It’s been a year since Marriott took over the beloved Starwood program. Our credit card earnings have been devalued and customer service has gone down the drain. Luckily Marriott gave us a verb we can use when things go wrong: Bonvoyed.
Residence Inn Surfside Florida:
I went to Miami for 1 night last month to go to the bris of my brother Dovid’s son. I figured I’d use one of the anniversary nights that come with the Marriott cards, so I booked a stay at the Residence Inn Surfside.
I got to the hotel at noon and they said that they had no available rooms, but they did have a prize wheel at checkin which I spun and won 300 points. W00t!
My brother JJ lives in the area, so we went out to eat at 26 and waited a couple of hours until they called letting me know that my room is ready.
I have Marriott Titanium status, which means that hotels are supposed to upgrade me to a standard suite if there is availability. So at the front desk I asked about a suite upgrade and was told that none were available.
I didn’t need a suite for the night as I was by myself, but I figured pictures of a suite would be nice for a trip report, if I decided to write one.
I went up to my room and started unpacking when I decided to take a look at the app. Sure enough, there were standard suites still for sale. I called the front desk and they explained that there were suites, but they weren’t available yet. However, if I checked back later in the day they could switch me over if they were available.
So I went back a few hours later and the front desk agent said that she checked, but everything was sold out.
Not taking her at her word, I opened the Marriott app and showed her the rooms for sale. First she claimed that the app wasn’t updated, so I asked what would happen if I booked the room now?
She went to the back to talk to a manager, who said I couldn’t have the upgrade because I already checked into my room.
#Bonvoyed.
But it’s a great hotel if you want to see how the do not disturb sign never actually working. There were knocks on my room at 12:30am, 9:30am, and 10:30am.
Marriott and the hotel had no response to my emails, though they promised a follow up a month ago. I’m also not holding my breath on when the 300 points will post from the checkin wheel.
It’s back to the S. Regis Bal Harbour for me next time. Luckily I still have several stays reserved there from when it was on sale for 48K points/night.
@Marriott @MarriottBonvoy
Front desk @Res_InnSurfside: Sorry we're sold out of suites for the night, so no Titanium upgrades.
Go to room and check the app, only to see there are several suites for sale.
Front desk: Sorry, you've already used the room, so no upgrades.#Bonvoyed pic.twitter.com/KsvNuOIsbp— DansDeals (@DansDeals) July 7, 2019
Checked out at front desk. No follow up. #bonvoyed
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) July 8, 2019
#HyattIsTheNewStarwood
Thank you so much for your kind words! ^DM
— Hyatt Concierge (@HyattConcierge) July 9, 2019
Westin Harbour Castle Toronto:
I went with my grandfather to Toronto for a night last month to catch the Indians play the Jays.
He used his anniversary night for the room that was expiring within the month and then added me onto the reservation.
Surprisingly they recognized us as Titanium members despite me being an additional guest on the reservation. No upgrade was offered, but I wasn’t expecting one given that I was merely an additional guest. Though the room key was in a Titanium Elite cardholder that said to enjoy our “upgrade.”
I’m a fan of Quaker Oatmeal Squares, which are only certified parve in Canada. I had ordered a case from Amazon and they had them for me at the hotel.
At checkout I was surprised to see a charge for $57 for package receipt. When we travel to a hotel in a location without kosher food I often order a toaster oven to the hotel and I’ve never been charged by the hotel for that privilege. The front desk explained that it was because a 3rd party located in the hotel’s basements handles package acceptance.
So I went to the basement and they were happy to waive the charge. They also called the front desk to have them remove the charge from my folio and the front desk reprinted my zero folio.
After the stay I noticed that both my account and my grandfather’s account were missing an anniversary night.
Marriott.com doesn’t show redeemed certificates, so if I wasn’t paying attention to what I previously had, I would have been #Bonvoyed.
I sent a direct message to @MBonvoyAssist and at first they claimed that only I was debited the anniversary night. After I explained that my grandfather made the reservation and had been debited the anniversary night before the stay they were able to confirm the system bug that took certificates out of both of our accounts and they returned my anniversary night.
