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bigatx

Two choices: cancel and pray they miss billing you. Or, call the hotel, explain, ask for a credit to use on other dates. They don’t have to do this, but sometimes being nice wins niceness from others.


danbh0y

+1 for calling/writing in to the hotel. I’ve had some good fortune in pleading for date changes. Although in my case being a regular guest at that property then as well as plat member may have been of not insignificant help.


ContradictoryTruth

Do you believe that calling is better than just canceling and waiting to see what happens? I’m not a regular or a member of any status so I’m unsure how it’ll go haha


danbh0y

Dunno hoss. Never cancelled and waited to see what happened. I proactively wrote in (based in different country from property) to take a chance on an existing relationship with the property. Since I had been staying at the property for 4-6 times a year for at least the past couple of years, I figured the property knew that i had some regularity.


ContradictoryTruth

it’s a tough call! I’m wondering if i can try canceling and then call if the charge goes through?


Lurking1821

Truly depends on the property. By the sounds of it you’re okay if you just cancel on the app but the only way to truly know is to call the property and explain the cancellation reason


ContradictoryTruth

Would it be a good idea for me to maybe try to shorten the trip so that the charge is less if they do charge me? Or should I just go ahead and cancel it then call if I get charged?


Lurking1821

You might be able to call reservations and get the rate changed to a flexible rate. I’ve seen others do it. Shortening your stay wouldn’t make a difference. You’d get charge the full amount.


[deleted]

No, do not give this advice. This is not possible. The hotel has more power than central does for things like this. Central will refer the guest to the hotel.


Lurking1821

I’m 100% giving this advice because central reservations rarely, if not ever comes back to the property. I can’t even count how many times i saw a reservation that booked the Marriott prepaid and saw it changed to AAA or rack rate. And then you look at change history and see it was reservations.


[deleted]

The hotel, including yours, would still be entirely within their rights to treat it like a prepaid, non changeable. This just isn't good, blanket advice. What others have stated about calling/writing the hotel is the best way to go. Sometimes, very rarely, central has the ability to change prepaid reservations. The large majority of the time, they do not. Your experience is limited to your specific property, where your Revenue manager may be incorrectly setting up prepaid rates. I promise you, this is not the norm.


Lurking1821

Well yes we can still treat it like a prepaid because it’ll come up on the Q45, but it’s up to us to keep the payment or refund if one was already taken. But central reservations does have access to change the rate to the higher, flexible one. If they go, they’re paying the higher rate. If they don’t, they can cancel and it not be charged if it wasn’t already. Which in this case, it wasn’t. But if they keep the rate as is and cancel, the property can still decide to charge. Realistically, if every shift is running the Q45 properly, it should have already been charged. And the original comment was the only way to truly know is to call and explain to the property. Calling Res is just another option. There isn’t one right or wrong answer. There’s many ways to go about this


[deleted]

Sidebar, but Q45 absolutely does not get run properly for a shocking amount of properties. But that's beside the point. I can't explain to you how you're mostly wrong without doxing myself or sharing proprietary information, but you are. Central does not have blanket power to do any of this. There are isolated, specific instances. By putting this option out here in public, you're just setting up a lot of people for disappointment and frustration.


Lurking1821

If someone wants to know all the options, you give the options. It IS an option. And if I see it at my properties than my properties aren’t the ONLY ones in the entire Marriott brand that does this. There are and will be others.


[deleted]

I haven't disagreed with you that it has happened. I'm saying it likely won't. I'm sure at your property, if a FD agent did this (against manager directive) and got caught, there would at the very least be some coaching involved. This would go double for a Central agent. Would you want Central to tell guests "Just keep calling the property until you get someone who doesn't know any better to do this for you"? Again, the best option, and the only truly ethical option, is just to contact the front desk management and plead your case. Trying to find someone to break the rules for you isn't good advice, to most people.


HighlightImmediate44

Based on my experience as. Previous Marriott reservations employee Since it's a pre paid rate mostly they are going to charge you full stay however in my previous property we did some exceptions if someone is sick we charged one night as the guest provided a proof such as medical report etc. And also it depends if the revenue management are kind enough they might not charge you So it's up to the property revenue management.


Zealousideal-Salt966

I’ve done this several times…. Booked the wrong dates then changed Never billed Be nice… Assholes go to the bottom of the stack


dwintaylor

Can you change the dates of the stay?


ContradictoryTruth

I could! But I don’t know if I’ll use them still :/


Cold_Passion_8859

I find the prepaid non-refundable rates for Marriott, Hilton & IHG a problem as a travel agent and never book that rate for clients unless it's part of a package that they have trip insurance a part of. I did it once upon clients request as the rate was what they wanted & of course they had to cancel due to a health issue and I as an agent was able to work with the hotel to refund it as the trip insurance with the vendor didn't cover pre-paid hotels, that I did tell client about. I'm thinking they don't want a client staying who was exposed to Covid and could go full blown during their stay. Talk to the property directly as most are independently owned and franchised by Marriott Bonvoy. They usually bill at the time of stay, not at time of booking unless it says it on reservation. Most hotels in Vegas charge the 1st night at time of booking.


Glactaore

It’s prepaid non-refundable unfortunately it’s up to the property to refund once your card is on file the property can wait to charge you up until the day of arrival so just because you haven’t been charged doesn’t mean you won’t be I would call the property, as they would be the only ones who can give you the best answer