Points stay cancelled – Hotel leaving Marriott. Experiences?

[dan_a_man]

Hi all, has anyone ever experienced where a booking with points was made and the booking was cancelled by Marriott due to the property leaving the chain?

I had a 10 night booking for an incredible 43,500 points at a Protea in South Africa in a suite (on a golf course with cheap safari, sounded like a no-brainer during a miserable UK October). Now I received that automatic cancellation. Difficult to find similar bargains and feel like I am a bit out of pocket now – flights are booked too (BA business with the 241 voucher to CPT). My response to Marriott referred to the Ultimate reservation guarantee, but I have no clue how that could work out now.

Anyone got any experience? Compensation possible? Move to an equivalent hotel for the same price? Compensation in line with the Ultimate reservation guarantee (which as a platinum would be 90k points)? What’s possible?

[Pangolin]

If the hotel is deflagged you’re out of luck.

[dan_a_man]

It appears so, I referred to their website, which states “If for some reason we’re unable to honor your reservation, we’ll pay for your accommodations that night at a nearby hotel and compensate you for the inconvenience.”

I received back the following:

“Thank you for your email reply. I most definitely appreciate your frustration.

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee only applies if a Participating Property is open and operational upon arrival. You can find more information regarding the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee benefit here.

Mr. XXX, we appreciate your understanding.
Have a nice day.

Regards,

Chiara F
Deactivations Supporting Lead | Marriott International, Inc.|”

– I did find this rude, but maybe I am just sensitive now

[NorthernLass]

@meta is your resident expert here, but it will depend on whether your booking constitutes a contract – I don’t see why it wouldn’t, in which case you could pursue Marriott through legal channels.

If you’ve not had a response yet, wait and see what they say first though.

If all else fails – would your travel insurance cover you for cancellation by an accommodation provider?

[meta]

Ultimate Reservation Guarantee is only applicable on walk-out on the day.

I would advise you to write explaining additional costs to Head of Loyalty and/ or CEO with the following from Terms and Conditions

3.2.k. Exit of Participating Property. If a Participating Property exits the Loyalty Program for any reason after a Member makes an Award Redemption Stay reservation but before the Member’s stay, the Company will use reasonable efforts to have such former Participating Property honor the reservation or assist in arranging equivalent accommodations nearby; however, the Company cannot guarantee that any Awards, upgrades or any other benefits a Member may earn under the Loyalty Program will be honored.

https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi

You may want a compensation instead in the form of points (but not 45k points because now the new hotel is more expensive)

If the response not favourable, then tell them you’ll book yourself elsewhere and send them the bill and if not paid you’ll take them to court in Maryland, US. They may or may not take it seriously, but I’ve done similar with other hotels and it works you usually without having to go to court.

[dan_a_man]

This is fantastic, thank you so much @meta! I knew there would be knowledgeable people on here who can provide some substance.

meta wrote:

Ultimate Reservation Guarantee is only applicable on walk-out on the day.

I would advise you to write explaining additional costs to Head of Loyalty and/ or CEO with the following from Terms and Conditions

3.2.k. Exit of Participating Property. If a Participating Property exits the Loyalty Program for any reason after a Member makes an Award Redemption Stay reservation but before the Member’s stay, the Company will use reasonable efforts to have such former Participating Property honor the reservation or assist in arranging equivalent accommodations nearby; however, the Company cannot guarantee that any Awards, upgrades or any other benefits a Member may earn under the Loyalty Program will be honored.

https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi

You may want a compensation instead in the form of points (but not 45k points because now the new hotel is more expensive)

If the response not favourable, then tell them you’ll book yourself elsewhere and send them the bill and if not paid you’ll take them to court in Maryland, US. They may or may not take it seriously, but I’ve done similar with other hotels and it works you usually without having to go to court.

[dan_a_man]

Update – Marriott does not seem to care one bit about any of it

[Rob]

Having seen numerous cases of this over the years, this is the response I would have expected.

[meta]

Have you written to the CEO or head of loyalty and done a bit of threatening? You could also contact perhaps their press office and tell them you’ll go to press. Done a bit of shaming on social media? Written a bad review on Tripadvisor for that hotel (see IC Danang case)? I’d do it incrementally not all of this at once.

[JDB]

I’m not sure that advising “a bit of threatening” is a very felicitous choice of words given the dictionary and legal sense of the words.

However, if you can show the contract was struck in England and have the tenacity and writing skills to pursue this, you should be able to resolve the matter quite quickly. The term cited – 3.2.k does not constitute a fair contract term and would likely be disregarded, as would the exclusive choice of legal venue as the State of Maryland. You have bought a service and require specific performance or compensation. It’s all a try on and customer services will have little authority to do more than bung you a few points.

I had a similar situation with Viator and received an aggressive email saying you can only sue us in New York, we have no responsibility for tours cancelled by our third parties etc. etc. plus we will seek to have everything struck out with costs. All complete nonsense and there was a fair bit of evidence the contract was in the UK, so I followed up with a Letter before Claim and they paid £450 two days of receipt.

[meta]

You know what I meant by ‘a bit of threating’ it is means threatening with legal action, but I guess a bit of abstract thinking is needed and it seems people like to have everything underlined and underscored.

[NorthernLass]

I’m glad I’ve stopped using Marriott – still waiting for 2 nights’ worth of points refund I was promised in January as compensation for numerous issues at a property, neither Marriott nor the hotel wants to know now!