Then I noticed that my credit card had been charged for the package delivery!
Once again I direct messaged @MBonvoyAssist and asked why I had a credit card charge if I had a zero folio balance. They said they investigated and it was due to the package delivery. Once again I explained that we had already gone through this and the charge was waived and removed from the folio, so why was my credit card charged?
Supposedly the charge will be reversed. Eventually.
Make sure you have your eyes wide open if you’re staying with Marriott and don’t want to find yourself #Bonvoyed!
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65 Comments On "Here’s How I Was #Bonvoyed By 2 Marriott Hotels In July"
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Sounds like a comedy. Also, I always check my folio’s and cc statements, no matter which hotel I am staying. I have caught my fair share of billing mistakes.
I use at hotels cards that I don’t usually use, after booking I just lock that credit card and no more surprises!
I’m glad you wrote this. This happens to me all the time with Marriott properties. To get upgraded as a platinum I always have to ask to speak to a manager or call the member services number. At check in they always say that upgrades are all sold out, but then I pull out the app to prove that they are lying. Sometimes they’ll give it to you if you pull out the app but most of the time you have to go through some kind of conflict.
It’s pathetic.
Why even bother having Platinum and Titanium levels if there’s no way to enforce the upgrade benefit terms?
Hyatt is the only one that gets this right with their confirmed upgrade certificates.
Is it a guaranteed upgrade as long as one is for sale?
I literally had the same thing happen at the St. REgis BOra Bora. Checked in, no mention of upgrade; get to room, connect to internet, see many overwater bungalow upgrades available; have to go back and request upgrade and show them availability when they deny its there.
Checking in tomorrow at the Marriott Park Lane hotel. . . got an email yesterday asking if I wanted to pay $100 a night to upgrade to a suite. Today, hotel claims no platinum upgrades are available.
The Quaker squares often go on sale for under $3CAD a box. Let me know if you ever want me to stock up for you.
C$3.40 shipped from Amazon.ca is pretty solid 🙂
The tricky part is getting them to CLE…
Man I really have no interest in staying at any Marriott Property ever again with all of these f***ups that they do not even own up to!
From here on in please blank out at least one of the letters, such as “Bonv*yed”, because it’s been trending as an expletive!
This on top of all the other tzuris that klal yisroel is going thru!! When will this end? We need the yeshiyah now!!!!
Lol!
I would not have stood for the nonsense of checking into another room to hope for an upgrade later as the rules are clear. At check in, with status and availability, they must upgrade you. Anything less than that is not following proper procedures as per Marriott’s upgrade rules.
I never even bothered for one minute with Marriott. Keeping points on chase sapphire reserve and use as needed. Occassionally buying points at other chains when 100% bonuses plus credit card bonuses and waiting to see what Accor brings with their efforts to bolster their loyalty program. LOVED SPG and miss it. Let’s be honest, Marriott Bonvoy stinks.
The great part about accumulating that way is you can earn 1.5-5 points/dollar everywhere, transfer to Hyatt on demand, or redeem at 1.5 cents each.
No-brainer!
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/ultimate-comparison-chart-chase-ultimate-rewards-cards-supercharge-earnings-creating-killer-quinfecta/
If there are no suites ready when you check into a hotel you aren’t bonvoyed by not being upgraded into one, and a hotel isn’t obligated to let you move to one later either.
I’m not saying the hotel was telling the truth claiming that suites available for sale were in need of housekeeping. However if we take the story as-offered they didn’t skirt program rules in the least.
Except the front desk told me over the phone to come back later to get switched if it was still available later.
And there were suites still available later, despite the front desk lying about the app not being updated. And even when called out, they still refused the upgrade.
But yes, housekeeping is a good way to skirt the rules at 3pm. Less so at 6:30pm.
The silly thing is that a hotel should want to upgrade Titanium members to a suite if they have them empty as that would engender loyalty. They don’t seem to get that.
