Marriott15

I don't understand why Marriott requires someone to actually stay in their hotel to receive points. Marriott is receiving my money for the stay? I understand what the terms are. That leads to the question why does Marriott care if I actually stay at the hotel? Why is that rule even in place? If someone pays for the room they get their money and don't have to clean the room? You would think that Marriott would want no shows! Saves them money money on having to clean a room! To me that is what the welcome bonus should be a added benefit for checking in!

Marriott Rewards Terms and Conditions clearly state, " The Member must also stay in one of the rooms."

This has never ever ever been enforced. I can't tell you how many times I have checked in left and never went to my room and have always gotten points!

Does any other Brand allow you to get rewards points for "a member not staying in a room".

***** Within accordance to the forum rules moderators please note I am not trying to "scam" Marriott! They receive all their money for my paid stays!

ijgordon

Does sound like a scam.
Airlines require you to fly, hotels require you to stay.
Accept it and move on.

CJKatl

Why would anyone do this to the point that he/she "can't tell you how many times I have checked in left and never went to my room..."? It's one thing for that rare occasion when someone wants a last bonus night, 75th annual night or the like, but to pay your own money over and over again just to get points doesn't make economic sense.

My take is Marriott does not want to be a party in a scheme where someone does not stay in a room but charges the room to an employer just to convert the employer's money into personal points. By ensuring the person stays in the room Marriott helps employers stop this type of scheme and maintains the integrity of MR. If Marriott were to allow people to charge rooms remotely without staying in them employers would likely question whether MR is an honest program in which they should allow employees to participate. It is one thing to reward the decision to stay for business nights where the stay is a necessary business expense. It is another to allow points for fake stays, thus aiding and abetting nothing but conversion of business funds to personal points. Granted, most people are honest and good shepherds of employer resources, but there are a few that might try to scheme business money for personal use who would destroy it for the rest of us. Of course those people would be prosecuted, but the taint on the program could not be undone, so it makes sense that Marriott puts up roadblocks to keep integrity and give businesses assurance when allowing workers to participate in MR.

While hotels cannot and should not do bed checks, Marriott is at least giving employers the confidence that an employee actually checked into a hotel. While if someone wants to waste their own money on a fake stay there might not be a reason for Marriott to care, MR is really set up for Marriott to have business people steer business money that's going to be spent anyway towards Marriott. Non-business stays are the smaller amount here.

cbn42

While that might make sense, it seems a bit far-fetched to me. An employee running such a scheme should be detected fairly quickly, especially if he/she is doing it with any frequency. There would be no other evidence of the trip (e.g., meal receipts) and someone should be paying enough attention to the employee's work to realize that the trip never happened.

My guess is that they would prefer to resell the room in case of a no-show. This enables them to collect the first night's charge and sell the room to a high-paying walkup customer.

clarkef

I concur. I would hope that most traveling employees are subject to some sort of approval/audit.review that would make the widespread booking of hotels for nonexistent trips the rare occurrence. That being said, I knew a criminal who among his other offenses, would book the most expensive room when traveling for the sole purpose of obtaining more points.

3Cforme

Read the T&Cs of the frequent stay programs that interest you. I'm reasonably familiar with SPG, Marriott, and Hilton programs. They certainly have commonalities.

Oxon Flyer

The textbook FT answer is :

"Because everyone would be earning themselves plutonium status and extra promotional bonuses by booking the cheapest room in the whole Marriott world and then not showing up"

All hotel loyalty programs would instantly implode if this were allowed.

Not rocket science, really.

CJKatl

We have recently had someone ask about charging an employer for a prepaid room to be used by a friend. As much as I cannot believe someone can be that dishonest and brazen, apparently either the person is making up that he has done this or his employer has lax approval/audit procedures leading to the activity so far not being detected. It would be nice though if such a poster would stop asking for advice on how to scam Marriott. It makes all frequent travelers look bad

Westcoaster

Too true.

Also, hotels want a crack at additional revenue from parking, restaurants, $5 bottles of water in the room, etc. Some of their employees rely on tips -- dining, valet parking and such. If we're not there those transactions don't take place.

pvn

So... what's your question exactly?

thibderoc

True but it doesn't answer to OP : in his/her case,she/he shows up for checkin, he/she just doesn't stay in the room while you are talking about booking rooms without checking in

CJKatl

No, he claims he wants to do remote check-in and never set foot in the hotel. There is another thread which was closed by the moderator where he makes that very clear. And there is the question of who is paying for the room. While most of us would agree there are times (last MegaBonus stay, 75th and final stay for the year, etc.) where we may personally do this because paying for a one-off extra night makes sense, doing this on a regular basis and/or with an employer's money would be a different story.

Oxon Flyer

The OP specifically refers to "no shows", which is not being present at the hotel at all.

Suzzin

I'd like to think that hotels are in the business of providing rooms for people who need a place to stay, and if they let people remotely book rooms and not show up but still have the rooms listed as "booked" then they run the risk of turning away legitimate customers. It's easy enough---and far cheaper--- to get status at a hotel by getting a co-branded credit card.

thibderoc

[QUOTE=CJKatl;29583904 There is another thread which was closed by the moderator where he makes that very clear.[/QUOTE]

I wasn't aware of that thread (and misunderstood "I have checked in left and never went to my room " in the first post).

I can only fully agree with you now. thank you for correcting me (and thanks Oxon too)