point), and that they could offer me another apartment in the same building - sounds ok, but this apartment was smaller, and had 1 less bedroom?! At this point, I was ready to get the booking refunded entirely and sent some stern emails to all 3 (Marriott, Agency 1 and agency 2). I called Marriott, voicemail. I called Agency 1, who picked up promptly, and explained the situation and that I was not happy to take the alternative apartment.

Fast forward 1hr, Agency 1 emails me to offer another apartment for no extra fee, this time a 3 bed and at a cost of about 30% more per night on paper. This one actually is a great apartment, and all seems to have now gone through. I will update this once I actually get through the door and it's confirmed, but after having a horrible introduction, and what I expected to be a battle to reclaim $5k, now may turn out quite well.

In summary, Homes & Villas may actually be a viable option to accrue nights and a (slightly more) premium option over Airbnb if looking for a full-service home.

Would be keen to hear other experiences

MSPeconomist

Have you looked carefully at the rules for earning nights and spend credit from homes and villas? I know Marriott Executive Apartments used to earn one night credit for every three nights stayed.

CALMSP

I've used it and always look to book it where they have locations. The biggest struggle that I've had is getting points/nights. The Marriott personnel on the other line while trying to get credit after the stay literally never seem to know what H&V is and think that I booked on a third party website and therefore not part of Marriott. After a month of "researching" by Marriott personnel they were unable to verify my stay as I did not have an 8 digit confirmation number (H&V generates a larger confirmation number) and they were refusing my request. So I emailed a dummy Arne email and someone called immediately and they looked into it but she was unable to verify where I stayed and after 2 more weeks simply said, "ok, we are unable to verify, but as a good will gesture we'll credit you with 5 nights and 25,000 points". Nights were accurate but points was more than what I would have been credited with.

Now, with all this going on, its been a while, but hopefully others have a better experience.

jjLDNY

Hah. Slightly worrying as I have 29 nights booked. I will call tomorrow in which case to try and get something recognized and logged. Also curious as to whether spend is taken into account for Amb? If it is, I'll fly past the $20k. If not, I guess I'll have to slave away at the hotel bar every night when normality returns.

EDIT: Actually, surely FWDing the Marriott confirmation email should have resolved that issue rather quickly? Were they ignorant to that too?!

jjLDNY

Yes, as of looking recently, it should be 1:1. Though I expect to get to 100 long before EOY if they try and mess around with old clauses.

https://homes-and-villas.marriott.com/en/about-us-faq:

How many elite nights do members earn for booking with Homes & Villas by Marriott International?

For each night that is stayed with Homes & Villas by Marriott International, guests will earn 1 elite night toward their account.

CALMSP

literally ignorant on everything. the lady on the other end of th line actually asked "homes and villas is part of Marriott?"

jjLDNY

Well, thank you for the insight.

If I'm heading into battle it's better to know ahead of time eh. Overall though, considering I've effectively nabbed an upgrade (again, assuming this one goes through), I'll leave somewhat happy. If I get the nights too with no drama I'll be sure to use them again. If not, no reason to use the service because as I say, comparing properties/prices with Airbnb there is definitely a premium.

If the premium was to have Marriott deal with it first hand, I'd have no problem at all. But to be passed on to 2 agencies in this case, the hassle will definitely outweigh the the premium. In fact, any hassle at all and I'll jump straight off the ship if I am not credited, so the upgrade may have saved them; this time.

*touches wood*

CALMSP

I'd say, a lot of this can be eliminated if they can link H&V with your login info.

Keyser

my first experience with homes & villas was not all that good....i had to cancel my reservation because of covid otherwise i would have checked into the property today....

my booking was for 5 nights & 50% of the rate was charged at the time i booked....the other 50% was to be charged 30 days before my check-in date, after which the reservation would become non-refundable....if i cancelled before that then the initial 50% advance would be refunded to me....

since my check-in was on the 3rd of june, i had to cancel before 3rd of may....i called them around the 10th of april to cancel....the agent cancelled the reservation & told me that i would be receiving an email for the refund....the same day i received the email which stated that because of covid 19 they had changed their cancellation policies so they would not be offering me a refund but will hold the credit that i can use with the same agency that was managing that particular property....i replied saying that was not acceptable since the cancellation deadline had not passed & i was entitled to a full refund....they replied saying that these were unusual circumstances so for the benefit of the customers marriott had instructed them to change their policies....

i escalated the problem with my ambassador who didn't seem all that knowledgeable about homes & villas....i also escalated with marriott & the rental agency that looks after the property....i never got a proper response for almost a month....then i finally spoke with a manager at the rental agency who agreed to offer me the refund....3 days later it hit my account....

also, even though you get night credit for the stay, i have a feeling this won't count towards the $20k spend towards ambassador status....when i paid the 50% advance at the time of booking, neither did this register as spend at a marriot property on my chase marriot card nor did my ambassador have clarity if it would count towards ambassador status....

jjLDNY

Thanks for the experience Keyser - glad you got your refund..! Looking at it, mine was also charged to Agency 1, so I think you're right on the spend, it's very unlikely to count towards. I guess I'll have to mount up some more room service when we get back to real life.

It's incredible that the ambassador wasn't aware of H&V, and that was quite recently. I think, given your experience and others here, having to deal with agencies rather than direct, and with spend not counting, perhaps it's a little more hassle than it's worth (more for amb than anything else). If you're booking a few days in advance, like I was it's probably the best scenario as their refund policy to me also looked quite worrisome, especially considering you're going to then be passed along to 1, maybe to agencies after booking.

jjLDNY

Following some messing around, I have officially checked in and the apartment is good value considering I was 'upgraded' for their screw-up. Oddly my Marriott reservation was cancelled, which considering I have every intention of claiming the nights and points I jumped straight on.

An email to Agency 1, and a voicemail to Marriott H&V resulted in agency 1 saying "It's fine Marriott know and you will be credited", which I wasn't too confident about. Following 3 exchanges with Marriott after a lovely lady by the name of Priscila called me back and took all of the details, she has just emailed to say that an offline reservation has been shared. I am awaiting further details, such as confirming the number of nights etc, but assuming all is correct; this has been a mediocre experience. Messy service and a bit of hassle to make sure everything is as it should be; if it weren't for the upgrade, I wouldn't consider H&V amazing value based on this single experience.

I may try it again for a shorter stay, where I'm looking for a comfortable place to sleep for a few nights and am not so fussed about a few nights/points rather than a monthly hideout during the current crisis..!

"Hotels, if you hear me, please open again..!"

cfischer

oh yuck. Thanks for sharing this! Yikes! I was looking into this for some 2021 stays and will now stay as far away as I possibly can .... sounds like a huge headache.

SPN Lifer

There seems to be a resurgence of interest in this topic.

CIT85

Very timely with the new Marriott Bonvoy email today Homes & Villas.

I found an attractive condo in St. Augustine with good rate for 4 nights, but the cleaning fees are over $300. Anyone with experience on this?

jjLDNY

I missed the email, perhaps it's because they don't really promote it in the UK. Was it to do with the 10% off thing on the main site?

Regarding the cleaning fee, I don't think it's applied in the same way in the UK as mine didn't have one. I read up on a lot of complaints to do with cleaning fees whilst I was reading about H&V before I used it however.