Yesterday I did as I always do, I go to the web and book a room at the Marriott Pittsburgh Airport via the Marriott website. I then call and add an additional room to the reservation. (Marriott is the only major chain that does not allow for multiple room reservation via the web, arg!!)

After 3 different people and 30 minutes of time, I am informed that I reserved a "deposit reservation" (becuase I had the audacity to use a AAA discount!). Never mind that you have to pull up the rate rules to see this little tidbit of information. They had to set up an entirely separate reservation and could not tell me if the "deposit" was refundable or not. "You need to contact the hotel directly" I was told.

Is it just me, or is the Marriott web site just terrible? You cannot book multiple rooms, you have to really work the srceens to see all of the room rates and options, and last, the system will not tell you of your requests (non smoking, king, etc.) until you finish the reservation!)

I sent a note to their webmaster, but are others having the same difficulty I am?

Here's another irritation:

Book a room with a weekday arrival through the weekend and it will not give you the weekend rate--you pay the weekday rate through the weekend unless you CALL the 800 number and complain.

A drag.

Actually, for simple bookings I think the Marriott website does a great job (other than pointing out rate changes during a stay). This is especially true if one logs in before starting the booking process. Compare this to either the Hilton or the Starwood websites. I think Marriott wins hands down.

Even the Holiday Inn website allows side by side rate and availability comparisons of hotels in a city search. I have not been able to get Marriott's site to do this. One thing in their defense is the ability to make award reservations over the Web. Of course, you then have to order the paper cert!

Marriott's a little behind the times in getting their online reservations site up, and as others have said, it's pretty decent for simple, one rate reservations if you login first. Very quick and convenient.

But I agree; it's very limited in its power. However, I thought rate rules were automatically displayed when you click 'Confirm Room' .. at least whenever I have it shows the rules automatically?

snackyx, I just checked the website this past weekend for a stay, arriving on Wednesday & checking out on Sunday.

When the rates came up it gave me both the weekday rate & the weekend rate...

I agree that it is easier to Log In first. Also, if you have both AAA & AARP, be careful. Depending on the property, there will be no availability for AAA but they will have AARP rooms, and vice versa. And on a very few occassions I've found the standard rate is the same, or lower, than AAA or AARP.

DL Platinum wrote, "Is it just me, or is the Marriott web site just terrible?

AND the phone phokes argue with you, too!
Marriott website is tedious at best.

LexPassenger, who is nothing if not techno-resistant, called Marriot to complain that the site wouldn't let him on unless he took cookies. M person says, Well, Sir, All Hotel Sites make you take cookies. LexP: I'm sorry, Hilton doesn't make you take cookies. M person: oh yeah, that's right. The rest was silence.

It would not be such a bad idea for Marriott to splurge a bit toward their most loyal guests and provide an Internet booking bonus for Internet bookings...like what the airlines do. I am sure Marriott saves money when we book our own reservations through the net. If they do, they should be encouraging their members to use the web site and reward us with additional points for doing so.

The website does stink. Use travelocity, expedia or amex instead. They are easier to use and you usually get a chance to book some discounted rooms that don't seem to show up on the Marriott web site.

I was very surprised the other day to use the Standard Marriott web site and the click on Rewards, then search for a reward and them to redeem points on line and be able to redeem rewards points on line using my Rewards # without ever having to supply my PIN #. Now if I go specficially to the Member Rewards web site and want to check my points balance I need my rewards # and my PIN # to do that but I can redeem points on line without a PIN #? In addition I ordered the rewards certificate in my mother's name and had it mailed to her address. So I guess someone who might have access to your Rewards # could get on line and order a certificate sent to them at their address without the owner of the account even knowing this

I was very surprised the other day to use the Standard Marriott web site and the click on Rewards, then search for a reward and them to redeem points on line and be able to redeem rewards points on line using my Rewards # without ever having to supply my PIN #. Now if I go specficially to the Member Rewards web site and want to check my points balance I need my rewards # and my PIN # to do that but I can redeem points on line without a PIN #? In addition I ordered the rewards certificate in my mother's name and had it mailed to her address. So I guess someone who might have access to your Rewards # could get on line and order a certificate sent to them at their address without the owner of the account even knowing this

KathyP:

I don't think anything was deducted from your account.

You can make the reservation using your MR number, but you still have to call to order the reward and show up with the certificate.

-David