A Marriott affiliated property near Toronto Airport is engaging in a practice that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, at least not to this extent. I can’t believe for how long this has seemingly been going on.
In this post:
Fairfield Toronto Airport sends people to Crowne Plaza
An OMAAT reader booked a stay at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport directly through Marriott’s website. Three hours after booking, he received an email telling him that his reservation can’t be honored due to “unforeseen circumstances,” but that he’d be accommodated at the Crowne Plaza. Here’s what the email states:
We were looking forward to your stay with us at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport on [date] but unfortunately need to provide you with an alternative accommodation due to unforeseen circumstances. We are pleased to inform you that we have made arrangements for you at the full-service Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport by IHG, located at 33 Carlson Ct, Toronto, ON M9W 6H5, just 3 kilometers away from the Fairfield for the duration of your stay. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience but trust that you will have a wonderful stay at the Crowne Plaza. Rest assured that all the same services and more are available to you and your party including complimentary full buffet breakfast, complimentary Pearson Airport shuttle service and an on-site restaurant.
The Crowne Plaza has been informed of all your reservation details and will be expecting your arrival, please feel free to travel straight there.
Okay, sometimes things do happen at hotels, that cause guests to need to be rebooked elsewhere. However, he became a little suspicious given how quickly after booking he received this email. Furthermore, he noticed that the hotel was still selling rooms for the same date even after being told the reservation couldn’t be honored.
The hotel apparently isn’t actually operating right now
If you look at the TripAdvisor reviews for this property, every single review over the past year has the same theme — the reservation couldn’t be honored due to “unforeseen circumstances,” and guests were moved elsewhere, typically to the Crowne Plaza.
So, what’s going on here? According to the most recent review, it seems the hotel may have a government contract for housing people, and isn’t actually accepting any guests:
This hotel is housing homeless people and is not capable of taking any guests at this time. Take a look at the reviews, for months they have been taking reservations and switching people to other hotels. I unfortunately went to this hotel this week and the entire lobby looks like a scene out of the last of us show. Totally fraudulent activity and dishonourable business practice. DO NOT BOOK HERE and please complain to Marriott. What a shameful business.
So, what’s the hotel’s motivation for selling rooms, then? I imagine there are two things at play:
- The Fairfield is typically priced higher than the Crowne Plaza, so guests are stuck paying a higher rate for a hotel they didn’t actually want to stay at
- The two hotels are owned by the same company, so this is a way to fill more rooms at the Crowne Plaza with guests who may not have otherwise considered booking the property (due to loyalty, or whatever else)
I think this practice as such is deceiving and dishonest. But what really takes it to the next level is the claim that this is due to “unforeseen circumstances,” which is a blatant lie. The hotel knows exactly what it’s doing.
So, is there any way to handle this situation to come out ahead? The reader brings up the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee, whereby Marriott has published compensation amounts when your reservation can’t be honored. If you have high tier elite status, you could be looking at $100 plus 90,000 Bonvoy points in compensation, in addition to having your night covered elsewhere.
There’s a catch, though, as this restriction is in the terms & conditions:
A Participating Property must be open and operational for the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee benefit/compensation to apply.
I imagine the hotel would claim it isn’t open or operational, and therefore, would be able to reject that claim. Clearly the hotel wants it both ways — it wants to accept bookings as if it’s open, but wants to be allowed to make cancelations as if it’s closed.
Bottom line
The Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport is running quite the hustle. For a long time now, the hotel appears to be closed for some sort of a government housing contract. The hotel continues to accept reservations, though, and then simply rebooks guests at the Crowne Plaza, claiming it’s due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
This is really low, both because the hotel is deceiving guests, and also because the Crowne Plaza is typically priced lower than the Fairfield Inn & Suites.
What do you make of this Fairfield YYZ’s rebooking practice?
(1) I think there would be room to complain under whatever consumer protection law(s) apply for Ontario/Canada.
(2) I'd also track the rates between the hotels and consider a chargeback for the difference (probably plus any lost RDMs if those don't turn up).
(3) It might even be worth adding a claim for the equivalent value of the Marriott guarantee if relevant (since even with the hotel being "not operational", if they're still selling space...
(1) I think there would be room to complain under whatever consumer protection law(s) apply for Ontario/Canada.
(2) I'd also track the rates between the hotels and consider a chargeback for the difference (probably plus any lost RDMs if those don't turn up).
(3) It might even be worth adding a claim for the equivalent value of the Marriott guarantee if relevant (since even with the hotel being "not operational", if they're still selling space right up to your trip that claim gets messy). IANAL but this reeks of gross negligence on Marriott's part (a hotel being closed for a few days is one thing, but for weeks or months...no, sorry, try again).
