YoungBubbie

Just past my 24 hour mark and have not heard back about 2 claims.

Will wait a little bit more, but can someone be advise the best way to proceed?

nacho

Call the toll free number to talk to them.

YoungBubbie

At the 27th hour I received my acceptance.

They've always been under the 24 hours, has anyone else ever waited this long?

nacho

I have tried more than 24 hours but I normally cancelled it just before as they are prepaid rates and I don't want to risk anything.

shonamac

I filed a LNF claim for a Thursday - Saturday (2 night) stay at the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place. I made a single booking for two nights and the third party site had a lowe rate for the same two night stay.

The claim was approved, but I noticed only the rate for the first night was adjusted and the second night remained unchanged. The rate for the second night alone was still higher on marriott.com than the third-party site. So I wrote back, requesting that this be looked into.

The same woman who handled the original claim (JeTaun M) wrote back denying it and said "Claims are approved on nightly rates not total cost." She also seems to have confused the hotel's currency (€) with the third-part ($) although I sent her a screen print of the conversion.

What should I do, considering I have about two hours before the 24-hour free cancel window expires?

YoungBubbie

Email back immediately tell her to recheck and explained everything in detail especially the the time sensitivity. If you don't hear back if a 1 night reservation doesnt affect the rates how about calling and cancel the second night and do a new reservation for that night and refile?

Another reason why I don't book non refundable rates. Sometimes it can take 3-4 back and forth emails to get approved. Good luck.

nacho

This happened to me numerous times now. It's annoying, what they do is that they look at each night for multiple nights reservations. E.g. OTA has a total of 2 nights at $300, Marriott has it for $350. What it used to be like was that you will get 25% on the $300 rate. Now they look into how that $300 is made up, i.e. how much is the first night and how much is the second night.

Take the example of OTA $300 and Marriott $350 for 2 nights, if you look into the details, you may find that the OTA charges $125 and then $175, while Marriott has 175 for 2 nights. So when Marriott look at your claim, they will only adjust the first night but not the second night.

This is entirely up to the LNF person at Marriott to determine how much the nightly rate is.

It seems unfair but this is how they play now, take it or leave it.

shonamac

Further to my post #50 above, I canceled the booking within the 24-hour window. Today, Hilton came up with a sale for its EMEA region, which offers me a lower rate for a very similar hotel in the same neighborhood at a lowe price. Hallelujah!

Another question - when comparing rates, it seems Marriott is comparing its rate before tax with the third-party rate which includes tax. Then claiming that the third party OTA has a higher rate

Is this standard practice for Marriott? That would make a mockery of any kind of "Look No Further"!

nacho

Have tried that too - they claimed that the third party site doesn't include a tax for a hotel in Tokyo. I even sent in the government papers stating that the tax is included in the room rate but still got a denial.

Basically it boils down to whether the hotel wants to honour that lower rate to you or not.

B1

I was fortunate today - I got to talk to a fellow in the Marriott office that reviews LNF claims. He told me that they have to verify the price on the other site and it can go away fast. He told me has a bunch of platinum members who are on top of this and he has advised his own family on tactics. We got quite chatty. Here's the advice to be sure of the LNF:
1. Book the reservation on Marriott.com first.
2. Book the lower rate on the other site, preferably with a rate that has no penalty for cancellation. If there is a penalty, calculate whether it's worth it.
3. File the claim with comment section giving the information on how to get to the booked reservation on the other site (web address, reference number, etc).
4. If you claim is made based on the URL alone it is likely to be rejected. In that case, reply to the email with the information needed to get to the booked reservation as above.
He was truly committed to being helpful. He said that unlike other sites that accept screen shots, they find that this is more reliable. I think his instructions should be fine. I will post again when I hear from them. I did the claim both as the URL and another as the reservation itself for the same item to see if either works.

nacho

Why made a reservation on the 3rd party helps? If you book the very last room they have and when they verify they can see that there is no room available, then they will deny your claim. Unless a reservation proof from a 3rd party site is valid for a claim which I don't think it is.

shonamac

This is what I don't understand: Either the lower rate is there on the 3rd party site or it is not. If it IS there, why can the LNF team not find it? Why does one have to make a booking on the other site (usually on a non-ref rate) to prove the point? Are the LNF team not able to see what anyone else can see?

Also, why does it take so long to revert with a decision? I understand that there may be lots of LNF claims being filed, but it should take no more than 10 minutes (max) to look at a rate and send a template message to the customer.

YoungBubbie

I had one claim denied because they couldn't see it. I wrote back telling them I saw on my iPad. The LNF team told me to avoid any delays next time to write in comments section type of device you used, browsers etc to avoid any problems with your claim. As they told me sometimes other sites have special rates just on mobile devices.
I didn't know that.

shonamac

Is there any point in making (or providing) screen shots showing the lower rate? Does Marriott simply ignore that or is there some value to it?

Also, can one file a LNF claim for a refundable rate where the third-party site has a lower rate for the same room, but with different cancellation periods? For instance, Marriott has a free cancel period up to a day before arrival, whereas the 3rd party site requires a booking to be canceled 3 days prior to arrival. Would this be eligible for a LNF claim, or not?

YoungBubbie

According to the conditions LNF team must see the lower rate on comparison site and must be exact room and cancellation policy.

But in my experience I have never been denied due to the 1-3 day difference. I know in the past at least 2 of my claims had that.

Also once I was denied a claim because they couldn't see it. We went back and forth about 3 times. I finally sent a screen shot to prove I wasn't losing it. Not sure if they finally saw it or gave up but I got approved.