Outsmarting A Sneaky Marriott With Ultimate Reservation Guarantee

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.

As soon as people make reservations, the hotel emails travelers, to let them know they’ll be accommodated elsewhere (at other properties with the same owners). Simply put, this seems like a bait and switch, intended to drum up bookings at sister properties by deceiving travelers.

A Marriott Bonvoy Ultimate Reservation Guarantee success

When I first wrote about the Fairmont Toronto Airport’s scheme, I talked briefly about 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.

I questioned whether that would be successful at this property, given the following in the terms & conditions:

A Participating Property must be open and operational for the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee benefit/compensation to apply.

Now, logically, a hotel is in fact open and operational if it has guests, even if the hotel isn’t accepting individual travelers. It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a government buy-out, or a wedding block. But I figured that Marriott would find a way to get out of this, given that we’re talking about Marriott, which isn’t exactly known for holding its hotels accountable.

Well, reader Adam decided to put this to the test, so more power to him. He booked the Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport, and shortly after booking, received an email about how the hotel would be unable to accommodate his stay “due to unforeseen circumstances,” and he’d be rebooked at the Hampton Inn.

Note that his rate at the Fairfield was 320 CAD per night, while the rate at the Hampton was 166 CAD per night, with no offer for a refund. So he called Marriott Bonvoy customer support, and told them he was being walked from the hotel, inquiring about the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee. He was put on hold, and a representative confirmed his reservation was eligible for the compensation. He then received the following email from the hotel:

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused regarding your reservation. We deeply value your loyalty to the Marriott brand as one of our Platinum Elite Member.

The decision to relocate reservations was due to circumstances beyond our control. A government group that has been staying with us extended their stay for a few more months, which unfortunately impacted our ability to honor all guest reservations. We were unable to close our availability online, but we are doing our best to inform our guests as soon as possible.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption to your plans. We understand the inconvenience this has caused and are committed to making this right for you.

As per Marriott’s Walk Policy, as a Platinum Elite member, you are indeed entitled to the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee. As part of your status, we will be sending you a $100 USD cheque to the address on your Marriott membership. Please allow 2-4 weeks for the cheque to arrive after your check-out. We will also be crediting your Marriott account with 90,000 points which you shall see reflect 3-5 days after your check-out.

Also as part of the policy we are to cover the cost of your room for the entire stay. However, please note that if we proceed with this option, our system will not allow us to credit you the nights toward your status as It requires for us to take the deposit for the room and taxes in order for the nights to be credited to your account.

If this is fine with you, we’re happy to move forward with covering your stay where you will not pay anything for your room and your card would only be taken for the security hold. If you would like to ensure you have your nights credited we would have to take the deposit for your room and taxes but we can compensate you with 30,000 points (equivalent to the value of the booking).

Please let me know how you would like to proceed, and we will make the necessary arrangements promptly.

Thank you for your understanding.

So this is pretty epic. Either he can receive 90,000 Bonvoy points, $100, and have his room comped, or he can pay for his stay as planned, and receive 120,000 Bonvoy points plus $100 (and receive elite nights).

Something tells me the hotel will figure this out quickly

Credit to Marriott Bonvoy and the hotel for actually honoring the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee. Marriott seems to have such little control over hotels nowadays, so that’s a pleasant surprise.

I can’t help but specifically zero in on one of the claims being made by the hotel employee, in justifying why hotel rooms are being sold, in spite of the hotel not actually accommodating individual guests — “we were unable to close our availability online.”

I’m sorry, what? So we’re supposed to believe that for over a year now, the hotel is just unable to close availability? Marriott promotes to hotel owners how it has an amazing reservations platform, but somehow it lacks the ability to, you know, stop accepting reservations when the hotel doesn’t have availability?

I don’t want to accuse someone of lying without evidence, but if that’s true, that’s beyond embarrassing for Marriott. Let me just put it that way. In the meantime, with this hotel seemingly being forced to honor the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee, let’s see how quickly the hotel and/or Marriott figure out a way to turn off availability.