Fortunately, Givex also charges no forex fees.

A good change from before when the Gift Cards were treated as VISA cards (and attracted a 3% foreign currency conversion fee).

Thanks for the update!

Cheers.

Courtyard Munich City East doesn't accept E-grift card
 

My girlfriend's mum just checked in at Courtyard Munich City East, and she asked the FD whether she could pay the room with the e-gift card which we bought for her...

It turns out into a big NO and they insist her to show them the 'original physical card'...What the....She called us all the way from Munich to Prague, and I could hear from her voice that she's disappointed and helpless...

A total thumbs down:td:

Reply from Marriott Customer Care : The hotel won't accept the 'copy of gift card'
 

So, even the staff from Marriott Customer Care doesn't know what's a Marriott E-gift card. And luckily my gf mum did bring along her debit card, if not, it will be a big problem...

Most Marriott properties know how to process these gift cards. Marriott recently switched over to a new gift card processing system that makes it much simpler and easier to process any gift cards you might have.

Properties like to apply the gift cards at checkout because it acts as a credit against your folio. Any charges you accrue during your stay could be listed as charges against the incidental card on file. Any gift cards (e-gift cards or physical) should be allowed to be applied at checkout. If you encounter any resistance from the Front Desk staff, please ask for the Front Desk Supervisor or the gift card champion. Even if the PMS is down, there is an option to process a payment online and manually post it within the PMS. There is also a back-up to the back-up system that can be completed via an IVR system. The only reason why a property would be unable to apply a gift card payment is if the desk staff is not trained properly.

Perhaps what you wrote applies to US properties. I have used the GC in Europe and I have received tons of complaints from various FD Supervisors. As you can see that I even had time to chit chat with them and gave them a chance to complaint, you can see how long it takes to process a GC.

When I was recently staying at the Ren in Germany, the FD supervisor told me that Marriott has made his life more difficult by changing the GC system. Previously he was able to process the GC just like a Visa card, so basically swipe through and the amount is deducted. Now, he has to type in numerous things and we even had to wait for the slow system to respond.

This is just one of the better experiences - I don't think any of the regular FD has the authority to process GC in the Marriotts I stayed at. In CY Berlin - GC payments are not allowed on Sundays back in Sept 2012, if you want to pay with your GC - you have to leave it with them.

Apparently it's RARE that people have GCs that have more than USD 100 in them :confused:

It's a lot easier for the US properties I stayed at back in Feb 2013, FDs simply swiped my card and payment done.

Courtyard Marriott East (and the attached Residence Inn) are run by a Swiss concern, not by the folks who run the rest of the Marriotts in Munich and nearby, and they don't seem to understand some of the things the other Marriott administrations do. I also have experienced some problems with them not accepting some forms, certificates, etc., that the other Marriotts do.

On the whole, I've enjoyed my stays with them, though. Maybe give them some time (and maybe notify Marriott world HQ so they can give them some remedial training), and things should work more smoothly.

I think they are under SV group - the very same company that runs CY Basel plus others in Switzerland.

It doesn't matter who runs it - if they are running under the Marriott name, they ought to accept Marriott's currency. OP could have told FD to call Marriott to verify, and if I were him, I'd write to Marriott CS to complain about it.

However I'm not surprised this happens because a lot of European Marriotts I stayed at treat the physical GC like monster. Every time I talked to the one who processes it, he/she said something like, 'we get this kind of card once every 3 months and it's not worth it to teach our staffs about this'.

I thought, 'it makes sense, but at least there should be someone that can process this available at all time'. I don't understand why the FD supervisor have to hide the user login and password to themselves. They can just leave out a memo instructing how the FDs can process those GCs (I don't believe that is so complicated).

Marriott Rewards Gift Cards from an Office Supply store
 

I've seen Marriott Rewards Gift Cards at Staples recently, and wanted to buy some with a Chase Ink Plus/Bold to take advantage of the 5x UR points for office supply store purchases. However, two attempts to buy them both resulted in failures as the cashier could not activate them successfully. There was no problem with my credit card, as I was able to buy and activate other gift cards during the same transaction.

Has anyone successfully bought and activated a Marriott Rewards Gift card from an office supply store recently?

Don't know applicable it is to this case, but I recently bought some (non-Marriott) gift cards at the local supermarket self checkout.

The person monitoring the checkout pointed out that there was a regular UPC and a much longer bar code on the card. Scanning either one added a charge to my bill, but only holding my thumb over the UPC and scanning the longer bar code caused the card to be activated. Scanning the regular UPC did not result in card activation. Maybe this is what happened at Staples.

This not universal knowledge among checkout people. At another store in the same chain, the clerk made a comment about scanning it at his register because the self service registers were unreliable vis-a-vis gift card activation.

Art

It has been reported happening to lots of folks.

Check out the later posts on this thread.

Thanks Counsellor. I hadn't seen the later posts in that thread.

@ArtM - thanks for your response. In the case of Marriott GCs at Staples it definitely appears to be related to the cards at Staples since multiple people are reporting the same issue with just these GCs (other GCs are scanning/activating fine) in multiple stores.

'tis a pity!

Hotel can't figure out how to process gift card
 

I've had a *lot* of the usual challenges with gift cards over the years, but always just accepted it as part of the price we pay to use them. The gift card system has always been mutually beneficial: we guarantee Marriott future business, we give them cashflow today, and they give us some effective discount on those future stays via the gift cards.

The usual challenges are that front desks don't know how to process them, frequently make errors in posting them, and sometimes need to call for outside help to get them processed. Check-in always takes 5-10 minutes, but eventually they usually get it approximately correct.

But this weekend I flat out completely failed to use a gift card. No one at the hotel could figure it out, they didn't know where to look for help in their online systems, and they had no idea who to call out there in Marriott-land to get phone support. I stood there while they tried to process the gift card, after 15 minutes we all collectively gave up and I agreed to pay via my original credit card. I could tell the front desk staff were relieved when I let them off the hook, so to speak.

It was a Residence Inn in the middle of Kansas...a roadtripper's hotel that probably doesn't see a lot of Marriott gift cards. For those who would say "What do you expect from a hotel in the middle of Kansas?" :confused:, my response is "the same Marriott brand standard training that I'd get at any other Residence Inn."

The hotel was fine. The people there are otherwise pleasant and competent at their day-to-day jobs of running a Residence Inn. It's just that they've obviously never in their lives had so much as a one-page memo on what to do with a gift card. Things used to be so much easier when I could say "put a 4 in front of the number and run it as a Visa."

I'm not too worried about my own gift card - I'll consume it this weekend at a large DC-area Marriott where I'm sure they've both seen the cards and have a lot of staff onsite who have processed them. But something is seriously wrong with the broader system-wide training and implementation of the gift card program.

This is the part that concerns me the most. The front desk people (whether the clerk, the manager, or whoever) should always know whom to turn to for help, and it would be helpful for Marriott to have a "one stop" number where hotel personnel can call with any questions, which would be staffed by people who can direct calls to the proper Marriott people.

The code for the gift cards in their system is "GE". If you have the paper certificates they are coded as "GC". If you tell them these codes they should be able to process them from there. You shouldn't have to but better than having them try to figure it out on their own.