I think OP mentioned reservations were made prior to the contract not being renewed.

AAA rate is $85 at the FI there. I learned a long time ago that spending $50 of my own money on AAA membership would pay vast dividends down the road considering our company keeps a close eye on our expenses as well.

Yes they are (but as I mentioned I don't see the $104 rate). Even so, have you tried invoking your 48-hour platinum guarantee?

You also never said what your price limit was.

1) The images show availability for this weekend, not when you need a room.

2) you need to understand this - Marriott customer care cannot help you. As your company did not renegotiate the rate, the rate no longer exists, so you no longer have a room. Take the 10K in points and start figuring a new plan.

3) Many of us travel with company restrictions, and most companies have policies w/ $$ limits and preferred brands. But when there aren't any hotels available that meet the policies, it is hard to understand that there is not an exception plan in place from your company that can help you. Quite honestly, it is not Marriott's responsibility to do so, it should come from your employer.

4) We would like to help you, but you are only telling us what you can't do! If you are willing to share where you can stay and at what price....maybe someone can come up with something.

But again - the corp rate thing - dead as a dodo if your company didn't renegotiate, and although it seems unfair, it isn't all Marriott's fault.

Doesn't matter. If he used a code which became invalid because his employer and/or Marriott chose not to continue the relationship, those reservations are gone. OP's biggest personal concern ought to be that Marriott doesn't shut down his account.

the OPs stated option was a 5-hour commute...........personally I'd take money out of my pocket to avoid a daily 5-hr commute (which has its own costs too), but that's just me............

Your loss Blast. Your complaint about the corportate contract not being renewed should focus on the responsible party = your employer, not Marriott. Guess your Platinum status will go to waste the rest of 2013. :rolleyes:

I agree! ^

+1

I know in the Amex Plat Travel world that FHR Rates can expire at the end of the year-those rates can include benefits, rates etc. They won't book you WITH FHR rates and benefits past the expiration. They will book public rates.

I do find some fault with the system here-of which Marriott is part-for taking the reservations and rates past expiration. I think they should honor them if the OP had confirmed reservations. The rate should have been unavailable past expiration.

True-if that was the last resort. The approved rates for the op's company seem to be very low if $104 exceeds them.

I agree this is a problem with OP's company. Marriott provided a room under a contractual arrangement, and that arrangement was cancelled by their counterparty. It's pretty hard to expect them to be liable for continuing the terms of the contract.

I put a check-in date of Monday 1/7 into Kayak and found 29 properties in Bloomington available Monday-Friday, 22 of which are under $100.


OP. to answer your question:
"closest available property is 2.5 hours away" and "everything is sold out through march of 2012" are what "seems off". Can your provide some additional parameters within which you are operating that make the dozens of properties available in town every week not feasible?

Probably because they are not a Marriott family property! :D

I know it is circular reasoning, but what do you expect from the OP! :p

Absolutely on point. If you don't have contract rates like me for a lot of my stays, work or otherwise then you take one for the team /employer/family.

The part about the 5 hour daily commute does not compute on common sense grounds, if for no other reason, sorry. For there to be such a vast hotel room shortage within a 2 1/2 hours radius not to be able to find a hotel room would be tantamount to the Super Bowl being in town.

If my company limit was $100/night and my alternatives are to pay $29/night (just a number I chose to make this point) out of my own pocket or have a 5 hour daily commute, I would pay the $29/night out of my own pocket, at least on the short term, before making other arrangements for dates further out.

I would not be so sure that it was MI and not the hotel. It is possible that the hotel was going through their rooms control/provisioning procedures and noticed a reservation which was incorrect, and notified MI to contact the OP. This would seem to be the case if the OP actually only got this call on Saturday 1/5 for a Monday 1/7 reservation.

Customer care is correct, MI customer care certainly does not set the rates for all Marriott properties all across the country, those rates are generally made locally.

Disagree. I am sure both the employer and MI know more than a few days, or even a few weeks in advance of contracts which will not be renewed, since I am sure negotiations for contract renewal start fairly far in advance, and certainly not within the last week before expiration. No, not so far in advance as September (when OP made the reservations) for a contract expiring on December 31, but I would be surprised if negotiations did not take place 60-90 days before expiration (meaning somewhere between October 1 and November 1, and that both OP's employer and MI were well aware of the final disposition of the contract before December 1. If both the employer and MI were aware more than even 2 weeks before the rez was scheduled to begin, both the employer and MI were at fault for not notifying the OP that the reservation would not be honored (although I would say that the employer had a higher responsibility in this regard than MI, out of a desire for the employer not to disrupt the regular flow of business which requires employees to be where they are supposed to be, on time, to conduct business). Whether the contract was canceled or not renewed is almost beside the point. Both the employer and MI had a responsibility to communicate with the OP, because both have a primary relationship with the OP, the employer for obvious reasons, and MI for no other reason than the OP is a Plat, and a guest.

It is a HUGE leap to say that the OP used his company's code fraudulently back in September when the rez was made. In the wildest stretch of imagination, it would be fraud without intent, and what would be the benefit to the OP from that? It would not enrich the OP in any way. Again, communication is key here, both MI and the employer needed to communicate to the OP, and since neither did, the OP had no way to know.

This is the squirly part about the OP's post. I have a hard time believing that the employer's travel department did not know this a good deal in advance, and did not bother to tell their employees that the MI relationship was ending, and the new hotel relationship is now with _________.

I think that since Marriott waited until the last minute to contact the OP to cancel, that MI and/or the hotel should be on the hook under the Plat rules. If they do not have room for him at that hotel, then they owe the OP compensation.

Squirrly part number two from the OP, what is the price limit, and why has OP avoided answering this question at least a couple of times in this thread.

Chances are that the code was not invalid back in September, when the reservations were made, and IMO, because MI waited until just two days before the rez, ON A WEEKEND, makes MI's position on this pretty shaky.

MI is certainly not responsible for not renewing a contract if the employer would not agree to a new contract. For MI not doing anything about existing reservations a good deal in advance of when MI knew the contract would become invalid is another matter entirely.



Again, this is way too odd, and since OP has not provided the information asked for, that's squirrly on the part of the OP.