Upcoming Award Question
 

I have an award coming up at the JW Desert Springs. I booked two rooms for three nights (90,000 points each) so that my wife and I plus another couple can go together.

Last week the hospitality guy over there sent me an email asking if there was anything he could do etc and I asked if we could traded our two rooms in for a suite of some kind. So, I logged on today and one of my two reservations has changed to a 1 bedroom luxury suite (which sleeps 4) while the other was left unchanged.

My question is do you think I can now cancel the other reservation (the second room, no longer needed) safely and get 90,000 points back since the suite will be plenty of space for us? I feel kind of weird doing that and I don't want to break my reservation or something somehow.

It sounds like the hotel has just upgraded one of your rooms.

Before I did anything, I might want to know exactly what a "1 bedroom luxury suite" really looks like. A small 2-double bed hotel room can also handle 4 people as well. But I'm not sure that is what you are really wanting.

Most "suites" I've seen tend to have a small-to-normal hotel sized room with a bed (or 2 beds) plus a "living" area in a separate room. The "living" area may have a pull-out sofa bed. And if that is the only extra bed, you may want to check and make sure that sleeping on a sofa-bed is acceptable to everyone.

I would suggest calling the hotel to find out just what the layout of their suite really is. Next, what is the cancellation policy of your two reservations? If it is 6:00pm day of arrival and you can arrive before 6, I might suggest checking out what you get and seeing if meets everyone's needs. If so, then cancel the 2nd room. If not, then pick which of you gets the suite room.

Thanks for the reply. I am somewhat hesitant to call the hotel as I think they may have made a mihstake or something.

The room will be acceptable I think. According to the description it will sleep 7and has two bathrooms. I believe the configuration is a luxury parlor with a connecting room. The parlor has a queen murphy plus a sofabed while the connecting room has a king. The total size is 900 sqft.

They have drawings of their rooms here:

http://www.desertspringsresort.com/J...Suites-56.html

It may be possible that the Suite and connecting room are counted separately so you would need a second room reservation to secure the second bedroom?

I also see that when I look at a dummy reservation for points at the Desert Springs there is an cash upgrade option @ $100/nt for a Luxury Suite and that does appear to be both bedrooms. Is there any notation on marriott.com regarding a cash upgrade required for the Suite?

Even though 30k per night is worth far more than $100/nt, it would be a little strange for the hotel to make that change without explicitly telling you, (though I would jump at it in a second).

Probably worth calling the hotel because it looks like you need 3 days prior notice to cancel your reservation. By calling you are either going to get the upgraded room for free (they might in practice waive the $100 for elite), you might get the the suite for 90k points and $100/nt, or you might get the suite+connecting room for 180k points, all of which seem better than two standard rooms fro 180k.