Mighty_Bluff

Is this a new policy? Just completed a vacation stay where I had 2 rooms booked in my name. One room was the AAA cash rate for all 7 nights. For the other room, I had a FNC I wanted to use and I couldn't see any way of booking the FNC together with the AAA rate under one reservation... So, I had to book 6 nights AAA cash rate and 1 night for the FNC. I emailed the hotel and they were fine with this. We wouldn't have to check out and back in and both rooms would be connected as well. In summary, 2 rooms, each for a total of 7 nights. Same exact 7 nights. Marriott comes back to me and refuses to give me the points for the 2nd room in my name. Here is an excerpt from their email back to me...As per the multiple room policy you can earn Marriott Bonvoy® Points on the Qualifying Charges for up to three Rooms, if all of the following conditions are met:

• You are occupying one of the Rooms
  
• Your Marriott Bonvoy® Member Number is on each Room
  
• You are personally paying for each Room
  
• Check-In and Check-Out Dates match for all three Rooms
  
• Pay a Qualifying Rate or apply an Award Redemption
  

Also, I would like to inform you that the guests will be eligible for the benefits on multiple rooms if the rooms are booked on the same time frame.
I never noticed the "Check in and Check out dates having to match" First question, is this a new policy?
2nd question... Then, how in the world am I able to combine points or FNC with a corporate rate or AAA rate? Currently, when you want to do points and cash, it only give you a high rack rate type of quote for cash portion.

The one good part of this story is that after many back and forth emails, they agreed to give me the points this one time... So, I do appreciate that... but this rule complicates a lot of things for me and i'm assuming maybe others as well.

I've got another business trip coming up that i'm extending for a vacation after. My reservation is broken up in two again. The business nights, I'm using our corporate rate and then a 2nd reservation with points for my vacation portion. I was planning to book a 2nd room as well because i have big family and likely use the AAA rate. It seems like I can't do that anymore, unless I break up the 2nd room into 2 reservations as well to match the 1st one. Just seems dumb to me... Am i missing something? Is there an actual way to combine AAA or Corp rates with points on a single reservation? I didn't try calling Platinum line. Would they be able to do this? Many thanks for reading my rant!

Schnit

I do believe there was a thread on this a month or so ago with this change in policy. Yes everything needs to match.

Your suggestion of breaking the 2nd room also into 2 reservations is what you would have needed to do.

I book multiple rooms all the time as we are a family of 6. It feels to me like Marriott never gets these sort of things right, so I always book a P1 room and P2 room...it avoids any of these issues.

GalaxyChris

Just ask the hotel to charge everything on the bill of the same room (first one)

Mighty_Bluff

Thanks. Yes, I agree that Marriott didn't get this right at all. In my case, I'm already doing the P1 and P2 thing. My wife books 1 room and I book 2 rooms. As I said, big family. I guess I have to sign up one of the kids as a P3.

margarita girl

We were warned about this. See post #111. New policy was implemented Aug 30.

FAQ: Points & credit for same-night, overlapping and nested stays at different hotels

If you look at the wiki in that thread, it tells you how to get the points for multiple rooms.

Mighty_Bluff

Thanks for the link! Yea, I missed that announcement. Interesting that my check in was Aug 26 and check out Sep 2... They still wouldn't give me the points without a fight, even though I checked in (and paid for the rooms) well before the Aug 30th introduction of the new policy. Noted on needing to break up my reservations. Seems utterly stupid and will only confuse the hotels more during check in... having to merge reservations. Make sure you don't have to check out/in again... ehh... what a headache... anyway, thanks everyone!

iknowthings

Do not let hotels merge reservations (extend one, cancel the other) , or you will not receive multiple room credit.

The policy applies to all reservations that checked out on or after Aug 30, regardless of when they were booked/purchased.

A one-time exception can be granted up until the end of this month. After that, exceptions are disabled. (You didn't hear this from me)


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Mighty_Bluff

Noted. And thank you!

MePlatPremier

OP shouldn’t have had any issues as the T&C’s definition of stay encompasses back-to-back stays as a single stay, regardless of the number of checkins and checkouts. So each room was for a 7 nights stay, one room under a single reservation and the other as a multiple-reservations stay.

Condition One

I got screwed by this too. Neither Marriott CS or the Lurkers were able to do anything about it.

birdiedouble

What a customer unfriendly policy.

iknowthings

The exception cannot be proactively offered. You'll have to whine a little bit. (I'm being serious)

Oxon Flyer

FWIW, this is the wording of the update email from Marriott that was sent mid-August :




Note that this is the complete text : it does not make it clear that this is a change to the program T&Cs, nor does it include a start date.

scotomata

As a side note, this means if I book two rooms both rooms get my Platinum benefits such as breakfast and lounge ?

hotelprof

Huh, that is a bit confusing.

Official wording states, "Elite Night Credit and tier benefits apply to the member's room only."

But the email that OP quoted states, "Also, I would like to inform you that the guests will be eligible for the benefits on multiple rooms if the rooms are booked on the same time frame."

I personally wouldn't rely on that, and would assume that the benefits only apply to the guest's own room, unless the hotel decides to go above and beyond.