njcommodore

Maybe someone from FT could forward the IP address of HAMMER77777 to Marriott for investigation to see if they can ID a Marriott Rewards account. Not sure what other discussion needs to be had other than I hope he gets caught and banned from Marriotts.

cmculp

Yes, or pay the rate his company gets him...It appears as if some posts have been edited or deleted making this hard to follow, but here's how it plays out:

I go to place X on government business. I will only be reimbursed up to the GSA per diem rate. The government rate is available Mon, Tues and Friday, but not Wednesday or Thursday. Options: go somewhere else that has the rate (or is of low enough quality to be below the per diem rate) or stay and pay the difference between per diem and the lowest offered rate the other two nights. I usually cough up the difference unless it is excessive. HAMMER may not be to blame; the hotel may simply be full enough not to offer the rate, but I'm pretty sure if he is consistent, he gives real govt travelers a bad name.

ZZYZXROAD

LOL, why do you care what he gets away with? I've done the same thing a million times, used corp accounts, govt rate, whatever it takes to get a favorable rate. I mean I do have a govt id but not always on govt project. Yes he's a troll but this should not be breaking news to anyone.

dayone

Feed the hungry, feed the animals, feed the tree, but don't feed the trolls.

Doc Savage

The troll is not likely to get by with it very often, as he will have ID checked and screw himself at that hotel for good, so I doubt the gov rate gets abused much.

I guess I remember the days when there wasn't all the special rate nonsense, a room cost what a room cost, and a business trying to charge one customer more than another would get a bad reputation. Now they've got us all playing their absurd little games chasing coupons and codes and wasting our time. YMMV

I wouldn't bother trying to get the gov rate, as I know I'd get busted at some point with the ID requirement, and it isn't worth it.

Safe travels,

Doc

njcommodore

So are you a contractor or govt employee? If the former, you're not supposed to use the g rate whether on business or leisure. If the latter, you're allowed to use the g rate for leisure travel.

Why do I care? It's fraud. Defrauding Marriott. Whether Marriott cares is another story.

hnewman

+1 exactly. Honesty matters.

PHLGovFlyer

+2. In the case of federal government room rates (which are the vast majority of government rate rooms available) it's also a federal crime:

18 U.S. Code § 912

"Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

While the federal government is unlikely to prosecute someone for falsely procuring a room at a Marriott, they also refer such matters to the various states which typically have similar laws regarding the impersonation of public officials.

Often1

If you are a government employee or otherwise entitled to a government rate and your ID is not checked, send in a complaint on the webform and send the same not to the property's general manager. Explain that capacity controls work a hardship to you and that the failure to check ID results in limited allocations being used by the unworthy.

On the flip side, this is why properties don't really bother about ID. They could care less. If they have 10 rooms available at a government rate, it does not matter to the property that you occupy a room vs. some scammer.

Time traveller

Most of the government rates do not specifically mention rate is for federal govt employees only. So when I was a state government employee, I often used the govt rate. My state also used the federal govt per diem rate for hotels. However in some cities, the rates were quite low and many full service hotels didn't offer the govt rate. So I often just paid the difference on my own because of the location as it would be more time consuming to find hotels offering the govt rate and they were often far from the location I needed to be at.

SkiAdcock

Was updating the exec lounge sticky for all full-service properties in California (phew! - lot of properties). Anyway, I noticed when I clicked on view rates for the Marina del Rey, CA, Marriott the following (see below). We don't have a specific thread for the property, so decided to post it in the gov't rate thread. It shows at the top of the screen after you click view rates & it brings up all the various room types/rates.

"Federal government rate not avail to state employees/No rollaway bed in rooms with 2 double beds-1 rollaway in king room"

Cheers.

RDB68

As a federal employee official travel is likely done on a government credit card. That always works as rate qualifying ID. So, I'd assume most federal employees don't get asked for ID since they are paying with their ID.

joetro

I've found that if you look further, most chains, especially Marriott, specify separate lines for Federal and State. So, if it says Federal, I know my State ID will not work, and I look for hotels that specify it's a state rate.

Michilander

I agree. Used to get asked for ID regularly for the Govt rate. Even had some properties ask to make a copy of my ID. Once the Government started issuing the travel credit cards I saw a note from Marriott saying that if the card number was stored on your MR account it would qualify you for the rate. Did not get asked for ID once after that.

PHLGovFlyer

I see this fairly often when booking Gov rates. There are often significant differences between federal and state rates, availability, and rules.

+1