SPG Member Account Integrity Restricting Accounts
 

According to a post on One Mile at a Time from yesterday, it sounds like Starwood is restricting accounts of people why have frequent cancellations at new build SPG properties. Has anyone else experienced this?

This is the letter OMAAT posted:

Dear SPG® Member,

If you are receiving this message, access to your account has been temporarily disabled as your account appears to be included in one or more of the emerging trends described below:

Confirm reservations for grand opening dates at SPG® participating hotels with an invalid guarantee method

While we greatly appreciate genuine interest in experiencing any Marriott property, there have been reports of invalid guarantee methods being used for rooms reserved at hotels that have announced their grand opening date. This is of great concern to us and the hotels as some of these reservations are either canceled late or not at all leaving the hotels with no recourse for recovering the lost revenue as the reserved rooms sit empty on opening day. This message serves as a reminder that any reservation confirmed with a credit card that will not authorize the forfeiture amount is subject to cancelation at any time and without notice. Hotels have been advised to preauthorize the late cancel penalty amount as soon as the reservations show active in their systems and to cancel any booking where the credit card declines.

Request compensation for delayed hotel opening

While our hotels will absolutely consider compensating any guest for genuine inconveniences or issues they determine they are responsible for, a pattern is developing which increases our concern as to the authenticity of some of these reservations.

Please understand we have placed your account on an alert list and are monitoring all pre-opening reservations at SPG® participating hotels.

Please reply acknowledging receipt and your understanding of this message so that we may reactivate your account.

Sincerely,
SPG® Member Account Integrity

I've certainly not experienced it but I have no problem with Marriott doing this if certain accounts have a history of repeatedly doing either of the above.

are they using prepaid cards or something?

I would encourage any one with interest to use the link provided by donotblink to go to the One Mile at a Time article.

I would cite two elements, emphasis mine:

• He only received compensation for a hotel that didn’t open on-time once, and that was for 500 Starpoints (not exactly much of a bounty)
• However, he does tend to book new hotels, and cancels reservations about 95% of the time

I can't imagine there are lots of members with these behaviors but Marriott has the data, not me. An account alert list is a measured action, more gentle than freezing an account (and benefits) or terminating an account.

ah, 2 different issues

may be blanket email to multiple accounts or an automatic email

if they allow canceling shortly before stay, its on them, but may still 'warn' people, they should just tell hotels to have different cancellation policy for opening dates, if they didnt already

if people pay the cancellation fee, and its 100%, there would be no problem with not staying at opening

deposits and requiring advance payment are also not uncommon, especially higher rates / upscale

if some are trying to not have credit card guarantee, thats not going to work

I can only recall one or two times where I have tried to book a hotel for a grand opening, and in the case of the Le Meridien Oran....the delays went on for months and months, which caused challenges in getting my visa issued as you need a welcome letter from the place you will be staying. The GM was apologetic, but at no time did I seek compensation.

Sure seems like it.

cancellations are common, hotels need to change their policies if they ever have issues, kind of like airlines, for example airlines stopping refunds of full fare F at the gate

doesnt pre authorizing just check rather than putting a hold?

when credit card guarantee is required, and not given, could end up being fraud at some point

is some of this related to award stays? seem to recall some could still require credit card and charge

This appear to be someone regularly making reservations at soon-to-open properties, using invalid methods of guaranteeing the reservation, for the purpose of requesting compensation when the opening is pushed back.

I'm not clear on how "cancellations are common, hotels need to change their policies " relates to this practice.

I read on this very forum that there are people that have gotten tens of thousands of points by booking and cancelling hotels that are not open yet. so this is a common practice

If they were legitimate bookings to begin with, I don't think there are any issues with receiving compensation. It sounds like what was happening in these cases went well beyond what I've read about here.

It's great to know the SPG Member Account Integrity team is actively catching scammers.

I can understand why the franchise hotel will have a legit dispute if lots of rooms booked under the SPG system ended up in default (ie guest not showing up). It's not just a hit in revenue but also an embarrassment on grand opening with fewer guests than anticipated. Sometimes you don't even know if the scammers are SPG members or rival hotel's hit job.

What's legitimate and what's not? Perhaps Marriott should spell it out. Plans change. The hotels can and should pre-authorize the card after they get the rez; if they fail to do so, why put it on the customer?

I don't book brand new hotels (open less than a month) because I don't like being a test subject. I also have never received compensation for not having a hotel open for a reservation.