maclover

dear Fters,
I’m a newbie in Marriott and I hope to get some advices from the board.

Soon I’ll have to do a 21 days mandatory quarantine in HKG and I’ve chosen an hotel booked through Marriott.com using my Amex card to guarantee the reservation, cancellabile up to 7 days before arrival.

I’ve received Marriott email confirmation and so far so good.

Few hours later, hotel emails me directly to share other details about quarantine rules and informing me that one week before the stay I’ll be sent a link to fully prepay the stay.
Said link will accept only VISA or MasterCard

my Visa limit is very low and it wouldn’t cover the amount (credit card system is a bit different here in Italy) and I never bothered to raise it as for any big expense I’ve always used AMEX over the last 20 years.

I wrote back to hotel that I’d like them to charge the AMEX I’ve used to book the room and they’re welcome to charge it in full 7 days before my arrival.
The replied back that AMEX won’t be processed and that if unable to pay with Visa I could wire transfer the amount to them.

Then here I am and before taking any further action, I’d like to hear your opinion

thanks

LovetoTravel83

Can't you add funds to the Visa (Extra Credit)?

AndyKehn

PayPal key

maclover

to be on the safe side, I’ve asked the bank to raise the limit: it will be enough to cover the 21 days package.
but that single transaction will dry up my monthly availability and since the hotel will do that on 24th, it means I basically won’t be able to use the card for the whole month.

more than that, though, I was looking for an opinion about how legitimate this request is

maclover

that’s one of the options I’ll propose back.
but before I sent any reply out, I wanted to find out what’s behind this if anyone had a guess, apart the saving of AMEX commission one their side.

if they didn’t accept Amex at all, or had a disclaimer in Marriott that for quarantine package only Visa/MasterCard are allowed, it would have been fine.
But such request after the reservation is confirmed is puzzling me

LDNConsultant

+1 agree - if during the original booking for the HK Quarantine package if the T&C clearly stated only Visa/MasterCard are allowed it would be ok but post the booking confirmation this is little bit worrying. I've seen cases were outside of US if its AMEX, they will charge a certain small % extra but never heard of any hotel not fully accepting AMEX.

Hipplewm

Marriott and AMEX are partners - there is a co-branded Marriott AMEX card

Maybe it is only for US - but I would think Marriott and AMEX would be upset if some marriott refused to take an AMEX card

Intl359Widget

I would cancel my stay at a Marriott branded hotel if they refused to accept my Marriott AMEX branded card. However since this is a quarantine package there might be some caveats. If the T&Cs do not have these caveats then I would push back on the hotel.

xxxxx

If it’s anything like the U.K. then you actually pay a 3rd party company as the package will cover secure transport to the hotel and security at the hotel also.

It’s possible this is the case in HK also, so the payment won’t be to the hotel.

LondonElite

Are you actually paying through the Marriott portal or through a third-party quarantine provider. If the latter I can understand it.

TerryK

Same thing happened to me for a regular, non-quarantine, stay for a Design Hotel. I was told that they simply don't accept Amex but Marriott system doesn't reflect that.

Intl359Widget

This is what I thought as well. Did you earn your Marriott Bonvoy Points & Elite Nights because this was through a third party provider?

Intl359Widget

Design hotels seem to be the red headed stepchild of Marriott. I stayed at three Design Hotels last year in Europe and none of them wanted my AMEX card.

cre95

On the same note as the concept as proposed by LovetoTravel83, upon the hotel's charge to your visa, you can do a payment to settle that amount and your get back to your available credit. Now, if the issue is that you don't have the cashflow to settle the bill, you'll need to figure out an alternate strategy.

Kacee

I encountered this for quarantine stay at LM Bangkok. For the prepayment, they use a link provided by their bank rather than processing through their own systems, and their bank does not accept Amex. I objected, and the hotel was willing to waive prepayment and let me given them an Amex in person at check-in. In your situation, if it were me, I'd tell the hotel they can either take my Amex or I'm cancelling the reservation. They certainly have the ability to handle it the way LM handled it for me.