I stayed in the Residence Inn Surfside a few times (location is the main reason). I also experienced longer check in and no upgrades (Titanium) and expensive parking. In general though this is a great property for a residence in…
Were there standard suites for sale?
It’s not a great property if they won’t even upgrade Titanium members when they have the suites for sale.
Also, the resort fee is a joke. All for some dumpy chairs if you cross the street and go to the beach?
was there for one night last year. (before going to the SRBH) they promote the beach chairs but when you get there be surprised that the hours start late and they didn’t even have enough chairs for 10ppl…. let alone that s/o umbrella flew off straight on my wife…
From a recent stay at the Ritz Carlton Hertliza #Bonvoyed
-Member number not in system so no room upgrade ready due to a glitch of Marriott and the hotel no syncing probably
-Spoke to manager and said he put it in the system and to come back in the morning and a room upgrade would be ready
-Came back the next morning but my member number still wasn’t in the system and had to wait until evening time to finally get one
-Room bathtub leaked all over the bathroom floor from the bottom of the tub and asked to fix it or change rooms, all they did was mom the floor up and said they “fixed it”
-Pool closes at 7pm in summer time when they “market” on the website you can see the sunset from the pool deck, but sunset is at 7:30pm so you can never see the sunset
-Parking garage smelled horrible to say the least, like pee and rancid cheese. Dreaded parking there each day as I rented a car and it’s the only place to park without worrying about a ticket or getting towed since it’s right near the beach
-Loud noise outside due to boardwalk goers until 2am and the windows don’t block the sound
-Sliding window that gives off a load pitch wind tunnel sound when u lock it, that we thought was a vacuum on the floor above us or the zamboni boardwalk cleaner…so we had to keep out sliding door unlocked to prevent having this sound
-Hotel doesn’t closely resemble a Ritz Carlton and honestly shouldn’t even be called a Ritz Carlton, from the non smiling non helpful staff, to having to fight to get a table on our balcony to have a Shabbat meal there with another couple staying in the hotel, I would rethink calling this hotel a Ritz Carlton, especially charming upward of $500/night or 60,000 points a night!
I guess ymmv. I had a great experience there both times I stayed. Never stayed over shabbos though.
Me too. Was there this March for 1 day and had a great experience
I stayed at the courtyard by Marriott in Isla verde, PR on points and paid a little extra for a suite as opposed to a regular room. That entitled me to get hit with the 18% resort fee on the extra charge for the upgrade for 7 nights and the $25 resort fee for using points
Dan, I made a 5 night point reservation for the St Regis BH before category change with point advance. I have the points now but it’s now showing the higher rate! Any advice.
Call or Tweet. Good luck.
If you receive a suite upgrade, does it somehow affect the property’s performance numbers or maybe numbers sent to Marriott?
I stayed in the Marriott Marquis at Mccormick Center back in March, ( I usually stay in the Hyatt but I wanted to check out the brand new hotel) they charged my Credit card about $150 in room charges.
I called and fought off most as only $35 was legit.
So after I got off $100 “courtesy credit” I just called it a day.
Awful service for an expensive hotel.
Back to Hyatt for me…
Who can we transfer our Bonvuoy points to before we cancel their Amex? We had a SPG too, that was changed.
You don’t lose the points if you cancel your card.
Though even with Marriott’s problems, the anniversary night that comes with the card is worth more than the annual fee.
What’s the best way to contact Marriott for a complaint. I booked in a hotel and they cancelled the booking a week before my stay.
Call or Tweet.
I think I may have an explanation for the Residence Inn Surfside strict upgrade policy:
https://imgur.com/9sPMwWX
Amazing!
They sound downright hostile about upgrades. Sure explains a lot.
If that’s real, they ought to lose their franchise
Its real!
Except that there is nothing wrong with that email, sure.
wow
Wow
If this is real
Unbelievable. This is who hotel equities is
https://www.hotelequities.com/hotel-property-portfolio.htm
I have stayed hundreds of times in hotels and almost always get upgraded even though i am only platinum elite. The one big exception is residence inn. They are very tough about it and almost never upgrade. They say That policy does not allow them to do it without charging the difference
That’s some Mossad-level camerawork there, Shmuli.
