Here’s something interesting that I had never put much thought into, though I’m now realizing this may be a widespread issue.
Tracking hotel points can be complicated
Maybe I’m just been lazy, but historically I haven’t generally “audited” my hotel stays to make sure I was earning the correct number of points.
For example, Marriott offers 10 “base” points per dollar spent, so after a stay I’ll typically check to make sure they posted, but I haven’t typically analyzed whether or not it’s exactly right. In other words, I’d notice if the number of points awarded is zero, but if they short me 10-20% points, I probably wouldn’t notice.
That’s also partly because they don’t all that clearly define what spend is qualifying, as I’ll explain below.
What hotel charges are eligible for points?
For the purpose of this example I’m talking about Marriott. Marriott awards 10 base points per dollar spent at most of their brands (this is before any elite bonuses, etc.). So, what purchases qualify? Per the terms:
i. Charges incurred during a stay in a guest room at a Participating Property by a Member on his/her folio and up to two (2) additional guest rooms, including, without limitation, charges for:
A. Qualifying Rates for Stays;
B. Food and beverages (excluding alcoholic beverages where prohibited by law) and may exclude charges incurred at outlets that are not managed or operated by the Participating Property;
C. Direct-dialed in-room telephone and direct-dialed in-room fax;
D. In-room movies and video games;
provided the Member provides his/her Membership Number at the time of reservation or at check-in, stays in one of the reserved guest rooms, and pays for the charges
So as you can see, room rate and food and beverage outlets do qualify. Hotel spas generally don’t qualify, and in some cases alcohol doesn’t qualify. Furthermore, obviously taxes, service charges, fees, etc., wouldn’t be eligible for points accrual.
The one grey area is with “outlets that are not managed or operated by the participating property.” I’m not sure exactly how they define that for hotel restaurants. It can also be tough to go back and separate charges, like tips, taxes, etc.
How I’m noticing that Marriott is shorting me points
I’m a Starwood Ambassador member (I guess now a Marriott Ambassador member), and going forward that requires 100 elite nights per year plus $20,000 of qualifying spend. There’s a handy tracker on the Marriott website that shows you your spend progress, assuming you’re approaching Ambassador status (though the graphics are a bit off — as you can see, I need zero nights to Ambassador, but the “bar” doesn’t show as being all the way there).
I recently completed a stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora and am slowly nearing the $20,000 spend requirement for the year, so perhaps I’m paying attention more closely than usual.
So I easily noticed when I didn’t even earn close to as many points as I should have.
If you divide the “base points” you earned for a stay by 10, that should correspond to your qualifying spend. However, in this case that number didn’t even account for my pre-tax room rate, let alone what I spent to upgrade to an overwater villa one night, as well as all the money I spent on food and beverages.
Now that I’m focused on this, I’ve gone back to a few other stays, and saw that I was also shorted points, but not to the same extent as here. I’d estimate that I should have earned at least 30% more points in this case (and correspondingly about 30% more qualifying spend towards Ambassador).
What’s the best way to deal with this?
Like I said, I’ve never paid attention this closely before to the exact number of points I’ve earned, but I’ve now noticed this seems to be a “thing.” I’m not sure whether this is something Marriott does systematically (I highly doubt it), but rather I think it’s more likely that hotels are trying to “hide” certain charges as non-qualifying, because presumably they’re having to pay for the points being issued for them.
I’m not exactly sure how to go about dealing with this. I don’t think contacting the hotel directly will do much, while Marriott only has a form online for reporting missing stays, and not for reporting stays that posted incorrectly.
Fortunately I have an Ambassador who is awesome and I’m sure could help, but I’m curious more generally about the best way to go about this.
Bottom line
Maybe I’m just really unlucky, but it sure seems to me like some Marriott hotels are making a habit of shorting points for stays. I get that spa treatments and some outlets that are managed by third parties may not qualify, but this seems to go way beyond that.
I’m curious if anyone has faced this situation before, and if so, how you handled it? I wonder just how widespread this problem is, so if you have a few minutes, feel free to “audit” some of your previous stays, as I’d love some more data points.
I always have to chase my points!!! & I noticed it has to do on how ‘good’ the Internet Customer Care Representative is for me to get them back!!!!! NOT FAIR! NOT CORRECT!!!!
