How to drop a night from reservation
 

I have a three night reservation in Spokane that I need to decrease to two nights. When I try to modify it online, the per night rate increases a lot (almost $50 per night). Is this normal? If I call the reservation center will the same price increase occur? Or will they be able to just drop off the last night and keep the current rate for the other nights?

Thanks for your help.

Call and ask what happens if you drop the night. Usually the phone agents can work their magic and make the price stick. If not, when you check in let them know you will not be staying the third night. I've never had a price change doing that, although I cannot guaranty you that won't happen.

Sometimes calling the property directly works as well. They're usually just happy to know in plenty of time to sell the room and don't bother trying to manipulate the rates.

Your best bet is calling the property directly or handling at check-in. There are no guarantees, however, and you have to be prepared to pay the higher rate if you don't stick to the deal you first booked.

Do you have status? If you're Platinum, call the Platinum desk to handle it for you. They've handled requests similar to this for us before. (I think all they do is call the property, but for some reason I think they have more pull with the property than the individual member has. Maybe not)

This.

Whenever I'd have to change dates that I thought or knew might change the rate I called the hotel directly & said I need to change. I didn't get into, oh btw, Marriott says the rate will increase , aka, I kept my mouth shut.

I gave them the valid (true) reason for my change. They made it & I didn't get hit w/ a charge. I definitely did NOT do, how dare you, I'm a Plat/Gold, do you know the rules.

Having said all that I knew they could charge me due to the rules, so if they had said no I would have accepted it. But if they didn't hit me w/ the penalty, they were on my list to stay in the future.

Cheers.

Yes, call the property directly.

Rare, but it happens. Like this morning - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...t-ermin-s.html

An answer to this question: Yes, this is normal for virtually all major hotel chains.

Hotels use stay controls in order to maximize profits and ensure there are rooms left for multi-night guests. If the hotel believes there is sufficient demand, they will only offer to sell rooms that meet those stay controls. For example, when you made your reservation, your rate may have been subject to a minimum stay requirement of 3 nights.

If the night you're dropping is a "slow" night, they may not be able to re-sell it. Thus, they don't want to offer your initial rate because it means they will lose money. You can view this as a contract. When you make a 3 night reservation, you expect the hotel to provide a room for those three nights. Conversely, the hotel will expect you to stay in the room for those three nights at the agreed upon rate.

If you need to change your reservation, you're basically forced to meet the then current restrictions. It's usually spelled out in the rate details under the "Modifying Your Reservation" second.

For example, here's a screenshot of the rate details for the Fairfield Inn & Suites Spokane Downtown:

I've seen properties offer a lower rate if you stay for certain days (like Thurs-Sun) offering a lower overall rate. If you remove a day it kicks the overall rate up. I don't think you're being hit with a general penalty, I suspect it's a rate offered for the days you originally booked.

As others have posted, I've had the same situation and I would just let them know during check-in.
Never had any issues with rate increases.
Good luck!

+1

--Jon

+1 I have never had any problems cutting a night off.

Me neither but this was before the stealth switch to 2 and 3 day cancellation notices in some markets...

Has anyone had success dropping nights from award reservations? I'm looking to drop a day or two from my award on a hotel that's sold out right now.

This should be straight forward. Just call and ask to drop the dates in question. You already hold the nights and award does not involve potential rate changes. If you don't call in advance and waited until you check in, then you'll have to deal with getting points back.