My issue is this.. Every year Cincinnati, OH has a great fireworks display off of the Ohio River over Labor Day weekend. I have been watching the Marriott website for weeks waiting for Sep. 3rd, 2006 to post. Well now that is has (a few weeks back) the two Marriott hotels on the river have not posted yet every other Marriot hotel has. I called the Marriott Gold line (useless) and they told me it was sold out... I knew that was not the case since I never saw the schedule ever posted on the website. I called the individual hotels and asked them about rooms over the Labor Day weekend. Their response was that rooms for that weekend have not posted as of yet and it could be anytime between tomorrow and January 1st before they do post. ...!?.. They recommend I call back once a week until they do post!! So not only is it impossible to use your points when you need a room with in a few weeks but even when I try to plan a year in advance I get crap like this.. I called Marriott’s gold line again and complained about such a lax and open ended reservation system and their only response was that it was up to the individual hotel to post the schedule.
Its funny the Hilton which is close to this event as well has their rooms posted and I can book one right now.... Hell I can even convert American Miles over and get the room for free...


So again.. Why the hell do I even bother earning these points?

I guess everybody's experience is different. I use hundreds of thousands of points every year without any serious problems. I don't try to use them on New Year's Eve, however -- or any time at all at the Paris Champs Elysee Marriott! That would be impossible!!!

Bruce

This is my first post, but I had to tell you I have 5 nights at the London Ren and 4 nights at the Marriot Champs Elysee in November.

I booked in January, before I even earned the points for both!

I have used points for the Kentucky Derby. I have never had a problem finding a Marriott using points.

So, instead of throwing a fit like a two-year-old, why don't you just stay at the Hilton?

I have booked over a dozen Marriotts rewards stays over the past 3-4 years, including 2 rooms for a week at Paris Champs Elysees last summer, never a problem. ^ ^ ^

Welcome to FT tfmpa! FWIW, others have posted their success with Marriot Champs Elysee.

I ran into the same problem with Starwood properties. Perth Sheraton doesn't release its rooms for SALE, or anything else, until about 3 months in advance. Very annoying.

I have found that most Marriott properties are pretty good about having their inventory available 11 months out. Obvious the OP appears to have found an exception. I would recommend to the OP that he/she check every Sunday evening/Monday morning as that is when new weeks are released in Marriott's reservation system and I would assume new inventory is also added. They run this update sometime on Sunday so my success varies from sometime on Sunday, to Monday morning when updates are always available.

After further investigation I am not sure this is a case of inventory not being made available, or perhaps the hotel is sold out or possibly contracted to a company/organization for this event. The reason being is that when I checked various dates I found that I am able to book the dates of Aug 26 - Sept. 1 and Sept 4-5 and later dates, but am NOT able to book any of the dates of Sept 1-4 even with my Plat 48-hour guarantee. I left the previous paragraph as is, in the event there is something of use there, despite information in this paragraph contradicting that paragraph.

At any rate, good luck with landing your desired dates.

I have never had problem getting rooms anywhere -
Yes, sometimes I have to use a stay anytime reward but so what.

My latest - Indianapolis for F1 weekend again.

Call the reward desk and ask for an anytime reward for Monday night.

Or just Book the room - the rate I am seeing is $144 a night and included tickets to the zoo. I would probably pay at that rate.

One of my biggest concerns when I started staying with Marriott, was that I might have trouble redeeming points for awards. I have been with SPG for about 8 years and with Hilton about 9 years and from my experience have never had a problem with SPG, ever. With Hilton I have had a few times been unable to redeem points for the dates I was looking for but nothing major. I have burned all my points with Marriott this year on future reservations for Xmas in NYC, for Rome Italy and for Capri, Italy. So I have been very happy with Marriott in regards to award redemption. Now I just need to get some more points.

It's not like your forced to earn the points!

Seriously, either go and use your American points (which is the reason why you keep earning points when you travel so that you can get free things) and stay at the Hilton, or do as the Marriott reservations suggest and keep calling until rooms are posted. I'm sure they will post eventually.

One can always choose to earn Airline miles instead of MR pts. But tehm no bonus miles cause of status and Yep Good Luck finding a flight somewhere at teh 25k level. Yea maybe Alaska in the winter

Sorry you are having problems, but I have stayed in Hawaii, London, Paris, DC, Orlando, SFran, San Diego, Hilton Head, etc., without the first problem using points.

For some properties I book ahead. I understand this.

However, overall, Marriott is easy to deal with and using their points is not a problem. Plus, the product they sell is very good.

With proper advance planning I have had very few problems booking award stays over the years including my fifth one week stay at the Paris Champs Elysees facility coming up next May. Start planning early and good luck.

I am a bit confused about udhorky's original post.

I assume the discussion is about Labor Day in 2006?

I went over to Marriott.com. For the days just before Labor Day 2006, it was offering standard rewards for standard rooms at the Marriott Cincinnati Riverview (in Covington).

For Labor Day, awards weren't available. The rate offered was "WEBN/TOYOTA 2005 RIVERFEST WEEKEND $179.00 USD"

The hotel sounds like it has been blacked-out on that date. (And like the Times Square hotels in NYC in Christmas, will probably always be blacked-out.)

As to the question about "why do I earn these points", the answer is obvious. To get free stuff.

You need to carefully examine your needs and compare them to the features available in the program you want to use, and then use that program. If Marriott Rewards (which uses black-out dates and availability restrictions), does not meet your needs in getting free stuff, then you need another program.

at which point, the OP can use points for a free stay before or after Labor Day, and pay for the one night that isn't available as a free stay...I have done that before at the Renaissance Chicago downtown.

Yes. Marriott.com is a little inflexible that way. If one of the nights you are booking is blacked-out for awards, it won't offer any of the nights you are asking for on awards.

You can mess around with multiple reservations online, but if you call up reservations itself, they can make one reservation where some of the nights are on awards and some of the nights are for payment.