Got Walked
 

We got walked on Saturday evening from the Monterey Marriott.

We were in SF all day with some friends. We called the hotel about 9:30 to confirm we were still coming and would be late. We called at 12:30 as we were heading out of the city - The gentleman paused - and then explained that we had been walked.

Used points for the room, got those back, got $200 cash, free brunch on the weekends and a promise of the certs coming :)

My points stay this Friday night might be exciting...

Nice! I've never been walked.

Congratulations! Sounds like you came out a winner. Where did you end up staying and did they pay for the nights?

Good luck - for us, it was a confluence of events - Red Bull Motorcycle Race at Laguna Seca, Large wedding party, some huge conference and the Regae festival.

They walked us to the Hyatt Highland Inn, one bedroom suite. The other two people got walked to a level 2 hotel, would have been PISSED

I wonder if someone is going to get in trouble for not making sure Platinums weren't walked

For a FS property, the compensation for walking any elite member is the same. They probably gave the OP a better alternative hotel due to her status as a PP with Marriott.

yes.....

While that very well may have been true a couple years ago, Plats and PPs getting walked isn't that super rare and I've even been told by a manager at a Courtyard that walked me that there really isn't any negative consequence for the hotel when they walk an elite instead of a non-status guest. She said she's more worried about negative consequences from having to walk someone at all.

I think in your case the hotel wanted to fill rooms first, since you had such a late check-in. It wouldn't have made sense for them to walk someone only to find out you (or someone else) didn't show.

On a related note, the CY in Paso Robles called me yesterday wanting to make sure I was showing up for my points stay on Thursday night. She said the hotel was sold out and she was checking for potential cancellations/no shows. Proactive. ^

Walking a Platinum is extremely expensive....GM's HATE seeing how much those free night vouchers cost per voucher...and when you have to give out 2 PLUS a check it and pay for a room somewhere else it gets really really expensive very quickly (so technically yes there is no "getting in trouble" for walking a platinum but there certainly is "getting in trouble for having a high walk expense")

I plan on staying there in Sep. when I finally visit PR for some serious wining.

Well, now I have to deduct some of those style points I gave to the Paso Robles CY. Just had a call from the sales mgr saying they are going to walk me tonight and "we'll pay for the other accommodations and refund the points you used for the stay". I gave him a few seconds to ensure he was finished, then mentioned that as long as I got the compensation IAW the MR T&Cs, I was fine with it. At that point he backtracked, saying "he didn't realize" I was a PP and would consult the GM. Called back in about 5 minutes saying they would honor my reservation at their property.

My natural cynicism leads me to believe he was fishing to see if I knew the rules, but I remained polite and wished him luck with the overbooking. I would have gladly taken the walk, but they didn't want to pay it. I very briefly considered not saying anything, taking the walk and then showing up asking for my comp, but that just isn't the way I do business.

Free hotel stay? I'd have taken it ....but I'm cheap! ;)

Maybe it was his way of asking if you'd take a voluntary walk for a free room without the rest before they had to walk someone involuntarily--like an airline asking for volunteers from an overbooked flight, and offering some amount of credit before they have to start picking people and paying more. Some people will do it, some won't want to. My first question would have been what other accommodations? I wouldn't want to stay in a dump or a long way from where I wanted to be, but yeah a free night in a comparable or better place could be worth it, all else being equal.