Some companies do negotiate contractors into their agreements, most don't

As a consultant who works for many companies, my clients often request (or demand) that I book at their corporate rate. I pay my own bills but am usually reimbursed by the client. And no, my clients don't ever seem to know the rate code.

All that being said, it's very easy to make the reservation over the phone by simply calling Marriott and asking for the corporate rate for "X" corporation. I have never had any difficulty doing this at any time.

So really, I have to agree that there is no overwhelmingly strong reason why we need a list of all corporate rate codes.

Forgetting the reason for the list of codes, I've always thought FT was somewhat operated for the benefit of its members generally (OK, I know Randy sold advertising and hopefully made a profit) as opposed to a particular travel provider or particular individuals using the board.

Taking this post down shows that's simply not true. What's next? If I have a bad experience at a hotel and want to post it here, will MR insist FT take the post down?

Sorry but I do disagree with You. sometimes I might be at more then 1 Company in any day, so Id like to check out what it will be for both of them. Also not every Hotel offers the corp rate each and everyday. Also say I need to be LA and Anaheim in the same day , I might find something abit East or South of Anaheim that is much cheaper so I will go there and then do LA later in the day. Its kind of like trying to work out your flights to different cities and you play (or at least I most certainly do) with the order and days I fly where depending on if I can swing a cheaper fare, at times I'll change the days cause a car rental isnt available or would be like $90 aday for a compact B4 txs and fees. Over a course of any given year it saves me $1000s.

So by me being able to see whats what it allows me to keep a better control on things. the last thing I want is to be on the phone with some rep that will look at a particiular city or even say for a radius 40 miles, but at times Id rather not always take the cheapest place , it depends on the difference in rates , type of brand of MR etc etc. I like to have control over what I do, and therefore prefer to do teh leg-work myself rather then having to ask the rep can you go back to XYZ and tell me again whats what . Its all in front of me on the computer

Yes, Im fully aware that there changes every year. Just that EVERYONE this year had more sweeping changes then every before, that affected most of their Props.

As I posted a few times already all that Im about is that MR didnt send up a Warning flag the way SPG did. I posted then and will again, Im 99.999% sure I would NOT have cashed out for a cert for any particular property regardless. It just tells me that MR doesnt care about me, the way SPG or HH does about their Members! since they did warn when they knew that a massive Devaluation was going to take place, or a new higher Cat was going to be put into place.

Whenever we are gonna be raising our prices we notify our clients, and let them know that as of XX/XX/XX their will be a price increase any goods that we have on hand till then if ordered by then will be maintained at the lower price, unless we run out of an item. We dont have to say anything to anyone after all, a smart client will load up before the increase so that they wont need some items for sometime into the future. Heck we can keep quiet and then sell them the items at a higher price even thou we paid the old price ourselves , thusly increasing our bottom line.

Its all how one sees their Customers and what type of relationship one wants with them. It seems MR is today simply trying to whats in its OWN best interests w/o any care or worry about its Customer Base

Marriott has basically little defense of anything they do these days; pretty much it all in someway shape or form is out to screw the customer

Someone PM'ed me today that it was Randy who had decided to take the thread down to avoid adverse action and that he (Randy) would issue a statement later about this.

well you definitely know more about this than I do

Was Randy the one who Deleted the new thread that was started I think yesterday or the day before that had relisted the Codes?

the question is "who got to Randy?" after all that Code Thread wasnt started just this past month, but was yrs old and we never had a problem with it.

Would the Marriott rep who initiated this action please identify yourself and explain why you requested a sudden and complete removal of the aforementioned thread?

Also, I would like to see Marriott provide some special FlyerTalk member rates (perhaps access limited to those who have met the same requirements for access to the Coupon Connection) - many of us provide your company with more business as a result of what we have learned about Marriott through this website as well as increased business and leisure travel generated by our participation in FlyerTalk.

I like the idea of showing my FT post count to a Marriott desk clerk!

...And it had better be a cheap rate, too. Since it won't be publicly-available, it'll have to be low enough to make it worthwhile for us to leave our BB's and PP's at home.



In all seriousness: since this is a moderated forum, why not revive the sticky thread, cleanse the truly corporate (restricted) codes, and use it as a forum to discuss publicly-available promotional codes and those that are attached to membership organizations that the public can join?

Since we have both moderators and official Marriott lurkers here, it shouldn't be too difficult to (a) post the ground rules for the thread, and (b) moderate it when someone posts a private code.

I got a lot of value out of the original thread - entirely from using codes that I was entitled to use.

Like this guy is going to come out from under his rock.. I don't think so

I'm sure we will see them or some MR reps at the Freddies

finally since MR is taking the competitive advantage of alienating their customers why would they provide something that its consumers could use???

I have a better idea. Why don't we have Marriott go work on their web site and get it working properly, and leave us alone over here?

From what I have seen the only action taken by Marriott with respect to comments/postings made here on FT have been to our disadvantage. They are probably admonishing hotels that are reported to have honored MIL/GOV rates without IDs in order to make sure Gov. Contractors get the shaft.

They have done nothing with regard to the lack of Stay Almost Anytime if We Decide to Let You awards that are not available at hotels with Standard rooms available for sale (Vail Marriott to be one) and it has been close to 6 weeks, a month and a half, since it was brought to their attention.

They have done nothing with regard to paid room inventory availability at Orlando (past Jan 5 2008) and Breckenridge Past Dec 20 2007). Although the Orlando JW hotel personnel said their final decisions on inventory availability and pricing would be made on April 20 (today) and inventory would be available on Monday April 23. We will see.

Bottom line, Marriott really doesn't care unless it affects their bottom line directly. If we start walking to the competition they will take notice, but my guess is they believe we won't. Perhaps true, but I don't have to help them by providing new ideas on ways I can bend over. I cancelled bookings in CUR, EZE, SCL, HKG, and SYD so I have done my part. I did keep a few Marriott reservations where there were no other reasonable choices.

I suggest: anything that might give them ideas on how else they can devalue the MR program, codes, who accepts them, good prices, etc. be taken underground and handled between PMs or emails. I for one have been making a concerted effort to not post anything that will give them ideas.

Here are a few things I will post that I am not happy with and they can improve:

1. 50%-200% increase in hotel prices in the last couple years
2. Lack of inventory at many hotels in order to book at the 50 week window (now 37 week window for Orlando JW)
3. Failure to enforce Stay Anytime policy at their hotels.

Note that there are numerous Marriott employees lurking on this forum and you should know who they are. If you don't then PM one of the long time posters here and that can be discussed offline.

The information that I have is from a third party and not directly from Randy or InternetBrands. I would like to have either of the parties to come out and explain why having this information on FT is bad.

If the Marriott thread is removed what about other promotional threads on ALL FT forums i.e. car rental discount codes, targeted Hilton/Marriott/IC/Hyatt promotions, all various airline promotions? Are they all going to be removed as well?

"some other threads were affected due to wide publicity and adverse reactions"

How about we make the thread that aaupgrade started on the lack of award availability a sticky? I am starting to run out of patience as well with the lack of results from our complaints on award inventory.

I agree with pinniped that there should be a sticky thread on publicly available discount and promotional codes. All the thread would be is a central area listing every promotion available.