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Apparently Marriott recycles confirmation numbers now

Apparently Marriott recycles confirmation numbers now

Old Dec 6, 2018, 7:00 am
  #1  
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Apparently Marriott recycles confirmation numbers now

I called in to the customer service line today for help with some points that posted incorrectly and learned that apparently Marriott is now reusing its confirmation numbers. The phone rep asked me for the confirmation number of a recent stay. I pulled up my confirmation email and read it off, and she said that it corresponds to a future stay (at a hotel I've never booked, though one that's physically near others I've stayed in). We both try re-reading the confirmation number back to each other twice and it's a match, and then she notices that the booking she sees is actually under someone else's name.

For what it's worth, my stay was at a legacy SPG property that recently migrated to the Marriott booking system, while the (other person's) future stay is at a legacy Marriott property. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I'd think not, because the legacy SPG confirmation numbers had 9 digits while the legacy (and current) Marriott confirmation numbers have 8, as far as I know.

So I guess this means that Marriott is now reusing previous confirmation numbers? Seems like a very dumb move from an IT perspective.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 7:47 am
  #2  
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I've had a couple funky looking Starwood confirmation numbers with fewer than nine digits (and no leading zeroes). I noticed one of these a couple months ago, and I can't recall it happening before the merger.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 7:55 am
  #3  
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There are only a limited number of 8-digit checksummed numbers available, so they have to reuse them. However, it would be better if they tried not to reuse ones until some time has passed.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 8:38 am
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Were they ultimately able to pull up your confirmation? Did you have to provide an additional piece of information, like your last name, date of stay or hotel and it was a problem? I am trying to understand what the issue is here but am failing to see where this is a problem. Can someone identify the issue here?

It seems there might be two reservations under the same confirmation number:
  • #12345678 Anywhere Marriott, 1/1/2019, Joe Smith
  • #12345678 Somewhere Renaissance, 2/2/2018, Betty Jones
There seems no issue telling the two reservations apart despite the same confirmation number, and the confirmation being reused does not seem to cloud the fact the Joe Smith has a reservation for a date at a hotel with the rate and other information attached, so where is the issue, other than the issue that the CSRs should be better informed and trained?
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 9:44 am
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Originally Posted by CJKatl
Were they ultimately able to pull up your confirmation? Did you have to provide an additional piece of information, like your last name, date of stay or hotel and it was a problem? I am trying to understand what the issue is here but am failing to see where this is a problem. Can someone identify the issue here?

It seems there might be two reservations under the same confirmation number:
  • #12345678 Anywhere Marriott, 1/1/2019, Joe Smith
  • #12345678 Somewhere Renaissance, 2/2/2018, Betty Jones
There seems no issue telling the two reservations apart despite the same confirmation number, and the confirmation being reused does not seem to cloud the fact the Joe Smith has a reservation for a date at a hotel with the rate and other information attached, so where is the issue, other than the issue that the CSRs should be better informed and trained?
The rep was not able to pull up my reservation with any amount of additional information. I have the folio and asked if there was any information from it that she could use to find my reservation and she said no. I can't guarantee this, since I'm not the rep and I don't have access to the database she was using, but from what she was saying it sounds like my original confirmation number is simply gone from the system, not shown in duplicate.

I ultimately sent the folio to research@starwoodhotels to see if they could fix it, so it's possible that this issue will be solved despite the duplicate confirmation number, but at the moment it's still unresolved.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 10:15 am
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I've always thought of the confirmation number as proof that I have a reservation, just like the cancellation number is proof that I cancelled.

However, phone agents sometimes use the confirmation numbers to find reservations rather than starting with the account number or person's name. The shouldn't ever make changes based just on the confirmation number, but I suspect that some do.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 12:01 pm
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Originally Posted by matravelguy
The rep was not able to pull up my reservation with any amount of additional information.
That is an issue!
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 12:38 pm
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Airlines recycle record locators, so this isn't surprising. They just need to manage them better - resuse only if over a year old or something.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 12:42 pm
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Former Marriott employee here. Yes, confirmation numbers are recycled. All conf numbers are the same digit length; and all started on 8 when I worked there. I think I only found the same conf number twice at my hotel, and then years apart. Did find the same conf number all the time when searching up reservations on the global Marriott system, but you always check for the dates, last name, or in case of the at-hotel employees, the hotel code (5 digit code called a MARSHA code).

is it an issue? Only if the employee searching up your reservation isnt paying attention
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 12:51 pm
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all pending reservations when the platform migration took place were assigned a new reservation number. dont know if thats the case with OPs booking.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 1:05 pm
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Originally Posted by CJKatl
Were they ultimately able to pull up your confirmation? Did you have to provide an additional piece of information, like your last name, date of stay or hotel and it was a problem? I am trying to understand what the issue is here but am failing to see where this is a problem. Can someone identify the issue here?

It seems there might be two reservations under the same confirmation number:
  • #12345678 Anywhere Marriott, 1/1/2019, Joe Smith
  • #12345678 Somewhere Renaissance, 2/2/2018, Betty Jones
There seems no issue telling the two reservations apart despite the same confirmation number, and the confirmation being reused does not seem to cloud the fact the Joe Smith has a reservation for a date at a hotel with the rate and other information attached, so where is the issue, other than the issue that the CSRs should be better informed and trained?
Of course that is presuming the CSR knows how to use the extra fields to find a rez. It may be another screen that they don't know about or care to use. And, given many CSRs are just going to make up an excuse to dismiss your request, not being able to find the rez works just fine. Obviously you don't have the correct number so you must not have actually stayed at the property.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 5:38 pm
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Originally Posted by MePlatPremier

all pending reservations when the platform migration took place were assigned a new reservation number. don’t know if that’s the case with OP’s booking.



Which platform migration?

There was the website platform migration on Aug 18, but then there was the brand-specific hotel-side reservation platform that migrated at the end of October for Sheratons but I don't know when offhand for other SPG brands.

My Sheraton reservation numbers stayed the same (or at least the last 4 digits did) from my pre-Aug 18 bookings to my post-Aug 18 stays, at least for those stays before the end of October.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 6:28 pm
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
Which platform migration?

There was the website platform migration on Aug 18, but then there was the brand-specific hotel-side reservation platform that migrated at the end of October for Sheratons but I don't know when offhand for other SPG brands.

My Sheraton reservation numbers stayed the same (or at least the last 4 digits did) from my pre-Aug 18 bookings to my post-Aug 18 stays, at least for those stays before the end of October.
SPG brands are being brought to Marriotts booking platform. Nov 26 that was the case with Ws and Westins. Next week StRegis and LCs. When this happens all pending reservations get assigned a new 8-digit number in the new platform, however they should remain visible from ones account. As properties migrate this also allows for bookings with free night certs and combination of cash and points which the SPG platform doesnt support.
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Old Dec 6, 2018, 9:49 pm
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Originally Posted by MePlatPremier


SPG brands are being brought to Marriotts booking platform. Nov 26 that was the case with Ws and Westins. Next week StRegis and LCs. When this happens all pending reservations get assigned a new 8-digit number in the new platform, however they should remain visible from ones account. As properties migrate this also allows for bookings with free night certs and combination of cash and points which the SPG platform doesnt support.
Excuse me, but before the merger there were SPG free night certs which certainly were supported by Starwood's reservation system.
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Old Dec 7, 2018, 4:32 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Excuse me, but before the merger there were SPG free night certs which certainly were supported by Starwood's reservation system.
Not on online bookings. You had to call in CS.
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