I just noticed I have not been getting the correct amount of points on almost all of my stays. Dealer with anyone over the phone is a nightmare. One person created a "case file" for investigation and the emails back and forth were so frustrating. They just keep saying there are no errors but I have the proof that there are, additionally the CSR on the phone confirmed the errors but created a case file...
I just noticed I have not been getting the correct amount of points on almost all of my stays. Dealer with anyone over the phone is a nightmare. One person created a "case file" for investigation and the emails back and forth were so frustrating. They just keep saying there are no errors but I have the proof that there are, additionally the CSR on the phone confirmed the errors but created a case file instead of staying on the phone for hours to fix them all.
Now nothing is happening and I don't know how to get it all fixed.
I learned a long time ago that no matter what Marriott os involved in, it is a scam. I am a long time owner of two full weeks time share which is a financial rip off. I am so tired of their lies and changes that just are the next scam. I closed my Marriott VISA before they could put me in their next scam BONVOY. I am happy to see some courts are ruling against Marriott and am anxious for complete exposure of their ethical lapses.
Happening more and more. I travel often for business, and not only the Marriott, although they are the worst so far, but Hilton is also doing it. They just claim I booked through booking.com, with no proof whatsoever. I show a copy of my bill showing I paid on the property with my AMEX, but they still state the same old line. They are probably low wage folks from another country, so I cannot ask...
Happening more and more. I travel often for business, and not only the Marriott, although they are the worst so far, but Hilton is also doing it. They just claim I booked through booking.com, with no proof whatsoever. I show a copy of my bill showing I paid on the property with my AMEX, but they still state the same old line. They are probably low wage folks from another country, so I cannot ask for a supervisor. At least the Hilton has a chat so I can get it taken care of, but not with the Marriott. I'm quite sick of this...and it's not only me, several of my co-workers are experiencing the same thing.
I began auditing my points at the start of 2018 and have found that, generally speaking, "Base" and "Elite" points post correctly. It's with "Extra"--my welcome gift, "Going Green" and skipping housekeeping (when the property offers that program), and selecting points over breakfast vouchers--that most of my problems take place. In two-night stay completed earlier this month (and what brought me here), that was a short of 2,250 points. It's not nearly the total of...
I began auditing my points at the start of 2018 and have found that, generally speaking, "Base" and "Elite" points post correctly. It's with "Extra"--my welcome gift, "Going Green" and skipping housekeeping (when the property offers that program), and selecting points over breakfast vouchers--that most of my problems take place. In two-night stay completed earlier this month (and what brought me here), that was a short of 2,250 points. It's not nearly the total of like some that I've read here, but there's a reason I choose points and I expect to receive them. "Going green" is the most likely non-points issue of them all, regardless if selected through the app at check-in or through the hanging door sign.
I also experience problems on the very rare occasion that I split the final bill between cards. The MR# is never transferred over to the second folio and those nights never get posted. Most recently, this was a 12,600-point shortage. Since more than one attachment is needed, you can't just submit it "normally" through the website and in one instance, Guest Relations told me submission procedures that were incorrect, because after their investigation (which appears to consist of "he got some points, so his stay clearly posted and he's wrong"), they said the stay had posted and closed the case without further discussion, so I'll be starting completely over on that and using e-mail.
I just audited my stays for last year, and in the last half alone I realized i had been shorted ~120,000+ rewards points. It seems if there was a way to earn points, there was a way for Mariott and its properties to short me. Here are a few
- 4 missing stays
- 2 "partial" missing stays (billing for 3 days, rewards points for 1)
- incorrect elite multiplier applied (using...
I just audited my stays for last year, and in the last half alone I realized i had been shorted ~120,000+ rewards points. It seems if there was a way to earn points, there was a way for Mariott and its properties to short me. Here are a few
- 4 missing stays
- 2 "partial" missing stays (billing for 3 days, rewards points for 1)
- incorrect elite multiplier applied (using the .25 multiplier when it should be .5 or .75)
- Base points showing as 1X Qualifying dollar spend
- front Desk operators promising compensatory points for errors the hotel has made and then not following through
- Not awarding the "welcome" bonus or using a lower welcome bonus
- Not compensating for lack of lounge at certain hotel brands. Westin is particularly bad and I have had to show front desk workers the terms of service before awarding me points for not having a Lounge (with status)
- "Your Choice" / "Green Choice" points not awarded even though I forego housekeeping
The compounding result of all of this was a shortage of ~120,000 points, and enough nights that I did not receive Ambassador status even though I had actually stayed 100+ nights (missing stays). In the end the only way to receive my due points was to call elite services, some of whom were helpful, others intentionally unhelpful, others helpful but unwilling to stay on the phone with me for extended periods of time even though my issues were unresolved (gotta hit those call productivity metrics!). In the end, I spent about 4-5 hours auditing my hotel stays, reading the terms of service and sitting on the phone with customer service representatives
I just had this happen to me this weekend. Spent over $2.1k for a stay at the W South Beach. Received 13,893 points (7,929 base and 5,954 plat prem bonus), no 1,000 bonus points as I chose the breakfast option. Taking out the taxes and resort fees, I should have received 19,670 base points and 14,753 plat prem bonus points. I was short changed by 20,530 points (59.6%)!!
