I've been pretty disappointed with the Plat Override guarantee myself. I've been rejected by rural Fairfields and Courtyards that aren't within 1,000 miles of any major event that should disrupt how a hotel program treats its elites.

I don't believe any of my rejections have involved a third party booking the entire hotel. None of my rejections have been at the largest global events like Olympics, World Cup, or Super Bowl. Some have been semi-big events where I ended up at the Starwood because, lo and behold, they don't alter their rules except in much rarer cases.

I wish Marriott would simply list, on its website, the dates, events, and properties for which Platinum Override is invalid. Hertz does this for their award program and it's pretty clear: a modest list of events that we all would agree are truly major national or international high-demand events. OK, now I know I can't get a free rental car at ATL during Masters week. I'm not really mad at Hertz about that...they told me in advance and I sort of understand it.

That's my beef. I've had MANY occasions this year to try to use it, and usually it's for a conference and I've been shot down even by hotel GM after elite line tried on my behalf. The WHOLE POINT is for difficult times, like conventions. Super Bowl is an exception I can live with, but random conventions isn't. When else is it that you would want a room at a sold out hotel?

+1

That would be a big unwieldy list that would have to be updated everytime someone contracted with a hotel for its entire inventory.

If the actual exclusionary list is so big to be unwieldy, why does Marriott describe the Platinum override as _always_ available except in "extreme circumstances"?

As I have stated, I have been working to get a JW Cancun stay in Feb extended by two days, two weekdays at that. I have called the hotel directly several times, and I have now called MR Customer Service in Utah twice. The MR people express great surprise at the issue, but each time, they were unable to get any override. There is some convention that has blocked the rooms.

Again, my polite counter to them was that the platinum guarantee was in place to cover that exact scenario, a sold out property.

Imagine this scenario- you are a hotel owner, your hotel has 200 rooms. An organization comes to you and says- we are having a convention across the street and we'd like to book your hotel, all rooms, for Aug 10-15, 2013.

You say ok, but I need to hold back 5 rooms for Marriott platinum guests. They agree, and you book the other 195 rooms to that organization. Note that we aren't even close to the 330 days out, or whenever Marriott starts allowing the general public to book.

The date gets closer, 5 platinums book the 5 rooms you set aside for them. 1 month out a sixth platinum calls and wants a room.

What would you do? 5 of your rooms are booked to other plats, 195 have been committed to the convention for 18 months now.

You provide some sort of comp for the plat looking to book now, ie walk them and/or provide some rewards points for the denied booking.

Well, they aren't being "walked", since they don't have a reservation yet- but if they got points for not being able to book, they'd post here, and every Plat would be calling to attempt to book those dates!

Vicki, I understand the dilemma, but either there is a platinum guarantee or there isn't. If I was the hotel operator in the instance that you postulate, I would assume a 5-10% no show rate for the convention. Almost every convention room block that I have encountered disappears as one gets real close to the dates. Also, IIRC, the platinum guarantee is for a high rack rate, not the AAA breakfast special rate.

Actually, when I was explaining the platinum exception to my wife, she thought the whole thing was unfair! She was concerned that "big shot" platinums were displacing reservations made by those with no status, possibly disrupting long held vacation plans of a lifetime. It was a little bit like the 99% and the 1% argument.

No, Marriott would need to set policies so that hotels couldn't just jam up its elites every time someone wants to book a large block of rooms. @:-) I know...I know...I'm thinking way out of the box here...

Here's an example of how Hertz does it. Unfortunately, Hertz's list has lengthened more than I recall it from 3-4 years ago. (I seem to recall it truly being 20-ish events in the U.S. and Canada.) There's stuff on here that seems a little weak. But...they simply require you to use a peak award on these dates - they aren't even really blacking them out to their members.

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/misc/..._Blackouts.jsp

Would Marriott's list be longer? Probably, because they'd probably list it by property instead of by city. But they have no problems with long lists when they're telling me which properties are opting out of a promotion...

It's the communication aspect that matters to me. I'm not trying to draw any further parallels between hotels and rental cars - just the fact that they can, if they choose, lay this out for us a year in advance. I like the format of what Hertz does: city, event name, dates...all published for all of 2012, and it was likely posted at some point in 2011. No surprises. I may think that an RV show is a stupid reason to charge me double for a rental car, but at least I know about it and know it was published that way well in advance.

The fact that 195 are there for a convention is a bit of a red herring... Realistically, if there are 201 people booked for 200 rooms, there will be some empty rooms that night. But say they're overbooked by a lot, and truly end up oversold, then they go through their normal walk procedures.

There's probably a whole separate thread here about how hotels walks, in general and across all brands, suck. Most hotels don't have any way to seek the equivalent of an airline VDB. It effectively goes straight to an IDB process, making everyone involved angry. And it's executed by late-night staff, likely a limited crew, interacting with people who have probably already had a long travel day. It's a bad process. The hotel/brand that figures out a effective way to find the guest who would be happy to get walk comp - much the way an airline can almost always find pax eager to VDB - will be a winner in my book. Maybe through texting or a mobile app or something...

In any case, because the Platinum Override Guarantee is always for "full" hotels, the whole risk of walking someone is always present. That's the only time the guarantee has meaning to begin with.

Exactly!

Totally agree with you OP...the few times I have wanted to this I haven't been able to because it is a blacked out weekend. I have wanted a room at my University for our Homecoming weekend and both Marriott and Hilton always have it blacked out...very frustrating! If there wasn't some type of event the hotel likely wouldn't be sold out, so I'm right with you in the thinking of this "guarantee."

Today was the first time I've ever tried using the "guaranteed" availability. This is for a hotel in MSN in early August. It turns out there's a "Special Event" going on that weekend. It's a little maddening - isn't that the point of the guarantee? I wouldn't need it if the hotel wasn't sold out.

Does anyone know what criteria hotels use to invoke the override of the override?

I am a Plat Premier and about to be Lifetime Plat. This does not exactly inspire loyalty.

The Renaissance Palm Springs doesn't seem to honor this benefit at any time. I have never been able to book a Plat reservation at this hotel, when it is sold out to others - even 11 months in advance. And I am not talking about special events.