I get a travel industry publication & the latest issue mentioned the corps are near the end of the negotiating timeframe for '07 (if not already done) with the hotels & negotiated rates pretty much across the board are going up. Think the average was 7%, but the article mentioned 3%-15%. Lot of corp buyers are not happy campers at the moment.

The sticky in the Marriott forum is still valuable in that in addition to all the corp codes it has a lot of publicly-available codes/promos (Canada, London area-hotels, culture package/discover Europe, Escape, Love you, etc, etc, etc) as well. I'm never going to remember them all, so speaking only for myself I'd like to see the sticky stay open.

I always thought the government rate was the least likely to be 'fenced' because that was the one that most chains did require someone to show i.d. on a regular basis. From the thread here it sounds like the opposite.

As a consultant I'll occasionally pick up the dif in room rates if it's over what my client is paying in order to stay at a Marriott or Hilton, but that's pretty rare. Sure I can write it off on my taxes, but it means less income for me.

Cheers.

You do realize hotels have not kept pace with inflation, infact even without inflation taken into account they are just now regaining pre-9/11 levels

FYI Fedrooms as you state is a program, an expensive one at that - while the end user (guest) pays the local per diem the net rate is discounted below that to fund the program (there are additional factors that cause the cost of the program to be too great for many hotels to choose to participate)

Often, one can rent a timeshare from an owner for far less than a hotel room, even with Marriott, and get a full-on condo vs a cubicle. In areas where Marriott has both (timeshares and hotels), I suggest people check it out, even if they have to throw away a couple days. I've seen people rent out their Marriott's last minute for essentially MF's, which for us run about 120.00 per night. Not bad for a 2 BR condo in Newport Beach ;)

We don't offer a government rate, however we do take Paypal :D

Pat

What's this VIP card, and where can I get one? I want to feel important too! :D

Indeed. My company ID has no name on it other than my own.

Ditto. So which "company" do I give them -- the end client, the prime contractor we're going through to get to the end client, or my own company? Normally I give them the name of whatever company I booked the rate under, either the end client or the prime contractor's negotiated rate. I sometimes have ID for the end client, but rarely for the prime contractor since I'm just a sub...

This could get rediculous fast.

Socrates & others, that's a good example of why 'the best of intentions' will not work - and may drive folk to other chains. I GET why Marriott wants to avoid 'fence/fraud', but the reality is there are a lot of folk who ARE entitled to the 'discounts' (pre or post-inflation) who may or may not have id w/ them.

So you Marriott can say yeah, get the id from the co & contractor or sub-contractors - or they customer can just say, hey hilton, *wood, yada, yaya doesn't make this a hassle, let's just stay at them instead of marriott (and yes socrates that CAN happen & those legit folk Marriott loses).

My personal belief is that the 'fencing' isn't as big or large a force quite frankly as has been intimiated on this thread & is being simply because the sticky exists/we talk about it.

Are FTers the only ones thinking of alterante codes? Probably not. Are there a gazillion others? Probably not. I still think the folk looking for codes for Marriott are looking because they want to STAY at a Marriott, so it's income to Marriott.

BTW - I'm NOT saying go for the codes, but personally I just don't think it's this big huge drain on Marriott that has been described in these draconian ways & in some ways is more of an incentive.

But then again, I can count on 2 fingers how many non-FT friends I have who actually read the Marriott forum, much less would think of booking the codes.

And let's get back to reality - for those who post on FT legitimate stuff I can count on lots more fingers (or in the hundreds & thousands) those who are entitled to bennies/etc who truly have no clue they're entitled to it, so it truly evens out.

Heck I used to be that way when I was in corp America! Literally other than looking at the rate that I booked, neither I nor the check-in clerk did more more than that. Forget that upgrade stuff.

Cheers.



Cheers.

Here is where it becomes confusing, the travel manager is the only person who negotiates the rate with the hotel but an individual believes they have the authority to modify what has been agreed upon and who may use a rate. Often times individuals believe they are within their own authority to extend an organizations rate to contractors or people "just visiting," (of course none of this really matters if ID is never asked for) With a fixed inventory the economics are different, More is not better - an increasing number of rooms sold at a discount could harm the travel managers ability to leverage.

...and in all cases, I'm following the corporate travel policy of the company I'm working for (client) or representing (prime contractor). Whoever pays my expenses gets to dictate the terms of my travel such as which hotels they'll reimburse for, how much, etc. Not everyone is out to rip you off, Socrates.

