Was wondering if any others have had problems using their rewards points? Situation: At the silver level, I've been saving my points for use this summer with my daughter's travel softball team. The team mom had already reserved the rooms for each team family to book against. When I called to book my room, I was told (and very rudely) that the hotel (Bloomington, Indiana) Courtyard was booked up and that I could not use my points. I was told, and I quote, "Do you think we would let you use points when we could get $300 instead." I talked to 3 others at Marriott, including a Rewards designee and a Customer Service Supervisor and was basically told the same thing. Sounds like the use of reward points are solely at the discretion of Marriott. Just wondered what experiences others have had when using points for hotel stays. Is the only way to use them to book months in advance?

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Virtually all awards are now capacity controlled, whether or not they call it that. It doesn't always make me happy, but that doesn't really matter.

The first answer to your question is: "Yes, it is easy to use awards, but not if you are going to the same place that everyone else wants to go."

The second answer (which should help you more than the first) is: "The internet is your friend. Go to the Marriott website and use the tools. They have excellent tools (IMHO - better than many other companies) to allow you to find which hotels in an area have award availability, which are discounted versus more expensive (less controlled) awards, which one or two days you might need a paid stay instead of an award."

It doesn't sound like you have much experience with reward points. The rooms/seats/etc. are always at the discretion of the company and they usually only allow a certain amount of their product to be redeemed with reward points.

Unless the hotel is completely sold or you don't have enough points, you should be able to redeem stay anytime award, which cost an additional 50% more points to book.

Sorry, but other than the attitude you suggest was there with your discussions with Marriott (which I have never encountered), Marriott has done nothing wrong. We can be very helpful on this board if you provide us with dates/locations in perhaps finding availability.

The clerk's attitude and quoted response to you was unfortunate, unacceptable, and very un-Marriott like. Most, but not all, hotel reward programs are capacity controlled, just like airline frequent flyer miles. As has been suggested, utilizing some of the tools at marriott.com may help you find available dates at properties you want, even the one you previously tried. Some properties require award reservations almost a year in advance. Sometimes properties open up at the last minute when they discover they have unsold inventory.

If he's coming to Bloomington for the big softball tournament, every hotel/motel room in the city will probably be booked. I don't see the chances of an award stay as very good...

The Courtyard is a decent property (one of the better hotels in Bloomington) and is walking distance to the restaurants downtown (mostly concentrated within a few block area starting ~3 blocks from the hotel).

jon

First of all welcome to FT!

Two separate issues here: 1) There is never an excuse for rudeness. 2) If they have no rooms there is no way they can provide you or anybody else a room for $ or an award stay. The only ones getting rooms are those that already have reservations.

In your particular case, "NO", as they have no rooms available for anybody. However in most case, "YES", you are absolutely correct the use of reward points is solely at the discretion of Marriott. Now for more details.

There are two types of awards a Standard Award and a Stay Anytime Award. The ways these work:

Standard Award: These are capacity controlled. For popular hotels or popular times and/or events at not necessarily popular hotels these awards will be difficult to find and must be booked way in advance. Popular hotel examples include Category 7 hotels in Europe (London and Paris predominantly). Popular events would include Kentucky Derby, Fourth of July in many places (especially with views of fireworks), etc. Vail, CO during ski season. In all these cases there are a limited number of standard awards, or in some cases no standard awards (Vail, CO during peak ski season mid-Feb through March). It is, as you surmised, solely at the discretion of Marriott and the particular property. Standard Hotel Category Chart found here.

Stay Anytime Awards: These awards require a 50% point premium over the Standard award. Stay Anytime Award Chart found here. The only stipulation for using this award is that the hotel has a standard quality room available for sale, then you can book it using a Stay Anytime award. An added benefit is that Stay Anytime awards generally include breakfast for two.

For Standard Awards you will need to book them well in advance, or stay at a property with a surplus of available rooms.

Unfortunately it does not appear that any of the above cases are applicable to the hotel at which you wish to stay as they are all booked up. Take it as a lesson learned and book well in advance next time. BTW, quite often "well in advance" means up to 11 months in advance for very popular properties or periods/events. If you know that the whole team will be staying at a particular property, you will always want to book your award stay before the hotel finds out because once they book a good percentage of rooms, then standard award availability will probably disappear. This is a whole supply and demand thing.

The Courtyard in Bloomington is the only midrange chain hotel in Bloomington. A high rack rate during special events occurs because the supply of hotel rooms is constrained. If your daughter's game is in the middle of the week, demand from business travelers and the expected softball families will be enough to support much higher room rates.

Sometimes, awards open up when other people cancel their reward reservations. You can find out by checking online for award availability. Hotels have capacity limits for awards as well as promotional rates. Areas with lots of Marriott hotels (i.e. the DC area) have a greater number of rooms available for reward redemption. In this case, it is easier to make an award reservation at the last minute.

One more tip: You can make an award reservation before you have the points to pay for it. To do this, you would click that you already have an award certificate while making the award reservation online. Then, you would not have the points deducted from your account when the reservation is made. You can order the award certificate later as long as you have the points by the day of the reservation. This lets you lock in the award before they are gone.

