I am missing days 3 and 5 of an eight day stay at a Paris hotel. Days 3 and 5 are apparently sold-out. I have three reservations for the remaining 6 days. Contact with the GM of the hotel resulted in no help.

What are the chances I can turn into a squatter and refuse to check out? If I succeeded in doing it, what rate would I be liable for or could I use points?

I am paying for the first stay, and I am using points for the remaining two reservations. I am gold currently (was plat last year but economic times resulted in few stays).

Thanks in advance.....

There are actually two answers to this question and it really depends on the hotel...

It is not uncommon for guests to stayover without formally letting the hotel know. It really depends on hotel policy and state law as to what they can and eill do. I would not bank on being able to keep the same rate for the second night. It is very unlikely that they will kick you out, especially if you have a credit card on file.

The other side of this is that they may formally ask you to leave, but then again, refer to part 1...

I SO much got a different visual image when I read the title!

Need more information!

If you were Plat last year, then you are still Plat until Feb 28. As Plat you should be able to get a room even if they are sold out with your Plat override. What dates? Do you mean no award availability on those two nights? Is there a special event going on at the time? Is this a second room you are trying to book, as Plat override is only for 1 room? Were you signed into Marriott.com when you attempted to book the missing nights? Did you try booking the missing nights as separate 1-night reservations while you were signed into Marriott.com? Was this a special room type (like a suite) for which Plat override would not work? As I said earlier, need more info to provide useful feedback.

Isn't this the reason why the local Fairfield Inn has a rate of $400 posted on the plaque on the inside of the guest room door even though it routinely sells for $69 per night? My guess is it would be a full rack rate situation and full rack rate can be whatever inflated number they want it to be.

*The above is a wild guess and is probably wildly wrong.

I was Plat in 2008. Gold in 2009-2010, so unfortunately no plat benefits.

There was no rooms available on Mon, Jan 25 or Wed, Jan 27 - either paying or rewards. I arrive Jan 23 and depart Jan 31. No special event that I am aware of. There is no second room- just booking one. I was logged on marriott.com as a gold when making reservations. I checked each one night separately to see which dates were the problem. This is why I was able to book Jan 26 under a separate reservation. Not trying to get a special room- a regular room will do.

I am paying a weekend rate for Sat-Mon, Jan 23-25. I wouldn't expect to get that rate. I'd like to use points for the remaining stay.

Note that the only room available on points for Jan 26 is an executive lounge upgrade, so I booked it with a 50 euro added cost. I called the help line to get it waived, and they said they couldn't because only the exec lounge room was available. It would be nice to get that cost waived since I already have lounge access as a gold, but that is the least of my problems right now. My Jan 28-31 reservation is with points, and no additional upgrade cost.

A couple of suggestions:

Call the hotel directly and see if they can help.

Check back on a regular basis.

Book an alternative hotel (for the whole stay) as there are quite a few in Paris, and then if the other nights don't come through cancel your reservations for your current hotel and stay at the alternate. If the 2 nights at your desired hotel comes through then cancel your alternative hotel. Make sure to check Cancellation policies when booking.

I would also recommend updating your FT profile to reflect your current MR elite level.

busygirl, I've sent you a PM regarding the first 2 nights of your stay.

In all of my experience thus far, the hotel will hit you with the full "rack rate" as fireworks says. I see you are losing the pull you had as a PLAT now that you are only Gold, so you would not even have the PLAT desk to call and beg for mercy with. Sounds like the gold desk told you to call the hotel directly...

Since you are talking about points, my guess is that this is a personal trip, so additional cost would not be something you'd want to cover. Are you trying to go during a major holiday or event? Typically, hotels blackout or have special rates. For example, during Super Bowl week in a city, it is not uncommon to pay 800 a night at a courtyard. I did that for a super bowl in DETROIT with some friends (Steelers won so it eased the pain).

I would call the hotel back and try to speak with someone else (did you get the GM or the front desk manager?) You may be successful arguing that whoever reserved the rooms for you messed up your stay - Is that the case or did you put yourself in this situation thinking you can squat?

Are there not any other hotels that can accomodate your entire itinerary? I would look elsewhere before trying to pull something that doesn't look like it could ever end good.

Just my 2cents

First, it's pretty slimy to intentionally *^%*&^ over another guest that has a valid, paid reservations for the nights that are sold out.

In the US, there are varying laws. In France, you may find your things sitting on the curb when you get back from the Louvre. You may also find yourself with a bill for the RACK rate - the highest possible rate that claim to ever charge for a room. I know rooms in Paris already are expensive, so I can only imagine what this penalty rate is. The Detroit Super Bowl XL rates (I was down the road in an SPG room) may pale in comparison.

Either way, I suspect an American in France trying to pull off a stunt like this won't be very kindly looked upon or treated with empathy.

There's also the practical issue that room availability may change -- even at the last minute. I've had a few times where my preferred hotel was sold out (before I was a plat) beginning in the middle of my stay. I made an alternate reservation, then checked with the GM at some point during my stay and asked if they could extend my stay. They always have -- a couple of times they told me they had to wait until the morning of the scheduled checkout to confirm availability.

This may be much ado about nothing.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.1; U; en-us) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413 es61i)

I've found hotels vary widely. I've asked the morning of checkout at sold out hotels and they don't bat an eye. On the other hand, I had a 3 night stay renetly and I extended on day 2 by one night to 4 total. On the afternoon of night 4, I returned to the hotel and found a note under the door telling me to make like a tree and leave.

Paris France seems like a long way to go to just cross-your-fingers and hope to get extended on availability. I agree that a plan B (like the alternate hotel reservation mentioned above) would be a good idea.

Keep in mind the guest will be trying to work it with points and certificates. I think the guest should also consider that a paying customer may get the room over one who is looking to redeem pts/certs.

Paris is a city with lots of Marriott or Renaissance or even Courtyard hotel selection to choose from, there are 9 of those varieties within 6.7 miles of Paris "city center" (not necessarily helpful in a city like Paris, which is not exactly round, or square, nor are all areas as desirable as others, as with most megalopolis's) with 6 of those 9 being either Marriott FS or Renaissance FS. Have you looked into trying different hotels for the entire stay, or even switching hotels part way through your visit, for variety (or even convenience, go see the sites that you wish to in one part of the city for the first part of your visit, then switch to another hotel in another part of the city for the second part of your visit, saving the sites closer to that hotel for the time you are spending in that hotel).



NOTE: Having stayed in two of the three Courtyard's in the Paris area in the past, I can say that they are both nice hotels, especially the one by the airport, but they are not comparable to the FS hotels in Paris, which are GENERALLY wonderful in my estimation, and by most counts.

The OP's adventure level is much greater than mine. There's no way I'd be a squatter in a foreign country. I'd contact the hotel directly re: those 2 nights, or make alternate arrangements for the nights that are not available. Paris may be lovely in the springtime as the song goes, but being kicked to the curb in the winter probably not so much.

Cheers.