I'm a bit of a math nerd so I always check the points posted from a hotel stay. So, I read all the details of the new Marriott Rewards program and I found several areas where we are being short-changed. Corporate Marriott lawyers and program management appear to be trying to disclose as much as they can in their terms and conditions but as many have commented previously so much is left to the individual...
I'm a bit of a math nerd so I always check the points posted from a hotel stay. So, I read all the details of the new Marriott Rewards program and I found several areas where we are being short-changed. Corporate Marriott lawyers and program management appear to be trying to disclose as much as they can in their terms and conditions but as many have commented previously so much is left to the individual properties to implement and they are, in some cases, screwing us. One area which I find annoying, is when you are redeeming a cash and points award, you do not get points on the cash part. The Platinum gift choice of points is very random - some times I get it and others I do not - very much left up to the checkin person whether they click on the correct option. Lucky - in your case, it's worth asking your Ambassador to check your statements vs. points awarded. Since I have only 90 nights and way below the $20k spend (due to mostly award stays) I don't have that luxury. Happy holidays to all!
Hmm, this seems like a Marriott class action suit waiting to happen. As if the Marriott/Starwood data breach wasn't enough to be irritated about.
This has happened to me several times since the system merge. In my case it seems like they frequently miss the food & beverage charges. It's usually easily fixed with a call or email, but my last stay they pushed back and I'm pretty sure that even after some back and forth over email, I'm missing about 1,300 points - but I gave up at that point because it just wasn't worth it.
@Nick, do you know if this hotel has decent Wi-Fi? It's not free, so would I be better off paying for it or just using my 4G and paying Verizon? P.S. I have status at a hotel.
I know of hotels that fixed the USD rate for points conversion (vs the local currency) at a much higher value (based on exchange rates that are probably dated many many years ago when USD is much stronger) and kept that old exchange rate because it is in their favour. (Ie the exchange rate for points conversion is set manually, and different from what you paid for in credit card)
Not sure if Marriott has...
I know of hotels that fixed the USD rate for points conversion (vs the local currency) at a much higher value (based on exchange rates that are probably dated many many years ago when USD is much stronger) and kept that old exchange rate because it is in their favour. (Ie the exchange rate for points conversion is set manually, and different from what you paid for in credit card)
Not sure if Marriott has guidelines on such forex conversion on their MR points.
If the exchange rate set is 20% in favor of the hotel, you would have lost 20% in value. Add items they deemed as non-qualifying (unless you check the breakdown deeply, you may not know), you would find yourself 30% less in your points entitlement.
If forex rates for points conversion is determine manually, many hotels will take the opportunity to give themselves a good buffer; for justification, they will say that is what they do when they accept USD in cash inlieu of local currency anyway (ie a ripoff).
This could be an exploitation loophole by the hotels and some are probably aware and did not contest and simply "top" up the balance when they are "caught"?
I have not track closely my points these days. Like Lucky, if it looks within 10 to 15% of the range, i might not have queried much. It is too much effort to argue against the hotel's deemed currency conversion justification. However, if Lucky wants to investigate, this might be a direction to head to and we can see how much leeway the hotels gives themselves to save on their points crediting.
Happens too frequently.
I stay at the JW Marriott Phuket each year, via my timeshare. I'm supposed to get nights credit for the stay and points for all the incidentals. The nights post quickly. The incidentals, never. Every year I have to write in to have the points posted. It happens too consistently for me to believe this is anything other than the hotel seeking to reduce their points cost.
Rich, really? You reviewed a hotel. You did not answer the writer's question. Why?
I stayed in an overwater bungalow for a week in October 2018 at the Intercontinental Thalasso Resort, which is also located on the outer motu near the St Regis. My experience was awesome!