I don’t need fancy for my business travel, and have become a loyal fan of choice hotels which has a zillion locations, and have accumulated and used many choice privileges points. Haven’t paid for a personal vacation room in a long time. They run a zillion promos, and the points can rack up quite quickly. From time to time they run half-price point promos to redeem for Amazon gift cards. As a Diamond member, I almost always get upgraded to a suite at the properties that have them. So far all customer service issues have been resolved to my satisfaction. They do have some higher end properties in their ascend collection.
Extra bonus… $2.50 Amazon Gift Card with every check-in.
Highly recommended if you want good basic accommodations.
Dan,
although the playstore app does not show free night certificates, the apple bonvoy app does
@dan
I was recently bonvoyed in Las Vegas SpringHill Suites. I booked 3 nights with 3 different anniversary nights (myself, wife, Dad).
First they tried bonvoying me that I can’t stay under someone else’s name. I had marriot bonvoy the reservations for me when booking. So I knew that this is a straight up bonvoy.
After 20 minutes of arguing, I finally got the room updated so I can stay there.
They did not change the sheets every night. Nor did they give us fresh cups to use (this is a suite…) this was just a small bonvoy…
A week after my stay, I get a charge to my Amex plat for about $200. I checked the reservation again to see if there was some sort of fee. There were none!
I called them up and asked for an explanation.
“We Bonvoyed you!” I was told (meaning they charged me points and cash for the same night!
Now that’s a real Bonvoy for ya!
I stayed at this hotel and no water the day we left. No shower for our flight was disaster only got comped one night of points.
Wow… not great. Are there any travel cards that you’ve had greater success with?
I am a Titanium member as well, and cant seem to get any upgrades over my last few stays. Seems room upgrades are going the way of the dodo bird.
These experiences were really subpar to say the least, however it doesn’t look like your are Bonvoying the whole Marriott program- don’t forget, the St Regis BH is a Marriott property too :).
So did my 130,000 spg points really get downgraded to only 30,000 points and if so what can i even do with them. And should i bother even keeping this card ? My annual renewal is coming up. Should I bother even renewing this card ?
Just booked 3 rooms at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre for 2 nights. I’m titanium. Tried to use suite night awards to upgrade. Got one room upgraded. Was charged 4 suite night award the day I checked out. Spoke to front desk and the manager. Both said they’d remove the 2 suite night awards.
1 month later, still missing 2. Called Marriot yesterday. 30 minutes on the phone. Eventually I got the two back and 500 bonus points for my inconvenience…..
500 bonus points? Lol. You know that’s beyond worthless.
I am beyond aware. I wasn’t sure if she was joking or serious when she told me that on the phone. I was hoping I misheard her. Seems like an appropriate compensation for an hour wasted my time……
My 7 night certificate was applied successfully for a EIGHT night stay at the Paris Champs Elysees. Hotel said i owed nothing in checkout. Bon..win?
I’m still waiting for my spin the wheel points from July 2018 at the Fairfield Inn Atlanta downtown.
It is not just Marriott. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Haifa recently for two nights, one a points redemption and the second using the Chase annual free night certificate. My credit card was charged for one night despite being told at check out that nothing was owed. It took a host of emails and a claim to Chase before the money was refunded
If you think I got any explanation or a word of apology, quit dreaming. Crown Plaza Israel and IHG customer service at their best!
I was Bonvoyd to my benefit I booked a night with points and they never deducted it from my account
Titanium Elite …this year about 55 nights at Marriott…..Zero upgrades. I have done the same multiple times where I have shown suits are available for sale but they just say app is not updated. We have none available. I even offered if I book one will you give me suite and cancel other room. Sir we can’t do that if you book you will loose other room and we will charge you for both rooms.
