Thanks. I've read the generic T&C that states it's "guaranteed" but doesn't say what you get if that guarantee isn't met...had never seen the link you posted before.

As for the OP, I would agree with try to get some points out of it.

Ladies, to put things straight: I was really talking about a hypothetical situation, so at this point I have NOT experienced this. My question is based on the current availability of a hotel for a future stay and the tendency of my flight bringing me there to be delayed by quite some time.

I indeed DO have this - I always document every step of the reservation process in PDF-form, and as such I have the overview-page showing the rates for all room-types at that property at the time of my reservation.

Which indeed is true - lowest rate for the 1BR was $129, the studio went for $119, I LNF'd the 1BR down to $81.

In fact that is what I am going to do a day before my departure from Europe, but I wanted all my bases to be covered - in case nobody remembers that I have called and gave away the last two 1BRs before we get there...

I definetly will, and since I am prepared now knowing that the Marriott Rewards rules do not provide me with some hard facts I certainly will look into either points or some other tangible benefit (like dinner for our party at the Renaissance that is part of the same development and is under same management). I will report back how things worked out...

Greetings - Dirk

Well we'll hope they don't give away your room :) But do let us know how it all worked out.

Cheers.

You can also ask Marriott reservations to put a note in your reservation stating that you will be arriving late due to your flight coming in at a certain time. If you provide the flight number, they can let the hotel know so they don't decide at some point that you might not show up.

I have received the ultimate reservation guarantee at a Residence Inn after fighting for two weeks and involving corporate. We had reserved a 2 bedroom penthouse that slept six. When we arrived, they had ONE studio king. The employee tried the bed size thing, but I wasn't going for it. We had 5 people and ONE studio simply wasn't going to work. We took the studio and rented a room at another hotel. Talking to the manager in the morning did not resolve it, so I escalated it. I eventually got the money, the certs, and the room at the hotel hotel covered.

I'll also call the Plat line too if I were you.

Wow - that's a serious downgrade. Sorry you had to fight tooth & nail, but glad it (eventually) worked out.

Cheers.

As promised here's the feedback: They did not give away the room, however managed to leave me completely unimpressed with the rooms we received since we got accessible rooms in rather undesirable locations right behind the bank of elevators on a low floor. But at least I got a 1BR suite...

Greetings - Dirk

Some more feedback: I took this matter up to the Manager on Duty yesterday evening, and after about a 20-minute discussion with him telling me all kind of excuses he finally caved in and told me the truth: The hotel was indeed oversold on 1BR suites and on a 98% occupancy level due to the fact that they had a sister property selling their rooms for event-attendees with the "High floor, view" guarantee. So he basically told me "when I downgrade them, sales will yell at me" and that he wanted to avoid that - and choose to give the non-event arrivals the less-desirable rooms, even the two Platinum guests arriving that day (one of which was me)...they however avoided downgrading Plats to Studios and did so with some non-status, non-event guests.

Greetings - Dirk

Thanks for the update. Glad you got the 1BR suite given the circumstances, even if it wasn't an optimal one.

Cheers.

At least they didn't claim that is an upgrade like they told me at CY Berlin. I got an 'upgrade' to an accessible room.