JenniferNAz

I booked a suite at a Courtyard hotel a couple weeks ago for this upcoming weekend (2 nights). It is actually booked under my boyfriends account, who is a Platinum with Marriott.

He received an email from the hotel today (Monday) saying that the suite that was booked isn't available (Friday/Saturday night).

Is there anything that Marriott is required to do due to status? Are they just allowed to do this? The bigger room was booked for a reason and a single room isn't going to cut it. It isn't a huge city, the only other option is perhaps a Residence Inn, at a rate of $30 a night more.

I know there are room guarantees, but not sure any of those actually apply here? If they did, is the compensation per reservation or per night?

I am more of a Hilton and Hyatt person, so really not up on Marriott.

I was planning to call the hotel and discuss this with them, but wanted to have my facts straight before the call.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated!

Intl359Widget

I would review this page on Marriott's website for Elite Benefit Guarantees before calling the hotel.

Is the Courtyard unable to honor the reservation or the room that was booked?

These are two different distinctions to keep in mind as we go along in this post.

If the Courtyard is unable to honor the reservation and they must walk you to a different Marriott (or comparable hotel) then the Elite Member holding status will receive. However this needs to happen the day of and not prior.



However if the Courtyard is "downgrading" your reservation for a Suite to a Standard Room then the following would apply.

Jon Maiman

When you call the property, ask if they will give you two connected rooms for the same price as the suite. I am assuming that would meet your needs. If they won't or two connected rooms wouldn't meet your requirements, perhaps they can arrange for the residence inn to give you a suite at the same rate you booked at the courtyard. It never hurts to ask politely. Finally, keep in mind if you do wind up at the residence inn, you will only earn 5 points per dollar rather than 10 points per dollar. If more space is the dominating factor for this stay, that is probably a relatively minor concern.

Please name the property and let us know how it turns out. Also curious as to why the suite is no longer available. Good Luck!

--Jon

ao40

Remember that these elite benefit guarantees have been suspended due to Covid so the properties do not currently have to honour them. The rationale is that there are often part shutdowns of properties due to low occupancy so they may not have the suite available.

Often1

There is a ton of experience on this board and there may well be some with the specific property encountered by OP. But, without naming the property, OP loses the benefit of that collective knowledge.

Intl359Widget

Yada Yada ... I've had some significant issues during Covid-19 where Marriott Corporate has stepped in and informed the repeat offending property that they were not in compliance and needed to issue me the appropriate compensation so it's a YMMV but I think the Elite Benefit Guarantees have been reinstated now.

anteater

I believe that to be eligible for the guarantees the account holder needs to be present. If OP was attempting to use her SOs account for perks of status they may be SOL upon check-in. However, if the account holder is present at check-in, be sure to hold that hotel accountable!

MSPeconomist

Instead of accepting $50 for the downgrade, OP might be better off to have the room rate reduced to what a reservation in the actual type of room/suite that's available had been made *at the time of the original reservation* or the prevailing rate if that's more advantageous.

In these situations, I always take the stance that if the customer had wanted to book a regular room and stay in a regular room at the regular room rate, the customer would have done so at the time of the original reservation. Hotels don't have an option to give or not give us the premium room/suite suite that was confirmed at the time the reservation was made.

ao40

The suspension of guarantees was extended to the end of the year (so far). Of course, the property (or corporate) might still choose to do something, but they are absolutely not �guaranteed� to in the same way as before.

Intl359Widget

I think that it�s a bit shameful of Marriott not to publicly acknowledge that they�ve graciously suspended their guarantees while no other major chain is doing so to my knowledge.

JenniferNAz

Thanks for all the info and ideas.

This was the Courtyard in Gainesville Fl. I booked a suite as we wanted more space, partially so that we can watch the UF game in the hotel room if needed depending on how restaurants are. So having a second room connecting room isn't very helpful.

I spoke with a few people and it looks like there was a plumbing issue in one of the suites, so they decided to take them all out of service and renovate them. I was not told that initially, just told that there were no suites available. I understand things happen, I just think the hotel could have handled this so much better. They could have told him why the suite wasn't available and then offer the rooms they had or offer to book him at the RI for the same rate. That seems like a reasonable course of action for this situation.

I mentioned to the Platinum line representative and asked about getting the same rate at the Residence Inn, but was told there was nothing they could do. I was told that 10k points would go into his account. I have not been able to talk to the manager at the Courtyard. I did book a 1 bedroom suite at the RI.

We really prefer Courtyard as their beds are typically much more comfortable for us and they have the restaurant. I am pretty disappointed, especially as this is one of our only trips together this year. He has still had to travel some for work and will have close to 20 nights in hotels for October-November.

Oh, the stay was booked on his account and he will be staying at the hotel, not trying to use his benefits without him there, as someone mentioned might be an issue. I have just been booking/taking care of these things as he was in a meeting and I am better at doing it!

Thanks again for all the input and information!

HNLbasedFlyer

While it may result - in the same result, I would think the actual account holder speaking to the Plat line representative directly would carry far more weight than a girlfriend calling in on his behalf

anteater

Thanks for clearly describing your original issue and your follow ups.

Quality FT content!