While we can attempt to put the PC spin on this to appease us FTers, the bottom line is that Marriott is choosing to do this now because it wants to sell rooms at higher prices. At the same time it needs to walk a fine line and not alienate its corporate and government clients. Well I see a few things in this action:

1. If it was 2002 and rooms were empty Marriott would not be doing this, they would be begging for you to stay at their hotels at any rate. Like Vail Marriott during ski season for $115/night, now it is going for $459+/night and there are no government rates available as there were 3 years ago.

2. Marriott is still not offering government per diem rates in some cases(Cincinnati example in previous post) but requires government ID and use of Government credit card. Well guess what, no government employee is going to stay there because they are not per diem rates. But that is by design because this hotel does not want to sell any rooms at per diem rates, so it can sell higher priced rooms to its corporate or non-affiliated customers.

3. This is strictly a bottom line business decision. Putting a spin on it to make it sound noble or ethically acceptable is BS. And on the other side, making it out as Marriott trying to shaft us is not a valid spin either. Granted it may be the end result, but Marriott is just making what it thinks is a good business decisions. Is it greed, one could argue it is. But the same argument could be used with respect to those of us that are selling real estate at 200% above what we bought it for 5 years ago.

Now each decision Marriott makes will lose or gain customers. Yes, and there may be some of us who defect to the competition. The only problem there is that the only competition that we can defect to are hotel chains that are not running at full occupancy and then one must ask, "Why is that?". Kind of a scary thought IMO. I rarely use government rates but when I do it is because that client is government. I will deal with these situations on a 1 on 1 basis when that time comes. Right now that is not a factor. If it means staying at Courtyard instead of the FS Marriott/Ren, or staying at Hilton instead then so be it.

I guess I just don't see what the big issue here is. For years (around a decade now), I have used various corporate and other (including the TVL) codes. After I make the reservation, I call the hotel and talk with either a manager or someone in their reservations dept. I let them know who I am, why I am using that code and ask if there will be any issues (i.e. is it OK?, do I need any special ids?, etc.) And in years of doing this, only once or twice has a hotel had any issues with a rate. No, problem, I called the client back, let them know, and they had no issues with me staying somewhere else or using a higher rate.

My motto has always been, if in doubt, just ask the hotel. And after talking with them, I'm pretty sure there have been a time or two that I was allowed to use a rate that based of the terms, I shouldn't have used, but they let me anyway. Probably because I actually talked with them first rather than try to "slide" it past them. This only takes a couple of minutes of time, and can save a whole lot of problems on the back-end. (Plus it has the added benefit of letting me talk with the manager before I get there. I have had some stays where the manager I talked with must have put some note into the reservation giving me an upgrade or full b-fast or something. All, just because I took the time to call and talk with them first.)

Me too. It's amazing how many questions posted on our board could be answered quickly and authoritatively by simply doing this. The reason some folks don't, of course, is that they would rather gamble on their own favorable interpretation of the rules, then take a chance that the property might have a different view.

If such questions would be answered accurately in a few minutes, I'd be right there with you. My last three experiences with humans at Marriott have indicated other, both with regards to accuracy and time. Sorry to say. I am curious how someone can so easily talk to the GM with regards to something as mundane as a room upgrade. I have had a hard time getting to a GM, even with a substantial issue in-house. Maybe those who enjoy such easy access could give us a class on achieving it :)

My main reason for attempting to verify issues independently is because experience has taught me that hotel employees, like many businesspeople in general, lie when it suits them. Not an indictment, just reality.

Pat

I've never called manager in advance, probably because I was entitled to rate as employee or my clients said to use the rate & I assumed they wouldn't do so unless it was alright to do so, or I met the qualifications of the rate otherwise (AAA, wknd rate).

hhoope01, are you saying you call the hotel mgr or res dept each time you make a reservation using a code? I'm a bit confused on that part.

ohmark, we've all had examples in hotels and airlines & car rentals where employees don't know rules, rates, etc, and FTers actually know more than they do (BB, B1G1 are examples), so I wouldn't say the reason people post on FT is to get back-up for their own shady interpretations (although there are some of course, and maybe more FTers than the general traveling corp or leisure public ;) ).

My experiences with Marriott have been for the most part quite pleasant, but like camachinist has said, sometimes employees do the convenient thing rather than the right thing or make customers jump through hoops to get something corrected.

Cheers.