A few days ago, I wrote about a shady practice at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport. For months, the hotel has been accepting reservations, despite not actually being open to individual guests. Instead, the hotel seems to be housing people with a government contract.
Continue reading: Outsmarting A Sneaky Marriott With Ultimate Reservation Guarantee
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Would one be eligible for compensation if they booked a refundable rate and then cancelled the reservation? This hotel needs to be taught a lesson.
How has Marriott not sued this hotel? It did so in New York when a similar lower-level hotel became a homeless shelter. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/marriott-sues-franchisee-turning-new-york-hotel-migrant-shelter
At 120k points per person, I think that it wouldn't take many of us to break this little racket.
And what about compensation for all the other guests who never received what they were entitled to receive?
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- In fairness, the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee is never proactive, and is only provided to those who request it...
But you only get the points after check out, so quite a lift for someone to go through the hassle of getting there, even if living in GTA.
Hmm. Outside of trying to generate some extra points (which are valuable), I am not sure what the point of this is in terms of trying to "teach Marriott a lesson" or anything.
1) Government contracts, particularly for things like homeless services, are tricky because they are easy money for hotels but can cause issues with the franchise agreement. Generally, hotels need to operate properties as the brand and service transient guests in order not to violate terms of the franchise agreement. If you "shut down" while taking such a contract, you could end up violating the terms of the agreement. So this hotel is probably continuing to "operate" as a Fairfield by taking reservations, then serving those reservations at sister (non Marriott) properties. Another option for the hotel would be to take the government contract, but also continue to accept guests for a small portion of the rooms - something tells me guests would be more upset if they found out they were staying in homeless housing...
2) The hotel is apparently immediately letting guests know about the issue at booking. At that point, guests can presumably cancel and rebook with another hotel if they choose. I am guessing things like prepaid, nonrefundable bookings and also would be taken care of by the hotel or Marriott if those were an issue.
Overall, I get the idea about trying to get points out of this situation, but I ultimately don't view the franchisee here as "sneaky" or somehow unethical. The franchisee here ultimately is providing lodging to guests, and guests have the optionality to book elsewhere.
This is interesting. In my past experience, Marriott customer service has always sided with the hotel that cancelled the reservation ahead of time due to overbooking. Granted, the difference is the hotel is cancelling the reservation and not providing alternate accommodation, as opposed to this FI sending customers to an alternate hotel (actual walk).
For context, here is a story from last year about how Marriott sued a New York City franchisee for operating as a homeless shelter rather than a hotel:
I am guessing some of the language about how the hotel is "unable" to stop taking reservations is due to the franchisee trying to not run afoul of the franchise agreement.
Also my experience that the benefit only kicks in if you actually get to the hotel and THEN they walk you.
(1) I mean, 120k points is a heck of a reason in and of itself.
(2) So, what they /should/ do is negotiate with Marriott (maybe paying a penalty?) to e.g. temporarily de-flag or de-list the hotel as part of negotiating for a contract like this. Plenty of properties closed for a spell during the pandemic and others have closed for renovations, so there's got to be a clause in there allowing for that. If they can't manage it with Marriott, they probably could with Hilton or IHG (since they seem to have hotels with all three). And if they flat-out can't do a deal? Then maybe don't do this.
(3) If they can't do (2) for some reason, I think the "right" answer would be to disclose the issue at booking, give folks the option (heck, maybe let them choose among the other hotels in their "family") and, more importantly, when moving the guests adjust their rate to the other hotel's rate if that rate is lower (or amend the rate on the Marriott website to match the intended rebooking hotel's rate). I think what was sticking in quite a few folks' guts was them booking folks in at (say) CAD300 at the FI and then relocating them to another property whose "going rate" was CAD200.
I've seen an inability to close reservations on a given night before (either because of a computer glitch - over at Hyatt - or because the computer was insisting on booking space on the basis of expected no-shows - at a Westin), but not on an extended basis like this.
I figure there's got to be a way to either block out inventory on an extended basis or make the rates "unappetizing" (e.g. I recall some hotel in DC parking rates at like $9k/night), though I suspect there are cases where an absurd rate might get a few bookings anyway in a real crisis (I /can/ see someone shelling out over $1k in a meltdown if they expect to get $500 from TI and $200 from the airline).
More to the point, others have raised the NYC Marriott suit - look, I'd be stunned if Marriott wouldn't agree to a temporary de-flagging deal or letting the hotel be shut down in exchange for some sort of breakage fee. It might require the hotel to push back on requests from the government booking (e.g. "No, we need you to agree to six months of this or no-can-do"), but that's the nature of a negotiating process.
OMAAT readers, unite!
It is our duty to book nights at this property and then immediately file for the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee. As we are the ones with this knowledge, it is our duty to pressure the hotel into changing its online availability (so that others who do not possess this knowledge no longer get scammed by this hotel, of course - why else would we do it?). We need to go do some charity work people. Let's get on it!
‘ e.g. I recall some hotel in DC parking rates at like $9k/night’
Seriously? $9,000 dollars a night to park your car??? That is absurd.
I will never again stay at a Bonvoy property. At a Marriott in Chicago last year I was unable to use the hotel's wifi because I didn't book my room through the Bonvoy membership that I didn't have. It's not that I didn't get free wifi, I couldn't even PAY for it. How utterly stupid.
The suggestion is that one puts an indeed ridiculous price which means that no-one will book it.
Somewhat separately I see some absurb prices on eBay.
They could be user (seller) mistakes, but I do wonder whether some of them are steganography.
Yeah. There was one seller who had a shipping price of like $250 for something. I contacted them and they facepalmed and lowered it. Sometimes it's a mistake, sometimes it's just deceptive.
I guess relatively few people would actually take the time to contact Marriott about the guarantee. It is interesting that the hotel rebooks at the Hampton Inn which is not a Marriott property.