I must be staying at our favorite hotel chain too often. My nights at Marriott brands for 2013 have gone up 20% over the previous 3 years. My need to chase down bonus points from hotels has increased 200%. I'm also seeing a delay in the posting of stays after checkout. Let me vent some details......
I made a decision last year (2012) to maximize points for my Marriott stays. Well, Marriott Rewards and the hotels held out the carrot. Quite often, I can find a fair rate that will include 1000-5000 bonus points offered by a hotel in my desired staying area. These rates are found right on the marriott.com website. No funny business, easy to find and easy to book. The problem is these bonus points are not part of an automated system, I'm told. The hotel staff has to manually enter these bonus points at the conclusion of the stay. Just like anything else, if the points don't show up in 72 hours, they never show up. So, I give it a full week then I have to call. If you call the hotel, some try to explain that they don't offer such a rate and never have OR it has expired OR the points offered are much less than I'm expecting. Too bad for them, I keep an electronic copy of the reservation. I read to them the exact verbiage found on their advertised booking tool. That seems to cool some of the "gotcha" sucker attitude. Most often the points show up right quick. The exercise or calling and requesting what they advertised is growing old. If you don't want to deliver the points, DON'T OFFER THEM!! I decided to enlist the help of our customer care representatives at Marriott. If I call them, they normally call the hotel while I'm on hold and cut thru the nonsense. They get the points applied immediately. Normally that is........Today I had to make the all to regular call to chase down 1500 points. This time I received the word that a note will be sent to the GM of the property and I should hear something within the next 3-5 days. Really?????? These points are from a stay that occurred from mid July. They are already way over due. So we have to start the dance all over again? I offered to email a copy of the reservation. The agent and her supervisor both reiterated that the hotel has to issue the points and sadly, there is nothing more that can be done. Hogwash!
The second concern is the system delays with posting stays. It was like clockwork that I could sign into my account the second morning after checkout and see the stay. Now it's rare to see this. Stay confirmations have been showing up later and later on that 2nd day. My last two stays took 3 days. I'm currently at the end of business on day 3 for my latest stay...no credit in the old account as of 6:26PM. These little things are becoming big headaches for yours truly.
Has anyone else seen these type of issues or am I just the lucky one? Thanks for listening