This has only happened to me once. I called MBS and they conferenced in the property's accounting department. In this case, the explanation was that because it was a period of extremely high demand (major music festival in the park immediately surrounding the hotel), and they were probably going to have to walk people, so they checked in all of the elite members' reservations that morning to ensure that elites got good rooms.

Fair enough explanation, I thought. They credited the charges with apologies, and in the end, I felt bad for screwing them by not cancelling earlier.

So, apparently a reservation record can remain accessible in Marriott's reservation system even after check-in and can be "negated" and a cancellation number issued.

IMO the OP should be off the hook and owed an apology and appropriate compensation (and a credit).

And, the folks in customer care inot taking into account that a cancellation had been processed (and the hotel being so obtuse as well), suggests that e for those who were so thick-headed as to dismiss so cavilerly what stood out so obviously as a component in the equation mandatory participation in an "Attitudes-101" refresher course.

Ok, I'm going to talk out of ignorance, but I have 2 properties that this has happened at. The explanation I have gotten is that PMS (Property Management System) does not interface with MARSHA (Marriotts Reservation System) in a LIVE fashion. It downloads batches, and in doing so, has produced these four situations:

1. I book a rate, a week later see a lower rate and modify the reservation, then check in 2 weeks later. At check in, they see the original rate, go into MARSHA, see I am correct, and update my rate.

2. I cancel the reservation 48 hours ahead of checkin (that was subject to cancel by 6pm day of arrival). I was still charged the penatly.

3. I changed a reservation a few days before arrival (that was subject to cancel by 6pm day of arrival) to push checkin date back 2 days. Upon arrival, the property had canceled my reservation and charged me the no show penalty.

4. And just today, I changed my checkout date when I checked in. (6 nights instead of 7). I checked out after 6 nights, and still see on my efolio/credit card, that I was charged for 7. (We'll see if they fix this without a fight)

The first three just caused hastles, but were all resolved. I am learning to call the property directly and demand the front desk (who want to transfer you to in house reservations) and have them look and verify the changes in there system well in advance of arrival.

YMMV

If nothing's being done to rectify the lack of timeliness of downgrades from MARSHA to properies' PMS that could translate into (in an oversold situation), that despite some inventory being freed-up, that someone will be walked unneccesarily.

I've certainly been processed a goodly number of "do-overs" and cancellations via marriott.com, but I guess I can count my lucky stars that I've never experienced the problem.

I am surprised to hear about the batch download issues from MARSHA to the PMS. I have made changes hours before arrival and/or new reservations (sometimes as little as 1 hour) and the hotel front desk always seems to have the current information. So as a batch system, it seems to have pretty frequent run intervals. Maybe it depends on the particular PMS software the property is using. Is there more than one available within each Marriott brand? I am curious....

--Jon

P.S. Maybe I have just been lucky....

You can access the record after the date has passed but you can not cxl it after the arrival date has passed

Not true...the PMS system and the MARSHA system have a live/active interface, records are not downloaded in batch but at times there can be errors which occur for various reasons (someone is in the record in either system when a change is made-even if it's for assigning a room, etc)

None of your examples should be occurring

Depends on the brand, within full service I believe there are 2 options but one is heavily preferred, within the extended stay/select service there is only 1 option, within the luxury brands there is also only 1 option

OK, but two questions (with the assumptions that the rate rules are that the cancellation must be made by 6PM hotel time on day of arrival and the OP was in compliance of them.)

Scenario 1. I cancel a registration successfully (During the transaction I receive a Cancellation number followed by an email confirming cancellation is received shortly thereafter. Can a front desk associate check-in some one else sometime later in the same day using that now-cancelled reservation as it was made by the original party with their preferences, MR# CC# etc.?

Scenario 2 Involves another issue (Given -you can access a record after date has passed) On the same day, can a cancellation be successfully processed the same day subsequent to a legitimate check-in?

BTW, when front desk associates access a record I assume it's a name look-up (I'm never asked for my reservation #). After all, it is possible to confuse two different guests who happen to share a common name.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a reservation is cancelled in compliance with the Cancellation Policy included under the rate rules both on line and contained in confirmation of reservation emails there shouldn't be an issue insofar as the OP is concerned, correct? And if that's true, the checking-in of someone else, whatever their names happens to be, (erroniously) under a reservation canceled in compliance with those rules should not be the OP's concern nor his liability, should it? (it does appear to be some kind of systems hiccup.)

Or, in my case, I had no reservation whatsoever at the Minneapolis City Centre. My only connection to the hotel was to stay there about a year earlier. Nevertheless, I was charged for a stay, and initially told by the property that I had indeed checked-in and stayed.

Are these domestic, full-service? And if you know, are they managed or franchised?

1) Yes - I've had many many guests arrive after their admin/Travel Agent/etc have cxl'd their reservations not knowing why the admin/travel agent/etc has cxl'd their reservations

2) if you mean after a guest has checked in...no the system wont allow you to cxl after the hotel's system has reported you as checked in

3) There are multiple ways for the front desk to search for your reservation besides using your last name

4) Yes it shouldn't be an issue but I can think of a few situations which might have caused this hiccup (none of which were the OP's doing)...it's not a common occurance

Socrates, I wonder what your definition of not common is. I have been charged twice for canceled reservations in the past twelve months out of about forty cancellations that were made before the deadline.

Soccrates. Thanks for your reply, I respect your knowledge of the systems at work, and appreciate the clarity.

In regards to my examples, I sat down and did a search in Outlook 2007 (LOVE THE SEARCH FEATURE!) In 12 months, I have had 11 seperate situations that all fall within the above 4 mentioned categories.

The hotels that this has occured at include:

Marriott World Center - Orlando (3x)
Renaisance Seaworld - Orlando (2x)
JW Grande Lakes - Orlando
Marriott Airport - Orlando
Marriott Crabtree - Raleigh (2x)
Marrriott Savannah
Marriott Hilton Head Island

While I don't know everyone's affiliation, my guess is all of these are francises.

In one instance dealing with issue #1, I sat and argued with a Front Desk Manager (who didn't want to offer her superior). I told her to just look in MARSHA and she would see that rate (an M11 advertised in the newsletter). She then accused me of being a Marriott Employee who was trying to change my own rate. I finally was furious, and got the platnum desk on the line, and they set her in her place, didn't pursue it further because of being extremely busy (for weeks), but she was told to "update PMS" and she would see it, which is where my theory came from.

11 reservations out of 75 nights seems excessive. Perhaps I am just lucky :-)

Not common in this situation would be less than 1%, in your case I would ask if it was the same hotel both times, it is possible the hotel has a broken proceedure (there are proceedures in place to ensure that this doesn't occur)