Why Does It Have To Be This Way
 

I am a Platinum Member with Marriott and just returned from Paris and London. I did a quick 6 day trip with my teenager daughter to reward her for 3 years of great grades in High School. I tried to stay at the Marriott Champes Elyses for 3 nights using Standard Rewards. Even though the hotel had plenty of rooms,I was unable to get Reward space. The Marriott Platinum desk said they could do NOTHING for me.(except pay 50% more points) I then called Hilton Diamond Desk and they said even though the Paris Hilton had no Reward rooms available,they would get me a room. They did! I then tried to get a room at The London Marriott County Hall for 3 nights. No Reward availability,even though they had plenty of rooms for rent. The Marriott Platinum Desk said they could NOT HELP!(once again unless I paid 50% more points) I then called The Hyatt Diamond Desk and even though they had no Reward Availability,they got me a room at The Churchill using Standard Rewards points. I have been life time loyal to Marriott;many years as a Platinum. It takes me MANY more nights to attain Platinum level with Marriott than Hilton and Hyatt. What am I doing wrong? Is this the way Marriott treats their highest level members. Just voicing my frustration. God Bless.

Timeframe
 

Just curious, how far out did you try to book the rooms with points?

I had 2 similar experiences recently with hotels in Niagara Falls and in BKK. The Marriott was unavailable for standard rewards and the Hilton equivalent was available.

Although I do know about Marriott's unavailabilty of a sort of "Platinum Guaranteed Availability" for reward reservations (other than stay anytime which is available to other tiers of membership as well), I can tell you I was taken aback. It got me thinking: what exactly are Marriott MR's competitive advantages over HH (its main competition)? Not complaining, I know what Marriott offers and what it does not, but I wanted to tell the OP his/her puzzlement is understood.

The only thing I can think of is MR requires less points per night if you stay more than one night; HH charges the same number of points for each night.

I am PLT in MR and Diamond in HH. I just called the Diamond desk and was able to book a reward stay this coming weekend in Las Vegas in a sold out hotel.

These are all the reasons I don't belong to Marriott...I was just surfing the site and had never looked at the Marriott thread before, and this reinforces why I no longer book with Marriott.
They have very consistent properties across all brands, but other than that, and they seem to be everywhere, I can't think of any good reason to be a Marriott member.
I am platinum SPG and NEVER have any problems booking award nights, they run good (not great) promotions, and their high end properties and resorts are significantly better than Marriott's.
Can anyone tell me why you keep giving Marriott your hard earned money?

Well, I think you answered your own question. "They have very consistent properties across all brands... and they seem to be everywhere." For someone like me who never uses points for free nights, lack of award night availability is not a problem. Marriott's consistently excellent product, far superior as a general rule to any other brand, makes them the clear winner for my hard-earned money.

Also, Marriott has made some great strides in the high-end hotel and resort arena lately. In quite a few locations they now give St. Regis and The Luxury Collection a run for their money. I'm not telling you not to stick with what works for you, but trying to explain why Marriott works for me!

Have had the same problem with MR award availability. I will say that after trying 3 different times for 3 different properties recently, I decided that I would cancel my future business travel with 4 different Marriott properties, and in cancelling, I emailed the properties and advised that this was being cancelled strictly because of my inability to use my Reward points and as a protest against the capacity control/blackout policy.

Interestingly, I received a call the next day opening up the property that I had not been able to get a few days earlier.

I have to agree with the statement that generally, Marriott brands are more consistent for business travel than Starwood properties. But Starwood has Marriott beat badly when it comes to using the points - both in ease of award redemption and in number / variety of high end properties.

I don't think there is any comparison between Marriott and SPG in the higher end category (St Regis/W/Westin/Luxury Collection).

Just my opinion on the subject, but I think that with the exception of Starwood Preferred Guest, the hotel programs and airline programs should reset the worth of their points, limit the availability of points to actual stays or flights, but then open the programs so that their customers can actually use the points they earn - rather than this current state of affairs where points are extra-easy to come by, but almost impossible to use.

Count me as the opposite. Without boring you with the nasty details, I've NEVER had a problem with booking a Marriott reward and I've rarely NOT had problems with a Hilton reward.

