Marriott property deflag without warning! CS full of bad faith! I've been Bonvoyed!
 

Book a property on the 19th of Feb...booking for two nights to enjoy the double night credits. Stays is 13th till 15th March. On 10th March, I cannot see the booking on my online system, so I send a message to CS. They reply it must be an IT bug, please provide your booking reference and Platinum number at check-in. Find the situation weird, so do a little homework to check what is going on. Property "deflag" on the 1st March. I call the property, speak to management and they tell me not to worry, they will take care of me. Closest Marriott property is 2 hours drive. I send a new message to [email protected] do understand your frustration, please keep the invoice and send it to us after your stay.

The property did great...welcome amenity, upgrade...actually a first stay and very sad they are leaving Marriott. They did great so this is why I'm not going to name them.

So now back to CS from Marriott. I told them...my point is not that you deflag...it is the fact that they knew about it since January. Been confirmed this by hotel management, and they never put a warning....or bother to let me know. and they are not even sorry about this!

I asked for my 2x2 nights credits and the points...should be just only 5k! I'm Lifetime Platinum but don't mind to get to Titanium before August. I have tons of emails with them, up to the "deflag team". Lurkers did their best to help and forward queries...but they have not too much power in that regard sadly.

Less than a week ago...now they are claiming there was a warning from 4th February. I asked them to prove it to me...I can read and would have never booked a property with this warning. I sent them the email from CS showing the history. Guess I will wait long time for another email from them.

So Marriott has one more time turn into the business of bad faith, dishonest and misleading. Going to go around sharing this story as after over 6 weeks...they clearly won't do anything. How is that for customer service! I've been Bonvoy too!

Funny, writing this from a Sheraton. Spoke to the GM 15 minutes ago who told me. Marriott don't bring them any business....they put so much pressure on them...and if they want to deflag them...let's go for it! So I'm not alone not having a great opinion of Marriott....my new second choice!

Quick question, which property?

Every major hotel group handles this situation exactly the same. Had this been a Hilton that was moving out of that hotel group, they wouldn't have done anything different.

Standard operating procedure is to only notify guests who have reservations that won't be accepted by the new management. So guests using point and certificate redemptions will be notified but cash reservations will not.

Note: I'm explaining what happens, based on experience working in the hospitality industry. Please do not take this as an endorsement of the practice. I agree with you: Guests should be informed if they have reservations at a hotel that will change brands.

The point is not a deflag. If I book a hotel few months in advance and a deflag happens, I'm fine with it...and I can understand the concept.
The point is Marriott selling knowingly a room in a hotel they are aware will not be a Marriott anymore...and therefore which we won't receive the nights points and credits. This with no warning the day of the booking is made. Is selling a product you know you are not going to deliver even legal? Ok, we know airlines do this all the time the past 14 months!

It's a strange web of contractual obligations... as long as the hotel is a member in good standing of the "system" the brand is, generally speaking, required to provide all of the services they would to any other member of the system -- including advance reservation sales -- just like the property is required to fully comply until their last date in the system.

For us, of course its irritating -- most of the hotels I book I book because they are the most convenient/reasonably priced Hilton (sorry I'm from across town ;) not necessarily the most convenient/reasonably priced hotel for the perks, recognition, etc. -- but for a huge number of travelers they're choosing the property because it's the closest/most reasonably priced hotel and they probably wouldn't even notice if the sign outside said Marriot or Hilton or Hyatt or ... (One of my "landmark" airport hotels between my house and the airport changed flags to Wyndham from Marriott and even with giant signs it was 3-4 months before my otherwise detail-oriented wife even noticed :)

They're selling a hotel room with some side perks... people are getting a hotel room either with different or no side perks but the majority of the product is still there.

Since the hotel did such a great job, you're actually doing them a disservice by not naming them.

Fixed it for you.

OP as been alreday said you will fin dthis among all the programs. Most times its out of Corp control as the contract says they cant say anything. But compared probably to 99% of everyone else you sort of lucked in, in that the hotel took care of you as if they still were with MR. Many hotels would have given you Nothing and many even wont honor any prior reses made

I cant remember any instance where Stay credit and pts were ever issued. I know in the 2 instances I had SPG booked me at a non-SPG hotel and got knowing for it and teh other time with Hilton the hotel wouldnt honor any reses unless you agreed to the new more expensive rates so I CXed it.

This is, unfortunately, sop in a deflag.

Although not a Marriott property, I had this happen a few years ago at an Accor property in Milian. Sometime after I booked but before I took the trip the property dropped out of their program. I received an email from both Accor and the hotel notifying about the change and that I wouldn't receive any benefits. I also was given the option of canceling the reservation which I did and rebooked at the Hilton.

It's my impression too that deflagging/reflagging is supposed to be considered confidential until the day it happens. Much of the time the hotel is happy to honor existing reservations that will be paid with money but cannot be compensated for award stays after the magic date.

OTOH, a few hotels will continue to provide "elite" benefits after the deflag/reflag, especially to regular guests, although they obviously cannot verify current elite status once they leave the program/brand. For example, the Buenos Aires Marriott was legendary in giving elite benefits for several years to people who had previously stayed as a MR elite and the had a number of returning guests on FT as a result.

It happened to me once, and I couldn't have been happier.

I booked the Sheraton Moorea in Tahiti on points, and it was reflagged as a Hilton. I wasn't notified by the property, but I read about it on FT. My points reservation was honored and at the time, Starwood was not offering free breakfast. But Hilton Gold did get me free breakfast. So given that I was there for 5 nights and the price of food in French Polynesia, it definitely worked in my favour!

If you were 5 nights short of your "next year's status" and it was late December when you arrived and learned of this, your tune might be a little more flat!

Curious about point reservation being honored at Sheraton Moorea, They surely didn't get SPG paid for the stay as they already deflagged.
Did they switch the reservation to use your Hilton point instead?

No they didn't. I actually had to look it up to refresh my memory since this was 12 years ago. Post # 237 by SanDiego1K confirmed that the property would be honoring all reservations including points bookings. I have to admit that this was rather surprising.

LEAVING IN 2009: Sheraton Moorea, Tahiti [Master Thread] - Page 16 - FlyerTalk Forums

After 5 nights in Moorea, we then went to LM Bora Bora to use up 4 free night certificates. There was a promotion where staying 7 nights at any LM hotel (which I accumulated at LM in Montreal at ~C$129/night), you would get 4 free nights at any LM hotel worldwide (I think LM Bora Bora was ~$600-800/night). Best promo ever! That's when I switched from Marriott to Starwood and got my SPG Plat status for the first time and never looked back, well until 2018. LOL