Xu Guan

MSPeconomist

dayone

Government rate acceptance and rules are set by the individual property, not Marriott.

C17PSGR

Seems to me you're mixing issues

1. Military and federal civilian employees don't need a government credit card to use the government rate but that is one way of proving eligibility. Historically, Marriott government rates were at the per diem rate and didn't require the guest to be on official business. Some Starwood hotels, however, charged government rates higher than per diem and required the guest to be on official business. Marriott has allowed hotels to follow the Starwood policies. Hilton almost always follows the official business requirement but II've never had it enforced.

2. Some locales allow official stays to be tax exempt. The requirements of that vary from locale to locale but at least a couple of places in my experience require the use of a government credit card under the theory that the federal government is paying directly.


But ... since you're working on a government project with a letter ... sounds like you are not a federal employee, notwithstanding that you may have an access card. Cost reimburseable government contractors aren't eligible for the Marriott governem

Some hotels, however, are perfectly happy to allow government contractors to use the government rate even though they aren't technically eligible. I'm attaching the link to the official rules which look to be the same as always (other than allowing hotels to follow the legacy Starwood policy if they want to)

https://www.marriott.com/File%20Bloc...eals/chart.htm

And ... if there are several of you, why not just speak to the GM at the property you want to stay at? Tell the GM that there are X of you staying in the area for Y weeks and that you need a rate at or below the federal per diem rate. While you're at it, ask if they can throw in breakfast and parking. A few people on a several week long project have negotiating power. Like airlines, hotels watch their rates and stop offering government rates when they are full. But, I've had at least a couple of hotels over the years override that restriction when they know I'm a regular guest.

As this applies to government contractors seeking to use the government rate, this is a topic brought up several times over the years

No more government rate for contractors
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-rewards/1616969-federal-gov-rate-being-enforced-more-strongly-now-starting-oct-2014-a.html

I acknowledge this can be frustrating. Government contractors are required to use the government rate but many hotels don't offer it to government contractors. It's all about the GM ....

soitgoes

[Realized this is largely a duplicate of the same points as [url=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/c17psgr.html]C17PSGR -- apologies]

I do not think anything has changed.

https://www.marriott.com/help/rates-faqs.mi
"To be eligible for government discount rates, guests must be an active duty member of the military or current employee of any level of local, county, state, or federal government within the United States."

Government contractors--which is what it sounds like the OP is--are not eligible for Marriott government rates, at least officially:
https://www.marriott.com/File%20Bloc...eals/chart.htm

This is not new.

I'm a federal employee, and our office does sometimes have contractors work for our office who are only reimbursed per the government per diem rates. We issue them letters, etc., but the hotel is under no obligation to honor per diem or allow them to book the government rates. It's a property decision. Many will work with them because it's good business in many cases to do so. I'd suggest talking to the hotel management about your needs to work out an arrangement.

C17PSGR

Exactly.

For example, I had a hotel that I would visit for a week several times for a year on official military travel. They wouldn't always have the whole week open. One morning before I was going to move to a CY, I ended up speaking with the GM and explaining I could commit informally to staying there 40 or 50 nights a year. He said they would override the rates on my stays as long as there wasn't a major convention in town.

CCIE_Flyer

At this point FD personnel don't know whether Titanium is above or below Plat, so this level of nuance is likely to fall beyond their reach (and very likely that of their management/ownership). The state of FL has long had a tax exemption option via either a certificate or a photocopy of a gov credit card. Holding a gov credit card is not a qualifying requirement for a gov rate, however. I have several hundred SPG/Marriott nights in the state of FL under my belt, and I've only ever had to engage in debate on this a couple of times over the years (I've always ultimately prevailed in arguing the difference between qualifying for the rate via a government ID versus needing a government-issued CC).

So there's that last part to be considered, OP - do you at least have a CAC or something along that line to demonstrate that, although you may not hold a gov CC, you are at least affiliated with a government agency? If not, the hotel was right to turn you away. If so, they're confusing that which qualifies for a gov rate vs. that which qualifies for tax exemption. This is a FL/property issue more so than it is a Bonvoy issue.

