I had the same poor exchange rate last week at The Marriott Chateau Champlain. The rate was 20% less than the bank rate. :td:

Be sure to check your points as well. They messed up the CAD to USD conversion and I needed to contact Marriott to add my missing points.

I had the same situation at the Marriott at Camden Yards in Baltimore, they ran out of the BB and promised to mail. We did eventually receive, but it took a very long time. It was not so easy to just believe that they would mail them, we were quite skeptical. How would they remember to do it? Why would they remember to do it? But luckily we did eventually get them.

Marriott Crack Down? - PP & BB's
 

Heard a co-worker who regularly buys Premium Pounds and Bonus Bucks griping because it appears Marriott is clamping down on the supply. I asked him to forward the response he got and here it is.

So, I guess they finally decided to deal with the ebayer's etc. I wondered how long they could let it go as it was.

(Although I will admitt that I was trying to get a P.P. for a weekend stay when I stumbled across this.)

yeah, this seems to be a developing issue. Ebay is a pretty good indicator and, if you check, you notice that the price of certificates has gone up pretty dramatically

This might explain why a lot of hotels started running out of bonus bucks starting in the beginning of January.

When a property orders gift certificates or bonus bucks they choose how fast they recieve them from Salt Lake City.

I'm surprised Marriott would crack down on the supply - I always thought of them as a nice teaser to get me to do a qualifying two-night stay (which is almost always a "buy up" from the lowest available rate.)

There still seem to be plenty of them on eBay. I just assumed that the price was going up a bit as the exchange rate makes them more valuable. A year ago, with the pound sitting at around 1.75, one could "save" about $120 by buying a PP (that is, they seemed to trade in the $50's). Now the pound is at $1.98 - the eBay price for a PP is $75 or so - that $120-ish "savings" is still in place.

(The $120 figure doesn't include the difference between a qualifying rate and the best corporate, membership, etc. rate you could otherwise apply to the stay. That varies widely and can significantly reduce the value of a PP.)

I've heard that Marriott has a few spies on E-bay that buy BB's and PP's. They then can track the source where they originally came from. My supplier has gotten into a little bit of trouble with this and will not sell to folks that are going to be selling these on Ebay. And, the prices for the PP's have gone up $10 in the last few weeks. Also, the BB's have been on backorder for about a month.

Where do you suppose your "supplier" is getting these certificates? Sounds to me it's "suppliers" like this that are causing the problems.

This supplier buys them directly from Marriott. This person runs a travel company. Marriott will sell them to businesses to use as incentives for employees.

The price difference isn't between last year and this year, but rather between say a month ago and now. Your argument is cogent otherwise, but market forces would have increased the price a while ago if that was the cause.

OK...fair enough...I haven't looked on eBay in a long time and just took a cursory look at open auctions today after reading this thread.

So...perhaps Marriott made a move around the new year to bump up the upfront price they collect for these certificates? If I understand how this works right... Marriott corporate sells the certificates to pretty much anyone for, say, 20-30 cents on the dollar. (Whether they sell 'em, use 'em themselves, or give 'em away as incentives really doesn't matter.) When a certificate is used, the property sends it back through to corporate and gets paid something like 80 cents on the dollar for the face value of the certificate. (Some here have speculated that this might be a reason that some properties attempt to use disadvantageous exchange rates with people.) In exchange for that slight "hit", the property is getting a guest paying "qualifying" rates instead of lower corporate rates or other membership rates.

So, the property clearly is making money every time a PP is used. Worst case they might roughly break even on the rate paid (higher) and the corporate redemption rate (lower than face value); best case they're pulling in incremental business they wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

So that leaves Marriott corporate as having a cost associated with the program. Like any other marketing program designed to encourage incremental business, this is normal - but perhaps they've realized that the PP are VERY popular and the market will bear more money for them upfront.

Just putting various pieces together based on what I've read in the various threads here. Feel free to correct me if I've gotten any part of this process wrong.

yes, that makes sense. the way I look at it, this is basically a promotion. It entices people to stay and Marriott uses these certificates for a reason. One aspect is getting them to use qualifying rates, which as you argue, are probably higher than corporate rates.

The other aspect is the fact that I assume Marriott counts on the fact that most (or at least a lot) of the BB's/PP's will NOT be redeemed. What Ebay and selling BB's/PP's effectively do is increase the usage rate b/c the people that buy these certificates are going to use them with a very high degree of certainty. Therefore, this ends up costing Marriott more money. It may be that enough certificates are sold on Ebay to have a noticeable effect.

Marriott is also cracking down on the redemption of BB. They have added new conditions that are now reflected on the back. They are not suppose to be used with any rate that requires ID or special membership rates. Marriott has warned properties that they will not reimburse hotels that accept BB against rates that don't meet the T&C on the back.

As per my contact who buys BB from Marriott Incentives Dept. they have raised the wholesale prices of PP BB as of Jan 1 2007.