Two-night minimum at a Marriott? And on adjacent to an airport, no less?!?
 

So I had to drive up from San Diego to North LA/Ventura for work earlier this week, and was going to split my two nights at the Ventura Beach Marriott and the Burbank Airport Marriott. Hours before I left, I booked Monday night's hotel (Ventura). Mind you, this was around 6 PM on day of check-in. Done deal. Now for Tuesday night. I had looked earlier in the day and say they had rooms, so figure this would be quick. I searched for Tuesday, and there were no rooms available. Odd, i thought. So I repeated my original search (Monday and Tuesday nights), and, what do you know? Rooms are available. I searched Tuesday and Wednesday, same thing. But just Tuesday, nada!

Quickly called the property and was told the Revenue Management group sets minimum night stays depending on hotel load and occupancy. And no, should couldn't waive it for a Gold member. Ugh.

Then I called Elite Reservations to confirm. First I asked her for a room for Tuesday and Wednesday, and she quoted me a rate. Then I said, on second thought, it will just be for Tuesday. The she said, "well, they are all sold out". I countered, "but you just said that had a room I could use for Tuesday and Wednesday." "Oh, yeah, you're right. There is room. But when change it to Tuesday, there isn't. I don't know why it is like that." I asked if they had minimum night requirements, and she said yes, sometimes they have a two night minimum, at the properties discretion. I explained how I had never heard of this before with Marriott hotels, especially near an airport. We ended with her putting me on a wait list.

Good 'ol efficient Marriott. Less than 15 minutes later I receive a survey invitation for the agent I spoke with. I said they agent was fine, nut that the policy was killing me. The part I didn't understand the most was this being an airport property. Few people in the right mind elect airport hotels for multiple night stays. Generally I see folks staying one night before catching an early flight.

I received a phone call not 15 minutes later from some gal profusely apologizing for the situation. I said no need to - if that is the policy, so be it. I can't stick around on a wait list, I was looking at the nearby IHG property (was actually going to user a Courtyard, but said HG to see if I could leverage it). She offered to find an alternate property for me but I declined.

Then, not 15 minutes later, I am driving and checking my Marriott app to check in to my hotel, and viola, what do you know? I can now book a Tuesday night stay (only) at the Burbank Airport Marriott.

Has anyone else suffered heartburn over a two-night minimum stay requirement at a Marriott property? IF so, please say which one (and if it is an "Airport" property)?

I was nodding my head in agreement with you until the word "Burbank" appeared.

It's not like Burbank is an a remote area of Los Angeles that no one goes to unless they're flying out of the adjacent airport.

Good for you that Marriott tweaked things so that you could book the one night stay, but I think the property has a right to set minimums at whatever the market can bear.

And I could see the Burbank Airport Marriott as able to ask for two-night minimums mid-week given the area that it is in.

A professional reservation agent said " I don't know why it is like that"? And you've never heard of a minimum stay requirement at a Marriott? Seems odd - these aren't new, esoteric inventions.

Agree.

I'm running into this the MSP Spring Hills Suites (Eagan).

Try to book April 16-17 (Thurs-Fri): rooms available.
Try to book April 16: sold out.

This one is even more head-scratching than the Burbank Marriott. The SHS Eagan a standard suburban property that does a mix of airport business and presumably some local business travelers as well.

There is no unusual demand in the area that week. Every nearby Marriott is selling rooms at typical rates. Weekday rates are their usual $120-140 for all the midrange brands. Weekend rates are the usual $75-100. This SHS is the only one with the April 16th quirk, and I can't figure out why.

If we have to stay somewhere else, fine. I just wish I understood the logic, because we actually do prefer this particular hotel. I wish Marriott had a better answer than "sometimes hotels have minimum stays." Yes, of course they do, I just question whether this particular airport hotel intends to on this particular night.

Did you call the property? Maybe its an IT quirk or someone has rented most of the rooms for some event / reason. Just spitballing here, on the face of it, it does not make sense...

Yes, do call the property directly. It may be they have sold all the single-night rooms allocated to the 16th and need to adjust their inventory. They may also be willing to walk someone that already has a room for only the 16th in favor of someone staying two nights. Hotel rooms can get to be like restaurant tables, you never know what's going to happen.

As a former Revenue Manager, I can safely say that the answer is "yes". Hotel revenue management is an automated process based on wildly complex algorithms. Rate and stay controls are updated multiple times each day. It's possible that the software has incorrect restrictions because conditions have changed...but, that virtually always gets corrected in the next processing batch.

Please consider that you're looking for a room 12 days from now. For a property near an airport, that's an eternity. Most of their business is probably booked a few days out. Here, the software may "think" that it can fill rooms with 2-night stays. If that doesn't work, it will open up a 1-night stay as the date gets closer. That's not a risk because for that date, there has historically been enough demand from people who book at the last-minute.

The number one rule of revenue management is to not second-guess the computer. It's smarter than we are on this subject. The only time it was advised to override recommendations was during weather anomalies and atypical events like NCAA Final Four in your city or national political conventions.

I booked a Marriott in Southampton England for a night before a cruise last year. We arrive on Friday. It's the only Marriott within about 30 miles. When I booked, I could only get Thursday and Friday. I booked it, and then a couple of months ago, I called Marriott to change it to just Friday. They couldn't do it, but I did get the email address of the hotel. I contacted them directly and the next morning it was down to the one night I wanted.

Call the property.

Always good advice.

No, I didn't call the property. It's 2015. That's simply not going to happen unless it's an incredibly desperate situation. I won't say "never", because as soon as I do that I'll be stuck in a blizzard somewhere without a good data connection and will have to phone a hotel to ask for a room, just like I did in 1992. But I won't die without this particular Spring Hill Suites, so I'm not calling them.

In this case, I booked a different hotel. Hopefully, for the sake of the SHS, they'll be sold out and won't miss me. :)

Of course you are welcome to take your business wherever you like. However, refusing to call a property just because it is 2015 is very short sighted. Fortunately we still have humans driving businesses, unfortunately they do make mistakes AND, in most instances, they are the ones that will override the system when needed. To not avail yourself of that option will only limit your choices. I to prefer to do as much as I can without having to pick up the phone (or push the button in my ear) but there will always be instances when that it will be needed.

And sometimes, humans can do what computers can't. I've been able to get into restaurants when Open Table says nothing, and override hotel minimum stays. It's up to you.

Fair enough. Like I said, I'm sure there will be a situation that requires me to call a hotel for a reservation. I won't say it'll never happen. But in this particular case, there are plenty of nearby hotels that don't require me to take such an extraordinary measure to get a simple hotel room, so off I go to one of them.

I sincerely hope the SHS achieves a sellout that night. I don't doubt that their systems know a lot more about demand than any of us do.

Besides, the anecdotes we have here suggest that phoning them *won't* work - the trust the system, and it's not a mistake. They're pretty certain they're going to sell out without me. I'm still not sure what causes people to book last-minute 2-night stays at airport hotels, but that's because I'm not in the hotel industry...

They are not holding the rooms hoping for last minute 2 night bookings. They are holding the rooms for people who are willing to call them ;)

It's 2015. They have phones that you can carry around with you nowadays. This lets you make calls from just about anywhere.