This is why I asked above about how long in advance he tried to book the room. In general, I have no problem getting into any Marriott hotel I want on pointsas long as I'm willing to book well enough in advance. If you're trying to book within a 90 day window, well, quite honestly I've got no sympathy. First come, first serve, you know? If it's a longer than six months out, then I do have sympathy.

So much of this "you can't use the points when you want to" stuff is nonsense. Personal example: Everybody told me I'd never get the Vail Marriott in high ski season. Well, last year I got the second week in February (booked in December no less, and upgraded to a suite).

That’s also my experience. I’ve never been refused an award room at Marriott and I’ve booked well over a hundred. But I do plan out a loooong time compared to many....90 days minimum and usually 180 days if I’m traveling to Europe.
BTW, Dogspit, welcome to FT! And I do like your unique handle...:).

Same here.....

never been refused an award room in Hawaii.....or most any Caribbean location....but we do plan somewhat in advance. Was pleased to see great availabilty all across Hawaii for awards next Feb during my kids Winter Break. I booked the hotels in mid June, and they are all still available as of today.

Might be nice, however, if Marriott would think about waiving blackouts/sellouts on award availability for their Platinum members, since Platinum is so much more difficult to reach in their program as opposed to the others. It would be a very nice perk to know that if a room is available, you can have it on an award.

ps- In my experience so far, I'm batting a thousand with Marriott for great room upgrades on awards....so that is always appreciated.

DJ Iceman, if you don't use your points, can I have them? :D

Also, just out of curiousity, which properties do you think Rival the St. Regis and Luxury collections...if you can convice me, you might have just found a home for my tertiary stays that now go to Hilton?!?!

*laughing* I didn't say I don't use my points, only that I don't use them for free nights! :cool: I have found that psychologically I can't bring myself to redeem those hard-earned points for free stays where I could be earning night and point credit. I've gotten a free DVD player (8 years ago when that was a big deal) and two free cruises thanks to Marriott Rewards, and I've got over 800K in the bank waiting for my next big withdrawal...

Anyway, as for Marriott properties that rival the best of Starwood... In my personal experience, the Renaissance Wailea is the equal of the Kapalua Bay Hotel. The JW Marriott Las Vegas is outstanding, although there's no Starwood property to compare it to. People have raved about the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando (I personally had a horrible stay there), but the nicest Starwood property in the area is the WDW Swan.

Moving on to rumors as opposed to places I've stayed, the JW Marriott South Beach, Le Marigot in Santa Monica, London County Hall, Renaissance Chancery Court, and JW Marriott Seoul are supposed to be among the best properties in their respective locations. And don't forget that you can redeem Marriott Rewards points for free nights at Ritz-Carlton locations worldwide, which certainly trumps ANYTHING in the Starwood system!

Thanks for the feedback...I may give Marriott another chance...those sound like some fun and exciting places.
Without sounding too much like a cheerleader for Starwoods, many of their properties do rival a lot of the Ritz Carlton properties, which I tend to find a bit stuffy for my taste....although the Ritz in Bali sure was nice!
I can't decide who conviced me, (you or if I convinced myself), but I think I may make the switch from Hilton to Marriott for my third chain....do you know if they comp status?

I don't know for sure, but the consensus around these boards seems to be that Marriott is the stingiest of the bunch when it comes to competitive status matching.

Just as an aside, I used to be pretty happy as a Westin Premier Burgundy member. I was also Sheraton gold but found it virtually worthless. So what does Starwood do? Combine the programs, make people like me who were mid-tier in both mid-tier in the new one, but give the benefits and treatment of the Sheraton level! They have now become my FOURTH tier, below Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt.

My biggest problem with Hilton is inconsistency, even at the same property. One time I'll check in and get a warm welcome and a suite upgrade, the next they'll act like I'm a vagrant and they're doing me a favor by letting me pay for a room with the wrong bed and smoking preferences.

Good luck if you switch to Marriott. There are pros and cons to all the programs, but over time I have found Marriott to have the highest consistent level of product and customer service quality. I hope they show the same standards for you!