I'm trying to give the hotel the benefit-of-the-doubt here.
Marriott claims that it cannot see our reservation
Ford and I visited our family in St. Petersburg, Florida. We had to make last-minute arrangements and all hotels were booked. So we decided to redeem a free hotel night at Courtyard St. Pete Downtown. It was the only hotel that was open and Ford had a credit card no-night certificate. This seemed like the best choice.
We booked the reservation several hours before check-in so we tried to contact the hotel via the Marriott Bonvoy app. This feature can only be used if there is an active reservation at the hotel and check-in is within two days.
Here's a part of the chat:
We do not have a reservation at this hotel for you with your name on. Please contact me if you have further questions. The confirmation number was XXXXXXXXX. I booked the hotel just a few minutes ago. Please take a second look. Yes, I checked the Conf# and there is no reservation matching the number or last name of the Marriott Bonvoy number. It is best to contact Marriott directly.
I believe the don't feel free to contact us front desk or me was a typo since he provided his name as well as the hotel phone number.
This was my first time using it. While I understand that sometimes things go wrong, this was a first for me. The reservation was not only showing up in Fords Marriott Bonvoy, but I was able to pull it up on marriott.com along with the confirmation number, name and check-in date without having to log into his account.
The front desk associate suggested that we call the hotel if we have any questions. We decided to do so. The same guy that we chatted online informed us that the hotel was full and that any reservation would be cancelled automatically because they had sold out. We called Marriott to confirm our reservation.
Call Marriott
Surprised, my phone call with Marriott went well. The associate was informed by us that we had a confirmed booking, but the hotel claimed they couldn't see it.
That's odd, I believe you have a confirmed booking. Let me contact the hotel to confirm.
After waiting on hold for a while, the agent finally returned to us.
I spoke with the front desk and reminded them that they cannot accommodate you. They will have to charge to move you elsewhere. You should be able to get a room as soon as it became available.
Give this woman a raise!
What happened exactly?
I'm not sure what to make of it. Although the employee at the hotel that we spoke to didn't seem malicious or scheming, I don't think there is any other explanation. Here are some thoughts:
The hotel claimed it couldn't see the reservation. However, anyone with the confirmation number and name could find it on marriott.com
It seems very likely that the hotel was full, and didn't want to honor the reservation. So the front desk pretends that the reservation doesn't exist. That is the only plausible explanation I can think of.
This is a ridiculous lack of customer service. We booked a hotel and received an email confirmation. The hotel suggested that we call Marriott to confirm the reservation. However, this should not be our problem.
We could have tried to negotiate and get walked, or even compensation. But we didn't want to do that. Instead, we would have been entangled in endless customer service loops, as the hotel wouldn't acknowledge that we had made a reservation.
Bottom line
The Courtyard by Marriott was booked very last-minute. However, the hotel claimed it couldn't see our reservation even though it was showing up on Marriotts website. We were informed by Marriott that Marriott could see our reservation so we contacted them.
Although the hotel tried to claim that it was too popular, the hotel suddenly made the room available. The Marriott employee informed them that they would be responsible for booking us somewhere else if they couldn't accommodate us.
What are your thoughts on this? Did the hotel try to take us along without any accountability?