Quality and variety of food options was great at every meal, especially the buffet breakfast. We had pre-purchased the ‘half board’ option thru our travel agent, which included all breakfasts and dinners.
Housekeeping and dining service was good, and the...
I stayed in an overwater bungalow for a week in October 2018 at the Intercontinental Thalasso Resort, which is also located on the outer motu near the St Regis. My experience was awesome!
Quality and variety of food options was great at every meal, especially the buffet breakfast. We had pre-purchased the ‘half board’ option thru our travel agent, which included all breakfasts and dinners.
Housekeeping and dining service was good, and the hotel staff throughout the facility were very friendly. Cleanliness and maintenance of the bungalows and other infrastructure were great standards.
SCUBA dive center on property was a great plus, as was all of the various complimentary water activity sports gear.
I stayed a week at Thalasso in February 2014, and a week at Intercontinental La Moana (located on the south end of the main island. I would highly recommend both of them.
And P.S. I am a Marriott Premium Elite Lifetime member.
Marriott needs to make the money they spent on the merger somehow. This seems to be the way as only a small portion of guests will chase for their points only and that is only after realizing they weren’t properly credited. What harm is it to the behemoth to say oops and deal with it in a minority of cases. Most will go unnoticed and Marriott tremendously benefits. So yes, I think this is being...
Marriott needs to make the money they spent on the merger somehow. This seems to be the way as only a small portion of guests will chase for their points only and that is only after realizing they weren’t properly credited. What harm is it to the behemoth to say oops and deal with it in a minority of cases. Most will go unnoticed and Marriott tremendously benefits. So yes, I think this is being done deliberately. Unless and until there is a discussion in major newspapers or lawsuit, nothing will change.
,..............This happens all the time. Properties don't report some transactions, or use a card machine not making the hotel directly for the transaction. For example getting room service and having it charged to "Rio Hotel", instead of "Marriott Rio Atlantica". That doesn't trigger a proper cc charge. Marriott allows this. Starwood did not. When I am done using my one million points, Marriott is done, as far as I am concerned. I will use Expedia or similar.
This happens all the time. Properties don't report some transactions, or use a card machine not making the hotel directly for the transaction. For example getting room service and having it charged to "Rio Hotel", instead of "Marriott Rio Atlantica". That doesn't trigger a proper cc charge. Marriott allows this. Starwood did not. When I am done using my one million points, Marriott is done, as far as I am concerned. I will use Expedia or similar.
When wiil people understand that anything Marriott is involved in is a scam. Open your eyes. Marriott makes their money by scamming people and if they are tithing to the LDS this does not absolve them of their evil ways.
How's this for accountabilty, I've been missing all points for some stays, while nights are recorded I addition to any other accounting irregularities like awards stays debiting rewards accounts 2xor even 3x for a single stay. I spoke with a manager at the Platinum desk who told me while the ac punting may look wrong on my end z b on hers the points were orrectly issued and only taken out once. I asked for...
How's this for accountabilty, I've been missing all points for some stays, while nights are recorded I addition to any other accounting irregularities like awards stays debiting rewards accounts 2xor even 3x for a single stay. I spoke with a manager at the Platinum desk who told me while the ac punting may look wrong on my end z b on hers the points were orrectly issued and only taken out once. I asked for an official accounting ledger of reward points, to which she informedme she did not have. Furthermore, the points have two different accounting systems. While they may it show up in one they do i the other. She couldn't explain it, and after letting her know that's not acceptable, she said would submit a request for me. A week later I got a email from Marriott corporate stating they were unable to provide an account ledger and balance sheet. What she was ableto provide was a list compiled manually of my stays. This list did not include nights or revenue. I replied thanking her for the list but it was still missing stays on top of not being what I requested. She appologized stating. She could not provide a ledger.
So we are forced to trust acompany who has repeatedly proven its not trustworthy.
This effectively means Marriott is shirking all responsibility and accountability for I our reward points.
I write to Customer Service instead of using Missing Stays. In the future, I will also be askingfor compensation in points for my time given that this problem happens so frequently. After staying at The Pulse in San Diego (a timeshare property that allows paid stays), I asked for 10,000 points for multiple problems. I got a reply that they were most happy to give me the points. The man also told me to keep...