Edit: In re-reading your original post, it's clear that you (OP) do indeed have some form of ID versus just a letter. So the hotel FD staff has been given poor direction from their management chain, apparently.

stuartpig

I have been using the government rate with Marriott for 10 years, never been asked for id (apart from Glasgow Marriott where the staff are trained by the Stasi). Since the merger with Starwood the wording changed. Now shows as Federal government rate. Used to say British government rate. I assumed it is good old Marriott IT not being able to cope with different wording for different countries, but I don’t want to get tripped up on one stay where the saving is huge. Anyone else used the government rate recently??

Out of my Element

Do you understand what "Stasi" was?

By the way you use it I am guessing you do not

X-ON

Off topic: "Ministerium für Staatsicherheit", a movie describing one aspect of this intimidating organisation is "Der leben der anderen" .... and if stuartpig meant to use as a tongue in cheek metaphor for people wanting to have absolute control of who their guests are it was used correctly. However for some people growing up under the communist oppression in the GDR the joke is probably lost

PHLGovFlyer

The tax exempt issue has nothing to do with eligibility for a gov rate room. Tax exemption for government rate rooms differs state-by-state with different procedures and policies by state.

Rule number 1 with government rates: Always read the rate rules!

Marriott appears to have recently (within the last 6 weeks) instituted a small but significant change in the government rate rules across most (or maybe all) of their properties. Here's a sample of the updated rules I'm finding across multiple properties:
(Bolding mine)

The caveat about "Only eligible to government employees on official business" is the big change from the prior rules. Previously most properties would allow government employees to use the gov rate for leisure trips (while not on official travel). This policy seems to have changed, and is likely what the front desk agent was referring to when they mentioned the "big meeting". Note that this change aligns with Hilton's policy which also typically restricts gov rates to travelers on official business.

However, the front desk agent also seems to be misinterpreting the rate rules about the use of the government issued CC. The rules for the government issued CC have always stated:
The reason for the "or" clause is simple: Not all government employees or military members carry a government CC. At my agency a person generally needs to travel more than 4 times a year before they'll be required to get the CC, so there are plenty of government employees staying at Marriott properties on legitimate government business without using a gov CC. This is where the front desk agent got tangled up...

OTOH, based on the OP describing a "written authorization" for a government rate it sounds like they are a contractor rather than a gov employee. Unfortunately for the OP, in this case Marriott's gov rate rules have had the "Govt Contractors, including Contractors working on govt Cost Reimbursable Contract, are not eligible for the US govt rate" clause in them for many years. As mentioned by others, a lot of properties will overlook this restriction, but it is legitimate for a property to deny the government rate to a government contractor. The government also routinely issues CAC IDs to government contractors. These IDs clearly note that the holder is a contractor (not a government employee), so simply having a CAC does not confer eligibility for a gov rate room.

lamphs

I travel, comparatively, more than most local government employees. I try to get the government rate as often as possible to save a few dollars. Occasionally I've been asked for ID. Shown with no issue. Frankly most front desk don't know what they're looking at.

I don't use the rate for personal travel-ethics. (I know of a former colleague who used the rate for a personal weekend trip at a pricey property. The property made a call, on Monday, to my employer to find out if he was in town for official business...lodged a complaint. I don't think anything came of it.)

MD/DC Flyer

I have noticed it too. It changed sometime in the last 4 weeks or so.

Unfortunately like all sweeping rule changes it catches old reservations that were made before the change. Having stayed in two properties this week it was not an issue. But for future far out reservations it would be.

It was always the deciding factors to choose Marriott over Hilton because of that limitation. Not any more.

mag_nate

This sucks... I have a couple of stays coming up on the fed rate and while I am sure I could argue that they can't just unilaterally change the terms of the rate like that, I really just don't have the energy to deal with Marriott. Guess I'm cancelling and looking elsewhere.

Centurion

I will just sum it up. The hotels do want this business right now. There is a labor shortage. They can not run at full capacity correctly so they want the highest paying customers only