Really, what /should/ happen is Marriott ought to de-list the hotel until they start operating (and threaten the franchisee with a ban if they don't cooperate). Heck, if I was a nearby franchisee I might even complain since Marriott is arguably allowing "my" stays to be siphoned off. But of course, they won't.
Not to mention you won't get your mostly worthless Marriott points, you'll get even more worthless IHG points instead. No thanks.
Not surprised. This is typical of Canadian dishonesty. Canadians love ripping each other off. Usually, it's by high prices (such as $6/gallon gas, very expensive milk and cheese, high rent, etc.) but sometimes they rip each other off this way.
And Marriott corporate turns a blind eye towards this practice?
Wow of all the chains, who would have guessed Marriott?!?! Oh wait everyone.
Interesting … it’s obviously been going on for a year, as in March 2024 I was supposed to overnight at the Fairfield on my way home & just as I was leaving the UK I received the notice that we had been moved to the Crowne Plaza … as a Marriott Titanium member I would not have looked at the Crowne Plaza as an option if the Fairfield had been unavailable … However, this appears to be an “owner” created issue not a Marriott one ….
This exact thing happened to my in-laws at this hotel a few months ago.
Have them file a complaint: https://www.tico.ca/consumers/file-a-complaint
This won't happen when Canada becomes the 51st state and the Justice Department cracks down on Canadian fraud. These hotel owners will be sent to the Greenland penal colony.
I had something similar happen during CoVid at the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport - they upgraded me to the Hilton next door for the same price (Hilton was more expensive at the time of my booking).
They captured a wider group of customers who might not have booked the more expensive and managed a limited number of guests at the optimal cost to them. And the travel limits changed every day back then,...
I had something similar happen during CoVid at the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport - they upgraded me to the Hilton next door for the same price (Hilton was more expensive at the time of my booking).
They captured a wider group of customers who might not have booked the more expensive and managed a limited number of guests at the optimal cost to them. And the travel limits changed every day back then, so I understood their situation and was ok with that process…
This case, not so much. They are selling a service they can’t/have no intention of delivering, putting you into a lesser product (at least based on price), so that’s fraud, plain and simple.
Report the fraud to the authorities, force them to stop it…businesses only get away with this nonsense, because we let them…
Yeah. There's a lot that was, if not "okay", at least understandable in 2020-22. I can't entirely blame that hotel, either, because they were (to all appearances) letting folks in via the "cheaper" property and then "upgrading" them, and in that context it feels like a desperate survival tactic. Honestly, if they were willing to ensure "appropriate" crediting for nights/points and the hotels are within a block or two of one another I'd say that's...
Yeah. There's a lot that was, if not "okay", at least understandable in 2020-22. I can't entirely blame that hotel, either, because they were (to all appearances) letting folks in via the "cheaper" property and then "upgrading" them, and in that context it feels like a desperate survival tactic. Honestly, if they were willing to ensure "appropriate" crediting for nights/points and the hotels are within a block or two of one another I'd say that's no-harm/no-foul.
And this isn't a "booking glitch" (I've had that happen twice - once where there was nobody on duty empowered to call Hyatt and cut off bookings, and they got reamed by the Globalist rep when I called in - and once where the problem was that the system was automatically assuming a certain number of no-shows but the hotel was bought out by a wedding party or two and everybody had showed...so the hotel was essentially being screwed by an algorithm, and they honored the compensation). This isn't even "We just lost 20 rooms due to a sprinkler incident" (I've heard of things like that happening) or even "some of the rooms are technically not up to standard because the TV is broken" (which I might be willing to waive). This is premeditated and not in a genuine force majeure situation.
One goofy point - it's a pity those dingbats don't offer a solid rate with AAdvantage Hotels. Current rate seems to peak out at 16.3 RDMs/dollar at the HGI (others are rather worse) and probably a bit more in LPs (I'm on a 30% bonus right now). If they were safely clear of 20 LPs/dollar before bonuses (I've seen a few of those over the years), this would be a tempting target for "buying" status. And I can't help but muse over the ethics of booking a stay at a hotel that I have no intention of making if it's at a hotel that has no intention of honoring the reservation anyway.
The real scam is homeless native Canadians get to freeze while sleeping under highway overpasses while 3rd world illegals get free hotels
another racist MAGA wh reads the Daily Mail . When you mean native you mean the indigenous population ?
you left out white, straight and non-elite. oh look! "illegal" is a noun now. and "3rd world" can be used as an insult against a person.
He must have migrated over from VFTW or LALF.
Careful, Aaron.
Indigenous population in Canadia was conquered fair and square, just like every other current country, the tiny amount of them left, if any? They don't matter unless they take it back. By force.
Right wingers suddenly discovering their care for First Nations people after this is like MAGAs suddenly discovering their concern for antisemitism because they think they can use it to 'own the libs' at schools like Harvard.