I write to Customer Service instead of using Missing Stays. In the future, I will also be askingfor compensation in points for my time given that this problem happens so frequently. After staying at The Pulse in San Diego (a timeshare property that allows paid stays), I asked for 10,000 points for multiple problems. I got a reply that they were most happy to give me the points. The man also told me to keep his email should I have problems in the future. I'm frustrated with this chronic problem as a Lifetime Platinum Premier Elite (whatever this fancy title means). I think it's time for hotels to begin paying an 'inconvenience fee' for handling these thorny administrative details that should never happen.
Lucky, I had this problem with the Phoenician Canyon Suites property in Phoenix in September for my elopement. They shorted me a ton.
Marriott phone support sent me back and forth to SPG and the hotel. It took at least 4-5 hours one day to try to "style" it. I was told many things that weren't close to correct. It was resolved in the fact that they ultimately gave me the points, but not...
Lucky, I had this problem with the Phoenician Canyon Suites property in Phoenix in September for my elopement. They shorted me a ton.
Marriott phone support sent me back and forth to SPG and the hotel. It took at least 4-5 hours one day to try to "style" it. I was told many things that weren't close to correct. It was resolved in the fact that they ultimately gave me the points, but not the spend towards Ambassador. I kept asking for a Marriott email to reach out to with all of my details/facts/receipts, but I was told multiple times that didn't exist.
I honestly just gave up and decided to spend little with Marriott outside of work spending through the rest of the year out of protest. I did AirBNB for my recent Italy/Germany vacation because I didn't want to get closer to Ambassador with my own personal spend and then just miss get Ambassador status by a few hundred dollars.
I recently stayed in Thailand, and I noticed that points I earned were way off. I sent fax to the property to correct it. They replied back to me by email a couple days later, and said they submitted the correction and it would take 2-3 weeks to show up due to high inquiries...I will see if they really correct the issue.
Also, There is another issue with SPG AMEX free night certificate at a...
I recently stayed in Thailand, and I noticed that points I earned were way off. I sent fax to the property to correct it. They replied back to me by email a couple days later, and said they submitted the correction and it would take 2-3 weeks to show up due to high inquiries...I will see if they really correct the issue.
Also, There is another issue with SPG AMEX free night certificate at a different property in Thailand. I used it, but somehow it shows it was cancelled and the certificate came back to my account. Now it shows I have one unused certificate now... Should I keep it or tell them that I used it already?
@Steve
I'm seeing the same thing. It's interesting that the website is quoting a higher price than what the hotel charged me, I did an upgrade for 35 000 XPF + taxes (40 075 XPF). The website is quoting 55 000 XPF + taxes (63 650 XPF).
My points reservation is now showing up as a cash reservation which is intresting.
First Marriott owns but a few hotels. Almost all are franchises, so shorting more than likely is not Marriott Corporate.
That being said, where was the due diligence by the executives at Marriott when they bought Starwood with a known data breach. One of 2 things incompetent Marriott executives for not watching out for what they are paying for, or fraud by Starwood management or both for not divulging pertanant info.
Definitely intentional. Marriott time and time again has shown that they are willing to short their members because they're too big to fail so why not grab every penny they can? Their blatant irresponsibility with the data hack and dishonest attempt to blame it on SPG should honestly land their executives in jail. Marriott is too big to exist.
I noticed this same problem on 3 recent stays - one at a Sheraton, one at a Westin, and one at a Tribute (the Riviera in Palm Springs, the single worst property I’ve ever stayed at in that chain). In each of those 3 cases, I was shorted by 50-90% so it was painfully obvious. I’m at 96 nights (with 14 more booked for this year) and I haven’t gone back to check everything but...
I noticed this same problem on 3 recent stays - one at a Sheraton, one at a Westin, and one at a Tribute (the Riviera in Palm Springs, the single worst property I’ve ever stayed at in that chain). In each of those 3 cases, I was shorted by 50-90% so it was painfully obvious. I’m at 96 nights (with 14 more booked for this year) and I haven’t gone back to check everything but now that I hear that the problem is rampant, I will do that. I’m only PPE, so I have no ambassador to do it for me.
I resolved the other 3 issues by e-mailing directly to David Flueck, the VP of “loyalty” programs. An executive customer relations specialist e-mailed back in about 48 hours (with the standard “Mr. Flueck has passed your letter along to me to respond on his behalf...” and corrected the points on those stays.
I haven’t been focused on the $$ spend portion because supposedly they’re going to give ambassadors to legacy SPG Platinums like me as long as we hit 100 stays at legacy SPG properties, regardless of spend, for this coming year only. But perhaps I should be looking at spend also.
