mjmiller1999

As an Elite "Titanium" Bonvoy member, I want to share a recent experience wtih Marriott's new Vacation Rental Property Home and Villas that is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. My family and I booked a 7 day vacation rental property in South Florida through Marriott because of my loyalty and the great experience I get with Marriott. I assumed Marriott would take care of us (based on past experiences) if there were any issues. Unfortunately, that is the not case with this recent experience.

Two days before the start of our vacation, the local health department issued a "Toxic" Red Tide Alert of the location. Our 3 year old daughter has respiratory issues and our Pediatrician advised us to stay away from the location. Thus, we had to cancel our vacation, which was heartbreaking.

Marriott has been unsympathetic and unwilling to accommodate a future booking, credit, points etc in light of their cancellation policy. In hindsight, yes I should have purchased insurance. However, at the time of the booking I didn't think I had to because of my loyalty status and past experiences.

This experience has raised questions on whether I should downgrade my loyalty and commitment to the Marriott brand.

For fellow Elite Bonvoy members, word of caution when booking through Marriott Home and Villas.

sbrower

First, very sorry for the stress of complication on family vacation.

Second, thank you for a well-written first post. It is a pleasure to read something that makes sense.

Third, while I am sympathetic to your view that customer service often makes up for policies (and I have also had some good customer service experiences), I think your specific expectations, in this instance, are misplaced. Of course, a warning to others is always appreciated. But I am not even sure that travel insurance would have helped in this circumstance unless you purchased "cancel for any reason" AND got a waiver of pre-existing conditions. By memory, I don't think any policies cover "avoid getting sick from your own unique health issues" as opposed to "governmental order not allowing occupancy" or something like that.

sxpsxpsxp

This sucks, and I extend my sympathies to you. That said, and I don't mean to be callous here, I do not expect my status to override the cancellation policy of the property I book, whether that's a hotel room or a private home. This is indeed what travel insurance is for, and I make sure to buy it if I think I might need it. In fact, I just booked my first villas booking for Orlando later this month. I looked at the 14-day cancellation policy and turned around and bought travel insurance. It was $50 to cover the non-refundable cost of the villa.

I would advise you double-check the credit card you booked with to see if it offers automatic travel insurance. Some of the premium cards do, although there can definitely be limitations on pre-existing conditions, which it sounds like this one might be, and also some policies require you to book your airfare on the same card as your hotel to get the coverage.

escapefromphl

OP given your daughters medical condition did you consider travel insurance at booking? The website is quite clear that you are not booking directly with Marriott

How is Homes & Villas by Marriott International different than booking a hotel with Marriott?

Booking a Home vs. Booking a HotelMany of our guests are accustomed to booking hotel rooms with any of Marriott’s 30 hotel brands. When booking a home through Homes & Villas by Marriott International there are key differences to consider, such as varying cancellation policies and amenities. Rest assured that each home has been vetted for safety, security, design and condition, and will be sparkling clean in preparation for your arrival.

Does Marriott Offer Travel Insurance?

Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy is proud to provide Guests with the opportunity to protect their trips with Allianz Travel Insurance, which can provide reimbursement for prepaid, non-refundable trip costs if you need to cancel your trip due to a covered illness, injury, and more. After completing a Reservation on our website, you will be given the opportunity to purchase Travel Insurance directly through Allianz Global Assistance. See below to learn more.

Travel Insurance
Just like you have car and homeowners insurance to protect your investments, Allianz Travel Insurance can keep your travel budget safe from the unexpected—giving you peace of mind throughout your entire trip.

rucksack

Whenever I've requested relief for a late cancellation with Marriott, they've accommodated and said something to the effect of "we're happy to do this for you since you're a Titanium elite." And we're talking Marriott Reservations, not the hotel itself, so I suspect this is an unpublished/soft benefit.

That said, I certainly don't expect this treatment and I think Marriott Homes & Villas is a totally different beast. It's a much bigger ticket item to waive a cancellation fee on and I'd guess the ownership model is different (individual owners vs. large franchise companies).

mjmiller1999

Appreciate you point. Lesson learned on my end. At this point, I don't expect Marriott to change course. I just don't want others to make the same mistake I made and think your loyalty status provides protection with Homes and Villas. On the flip side, it is surprising that Marriott isn't willing to do anything. If I were in their shoes, at the very least I wold provide the following..."we are so sorry your vacation was disrupted...we know you made a big investment...here is 500K points to help.

mjmiller1999

Great advice...I didn't think about the credit card protection. I will take a peek at that.

escapefromphl

I think the difference is that Marriott would literally have to cover your loss out of pocket. (I'm guessing several thousand dollars?) IE pay the property owner, vs a hotel room which they may be able to resell and has very little associated incremental cost. I have noticed that Homes and Villas cancellation policy is usually more generous than VRBO/Air BnB, but the prices are higher.

nmpls

Yeah its this.
We own a house that used to be on Homes and Villas, things just work differently. A hotel has hundreds or thousands of rooms and never really sells out. One or two last minute cancellations is not that big a deal. We own one house. You make your booking 6 months in advance and 6 months of other visitors cannot book our house. If you cancel at the last minute and the cancellation fees are waived, we lose 100% of our income for that week. And realistically, we aren't booked every week of the year. And its true, we don't really care about your status because Marriott isn't a huge revenue driver (hence why we're not there anymore), most of our bookings are from elsewhere, and the fact is that you probably won't come back if you book through that channel. If someone who has stayed with us every labor day for a decade wants to cancel for a good reason, we'll probably work something out.
The one thing I will say is Marriott charged way more for our house than other booking channels. We don't see that extra. Maybe they should provide a better cancellation policy for that money. But the reality is that its would result in a payment of thousands of dollars from Marriott to us, because we're not incentivized to treat a marriott booking differently than any other, and companies tend to be more reluctant to bend the rules when it results in writing a check v. forgoing some small amount of theoretical revenue.

Smiley90

I'm sorry, but I think you vastly misvalue what's happening here. 500k gift to you because of your mistake? When has that ever happened? Chalk this up as a lesson to learn for getting travel insurance, but I'm not putting a single cent of blame on Marriott for not giving you 500k (!!!) Worth of points for something that's not at all their fault.

Kacee

Being forced to cancel a vacation and losing a rental deposit sucks but honestly I don't see any fail at all here on Marriott's part. Sometimes life gives us lemons.

AsiaTravel2019

The experience I am reading about here with Marriott Home and Villas reminds me of the situation with Marriott Executive Apartments (2.5 points per $1 and only 1 of 3 EQN.) Marriott extends their brand to properties that don't fully participate in the Bonvoy program. Booker beware.

dorakk

If your booking was paid fully via credit card, most likely they will cover it.
However, if your booking is paid fully via points, that is another story. Most credit card is willing to provide coverage even if the booking was only partially paid via points, but some will only cover if the booking was paid by its affiliated points (i.e. points earned thru the specific credit card).

Learned my lesson the hard way by using points to book travel

boss315

Travel insurance…

Eujeanie

I also think it was the reason for your cancellation...the Red Tide was no fault of Marriott, nor would it have affected every renter. Most don't have the allergy your daughter has, and some people are happy just to sit and not engage with the ocean at all.

Had it been a problem within the unit that was their fault....no heat, no a/c, no water, etc...then they of course should refund your money.