It's common in large Canadian cities due to their current government policy: hotels make large bank from taxpayers to house refugees and homeless, their negotiated rates are on par with their posted rates so corporate flyers and airline crew are at the bottom. Better to accommodate a newly arrived economic migrant than a paying customer.
Yeah, so they can help that person get a job and find a place to rent once they start getting a salary, so they don't stay homeless forever. Anyone with half a brain can figure that out.
@Aaron - you clearly have no brain. How are they going to get jobs without work visas? THEY’RE ILLEGALS! Who is going to sponsor an illegal you dimwit?
There can simply be no reason this would be done unless the owners have a specific benefit in the process. Otherwise, why bother? I could see if allowing bookings over 90 days from now with an idea that the Government may move the people being housed there eventually. But the fact you can book a room on the same day and instantly get this email is really odd. The best I can imagine is that...
There can simply be no reason this would be done unless the owners have a specific benefit in the process. Otherwise, why bother? I could see if allowing bookings over 90 days from now with an idea that the Government may move the people being housed there eventually. But the fact you can book a room on the same day and instantly get this email is really odd. The best I can imagine is that given two different loyalty brands it than covers two programs and booking sites. This allows for still showing Fairfield to Bonvoy loyalists who, if showing full or closed, might book at another Bonvoy property that is not owned by this company.
So, yes, it's a bait and switch. Maybe not for guests who have no particular care about loyalty programs. But to those who do it - is moving a loyalist out of Bonvoy and into IHG and baiting them away from booking a different Bonvoy property close by.
I will add, this seems the obvious ploy, and if so, local Marriott branded hotels should be screaming foul even more so than the guests. They are losing bookings to this in the program bait and switch have a legitimate complaint with Marriott HQ as well as potential lost income claims.
Hotel owner groups often have hotels from different brands, sometimes sharing airport shuttle service. The owners care about their hotels, not about brand affiliation.
Umm, yes, that was my point?
Dear bloggers, influencers, and people making money off internet marketing. Everyone else also welcome.
Do you consider this hotel is just doing your everyday "clickbait"?
And what separates clickbait from scam?
Should this post title be
A: Fairfield Toronto Airport Rebooking Scam: This Is Low
or
B: Fairfield Toronto Airport Rebooking clickbait: This Is Low
Appreciate all your responses.
So you don't find a bait and switch amongst hotels at a highly trafficked airport to be newsworthy on a blog that focuses on loyalty?
Debating Eskimo on the merits won't get you anywhere. He wants to appear clever at others' expense. As far as I can tell, he wants to suggest that Ben shouldn't have posted the piece. Or shouldn't have used that headline. Or shouldn't have done something. And that Ben's "shouldn't" is equivalent to the fraud we're learning about in the post. Nonsense.
@DenB
On the contrary, I'm not trying to appear smart.
I never suggest Ben shouldn't post stuff like this.
Ben and bloggers should absolutely call out stuff like this.
I'm just trying to point out to people who don't see the hypocrisy of clickbait vs scam here.
You being one of them.
Hey there Eskimo. There's clearly a major distinction between this hotel's little scam and clickbait. It's the stakes.
If I select a clickbait article, I can stop reading it and move on as soon as I realize it. Stakes are higher for those spending their good money on a place to stay while traveling.
@Eskimo
I think the difference between clickbait and scam is when in the process they reveal the bait and switch.
If a customer was on the Fairfield booking page and got a pop up saying 'We're closed, but we'd love to have you at the Crowne Plaza' -> clickbait (use 1 thing to bait them in, and show them the real content when they're on your page)
In this case, the customer only finds out AFTER they've booked and PAID, which would make this an obvious scam.
Last week, I was checking into the W Sao Paulo, and there was a suite available on the Marriott app. I asked for an upgrade and the front desk told me they don't see a suite available in their system. The Marriott app also showed 3 Premium King rooms available, and the hotel said they don't see those. They did have 1 Premium Double room.
If I had immediately booked the Suite or Premium...
Last week, I was checking into the W Sao Paulo, and there was a suite available on the Marriott app. I asked for an upgrade and the front desk told me they don't see a suite available in their system. The Marriott app also showed 3 Premium King rooms available, and the hotel said they don't see those. They did have 1 Premium Double room.
If I had immediately booked the Suite or Premium King, and they couldn't honor it because the rooms weren't available, would the hotel be responsible for the Marriott guarantee amount?
Try book it.
These front desk Pinocchio always have magic spells they never tell the public about.
But rather turning into a real boy, they can magically turn an entry level room into a vacant suite.