I agree that this merger has been an unmitigated disaster. I’ll hit lifetime platinum next year, and I may consider elite-matching to another chain to see if the grass is greener on the other side of the street.
I just noticed that I got about 50% less points than what I should receive on a stay at a Courtyard last month. I'm on the phone now on a Platinum line and the rep insisted that dining in a restaurant inside the Courtyard did not qualify any points. That's bs and I don't know why Marriott is so stingy and cheap in giving out points for people who actually paid for it? Hilton on...
I just noticed that I got about 50% less points than what I should receive on a stay at a Courtyard last month. I'm on the phone now on a Platinum line and the rep insisted that dining in a restaurant inside the Courtyard did not qualify any points. That's bs and I don't know why Marriott is so stingy and cheap in giving out points for people who actually paid for it? Hilton on the other hand is so much more generous. Once my Platinum status expire I'm putting all my spend on Hilton.
In my experience, Hyatt is notorious for not crediting parking charges. Their terms say that if the parking can be charged to the property, it counts towards points, but this rarely happen. But at 5 points per $1, and averaging $30 per parked night, it just became too much work to argue each and every time.
So a company that couldn't merge systems properly and let hackers have access to all your data for years AND couldn't properly credit nights from SPG and Marriott together is having trouble with points crediting properly? #shocking.
I’ve had this problem pretty consistently this year... I’ve had mixed results with calling the platinum line, some agents will jump in and resolve immediately while others will ask you to request a folio and then email to the research@ email address. I’ve had zero success with that route. This week I called the platinum line and got an agent who fixed immediately and also saw several other things missing and fixed those too proactively. Seems very hit or miss.
In terms of accounting and awarding points correctly, I would put Marriott at the absolutely bottom of all other major hotel chains. Have you notice that Marriott simply posts total number of points for the stay without breaking into promotional, bonus, green choice, etc.? There is a reason why... I am glad that I am still HHonors Diamond.
This is done even when you use your points for free stays. I still make charges to my Marriott Rewards CC for incidentals but I received no benefits or additional points.
points credited to account Failure to recognize elite status/ entitled benefits and Ignoring upgrade policies. After each stay there are always Billing issues for crediting your true points.
Does Marriott have any real loyalty to its Elite members?
This is done even when you use your points for free stays. I still make charges to my Marriott Rewards CC for incidentals but I received no benefits or additional points.
points credited to account
No notice of pricing for parking ; Failure to recognize elite status/ entitled benefits ;Ignoring upgrade policies ;charged for WIFI; Billing issues
Does Marriott have any real loyalty to its Elite members?
This is done even when you use your points for free stays. I still make charges to my Marriott Rewards CC for incidentals but I received no benefits or additional points.
points credited to account
– Inconsistent pricing for parking (i.e., bundled in room rate vs separate charge)
– Resort fees
– Failing to recognize elite status and its entitled benefits
– Ignoring upgrade policies
– Being charged for...
This is done even when you use your points for free stays. I still make charges to my Marriott Rewards CC for incidentals but I received no benefits or additional points.
points credited to account
– Inconsistent pricing for parking (i.e., bundled in room rate vs separate charge)
– Resort fees
– Failing to recognize elite status and its entitled benefits
– Ignoring upgrade policies
– Being charged for WIFI
– Failing to stock rooms or offer guests bottled water.
– Billing issues
Does Marriott have any real loyalty to its Elite members?
Kind of off topic - but IHG did not properly award my 10% rebate on points redemptions. I had to email twice to get it corrected. Response from them: "We don't know what happened. sorry, here's your points." In other words, you caught us but we're not really concerned and have no plans to fix the problem.
Best to check ALL stays of all types with all properties. Sad.
After combining my SPG-Marriot accounts back in August, my points for stays were very low...like less than 100 for each stay. So contacted my Ambassador. After 2 weeks she said my points were going to air miles. I never chose this option! This is especially crazy since NW Airlines went out of business in 2008 (combined with Delta), the member number is invalid, I have not flown with them in more than 20 years, and...
After combining my SPG-Marriot accounts back in August, my points for stays were very low...like less than 100 for each stay. So contacted my Ambassador. After 2 weeks she said my points were going to air miles. I never chose this option! This is especially crazy since NW Airlines went out of business in 2008 (combined with Delta), the member number is invalid, I have not flown with them in more than 20 years, and I don't even live in USA since 2000! My Ambassador is still trying to get my points back. So far the SPG-Marriot merge has been a disappointing nightmare!
