And not Ren FS?

Nice, and fair, response from the GM.

Thank you, that's really my point.

I ended up using it at a different (more expensive) hotel when I checked out of that CY. I asked the front desk to fax me the coupon so I could send it to Corporate and suggest they change the wording (I actually told them that's why I wanted them to fax it to me, and that's what I ended up doing).

They voided it before they faxed it.

I agree with you... but the verbiage of this one is different from the other $100 ones. The fact the verbiage changes from coupon to coupon is the reason they need to remove ambiguity from these things. I think they're getting a little too cute with them.

Agreed. It was a good Customer Service move, he wasn't legally/contractually obligated to do much of anything, as it's my word against theirs... he could have "given me squat" as someone else suggested above.

Your tone suggests one of the possible causes of this situation.

I agree and I've seen and used a bunch of BBs.

It's time for Marriott to rename their brand/product lines. Those of us who've learned these lessons the hard way know that "Marriott Hotels & Resorts" and "Renaissance Hotels & Resorts" apply only to the FS properties. "Courtyard by Marriott", "Fairfield Inn by Marriott", and all the others do not fall under the same umbrella. While the novice traveler may understandably think that any hotel with the word "Marriott" in it would be considered part of "Marriott Hotels & Resorts", most are not.

Particularly frustrating to me are the policies that do not apply to resorts, so you get weird language like "Available at all Marriott Hotels & Resorts worldwide (does not apply to resorts)".

In this case apparently even Marriott's own reservationist was unable to make the distinction. I'm just glad that the OP is happy with the end resolution and that hopefully more travelers reading this will learn his lesson.

I agree with most of the comments so far and thought that the op just did not read the T&C on the offer. After looking at the certificate I think there are 3 issues that clearly put the blame back on Marriott.

First, the op called the BB reservation number and they accepted his reservation. They could have avoided this whole mess by telling the op that this BB was not good at CY properties.

Second, the front desk person accepted the certificate at check in and had they known the rules and denied the certificate this could have been avoided again.

Lastly, and most important is the wording on the certificate. On the back it says "For a complete list of participating properties visit marriott.com/hotel-search.mi. When you go to this address you go to the general search page that shows every Marriott property worldwide across all brands. If this is the COMPLETE list of PARTICIPATING properties then this is clearly an error on Marriott.

Aren't these promotions supposed to make us stay at Marriotts more often and not frustrate us to the point of wanting to go somewhere else or just stay home. How come we as the consumer have to police these offers to the point of informing employees of how to handle a particular offer. How many times has someone had trouble with an EEO certificate. I have read that people have to print 2 and 3 certificates because they end up getting lost between check in and check out.

Marriott needs to make these offers simpler to fulfill and train their employees better so that we get clear answers across the board.

I say the op did everything right and there were ample opportunities to stop this before the guest got to the hotel. Remember, we are guests and should be treated as such.

Sarcasm ("I wouldn't have given you squat") begets sarcasm.

Also: many on FT are extremely quick to blame the traveler and defend the airline/hotel, even when the facts overwhelmingly support the customer's complaint.

Your comment is the latest exhibit.

You're correct. I even could have been lying about every other fact -- the fact that Courtyards are listed on the web site showing the "complete list of participating properties" shows the genuine confusion these BB coupons cause.

I am happy with the resolution, and I agree 100% with what you're saying. They need to make this clearer and really hope they will do so. They're doing themselves and us a disservice.

If I were running Marriott, I think I would ultimately stop making a distinction between different brands for the sake of BB. They really push the fact CY/FI/SHS are "Marriott" brands in advertisements. They're trying to have it both ways. Besides the fact it's confusing, it's also nonsensical when you think about it.

I've stayed at the Jacksonville Marriott for $69/night fairly recently.

That Jersey City Courtyard was $179/night, and if you try to stay there later this summer, I see $300/night rates. That is more than most (if not nearly all) FS Marriotts. And it's not just NYC... the South Beach CY... Residence Inn at Times Square... hell, even the Jacksonville Beach CY is consistently more expensive than the Jacksonville Marriott.

Yet they are giving customers an incentive to stay away from these properties in favor of FS. The more you think about it, the more arbitrary and lose-lose the restriction appears.

I've used a ton of BBs over the years (with a preference toward Premium Pounds).
In the past, the 100 dollar BBs have only been good at FS properties (JW, Marriott, Ren). The ones good at all properties have had lower values.

The latest batch of BBs are even more restrictive. The OP got his BB at a Marriott and is only good at Marriotts. I got one of those and used it at a FS Marriott because I was aware that it was more restrictive.
I can't confirm but I think that JW issued BBs only good for JW, Ren issued BBs only good for Rens, etc. I suspect that this program will be short lived.
This was probably an expansion of the FI BBs which were received for FI stays and only good for your next FI stay.

Marriott's gotten a lot tighter on the BBs lately. That's a big disappointment to me; BBs are a major savings.

I have no problem (dont like it but no problem) if Marriott decides that the BB earned can Only be used at the type of Hotel it was earned at. But If they are gonna change the T&Cs they should be Specific about it since most everyone is used to the old T&Cs. And the old BBs specified which Hotels it was good at , by having Printed Marriott Hotels & .... and by leaving out "Only" as I said already I thought the OPs BB was good at any type of Property, yes a deviation from what was, but then again it being good only @ "Marriotts" is a diviation as well

I would assume had the OP presented their BB at a Renaissance they would have ran into the same problem, not accepted since it wasnt a "Marriott" that they were staying at

You bring up a good point. "At any FI worldwide" or "Any Renaissance Hotel worldwide" is not confusing.

"Any Marriott Hotel or Resort worldwide" on the other hand, is confusing if they're using that term to restrict usage to a single subset under the Marriott umbrella.

yep and it pretains only to a Marriott Hotel out of all the different types , then it also depends if they want to include the JWs as well or did they mean just Marriott. For just Marriott it should read "At any Marriott Hotel" then an * s/b in place to indicate that no other type is included

Exactly. Clause #1 on the back of the old coupons clearly excluded CY, FI, SH, etc. They removed the clarification/restriction in these BB coupons.