Penalty when cancelling a points reservation?

[NJDave]

I have never such a penalty when reserving with points. I was checking availability on a 5 night stay to attach to a 5 night certificate. I was surprised to see the penalty being incurred after one day. To make matters worse, the penalty is a charge for the room and not a lose of points.

Is this non-cancellation policy new?

About this reservation:
You may cancel your reservation for no charge until July 21, 2018. Please note that we will assess a fee if you must cancel after this deadline. If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card. This fee equals your room charge plus tax for all the nights of your reservation.


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140,000 points for 5 night will be deducted from your Rewards account.

 

[Fasttr]

Is the ressie for just a couple days away....or further out?

 

[NJDave]

Is the ressie for just a couple days away....or further out?

It's for June 2019

 

[vacationlover2]

Something doesn't seem right.

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[VacationForever]

I have never encountered this. In fact I had made all sorts of adjustments using the certificates in the past.

 

[Fasttr]

Very odd. Wonder if it has anything to do with their attempt to prevent folks from booking artificial ressie's with their 5 and 7 night packages in advance of the 8/1/18 swap over to the new MR categories in the hopes of coming out on the other side with some advantage upon cancellation of the ressie.

 

[NJDave]

The reservation is for Florence Italy for next June. I just rechecked and noticed that all the rates are non-refundable. I couldn't find one that was cancellable. That may explain why the points reservation is non-cancellable, but it is also strange. I tried to chat on-line but no agents were available and I was disconnected.

 

[NJDave]

Very odd. Wonder if it has anything to do with their attempt to prevent folks from booking artificial ressie's with their 5 and 7 night packages in advance of the 8/1/18 swap over to the new MR categories in the hopes of coming out on the other side with some advantage upon cancellation of the ressie.

It is currently a category 7 and moving to a category 5 which both require the same amount of points.

 

[Fasttr]

The reservation is for Florence Italy for next June. I just rechecked and noticed that all the rates are non-refundable. I couldn't find one that was cancellable. That may explain why the points reservation is non-cancellable, but it is also strange. I tried to chat on-line but no agents were available and I was disconnected.

Appears to be hotel/season specific.

 

[breezez]

Marriott started charging fees if you don’t cancel by a certain deadline for free night certificates Hyatt does it to I use free night certificates for booking at both that I get from chase but they tell you on reservation if you don’t cancel by a given date they will charge you X amount for 1st nights stay.

I had my Hyatt Centric South Beach, Miami booked a couple years ago this wife had to work last minute, but I went anyway to prevent them from charging me $400 for no-showing.

 

[catharsis]

Vail Marriott charges a HUGE cancellation fee in excess of the actual room rate if youc cancel a refundable points reservation (albeit I think you get the points back as that is a program, not a hotel policy).

I thought that hotels were ot allowed to make the points portion nonrefundable, but were entitled to set the cancellation period, which in Vails case they make something like 180 days IIRC, and it appears in the case of the OPs hotel in florence they have made infinite!!

 

[NJDave]

The reservation is for Florence Italy for next June. I just rechecked and noticed that all the rates are non-refundable. I couldn't find one that was cancellable. That may explain why the points reservation is non-cancellable, but it is also strange. I tried to chat on-line but no agents were available and I was disconnected.

I checked other dates in April, May and June and all come up as non-cancellable. I found dates in early March that could be cancelled one day prior to check in. I am leaning towards reserving the March dates rather than leaving the certificate unattached. The thought is that there is a possibility that Marriott could allow a change of dates. In addition, the hotel is currently a cat 7 and going to a cat 5 which are the same number of points.