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I have a 13 night booking in a Marriott Bonvoy coming up made through booking.com – I have jointed their membership programme but have no points accumulated to date. Will I earn points on this stay?
You don’t normally earn points with hotels on their programme if you have booked through a third party like booking dot com. However, no harm in adding your Marroitt number when you check in – you may earn on any direct hotel spending such as restaurants etc.
Sometimes people report getting lucky and receiving points and some third party agents expressly get them but in general, hotels aren’t expected and don’t want to pay a large commission to Booking.com and have to buy points from Marriott. That might knock 30% of the rate they got.
I’m surprised that with a long stay like that you can’t get a better rate either with Marriott or ideally the hotel which would also make the booking eligible for points and any promotions they are running.
You will never accumulate points during a stay, they only credit typically 1-3 days after checkout (depending on the chain). But Booking.com/Expedia/Hotels.com etc are not qualifying rates and they’re explicitly named as such.
See section 2.1.f here https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi#earn
You don’t normally earn points with hotels on their programme if you have booked through a third party like booking dot com. However, no harm in adding your Marroitt number when you check in – you may earn on any direct hotel spending such as restaurants etc.
I agree. I would call the hotel and see what they could offer.
Booking.com takes a 22% commission on your booking. There’s no money left to give you points or benefits.
Booking.com takes a 22% commission on your booking. There’s no money left to give you points or benefits.
That’s quite an alarming number! It does make me wonder why it’s not always cheaper to book direct. I booked a fairly expensive hotel in Tenerife and booking.com vs direct was the same price… except I got 25k Avios for using booking.com and I could pay in GBP rather than EUR to avoid Amex conversion charges. I have previously gotten upgrades on arrival when booking direct but unless it’s guaranteed, I’m taking the 25k Avios.
@phil-lavin – it almost always is a lot cheaper to book directly with the hotel (and I mean at the actual hotel rather than any chain’s central booking who also charge the hotel a fee and sell/make the hotel buy any points you are awarded) but they aren’t going to be too open about it because of the contracts they have with their own brand (and BRG issues) and contracts with the likes of Booking.com, Expedia etc. 25k Avios sounds quite a lot and is quite a lot, but equates only to say £50/night on a five night stay which is about what Booking.com gets if the hotel room is c. £220 before tax.
Some hotels have been experimenting with Hooit:- https://justhooit.com/?campaignid=13101624479&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInuHsifm3hAMVeptQBh03XgB4EAAYASAAEgJEyvD_BwE
but although it apparently works quite well, hasn’t gained a lot of traction yet. All the hotels would like to get rid of the OTA’s and cut out these huge commissions but it’s like book publishers trying to cut out Amazon – tricky. However, in my experience those guests willing to help them in their quest get richly rewarded!
@JDB so you think calling the hotel and asking for a better rate than the one they list on their website has a good chance of success?
I will certainly try it next time
I have a 13 night booking in a Marriott Bonvoy coming up made through booking.com – I have jointed their membership programme but have no points accumulated to date. Will I earn points on this stay?
As @phil-lavin mentions above, if using booking.com then do so via the BA e-store (other cashback links maybe available) and at least you’ll get something…
@JDB so you think calling the hotel and asking for a better rate than the one they list on their website has a good chance of success?
I will certainly try it next time
Yes, I have done this for years, the supplier of the goods should always have the best price. Beyond that they have the scope to offer guaranteed upgrades, extras/inclusions that suit you and if you haven’t been to the hotel before, I find it useful to discuss the rooms/suites and the real differences between them, the views/aspects, features like terraces, make sure you avoid the one by the noisy nightclub or whatever; a little local knowledge is very valuable.
What is crazy is that hotels don’t even try to encourage you to book with themselves if there’s no incentive to do so, I’ve seen it numerous times where Hilton charge pretty much the same as HfP’s favourite booking portal for non chain hotels, or where you haven’t got status, hotels.com .
It quite simply doesn’t make sense, as you get approximately 10% return on your hotel stay through a stamp for a reward night, then if you book in advance and or when there’s a promotion, you’ll also get 11-12% via TopCashback
With this sort of thing in mind, why do some hotel chains not focus more heavily on better pricing to book directly with themselves, plus Rob mentioned above the amount booking websites charge the hotels…
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