Marriott Refusing to Rebook Prepaid Closed Hotel for Over a Month
 

Does anyone here have an actual contact at Marriott who has access to the "bonvoy"/reservations system and is able to edit a reservation or make a new one?

I've exchanged 50+ e-mails, called Marriott support and reservations numerous times. Each time there is just finger-pointing, and an extreme anti-customer attitude (the true Marriot "bonvoy" approach, where the customer is always the enemy). For example, reservations tells me to contact "bonvoy program." "Bonvoy program" tells me to contact customer service, who tells me to contact reservations. Reservations then, next time, tells me to have the hotel contact "property support." And so on it goes.

Tried the marriott.bonvoychampion e-mail, but that is more of the same: fingerpointing, on top of contradictions, but refusal to take ownership of the request and actually do anything.

The situation is simple. I had a hotel booked, prepaid by the way of multiple FN certificates. It was closed during the reserved dates. I first contacted the hotel and got its senior management to agree to honor the same price for rebooked dates later this summer (as Marriott had jacked up the rates right in the midst of a pandemic; that's just...beyond words, sneaking such things in during a global pandemic and profiteering during a pandemic off its customers at a time like this), but as they have no access to reservations I had to contact Marriott or "bonvoy" or reservations, someone to make the change. Well, that has taken over 20 hours so far over the last month, and still nothing.

As the reservation is prepaid via FN certs, those are impossible to get back if it's cancelled (I know from multiple prior experiences). All I want is the same room, same rate, just a month and a half later by when the hotel should be open. Hotel management agrees ("of course," and I mean that's the only logical approach here: if you can't honor a prepaid contract during the original dates, then you perform it at later dates - pure and simple). But, Marriott reservations, support, "bonvoy program," "marriot.bonvoychampion," etc. all just point fingers elsewhere and refuse to help (seriously, I know it's a rant, but I can't think of a more ant-customer company than Marriott; the only intent ever seems to be to get rid of the customer as soon as possible).

In the end I was told by "bonvoy program" that it'll be done in a few days. Was asked to make a new reservation, as I did, and was told that they'll apply the FN certs, or otherwise net it out, so that the new reservation ends up replacing the old one during hotel closed dates. "At last!", I thought. Not so fast... That was over a week ago. No response since then.

I've already spent nearly as much time trying to get it rebooked over the last month (by a conservative count, about 20 hours) than I would spend inside the hotel room for the duration of the reservation. :sigh:

Does anyone here have any contacts at Marriott who actually will help the customer and can do such a thing as simply rebooking a prepaid reservation, having the new reservation a month and a half later at the same rate (as approved by the hotel Director of Revenue Management) as the original reservation, during which the hotel was closed and it was, naturally, impossible to stay there? If so, please kindly post here, or PM me.

Many thanks in advance for any and all assistance and advice.

(More rant) I can't believe that I was 1 year of Platinum status (this would have been the year) away from becoming lifetime Platinum. Marriott is really...well, beyond words, but this is not the only experience that shows the deep ingrained, pervasive and all-encompassing anti-customer culture at Marriott. It's like night and day Marriott vs. Hilton, where the customer actually gets treated - gasp! - well and with respect. Now don't get me wrong, Marriott has some great hotels and truly wonderful staff and management at the hotels, but the "customer is our arch nemesis" message that is being breathed from the top down has practically all of reservations, support, etc. dancing to that tune. Sad...

You are asking a lot of people to violate a lot of rules to help you book the room. It will not be easy.

Why don't you ask them to cancel your previous reservation and give you enough points to redeem the new nights? many agents are empowered to issue quite a number of points.

actually, the hotel can issue points, too. Ask them to refund your previous reservation with enough points to book the new nights since the director of revenue management has agreed.

The above is probably the best way to fix this problem.

I don't think this would work because individual hotels pay Marriott for those points. Since the hotel can't get paid for the original reservation because it never happened, the hotel wouldn't be making any money. The point would have to be provided by Marriott.

Why don't you PM the Marriott Lurker here. Your post is very long, does it boil down to: you booked using certificates and want those to be applied to a later point in time, but doing so is becoming administratively challenging? Lurker should be able to guide you in the right direction.

I think the main issue is the points required are higher than the FN cert. lurkers probably could not help on that because “the computer says no”.

Can the lurker not point OP in the right direction to have the certificates extended?

If the cert is up to 35k, the hotel is 40k. Extending the cert does not help OP, I guess.

Would it cost the hotel more or less money to give the points difference to the OP versus the difference in what the hotel is paid by Bonvoy for the award stay at the higher points rate?

Wow, that's quite a rant from the OP, especially since this is about bending multiple rules at the same time. Apparently that is not easy and I can see why that is the case.

this is a free night certificate reservation with limited point value assigned to the certificate and an expiration date. Basically the same as if someone used a travel package and the hotel increased in category. Refunds would have just been a certificate back to the account although the OP wants the hotel/Marriott to honor the reservation for another date which the award prices have increased.

It really boils down to: should cancelled reservations due to hotel closure be honored at a future date when the prices have increased. I guess this can also be for revenue stays as well.

I think there is a slight variation in this specific situation: should cancelled reservations due to hotel closure be honored at a future date when the hotel management agreed to honor the original price even though the prices have increased.

This is the exact situation most of us are facing. Marriott should have just suspended its annual category change implemented back in March 2020. They suspended the change in APAC only. But travel is coming back much faster than in US and Europe.

The folks at BonvoyChampion email are not good. You'll have to call. But if the hotel tells you they can't change it, then Marriott can't change it either. The agent may be able to give you like 5,000 or 10,000 points. But the final answer is probably a firm NO.

It is a Marriott corporate decision.

If revenue stay. Easy, just adjust the rate in their local system. At this point I would just work with the hotel and come up with a reasonable solution such as a cheap enough rate that the OP doesn’t have to use the FN because ime, hard to make whole on this unless Marriott cancels the refunded certificate and exchange it for outright points, which the OP can theoretically cancel and bank the points.

From looking at the hotel rates, the cash rates are much better than using points or FN. A lot Cat-6 (50,000) are only at sub $100 pre-tax. That puts the Marriott point value at 0.2 cpp.