I primarily stay in Hilton family and I keep a spreadsheet going and have only ever had issues either internationally or on other stays that were weird for some reason. I like to do it to keep track of bonuses and nights/stays. I think hilton usually just counts anything that you can bill to the room for points (minus tax) so that makes tracking easier than it seems like it would be for Marriott.
Lucky, this is happening very often indeed. I actually contacted my ambassador and she went thru all my folios and manually adjusted them. It was a huge chunk of points. I haven’t done it since when I noticed months ago. I need to do it again. A lot of time welcome ammenities werent posting or make a green choice either. Your ambassador will do a good job doing that work for you.
I always feel like Marriott designs fragile and loose business processes. It basically lets the properties, intentionally or unintentionally, improvise and deviate from its policies. Whenever I check in at a Marriott property, it seems like the agent has to do a ton of manual work in their PMS software. This seems to be less the case with SPG properties.
In the end, all of this becomes apparent in the customer experience:
- High...
I always feel like Marriott designs fragile and loose business processes. It basically lets the properties, intentionally or unintentionally, improvise and deviate from its policies. Whenever I check in at a Marriott property, it seems like the agent has to do a ton of manual work in their PMS software. This seems to be less the case with SPG properties.
In the end, all of this becomes apparent in the customer experience:
- High variance in points credited to account
- Inconsistent pricing for parking (i.e., bundled in room rate vs separate charge)
- Resort fees
- Failing to recognize elite status and its entitled benefits
- Ignoring upgrade policies
- Being charged for WIFI
- Failing to stock rooms or offer guests bottled water.
- Billing issues
Does Marriott have any sort of corporate quality assurance?
I feel like it's probably on purpose. A couple years ago IHG was also subtracting VAT twice on hotels with VAT inclusive rates and took over a year to fix the error (that was obviously in their favor).
Lol never had this problem with Hilton personally
I've stayed at two brands under the Megabonus promotion and noticed I didn't get the 1K bonus points for the second brand, though I got the 2K bonus for 2-night stay for each. I filled out the form for "other issue" to follow up on this. Haven't calculated my base points though.
Its a deliberate strategy. If the error was in the other direction you can be sure they would be all over it.
I use my ambassador but this is a common thing. Hotels do not want to pay for the points so they try to run fast ones by us. I will be monitoring this on every stay now.
I just noticed this too! I saw the year to date spend go up by about $500 after my last stay posted. Before tax and without any incidentals, the total spend on that stay was about $900 so I look at the detailed list of point transactions and sure enough, points for only about $500 had posted, plus pp bonus plus magc. I never watched my points before, I wonder how long this might have been going on for.
I don't even bother anymore. As ex SPG Platinum for the last few years the card is in the bin since the merger. I don't like Marriott and I don't like the Marriott program. The last few stays in Westin and Meridien I have just booked through hotels.com.
Anyone noticed St Regis Bora Bora has tons of award availability, but all of it is points + cash upgrade overwater bungalow for $3000 or some crap.
Marriott Starwood now = Beavis Butthead
I had a 7 night package stay where they only gave me credit for 5 nights back in March. I have been fighting with Marriott Since then to get it posted and every few weeks they say it will be posted but never does. Its important because I will be at about 70 nights by end of year and was contemplating some stays to get to 75. However i recently gave up and said if they can get this right, then i might as well not sya with them. Back to Hilton I go.
I also have an ambassador, although I only recently received one. In my experience, this happens quite frequently with my stays. My ambassader does a good job correcting these point discrepancies. Before the ambassador, I always filled out the missing stay form explaining in the notes that I was shorted points. It is a pain, and in my experience a systematic problem with Marriott’s program, but easy to fix in the end if you are...
I also have an ambassador, although I only recently received one. In my experience, this happens quite frequently with my stays. My ambassader does a good job correcting these point discrepancies. Before the ambassador, I always filled out the missing stay form explaining in the notes that I was shorted points. It is a pain, and in my experience a systematic problem with Marriott’s program, but easy to fix in the end if you are diligent.
Pay particular attention to currency conversion... For example European hotels tend to simply substitute Euros for Dollars. So if base rate was 100 Euros they would credit 1000 base points. At current exchange rates, that means a shortage of about 15% on your points... If you have a llt of Marriott stays, this adds up very quickly!
