Marriott St. Thomas - required upgrade fee on Standard Rom?
 

Hello:
I am trying to book a 7 night vacation in the Carribean for sometime this winter. I have a 7 night category 6 standard reward certificate from a travel package available. When I look for rooms, I am seeing what appears to be required upgrade fees on top of the reward certificate. For example., If I perform a search in Grand Cayman, I get a Category 6 standard reward available, however when I click on it, it says:

REWARDS STAY*Garden View at Morning Star*Upgrd Fee required. $90/NT 12/21-4/15/07*$60/NT 4/16-12/20/07*$100/nt 12/21-4/15'08
Marriott Rewards Redemption Available Extra hotel charges (meals,etc.) will be added to your credit card.

Does this mean that on top of the certificate that it will still cost an extra $630 to stay in a non-waterfront room in February? My husband is a Gold Elite member - does this matter? I am seeing similar 'rules' when I search Curacao, Grand Cayman and St. Kitts as well.

Thanks
Kathy

First, welcome to FT.

But the answer your question is, unfortunately, yes. A lot of the beach resort properties have several different room categories based on views, balconies, etc. If the hotel still had their base rooms available for rewards redemption, then you would have seen a reservation option without any "extra" charges. What this probably means is that they only have "upgraded" room available for rewards redemption.

You can check with the hotel and see if they will allow you to use reward points to upgrade. If so, these are usually 5K per upgrade level per night. So a 7 night stay would require another 35K points if your room is considered a one-category upgrade, 70K if a two-category upgrade, etc.

Also, you can always make the reservation now and keep checking to see if they release any "base" level rooms. Assuming the reservation allows you to cancel with no penalty, you can then make the new reservation and then cancel this first one. You will want to check the reservation cancellation policy because at resorts, they may be more restrictive than the normal 6:00pm day of arrival.

Another option is when you check-in, you can mention that you are a Gold member and see if they will waive the extra fee. But don't bet on that happening since your reservation states that you agreed to pay that extra fee. (What is interesting is that there may be other Gold/Plats who have already made reservations for the base level room and will ask for a comp upgrade and possibly get it when they check in. But of course, they didn't made their reservations earlier and got the cheaper room.)

I guess you can always try to contact the general manager of the hotel and see if s/he will do anything for you. It can't hurt to ask.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I must say that we were not crazy for the Marriott in St Thomas. We stayed at the Frenchman's Reef part (I think that's what it was called) which is right next door to the Morningside part of the resort. The beach was narrow and none too special. I really don't think it should be a Category 6, but that's just MHO.

Hhoope01 is 100% correct. I've gotten lucky twice. Once in Aruba by searching daily until a non-addon rate opened up with points, and once in Cancun by asking for waiver on fee at check-in. So, it does happen.

I have award reservations at the Frenchman's Reef and for the standard room there was no additional charge. We did elect to "upgrade" to an oceanview room for about $100. per night.

If you look at the rates for St. Thomas, the Morning Star facility is much more expensive than the Frenchman's Reef area. If there was availability at Frenchman's Reef it would not carry a charge. Remember, both are part of the same facility.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I have to say that I think it is a total ripoff for Marriot to charge additional fees (but I'm sure you all feel the same). I have found periodically that because my husband is a Gold Elite member that in the past, he hasn't been charged anything extra in terms of fees and still gets the upgrade. Hopefully we'll get lucky again. We are also looking at St. Kitts and Grand Cayman if anyone has any feedback on those locations..

Kathy