If a hotel front desk won't let spouse and children check in a few hours before the primary named spouse on the reservation, hanging out in the lobby for that time, with the children playing there, sometimes gets the clerks to change their mind.

So IHG has a field to add second name. Hyatt allows cert transfers. Haven't done hilton recently but in the past i called to add or change name without issues. A true wild wild west outthere.

Good thing marriott is trying hard to protect me from fraud by making sure my wife doesnt use my cert. Thanks marriott! :rolleyes:

I've had this happen several times, especially with points stays. It seems the front desk is super concerned that I would never show up.

Having a child tell a front desk clerk, "Daddy [or Mommy] is coming later" can be convincing. The younger the better. :D

Or have your child ask the other parent periodically, in a loud voice, "When will Daddy [or Mommy] get here?"

It's not just the elite benefits but also a question of whether elite night credits should go to the spouse's account. Bonvoy and its predecessors say that the night credits (and points too) go to whichever account determines elite benefits--if any--if both stay and only to the actual stayer if only one spouse actually arrives.

The blog post suggests differently. We will have issues when used "the way it is intended". I think that it says that any name added will cancel the reservation.

I'm a nobody with Marriott (LTG/Titanium), but have still had a few times where my wife arrived earlier due to flight connections/delays/cancellations.

While annoying, I think it's much better for safety and security. With the amount of human trafficking that goes on hotels that issue mobile keys without verifying who is registered and who is going to the room are basically aiding and abetting human trafficking operations as well as potentially other criminal activity.

I'm not sure I buy in on the take that mobile keys aid human trafficking. If anything I think someone checking in on a mobile app with an account and stay history is less likely to be engaged in criminal activity.

I think you're underestimating the criminal element that runs these trafficking rings. We're not talking about a random one-off snatching of a single woman by some weirdo in an alley, this is sophisticated organized crime and providing no-ID/no-contact access to hotels definitely could assist in criminal enterprise.

Many, many times my wife or my adult children arrive before I do when we're meeting somewhere where I've been working for a few days and they fly in mid-morning/afternoon. Every time I've called the hotel ahead of time to add my wife's or one of my kids' names to the reservation. I've never had any pushback. Just a one-two minute call is the only inconvenience.

I've done this as recently as last week. The conversation is always something like this:

Me: Hi, I have a reservation starting tomorrow and my wife/kid will arrive several hours before I do, can you please add their name?

FD: Yes, what name should I add?

Me: (provides name)

FD: I've added their name, please let them know they need to show ID and a credit card when they check in.

Note: my kids have my last name, my wife does not.

I did exactly that and got the same reply as you - and guess what? The front desk refused to check-us in, and I told her that I have already contacted Marriott about this and they have added my name into the reservation (it was Mr.'s cert and he and little Miss was flying into PHX to join us). She said Mr. had to show up because the reservation was under his name. I told her once again that Marriott added my name but she said nope - it was not in the system. After a few back and forth (I was with our 2 teenage boys) and I told her that my husband and little Miss would be joining us and we would like to drop off a few things before heading to the airport to pick them up. She then said, "alright, get Mr to the front desk and show his ID as soon as he got here" and she took my AMEX and said, "if he didn't show up in a few hours we would have to charge you the rack rate". I said, "Of course". So we went to pick them up at PHX and went back and Mr showed his face and his ID.

She didn't need to make this into an ordeal, just take my card and in case I try to cheat them they can just charge my card. We have the same address, same last name - also Marriott should really have passed on the info to the hotel. It was like when we booked one room under each name and requested for connecting rooms, I called Marriott and they said, "yes it has been requested", then when we got to the hotel we got 2 rooms that were 3 floors apart. The hotel said they never received such a request... We were there after official check-in time and we had to wait to get 2 rooms on the same floor.

I guess next time if I have to check-in earlier or connecting rooms I'd contact both Marriott and the property because I don't want Marriott to think that I try to cheat them or something.

I have set up my SO on reservations over 200x without issue. I would never call "Marriott" to do it though as that would be about as effective as opening my back door and yelling my request at the clouds. I always call the property, speak to the front desk, ideally on the same shift cycle as when my SO will be showing up at the hotel. Conversation is very simple and goes like this...'Hi, this is Bill Dokes, I'm a LTT checking into your hotel today, my SO is likely going to arrive ahead of me so I need you to add their name to the reservation'...FDA 'sure Mr. Dokes, what's the name? Me - 'the name is xxxx xxxx'...FDA 'thanks Mr. Dokes, I've added the name, they'll just need to provide a picture ID and a credit card upon check-in'...Me - 'that won't be a problem Sir, thank you for your help, I'll see you later today'...'oh, and what was your name again?' FDA 'John'...me - 'thanks John, I really appreciate your help today'...done...should take less than a minute, never had a problem.

So this is exactly the activity this policy enforcement change is trying to prevent, I assume because scammers access accounts and make award reservations close in so with less chance of being detected, and then call the property to add people to reservation. I guess time will tell if they allow this kind behavior to continue. This "feature" (being able to call property to add names) is also widely used by folks sharing accounts for elite benefits and points accrual, once your spouse or other person has checked in there is no need for you to stop by the front desk and typically no one ever circles back and checks you showed up. I'm not 100% sure they mean to prevent spouses from checking in but it seems that is part of the intention as well?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b3dc0823e0.jpg

I have learned this too - contact the property directly. However, under the new policy it seems that I need to do both (not that I need that anyway as Marriott is only giving these certs out to CC holders).

I think so. That's why both Mr and I made lifetime to avoid this - plus the earned status is not transferrable so the best is to make sure both have lifetime status.

I don't think what I've been doing all these years goes against the new policy. I'm not changing the name on the reservation. I'm just asking the FD to let my wife or my kids check in before me. And, I do show up later as promised (except a few times over the years I arrived the next day due to flight delays, but this was communicated to the FD and it's never been a problem).

I see that someone up-thread tried the same process and hit a road bump. Sounds like someone at the FD was on a power trip, unfortunately. Luckily I haven't encountered this situation.