Marriott Platinum Guarantee -- Why it needs help
 

I know many have spoken about this before, but I felt it was worth bringing up again. Marriott's Platinum "Guarantee" is hardly a guarantee. In fact, it's quite frustrating to only need it in one or two special occasions, and be rejected both times.

Before the flames start, please understand that I know this "guarantee" is for our benefit, and that we should be thankful Marriott offers it. I agree....but I am tired of being told "sorry, we can't offer it" when I actually need to use it. On a random August Tuesday night in Dallas, I'm sure Marriott would be happy to offer it. Try to use it when you actually need it though, and it's unlikely to work.

In fact, the way they write about it on their website is even frustrating:


48-hour Guaranteed Availability: Limited to Platinum Member's personal guestroom. Guaranteed room availability for reservations booked at least 48 hours prior to arrival available at all participating Marriott hotel brands except Marriott Vacation Club. 48-Hour Guaranteed Availability may not be available on certain limited dates (e.g., special events). Benefit cannot be used in conjunction with award usage or any type of promotional or discounted rates. For Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites, 48 Hour Guaranteed Availability applies to studio rooms only.


Basically, the 3rd sentence is the only one that truly matters. It says this "guarantee" is HARDLY a "guarantee". It's a "conditional guarantee", which is about as useless as my Platinum status that I have to stay 75 nights a year for.

You guessed it, I called regarding Super Bowl rooms after the Giants made the SB. I understand the issue at hand (NFL and others booking rooms way in advance), I just don't get why they aren't smart enough to actually set aside 10-15 rms for elites. At the end of the day, we are supposedly Marriott's "elite clientele"...unless of course "special events" arise and others displace us.

Marriott: Do everyone a favor, kill the "guarantee" and just say "will make our best efforts to find you a full priced room". I know it won't help your marketing pitch...but it will help your client relations. Count me as one pissed off Platinum member.

I've used the override MANY times without problem (without looking back I'd say easily 3-4 times/year for many years). In fact I can only think of two times off the top of my head that it didn't and one of those a quick call to the GM and I was able to get a room.

Obviously YMMV.

I tried to use the Platinum guarantee -- first time in many years -- a few weeks ago for the Renaissance Palm Springs. An ordinary February weekend booking -- denied even after appeal. The hotel is sold out because of a small convention next door -- other nearby properties wide open. Not an extraordinary event (Superbowl, quadrennial convention, New Year's Eve), just a run-of-the-mill convention. Unbelievable.

Isn't an override intended exactly for this scenario?

The Plat OR works at sold out hotels. It even works at hotels that are sold out due to a major event in the city. It doesn't work when a single person or organization books the entire hotel.

Hi,

The guarantee could even get me into the NY Marriott Marquis for New Year's Eve, making a booking just 10 days in advance.

So yes, to me, it looks like it works.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

I've seen it work a number of times as well.

It's really poor marketing on Marriott's part. By calling it a guarantee it only sets up people for disappointment when they actually can't get in. What they need to do is just call it 'enhanced availability' or something like that.

Certainly if you're going to complain about the guarantee, and I grant you there is room to complain about it, Super Bowl weekend should be one of those exceptions they've "allowed" for themselves, right?

Yes the Super Bowl should really be considered one of the "Special Events." You might have a legitimate overall beef regarding Platinum Guarantees but I would pick a different battle than Super Bowl weekend when directing armed forces into battle. Room rates are really expensive that weekend in Indy, if you can even find one. And I've heard, but can't confirm the Marriott Place of hotels (Springhill, Courtyard, Marriott, JW and FF, which are all connected either adjacent or covered walkway) has been largely booked by the NFL.

Successfully invoked the guarantee during the World Series in St. Louis. Of course with today's MLB news, next year's World Series will be in Detroit.

Very happy for you but the OP's situation is different. You never know where the World Series will be played until you get down to the two final teams. OTOH, The SuperBowl city is known years in advance. The NFL et al booked rooms long ago and that's what makes this situation different.

Sorry OP, for the future may be better to book long in advance with cancelation privileges than find yourself in one of the worst hotel situations possible.

:D

I'm booking my rooms now - I'd love to see a series at ComericA

In all seriousness though the NFL contracts all of the immediate rooms near SB venues - hotels are not in a position to hold a few rooms back (other large events have similar requirements)...if the hotels did not make this agreement the NFL would have picked another city for the SB...unfortunate yes but this is the exact same rule HGA/Club Marquis had in place before it became Marriott Rewards

I appreciate all the feedback. After another day to consider the situation, I'm slightly less frustrated as I understand this was beyond Marriott's control.

With that being said, I still hold to the statement that the "Guarantee" isn't accurate. It's great marketing, but it's deceitful as well. I've had 2 other occasions (random conventions, NOT big events) that were in the area and thus they weren't able to offer the Guarantee, YMMV obviously.

I know Marriott's marketing team won't like it, but it's time to change it to "enhanced availability" like the other poster said. Either it's a Guarantee, or it's not.

I've written their customer service, and expect to hear back shortly with a form response pointing me to the paragraph which says they have the ability to waive the guarantee as they see fit.

I have been trying to extend a stay at the JW in Cancun for two extra days in February. I cannot get a platinum override due to some convention, and I have called the hotel directly several times as well as MR Customer Service. The neighboring Casa Magna is also unavailable.

They keep telling me that the hotel is already oversold. Well, isn't that what the platinum guarantee is supposed to be used for... getting a room in a sold out hotel!

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... :p

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.

Amazingly:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...e-useless.html
And at least a dozen more.

I certainly get the case where an entire hotel is bought out and have I no argument. The situation I'm facing seems like revenue maximization at the expense of regular guests.

I know it's been talked about how it's easy for hotels to declare a "special event," but it's possible you've used the guarantee without knowing, as sometimes it will show you availability online that isn't available to others.

The guarantee applies to anything except special events. Special events have specific criteria to get approved by Marriott. This property for this event may have met that criteria. Sucks it coincides w/ when you wanted to stay there.

FWIW - it sounds like the entire property has been booked for the special event, hence no rooms for elites not associated w/ the event.

And puhleeze - you're almost LT Plat & this one-off is going to make you walk away from MAR/SPG forever? I don't buy that.

That's true. Most Plats don't realize that if a property is available, even when oversold, while they're logged in that it might not be available when they're not logged in. We've had plenty of examples of that. Not logged in. Nothing shows available. Logged in it shows available. If logged in & nothing shows available, then odds are it's a special event & not just normal overbooking.

Cheers.

My first time using this was yesterday, needed a room for my kids in Old town Prague for two days this upcoming Monday and Tuesday.

Looked online and was showing the hotel not available, called the res number, explained what I was looking for. The res agent said she would invoked the Plat guarantee and proceeded with the reservation confirming a room with two double beds on a higher floor and received a confirmation number via email.

I made it clear I was not going to be there as she added my daughter and son to the reservation and they know none of the benefits were to be expected. She said not to worry and noted this.

A short time later I received an email from the hotel noting my reservation with a note that while no upgrades will be available due to the hotel being full, they will extend all other plat benefits to my kids and look forward to having them staying.

I invoked the platinum guarantee about a month ago at a Courtyard near at airport, of all hotels. No problem whatsoever.

I've had Hyatt deny me twice, despite Hyatt supposedly offering much better benefits.

This is a great story! A customer who went in without a sense of entitlement, who honestly explained what they were looking for which involved bending the rules a bit. A phone agent who listened and understood, and made the magic happen. And a hotel that is not only honoring the slight stretch of the rules, but going above and beyond for a loyal customer of the chain. Thanks for sharing!