SHLTP

That's a funny story. I hope it worked out - I can relate to my much younger days

Antonio8069

When you do contact the property, tell them you make mistakes...........all the time! "shoukd"??

Intl359Widget

“Impulsive Hotel Bookings Rarely Work Out”.

I hope the relationship is stronger for it and still rocking!

Often1

Customer service agents are generally only empowered to enforce the rules you agreed to. It is up to the property. Thus, call the property.

writerguyfl

Calling the chain will definitely create a record. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily a record that the hotel will see immediately.

All hotel groups have proprietary software to communicate complaints/compliments to their hotels. When you call Central Reservations or the Corporate Office with a hotel-related issue, the agent creates a record in that software. The hotel will have X hours (typically 72) to respond.

Most hotels limit access to that software to a small number of managers. It wouldn't be unusual for no one at the hotel to see the request to cancel without penalty until the following morning. At that point, you would have already been charged a no-show fee.

I agree with other folks that wrote that the best way to resolve this issue is to call the hotel directly.

I used to work in hotels. In one of my jobs, I was responsible for the software described above. I would read each case and distribute it to the appropriate department within the hotel.

While I can only speak for my own chain, I never once felt any pressure to decide a case in one direction just because it came through Central Reservations or the Corporate Office. Where I worked, the case was deemed a complaint, a compliment, or neutral whether it was resolved in the guest's favor or not. So, we weren't swayed.

(All hotels have benchmarks for annual complaints. This type of scenario would be "neutral" in terms of how it affects the hotel in those benchmarks.)

Maybe Marriott is extraordinary (but I doubt it). Where I worked, it would take years for someone to connect guest complaints to something like an app interface update.

momoflyingguy

I dpn't see a difference between 5 seconds later or 10 hours later. T-24 is T-24 is T-24.

Just curious - what exactly was the mistake? how does the app interface cause you to accidentally book a 6000 USD hotel?

skywalkerLAX

Happened to me twice already. Hopefully it'll be better with this new app they rolled out.

MSPeconomist

There can be a difference if you call the hotel early enough for them to resell the room to someone else. There can also be minor costs if the hotel provides anything special in advance for your room, such as a welcome note or amenity or feather-free pillows. I also suspect that the hotel is more likely to approve the cancellation without penalty if it looks like you made a best faith effort to contact them as soon as you were aware of the error, flight cancellation, weather problem, etc.

Sometimes the hotel is more willing to give you a credit toward a future stay at the property than an outright refund, especially if the night has already been charged to you. It's better than nothing, although this obviously doesn't work in all circumstances.

I make a point to try to return to hotels that have treated me well in waiving cancellation penalties. To me, this is a signal of good customer service, although they obviously can't always waive penalties regardless of the reason for the request.

etkuo

Thanks. Typo fixed. See? Wasn't a smooth day for me yesterday lol

Thanks for the super valuable insights.

I was playing with the app, pricing out some stays. When I made the mistake it was a 3 night stay at a Ritz-Carlton, hence the higher late cancellation fee. I honestly don't know how I made the mistake, now that I have a chance to go back into the app and revisit it. The page actually looked pretty similar to before the app interface update. But somehow yesterday morning (maybe I pressed too quick) I thought there was another confirmation page (I should have scrolled instead of press to see the breakdown of the charges) when I press that big fat button at the bottom that actually do say "Book Now XXXX.XX CAD"

So I guess I am not the only one? 😅

MSPeconomist

Was there a line with the cancellation policies, perhaps with a checkbox to indicate agreement, before the book/reserve button?

etkuo

It does show the cancellation policy for sure, but if you are asking whether there is a check box one needs to physically click to acknowledge that before booking, then no.

Anyways, it's my mistake. Lesson learnt. Now whenever I go back into the app I leave my finger off the screen, scroll carefully, and and think 3 times before I press anything lol.

daniellam

Tip: To avoid this from happening, don't save your credit card information in your Marriott profile.

etkuo

And... I actually did that too after yesterday lol

yule_boy

Brilliant! I'm going to do this too. I use my credit cards so much online these days that I have the numbers memorized anyway. And one less thing to worry about if Marriott gets hacked!

Kacee

A couple years ago I made an erroneous reservation that was nominally not cancellable and called central reservations immediately. I think this was Marriott but it could have been Hyatt. The rep cancelled the reservation for me. Told me it had likely not yet been confirmed on the property side, and that there shouldn't be any problem. There was not. So it's not totally useless to call central reservations if you do so immediately.