Many times when a convention buys out a hotel for an event, they maintain a waiting list for attendees. I assume you've already checked on that?

At first thought, it does appear to me as ridiculous that a hotel would not want to keep a waiting list for its best (or any customers). But on futher thought, its probably a lot of work locally and not in their best interest to do so.

I used to negotiate room blocks for conventions and there are commitment release dates usually at 8, 4 and 2 weeks out. So close in, its up to the individual registrant to manage his own reservation.

If a chain hotel is "completely sold out", they are probably sold to 102%, 103% (some number greater than 100%) to account for last minute cancellations and no shows. So there is no great incentive for them to manually manage a list and keep checking the inventory every few minutes day of arrival to see any online cancellations (especially during the 3 pm and onward check in rush hours) which could very well already be replaced by online reservations instantly.

I agree it would be extraordinary customer service to create a wait and notify list for its best customers but I don't see that happening voluntarily (e.g. unless some corporate directive). A hotel that's sold out as of the day before is probably going to stay sold out with some last minute shuffling of the guest names without the hotel's heavy involvement as they inch towards 100%. Plus factor in some walk-up requests in the evening.

Just my 2 cents, as posted above, I've been a "victim" of a phantom waiting list a few times before.

Hotels can't even let you know if you leave something in a room. This feature would be way beyond what they would do.

I suspect that you actually know that's not going to happen. At least with any quantity that's going to move any needle in terms of cost.

Edited

Perhaps we should be able to add QA testing experience to all of our resumes? @:-)

It could be worse: two other sites I've used in the past week, aerlingus.com and alamo.com, make me feel like I'm in someone's development sandbox...

As discussed many times over the years, some Marriotts have tremendously detailed systems and procedures to catalogue and store items left in rooms, they just choose not to contact you unless you contact them first !!

I know for a fact that the old Residence Inn property management system (RICHIE, which I don't think they use anymore?) had a waitlist module, but it was at the discretion of the local hotel when/if they used it.

One property used it during the local university's graduation weekend - always plenty of families who wanted larger suites for the weekend, so when the usual business travelers shortened stays, the families would be called to fill in.

But that is exactly what it would cost you if they had a system. That is, if I were to implement a waitlist in a fully-booked hotel, I would require: a) you agree to pay rack rate if you get a room from the wait list; AND, b) you prepay. In other words, in exchange for the "wait list" service, you get a non-cancellable room at rack rate.

Why would it have to be rate rack, say $1000 vs $200 or so? At most, it should be their non conference, we are full almost full gouge rate of whatever ($300). A hotel I stay in 12 weeks a year at $129 goes to $249 when the Home Depot convention is nearby, they act as overflow. Never a problem getting a room, its just the rate.

But non-cancellable probably won't work either. If you are wait listed, you've probably sought/booked out alternatives and need a moment to re-evaluate...

Time is money. Maintaining a list requires additional hours of work.

Plus they do this in their own way by overbooking. Their top customers are taken care of, as both Plat and PP have the override capability; although that won't matter at a hotel that has been fully contracted for a conference/special event. I am sure some hotels may be heavily overbooked as a result of Plat overrides. Much more efficient as it is very low overhead, and I am guessing that in most cases the walk rate is quite low.

And that's why they don't do it. How long do they need to "hold" the room for the person at the top of the list? 5 minutes? 5 hours? If you were going to have a "waiting list" at a full hotel, it would probably work the way I suggested - full price non-cancelable. Otherwise, do it the way everyone else does it.

I saw a post where I believe it was you asking BKKLEE to use proper quote etiquette by posting his response below the quote. Did we get no where with that?

Off-topic:

While I think it's easier to read if someone put their response under a quote, it's not required & is not part of TOS. Most do the quote first, but I have seen it the other way too.

On-topic

There are a lot of things I'd like to see Marriott implement, so while I understand the OP's frustration I don't think his request is on the top of their list.

Cheers.