Tritgr

This was mentioned briefly in another thread, but I think it bears repeating.

47 Park Street is not going to be available as an option for award redemption in the future - I'm not sure of the exact date this will occur.

The reason given in the previous thread had to do with the exchange privilege with Ritz Carlton, but I do not think this is the real reason. I think the reason is as follows:

47 Park St was a hotel which was purchased by Marriott and converted to a "Grand Residence Club," which is essentially a form of time share. It differs from the ordinary time share in that "members" (i.e., owners) purchase 3 or 4 weeks a year, which can be used at any time in any increment of days. Marriott still rents the rooms which have not be purchased by members as hotel rooms, and thus these rooms have been available for use with points.

However, as the number of members has increased, the number of rooms available for rent has been decreasing. (Members are free to rent their rooms, but obviously they're generally not interested in receiving points for a rental.) Because a member can call at any time and request a room - and get it, if they're not all taken by other members - management at 47 Park Street has had to walk people who had thought they were getting rooms by way of points. That's clearly not a desirable outcome for either the person being walked or Marriott. Thus the decision to drop 47 Park Street as an award option.

As I think everyone who has stayed there has noted, it's a great place and was a relative bargain in terms of point requirements, but I think this deal is about to come to an end.

BigLar

This is going to be a heart-breaker for a lot of us.

Do we have this "officially" and is there any drop dead date forthcoming.

CraigS

Its sad to see. I checked in to see how much a time share cost there. 170,000 US for 20 days for the smaller suite.... After 50 years, its goes back. Too rich for me!

yyzflyer

Sad news. This property remains for me the best value Marriott reward I have ever redeemed.

Marriott Concierge

As of January 1, 2005, this property will no longer accept Marriott Reward certificates. You will however still be able to earn stay credit accordingly.

Chris

BillMorrow

The date of Jan 1, 2005 is also the date I was given by the staff there on a recent visit. Also, if you don't have a current award reservation, don't look for any to open up between now and year end.

PhilC

Very sad indeed. Glad I had the opportunity to stay here using rewards last year.

andyr

Last weekend, I stayed for 2 days at this property as a last minute change from another hotel because they had an excellent rate on the web site (199 pounds per night). I literally booked it from the FL in ORD before getting on the plane, because I had heard good things about this hotel and wanted to try it out. As it turned out, the hotel itself was excellent in all respects.

However, I read a review after I got back that said that this property does not issue points or stay credit. My points haven't posted yet, but it has only been a few days so I'm hoping they are just slow. I emailed customer service to ask what the deal is.

In the meantime, I searched FT and found a couple of threads that claim that the property either (a) doesn't offer nights for points, but does issue points; or (b) doesn't participate at all. This thread seems to have an authoritative answer from last summer (a few posts up from this one) that as of Jan 1, 2005, you can't cash in points but you can earn points and stay credit.

On the other hand, the Marriott web site is fairly useless for both questions. The hotel info, reservation page, rate rules, confirming email and "welcome" email are all completely silent about not earning points, although the emails all have my Marriott number and status prominently displayed. The web site will let you try to cash in points for a night, but simply never has any rooms available. The MR terms refer to "participating hotels only" for vacation properties, but has no information about which those are.

Does anyone know what the deal really is for this property? And, if it doesn't issue points or stay credit, any clue how you are supposed to know that other than calling the UK and asking before booking?

Part of my calculation in switching was the hotel itself, the double points promo, Marriott vs SPG platinum qualification, all that stuff, but the assumption was that I was earning points/stays because nothing said otherwise. Extremely disappointing if not true.

Thanks.

SkiAdcock

Last I heard you got points for paid stays; just couldn't redeem for award stays. My overseas stays usually take longer to post, so I'd give it a while. And if it doesn't, I'd just do the missing stay form on the Marriott site & fax in. Odds are you'll get it posted.

PS - and given that you've got Chris's post above saying stay credit does count & Marriott's appointed him as rep to this forum, I'd print that out if there are any problems Cheers.

andyr

Follow up: I had several emails back and forth with MR customer service, who tell me that in fact you do not earn points or stay credit at this property. It is "clearly stated" on the web page: hotels that earn points have a line on the web page that says "Marriott Rewards Category 6" or something like that and hotels that don't earn points have that line missing. The absence of that line of text "clearly states" that the hotel doesn't earn points.

MR was polite about it, so I don't want to be overly testy, but I think it is a pretty dismal effort to let people know. The hotel page, confirmation email, and all communications still have taglines talking about MR, still list my MR number and PLT status right under the confirmation number, and the hotel has a link to try and book nights using points. There is no positive statement to the effect "this reservation does not earn points or stay credit" anywhere. The hotel is on a list of hotels in the T&C's that do not participate, but you have to dig a little to find it.

Chris's post may have been correct at the time, but is wrong now.

I cancelled one stay at a Marriott (four people, four nights, for a conference, switched to the Sheraton next door) in a fit of pique or something, I'll probably drift back eventually, again, but the whole thing was pretty disappointing. So, not awarding 18000 points and 2 nights cost them roughly $3200 in revenue, seems a fair trade I suppose.

The hotel was great, however, if a bit pricy for any of the extras. Unfortunately, I'm sufficiently into points and stay credit that with a bunch of SPG and Marriott choices in London, I'll just choose another property.

--- Andy R.

Marriott Concierge

Unfortunately since this post the 47 Park Street Marriott Grand Residence has ceased participation in the Marriott Rewards program, both for redemption and earning.

Chris

SkiAdcock

Chris, could you recommend to the powers that be that they make it more obvious on the website, etc? I don't blame andyr for his fit of pique/switching to Sheraton.

I'd be pretty mad myself if I thought I was paying the kind of $$ 47 Park St asks for expecting to get points & then discover I wasn't. Actually until this update I made the assumption I would. Haven't been able to afford the rate, so have booked other Marriott properties.

Is the only reason 47 Park Street is still listed on the website cuz it's a time-share?

andyr

An update to the situation: I have been told both by the MR customer service folks and by Chris that they would be looking at the web site to make this clearer for future reservations. Chris has also very graciously set my situation right to my complete satisfaction, which was an unexpected surprise and I'm very pleased with the result at this point.

I really do wish that 47 Park Street did accrue points, as it is very nice, but no self-respecting FT person would stay without points, would they?

And, yes, I moved my stay back - Chris's gesture was not asking for a quid pro quo, but when I "vote with my wallet" it should work both ways.

--- Andy R.

SkiAdcock

Good for you Andy in working both ways & for Chris for his assistance. Cheers.

ohmark

Great job Chris.