Thanks Drew!

"We do offer a 24 hour Platinum Guaranteed Room Benefit, but not when we're too full"
 

The title says it all.

I heard this today from a UK Marriott.

I guess I will have to take my money elsewhere.

The guaranteed room benefit (i.e. room type) and the cash guarantee behind it applies as long as you make your reservation 24 hours ahead of arrival. Platinum members are guaranteed a room with a 48 hour notice, except for extraordinary circumstances.

As VA1379 states, the Plat reservation guarantee is 48 hrs, not 24 hrs. But it does sound like at least one UK hotel is trying to go the extra mile and extend the guarantee (at least for the most part) to 24 hrs. That is good to know. It is always nice to see some hotels trying to go beyond the rules and provide better service. ^ Especially given that other hotels are pulling extra benefits/services away.

Would you mind letting us know which UK hotel is doing this? Thanks.

Just remember not to ask for the plat guarantee when they're "too full."

I'm not sure I follow you on this one? If the stated Marriott rule say the hotel must provide a room to a Plat as long as the reservation is made 48 hrs or more out, then the hotel being "too full" doesn't come into play. But if the hotel tries to get Plats a reservation within the 48 hr limit unless they are beyond some internal limit, then that is well within the rules and it is their right to do so.

I'm not sure what the problem here is? :confused:

I am the OP. I was trying to make a reservation for a UK trip next week and I was told by the front desk (after consultation with the manager) that the hotel was "too full" for part of the week so they could not offer me a room for the entire stay.

Have you tried to make the reservation through the Marriott Reservation line? Another option, if the "too full" days are more than 2 days out is to make a couple of reservations. One for the first day or so that is within the 48 hrs. Then make another for the rest of the stay. With the Plat 48 hr reservation guarantee, unless they have a corporate waiver for those nights, and MR can tell you if they do, you should have your reservation.

The Platinum guarantee is at rack rate. Any corporate code will not be available. If the hotel was trying to accommodate a corporate rate, it may come up not available to them for booking.

Additionally, only one Platinum override can be booked at a time, so if you have other reservations in the system using a platinum override, you will not be able to make another.

I don't know if either of these two scenerios could be the reason. I've never heard of "too full" being an answer as this defeats the purpose of a Platinum override.

Individual hotels do not have the ability to turn this benefit off, only the folks in Bethesda do (actually they are in Gaithersburg)

Actually MARSHA is programmed for 48 hours, there really isn't a way for an individual hotel to change this to 24 hours

I'm not sure this is true. The few times I used the Plat override for a room, I do believe I received a general corporate rate, not the rack rate.

A year or two ago I had to use the plat override on a hotel and could only get the 'standard' corporate rate, rather than my severely discounted corporate rate. However, recently I've been able to use the website to get a platinum override on my corporate rate as well (I've only noticed when using the plat override when I couldn't book a second room).

As everyone says - if its more than 48hours ignore the hotel and ring Marriott direct, make your booking and then if they have to walk someone (else...) so be it. It is a little naughty of the hotel to be ignoring this 48hours directly from you, but, if it really was 24hours they were offering then I'd imagine they were trying to be extra nice to platinums?

"I'm not sure I follow you on this one?"

I understood and understand that the point of his post was the ludicrous reason he was given for not honoring the guarantee.

Try booking on-line - I've never noticed anything outside the normal reservation process until the end, when there was a note that the PLT benefit had been used. And if you try to book another room on the same night it says you can only do 1 night with your PLT status. I doubt there's a way for the property to override the core reservation system.

If it doesn't work, try calling global reservations/customer service instead of the property. It's a stated benefit and the property doesn't/shouldn't have the flexibility to change it. (Assuming you're calling 48 hours ahead, not 24)