That's quite annoying. . . I can understand that they might run into some supply issues and if I didn't have an upcoming stay I wouldn't care (provided of course, that they did actually mail them and didn't "forget"). But if you have a stay coming up soon that you were going to use the BB for, you should stand firm and have the hotel work it out with corporate. Corporate should be able to fedex (or ups or whatever) the BB to the hotel or to you on their dime. They should bend over backwards and make the situation right.

IMHO if they would run out of BB's I would request them to take $100 off straight from the bill.

I've had this happen to me twice - and both times it was like pulling teeth to get them to send me my coupons.

From now on, I'm going to ask that they don't bill me $100 on my Visa until I receive my bonus buck or give me the credit right on the spot.

Billy

It's one thing if they know they are out of BB's - I've had that happen once, and the hotel made up for it by slipping a 2nd BB into the envelope.

But I've also run into properties that give a quizzical look and don't know they're supposed to have them. That's totally unacceptable and a complete internal breakdown in training process. I'm noticing a lot of little training process breakdowns lately - the HPR promotion, Bonus Bucks, currency conversions, what constitutes a prepaid package vs. a regular Marriott.com booking, etc.

Fortunately, I haven't had a case where I absolutely needed a BB on one stay to pay for a 2nd shortly thereafter. If I were in that situation, I'd explain it and I'd ask that one of the two hotels in question credit me $100 and not force me to be inconvenienced due to their internal problems.

Yes, but then you'll get people on this forum telling you that you forfeiting tons of points by having it taken off the bill. (i.e., 1000 for room + possible Marriott Visa, etc)

Well, you'd lose 1200-1300 points, depending on status, but you'd also save the taxes on $100. This assumes they post it as an adjustment, which they would probably do. In most markets, that's roughly an even trade. If they offered me a $100 adjustment instead of the paper hassle, I'd take it every time just to be done with it. (An enterprising sort might immediately jump online and procure another certificate through Coupon Connection or elsewhere, get it FedExed directly to the next hotel, and come out even farther ahead. @:-) )

I don't count the 500 Visa points because the end goal is to not earn those points. You want to pay $100 less - either here or there.

They could apply the $100 credit the same way they apply BB's to your folio. You should not be out the points because of the hotel's short-comings.

Exchange rates for BB, Giftcards and Marriott cheques
 

We just completed a stay at the Marriott Casa Magna Cancun, which as previous posters have described, is a nice property. The JW next door looked nicer but I digress.

Thought I would let you know as I was paying with my different freebies, that there was a discrepency and this may matter to some of you-if it hasn't been posted already.

The Bonus bucks went in as a normal exchage (10.87 pesos) as did the Marriott gift cheques but the Gift cards I had purchased last month only translated into a 10.00 rate. Not a lot of money but I found it odd and annoying.

Or just take $100 off the bill, and comp 1,000 points.

I have run across this problem in recent weeks at hotels in Northern Virginia. I always ask the front desk to hold the bonus bucks for me to pick them up.

After getting no callback from the manager last night, I went to have a chat this morning. I came away with the BBs... the story goes that they "arrived this morning". Fedex First or morning (possible... but would corp spend the extra money?). And they were delivered with an apology. Fairview Park has treated me very well in the past, so I'll give 'em a pass on this one.

Anyway, I got them for this stay, so all is well.

I still need to call Marriott Westfield about the $50 BB for Jan 1.

And as Pinniped noted, there was the incident in Va. Beach over the Holidays where they didn't even know they were supposed to have them. The manager has emailed me to tell me that she now has them and is sending the earned $50 one plus an additional $25 for my trouble. In the end, she did right by me, but I agree that the training could have been better.

Had the experience in N Pitts where they gave me two $50 coupons rather than then $100, so got only $50 off twice for Thu/Fri night stays. Then later at Suites Washington Dulles they couldn't get into the safe to get the coupons, mailed me two $50 coupons, I called to complain, they said keep those and then they send me a $100 coupon. That was nice.

Happened to me twice. Never received the certifs.

I'm going to be using the Vacation Card (similar to gift card) today when checking out in Sydney and will compare rates.

Pat

I would suggest two possibilities:

1. The "Gift Cards" are actually VISA stored value (pre-paid) cards denominated in dollars, so if you pay a bill stated in another currency using them, the conversion is done through the VISA system, just as though you had charged to a VISA credit card (at least as I understand). [Marriott is converting the Bonus Bucks and the Marriott Cheques themselves rather than through a bank, so they do not have to charge a fee, although some properties may charge the same fee as they would charge for a cash payment in dollars.] Since charge and credit cards usually charge a "fee" (usually 2% to 3%) for the conversion, the "net" you get from the card may show up as a lower conversion rate.

2. It may be that since the desk did not know how much the actual bank rate on the Gift Card conversion through VISA would be, they only charged a partial amount on the card. For instance, if they knew that $100 would usually convert on a daily bank rate to between 1050 and 1080 Pesos, they may have played it safe and only charged 1000 pesos against that Gift Card, just to make sure they didn't overcharge. If that's the case, you may still have some residual value on the Gift Card. You can check on this through the Marriott website.