Moral of story : Do not waste your time with Marriott! no loyalty – you get what you paid for …if you want loyalty look some where else……….Marriott has no control over franchise hotels..I miss by Hyatt diamond days 🙁
Guess could go both ways. I stated at the crowne plaza San Mateo a few months ago. Originally booked to rooms. At check in we asked for cinnecting rooms. They gave us a two room suite instead. And then refunded the points for one room!
I get all requested upgrades about 90% of the time, travel for work and currently at over 260 qualifying nights and just bumped to Ambassador.
Best bet for upgrades….
As soon as the mobile app let’s you prior to checkin send a nice app message… I say something like “evening, I’ll be checking in around xyz time, and I would love an upgrade to the 2 bedroom suite i see available, as usual you guys rock! Look forward to a great stay” and 9/10 times that gets an upgrade.
Be nice, I mean excessively nice, use names, thank them, compliment them… even the most sour of front counter reps appreciate good customers. I have NEVER been denied when requested. (10% of the time it does sell out between booking and arrival) And this is year 3 with marriot. I also frequently have other employees arrive before me and other than 1 time have always been able to have them charge my card on file for the room(s) and allow the other tech to check in.
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Recently I spent 60k points a night at the DT Ritz in LA. After alerting the team that I was traveling on vacation for once and with my hopefully at the time Fiance they said theyd be happy to check on upgrades, again very kind in coms… upon arrival they upgraded us to a jr suite, then while cleaning it (as we arrived early, so they took our bags and we toured the around the hotel sipping our complimentary wine) 15mins later they called and upgraded us to an executive suite ($2500 a night) for the weekend and even brought champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and laid out rose petals in the room.. all complimentary on top if the daily wine and food credits, all for less than $50 and 120k points.
.
.
I’m extremely happy with Marriott overall, and theyve been stellar with issues, a recent hotel with no water comped 20k points, another one housekeeping ignored the dnd sign and comped 5k points, another screwed up some billing and comped 7500 points.
.
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Issues happen, treat others with class and understanding and you get alot more with honey than vinegar.
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Cheers and happy travels!
I had a similar issue with IHG. They misinformed me I could use the annual free night as long as it was booked before expiration. Then they told me it needed to be booked by end of July. I used it juts to get into a pool party at a local Hotel Inidgo. As Platinum member they gave free drink certificate which I used at the Pool only to find 3 drinks charged to my room. I’m still fighting with them to reverse the charges. Incompetence of the highest level exists at IHG too.
i had the same issue while checking in @ the residence inn bel harbor and asking for a upgrade for titanium elite and traveling with my 1 year old twins so i really needed the suite and after waiting and explaining and begging for a half hour by showing them its available for purchase on the app they checked me in so i thought they finally upgraded me i get up to the room only to see that i get the regular room so i go back down and wait for another half hour and i actually ended up getting the upgrade but with a very very hard fight and no appreciation or loyalty for elite members
Used points to make a reservation at the Westin Bayshore, Vancouver for 5 nights with points August 2018 (‘pay’ for 4 nights, get 5th night free). Called them a few times to remind them that, though our first day booked was Saturday, my wife and I were taking a red-eye Saturday night and would be arriving in the middle of the night. No problem, they said. Our flight was delayed several hours and we arrived exhausted Sunday morning only to be told that we were a no-show and they gave away our room.
To be fair, the front desk tried to make it up. They waived parking for our stay, gave us a temporary room so we could wash up and fortunately found a room similar to what we had booked, although our first day was a bit messed up because we had to hang around the hotel until they found us something.
I wrote to the Bayshore directly giving them the names of those I spoke to on the phone assuring us our room would be waiting for us. I asked how they could give our room away when I had paid for it with my points. One year later, they have still not responded. Not a form letter of apology, not an email, nothing.
Is it worth to transfer bonvoy to miles or so?
I, strangely enough, had sn opposite of a #bonvoyed effect. I stayed at the Marriott property, Protea, In Cape Town in February. My stay costed 70,000 points and a few weeks ago I see that it was canceled even though I already stayed there and they refunded the points to me.