If you see elite-upgrade-eligible inventory on the app, when checking in, ask what rooms might be available for a *paid* upgrade. If any include elite-upgrade-eligible rooms, then spring your elite status request. If they deny it, then pause your check-in and call Marriott. However Marriott acts, it is your signal to what tier status really means going forward.
Fred, we already know how Marriott would act.
Keep reminding yourself.
YOU are the product.
The cow doesn't get to pull I'm a wagyu status and pick the slaughterhouse.
File complaints with Ontario's regulator: https://www.tico.ca/consumers/file-a-complaint
I was walked to the Hampton Inn next door (again same owner) maybe 18 months ago or so - and a very similar story. Now, it all makes sense
Ditto. I think I had booked through Chase or C1 platform to use some travel credit and never got a notice they had claimed to had emailed me. Maybe that's why they used the Hampton since I was already in the lobby? Anyway, had no idea until now.
This is disgusting practice indeed. It is not a question about which one is cheaper or whether you are able to lose time again to cancel the booking and find another hotel in a location that you wanted in the first place...
The customer service (and trustworthiness, reliability) around the world goes down every year, I guess because there are too many travellers. And if they do not deceive you, they will find someone else...
This is disgusting practice indeed. It is not a question about which one is cheaper or whether you are able to lose time again to cancel the booking and find another hotel in a location that you wanted in the first place...
The customer service (and trustworthiness, reliability) around the world goes down every year, I guess because there are too many travellers. And if they do not deceive you, they will find someone else for sure. Nowadays too many people are accepting things that were once deemed unacceptable, and service providers know that. Hence, in a long term it's still profitable for the business...
Ben, please continue with such reviews and postings, they are useful, at least for some.
Just another reason to not stay at Marriott branded hotel.
Doing a quick search of random dates I found the cheapest rooms priced about 3 to 5 bucks less from fairfield at that crowne plaza. Given crowne is bit more full service & upscale I would've picked that anyway between the two.
Secondly as long as your within the cancellation/refund period when informed of the hotel switch nothing stopping you from doing so as well. Would this be a problem if the bump up...
Doing a quick search of random dates I found the cheapest rooms priced about 3 to 5 bucks less from fairfield at that crowne plaza. Given crowne is bit more full service & upscale I would've picked that anyway between the two.
Secondly as long as your within the cancellation/refund period when informed of the hotel switch nothing stopping you from doing so as well. Would this be a problem if the bump up were to a Ritz or a St Reg even if those were "cheaper" (then again why would someone pick Fairfield over the other two for more $)
The same thing happened at several hotels during the pandemic that shared a property with another Marriott brand. They would often accept bookings for either Marriott brand and then switch guests to the "open" hotel. Had this happen several times in the Middle East. I would flag it as getting walked since I showed that you could still book it and according to the terms it was a violation. The GM would often offer a...
The same thing happened at several hotels during the pandemic that shared a property with another Marriott brand. They would often accept bookings for either Marriott brand and then switch guests to the "open" hotel. Had this happen several times in the Middle East. I would flag it as getting walked since I showed that you could still book it and according to the terms it was a violation. The GM would often offer a cash compensation on the bill and/or points. I kept booking and pointing it out as a matter of principle. They refused to change and would continue to offer the compensation. Whatever, thanks for the free cash and points!
Everyone needs to stop using pandemic as an excuse. Heck I curse all those 24 hours establishment that now closes at 10pm.
Now Steve-O as bad as Americans like to trash the Middle East, they probably would honor the agreement (or lock you up forever).
But in America, I and almost everyone never ever ever got any cash from Bonvoy benefit guarantee.
Not sure they need to "share" revenue, they are both owned by the same entity, so just sending guests to a sister hotel.
https://mangahotels.com/hotel-properties/
Thereby undercutting Marriott and also not awarding the guest any points.
Having owners/managers operate for more than one brand-group pretty much ruins the concept of the customer-facing brand
I'd be livid if this happened to me. Especially when it's so blatant.
Truthfully, I do not find anything wrong with this. As long as 1) the person will get the points/night credit 2) same rate 3) same facilities/comfort (which in this case sounds like an upgrade instead of a downgrade).
Most probably both properties are owned by the same company.
@ Mike -- Hey, to each their own, but you don't have an issue with a company engaging in a bait and switch practice, and lying to guests? The hotel is quite literally selling a product it can't offer, and then lies by saying it's due to "unforeseen circumstances."
What does Marriott have to say? Or is just the usual case that they are an owner vs customer facing chain?
Fraud is fraud; deception is deception
@Mike. Which points? IHG? Marriott? Further, are they getting the bonus points that the TOS says they are entitled to for Bonvoy? It's not only switching hotels, it's switching an entire brand of loyalty.
I can't imagine you would actually get Marriott points (and perhaps more importantly night credits) in this situation. Would you even get IHG points since you didn't book through them?