Has this occurred to others? I am told it is not a new practice, yet it has not occurred to me previously.
Specifically, I recommended to our travel department that an upcoming meeting be held at the Renaissance Grand hotel in St. Louis. Arrangements were made and rooms were booked. All rooms, and our meeting room, were billed to the Master Account which had been set up. Subsequently, I was not given credit for my 2 night stay.
Why should Marriott care how the bill is paid for the hotel stay? The point is, it was paid. I stayed in the room, registered to me and reserved in my name. I should get the "room night credit" for the nights stayed.
The explanation I was provided by Customer Service was what appeared to be this canned response:
Thank you for your reply. I apologize that some stays do not qualify for Marriott Rewards credit. The Marriott Rewards program is designed to reward you for your individual stays. When you check out of a hotel and pay your bill, you will be given a hotel receipt. The individual hotel bill that you are given determines the credit you will receive for your stay. If you are not given a receipt and did not have to pay for anything when you check out, it is likely that your stay will not qualify for Marriott Rewards credit....... and so on......
I am very disappointed that this has occurred. In the past, even at this hotel, I have received "room nights" toward my annual level when a master account has paid for the hotel. I was not expecting "points" as I did not spend personal funds. I did expect to receive "room night credit" for my 2 nights in the hotel. In fact, when I checked at the property, the front desk guy said. "congratulations, you will be 2 nights closer to platinum again after this stay"..... which of course did not occur.
I am currently a Platinum level member with Marriott and a Gold level at Hilton. I will take this event into consideration when providing advice to our travel staff for booking meetings at hotel properties in the future.
What experience have others had with this issue?
Mr. G