I’m still missing 12k from 4 stays during merger month because the hotels weren’t recognizing my plat status properly on the earning level. All emails to Starwood and Marriott have been ingored. I’ve been meaning to harass them again but who has the time!
Marriott never fails to amaze us.
They do make it confusing. I know Hilton always has all these bonus points plus bonuses depending on your status but I honestly have no idea how many points I should get as a Diamond.
It reminds me of shopping at Kohl's or some department store where they seemingly have numerous sales and you don't know what the actual price is until you get to the register and even then you aren't sure the price is correct.
Seems to be a major issue. I just noticed that I didn't get my 500 point bonus on a recent stay in New Orleans. It's very inconsistent on how they calculate points. On some stays they do award them based on taxes and fees, others not. Dining is 50/50 for me, though more than once I've had bogus charges posted to my room after doing a room charge in a bar or restaurant which almost...
Seems to be a major issue. I just noticed that I didn't get my 500 point bonus on a recent stay in New Orleans. It's very inconsistent on how they calculate points. On some stays they do award them based on taxes and fees, others not. Dining is 50/50 for me, though more than once I've had bogus charges posted to my room after doing a room charge in a bar or restaurant which almost makes me want to charge to a CC instead. My time is worth way more than chasing down 500 points if it takes more than a 2min email; however, it's the principal of it.
Just yesterday I had to call in as a recent Westin stay was only showing 1700 points- 400 base, 300 elite, 1000 welcome bonus. With a $191 room rate, I noticed the shortage immediately. They had issued separate invoices for my room service and then everything else and then only credited the $40 room service invoice for points. The phone rep did not have an explanation and adjusted everything after digging up all of the...
Just yesterday I had to call in as a recent Westin stay was only showing 1700 points- 400 base, 300 elite, 1000 welcome bonus. With a $191 room rate, I noticed the shortage immediately. They had issued separate invoices for my room service and then everything else and then only credited the $40 room service invoice for points. The phone rep did not have an explanation and adjusted everything after digging up all of the invoices. Going to go back today and look through the rest of my 120 nights...
Maybe endemic to that hotel. I spent three weeks there a few years ago and it took almost a year of back and forth before I got most of the points I was supposed to get. I finally just gave up.
I noticed this on a recent stay — it looked like I was credited with just the incidentals and not the room rate at all (it was a corporate rate incidentally). I called the Marriott Platinum Line, told the agent I thought I should have received X amount more points, and the agent fixed it immediately without question.
I have all my hotel bills emailed to me. If I were you, I’d go through and...
I noticed this on a recent stay — it looked like I was credited with just the incidentals and not the room rate at all (it was a corporate rate incidentally). I called the Marriott Platinum Line, told the agent I thought I should have received X amount more points, and the agent fixed it immediately without question.
I have all my hotel bills emailed to me. If I were you, I’d go through and calculate what you think you should have received and then call in to have it fixed. You may even be able to find your hotel bill online (although my observation is that the feature is not available for many former SPG properties). At worst, I’d use my credit card statements. The agent I had pretty much took my word for it, so even if you included some taxes in your calculations you may still be able to get the issue fixed overall.
Since that stay I have been monitoring my points much more closely. Luckily I haven’t run into any more issues yet. The agent’s explanation is that the system simply accepts whatever information the hotel relays and made it sound like it was a manual process on the hotel’s end and an automatic process on Marriott Rewards’s end—and that ultimately it’s the hotel’s fault. Not sure I completely understand, as I don’t recall ever having the same issue in hundreds of stays with SPG.
Same here on almost all stays. It is indeed hard to track especially in foreign currency but on USD rates it is pretty obvious when that Marriott (Hotels or group) cheat/make mistakes. That is on top of making expensive spa treatments with fat margins ineligible for accruals.
Best merger ever! Only lost 75k of my points! (Sarcasm font)
I have had about 3 stays this year where I received about 25% of the points I should have gotten. Took about 45 mins each time on the phone to get fixed. Don’t try the research@ email - I didn’t hear back from them each time I’ve emailed since the merger.
I have an ambassador too (and well over the $20k threshold), so I'm interested in what happens with your research and your ambassador's research. If it is a systemic thing I'll ask my Ambassador to take a look. I've also noticed hotels not posting welcome points either fairly frequently, so I have to spend a lot of time making sure those post now, since they're not transparent like they were under SPG.