The main problem I see with the OP's situation is that someone else for the team booked a block of rooms, in advance, thus taking availability out of inventory. Then the OP wanted to use the points as currency. I was told a few months ago that affiliate hotels are contractually bound to provide a certain number of reward rooms (although I'm sure it varies by day, week time of year, etc and is based on some type of statistical formula most likely looking at past occupancy rates.) I had asked about this because I couldn't get a government rate but I could get a standard reward room using points, which didn't make much sense to me at the time. If the OP's team booked a block of rooms, the availability of reward rooms would probably decrease, and if the hotel is sold out (no availability, stay anytime rewards aren't even a possibility.)

I also know by experience, if Bloomington has any events happening which requires hotel stays, it books very quickly. I've often had to stay in Bedford (a 30 minute drive south, or Indianapolis a 60 minute drive north when rates were at a premium in Bloomington due to events.) And a $300 rate in Bloomington, I bet more than one event was happening locally.

Bingo. Next year book your room before the team parent books a big block.

Problem is that the team must first qualify in a local/regional tournament. You don't know a year in advance. I'd expect few travelers do, other than those that are planning a 2nd honey moon or week to Hawaii. Don't blame this on the team or the team mom.

Wonder what the tax rules/liability are for Marriott given the restricted use mandated by the corporation.

First of all, Bloomington, IN sounds a bit like several of the college towns in the Midwest in terms of its hotel market. We're talking Courtyards and HGI's at the high end, with lots of Best Westerns, Ramadas, Super 8's, etc. Or perhaps a couple of non-major-chain hotels that are nice, with all of the 2.5* chain hotels filling out the market. Having stayed in Columbia, Champaign, South Bend, Peoria, West Lafayette, and Iowa City in the past, this sounds totally familiar.

The catch is this: 90% of the time, these hotels are low-yield as compared to the average Courtyard, HGI, etc. nationally. Then, 10% of the time, the entire city is overwhelmed with travelers for a major event, so they are going to jam you up while they can. So forget about using points and, in general, forget about expecting any type of "favors" or other nice treatment from the hotels. I recall staying in West Lafayette at some dumpy motel down the street from the football stadium and paying $100 per night - cash only. This was a place that had a "$24.99!" sign on the lawn and usually took MC/Visa. But for a football weekend, the proprietor jacked rates 4x and probably decided to cut the State of Indiana and the IRS out of the loop.

So don't expect to use points. In fact, don't get your hopes up on a Stay Anytime award. It would not surprise me if they somehow blocked the use of those awards.

In general, I can't bring myself to pay $200-300/nt. for a hotel in a Midwest college town. If I'm going to a football game or whatever, I either find a 2* fleabag that isn't marking up rates, or I find a small town 30-45 minutes away and stay in a decent hotel there. I hate feeling like I'm getting gouged.

Hopefully your group block was booked at a rate that isn't a thorough shafting. Either decide to pay that rate, or succumb to a bit of a drive from a neighboring town to get to your softball games. Your Marriott points will pay off later when you do a stay more suitable for their use. You mentioned Hawaii: I've always found fair availability for Marriott hotels there, and have done 2 weeklong award stays using points on different islands.

Welcome to FT, by the way...

True, but if it appears your daughter's team might be in the running, then book a room, as far out in advance as you can. If they don't qualify- cancel the reservation.

No one to blame. Not you, the team mom, or Marriott.

Most Marriott hotel reservations allow you to cancel either the day of the reservation or a few days earlier without any penalty (places with high demand, i.e. Times Square on New Year's eve being clear exceptions).

Since you only need a credit card to hold the reservation, booking a room in advance would be the way to go. You do not have to pay in advance, like airline tickets, for hotel reservations in general.

Sadly, pinniped is right about how hotels in college towns that can support only a few mid-range properties. The hotel is probably going to earn in the high demand periods about half of their yearly profit.

I have personally experienced situations where hotels have rooms available for sale at rack rates, but no "stay anytime award" availability. I too, was originally under the impression that as long as the hotel had standard rooms available for sale, you could get one as long as you didn't mind having to pony up the extra points. Apparently, in actual practice, this is not the case, or not always the case.....even for platinums.

As for the OP, I'm sympathetic to the frustration he must feel. $300 per night seems extreme and unfair...regardless of market situation, etc. Rudeness is also inexcusable and very un-Marriott like.

But the main issue brought up here was points redemption. In this regard, I don't feel Marriott or the hotel has done anything wrong. Others have offered good explanations as to why the lack of availability exists and have offered excellent suggestions for dealing with similar situations in the future.

As for the matter of "not knowing which teams will be in the tournament". No, you can't blame the individual teams/team moms, etc for gobbling up the rooms. But the liklihood is that event organizers reserved a block of rooms for participating teams use. Overlay the possibility of another event or events going on in town, coupled with the regular compliment of business travellers, and its easy to understand how the hotel finds itself in an extremely tight, if not impossible, availability situation.