Hi, I'm new to this board, but was able to find alot of valuable information. But I still have a question I hope someone can answer with some certainty.

I would like to use points for a week stay at Marriott Casa Magna Cancun for the April 4 -11, 2009. I appreciate it if someone could tell me when the window for booking would open up. I've seen conflicting information on how far in advance hotels can be booked and I'm also not sure points uses the same window as a regular paid stay. Thanks in advance for any help!

In theory 50 weeks out, same as paid stays. HOWEVER... not all hotels post their inventory then.

For example JW Marriott Orlando doesn't post paid or stay availability until about 36-40 weeks out.

Vail Marriott doesn't have any award availability posted for mid-December through January yet. Paid stays for mid-December through January just showed up yesterday morning.

I would start looking on Sunday April 20 and/or Monday April 21, and then check daily, or at least weekly, thereafter.

Note if this is a high demand property, especially for conferences then that is one reason for the delay in hotels posting their availability. While I don't think this is right, it happens and those from, or associated with, Marriott may well say otherwise. In that case I refer you to this thread for more info: Marriott Concierge - lack of inventory availability

Actually it's 52 weeks...today there are 352 days available in inventory - this weekend another week will be added and on and on

socrates,

I checked the Marriott website and I can only see room availability as far as Dec 16. Beyond this date I get the message no rooms available. Are you able to see availability for 52 weeks? Thanks for your help.

You will have to call if that is the case because you can't book anything more than 50 weeks out online as the online system won’t allow you to pick dates further out than 50 weeks. Even at 50 or 52 weeks, as stated earlier, the hotel may not have released award inventory as some will wait months after the 50 week mark before doing so. If you don't believe me check Vail Marriott, JW Marriott Orlando, or a few other properties. What is "supposed to be" and what "is" are 2 completely different things.

While I respect the helpful info you provide here on FT, pontificating theory and what is suppose to be just doesn't cut it with regard to inventory availability. Please read the thread from last year to refresh your memory. I finally gave up after a couple months after my mother died and as a result there was no longer a need for the reservation I was seeking.

BTW, the same thing is happening again this year with Vail Marriott. No doubt Marriott will come back with the same response that "Vail Marriott is setting the correct number of rooms for Standard...". The amazing thing is that at some point after May 2007 standard award availability did open up for Vail Marriott for January 2008; so somewhere well under 8 months out.

I warned you... "and those from, or associated with, Marriott may well say otherwise".

I repeat:

In theory 50 weeks out, same as paid stays. HOWEVER... not all hotels post their inventory then.

I you haven't read the thread for which I provided a link in my previous post, I suggest you do so as it is very enlightening.

What I do, is check daily as that is the only way IMO. Everyone says that inventory is loaded on Sundays, while this is generally the case, I had rates show up Tuesday of this week, when there were no rates showing when I checked on Sunday or Monday, and then that rate I booked disappeared on Wednesday. This was for date in mid-January of 2009. Prior to Tuesday there was no availability for mid-December through the end of January 2009, and that was for paid stays.

I did read the thread and found it very helpful. My follow up question was for socrates who said he can see 50-52 weeks of inventory for the hotel in question on the Marriott website and I was hoping to find out how he can see the inventory but I cannot. Thanks again.

He can't. He can only see through February 1 like the rest of us.

Now I'm really, really confused. So you can also see availability out to Feb 1 at the Marriott Casa Magna? I can only see availability to Dec 16. Any idea what the problem is? Thanks

No I have not looked at availability at that hotel, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Soc said that you can book 52 weeks out online which you cannot for ANY hotel. When entering dates, accessing the calendar on Marriott.com, you can only access out as far as February 1 for ANY hotel reservation. February 1 is 50 weeks out not 52.

Regarding the hotel for which you are searching for award availability I will say for the third time:

"In theory 50 weeks out, same as paid stays. HOWEVER... not all hotels post their inventory then."

The latter part of that comment applies to your case. No matter how many times you complain to those of us here on FT about lack of award availability that answer will not change.

Now complaining to Marriott may well be more proactive. You can repeatedly call the Marriott Guest Relations as I did last year and you will get a variety of excuses from "they are sold out", to "they haven't released inventory" (which is actually true), to the CSR calling the hotel which may actually yield some success as it did for me. It took me a couple months and 4-6 calls last year, I don't remember the exact number right now, to finally get award weeks at Vail Marriott. It really annoys me that this is the case, but it is.

The other option, as I already suggested once, is to check daily and when award availability is finally release, book it. I prefer this method as I get very annoyed when people lie to me, which is basically what they are doing when they don't take the time to call the hotel and find out exactly what is happening with the lack of award availability.

aaupgrade

Sorry to be so dense. When I look at room availability for the Cancun Casa Magna for a PAID NIGHT, I can only view rooms up to December 16, 2008. I am not talking about award rooms using points. Although the little pop up calendar shows red out to Feb 1, 2009. There is NO room availability of any type to purchase between December 17 through Feb 1, not even a single night on non holiday periods.

I completely understand that the release of award rooms is somewhat sporadic, but I can't even purchase a night. Does anyone have any advise? Thanks.

Today I made 2 online bookings for a free 7-night stay for Jan 23-30th, 2009, so the 50 weeks are honored by this particular cat.6 hotel.

By the way, I would suggest to make your reward stays bookings during February before the points devaluation strikes again increasing the category of your desired hotel. Last year they were +500 hotels upgraded and I fear that we may see a new born cat. 8 pretty soon.

Please reread post #2 as I think it should clear up your confusion.

BTW, my advice for lack of paid stay inventory is below:

Now complaining to Marriott may well be more proactive. You can repeatedly call the Marriott Guest Relations, or the hotel, as I did last year with the JW Marriott Orlando and you will get a variety of reasons from "they are sold out", to "they haven't released inventory" (which is actually true), to the hotel telling me that they release inventory 10 months out which turned out not ot be true. I basically had to wait until they released inventory and got very frustrated with the misinformation provided by numerous Marriott sources.

The other option, is to check daily and when paid availability is finally released, book it. I suggest this method as you will save your sanity. This is what I did with the Vail Marriott which I was checking daily for past few weeks.

Never mind

I do recall the thread from last year and do understand your frustration however I as I stated last year I can not speak for those specific properties and can only say what should occur IMO - I can think of several reasons why a hotel wouldn't have availability at week 50 but the inventory (unless it's a blackout) must follow availability standard room inventory rules (yes I'm trying not to get too specifics about the rules here)