View from the Wing covers a report from a supposed Marriott insider indicating that Marriott is cracking down on what they deem to be “account sharing” (where two or more people travel separately but try to share the same account). I’m not sure whether this will become a widespread issue, but there are plenty of cases where I could imagine this could cause major inconvenience with no ill intent on the part of the guest, so it’s worth knowing what’s going on and planning accordingly.
View from the Wing points to a reddit report (with some “not safe for work” language in it), but I saw a similar report somewhere else over the past week (I can’t recall where) indicating that Marriott is pushing properties to turn away an additional guest, not allowing them to check in without the member whose account made the reservation being present.
The idea here is that Marriott doesn’t want multiple people “sharing” an account. For instance, they don’t want me making a reservation through my account with intent for my friend Joe to actually be the person checking in and enjoying elite benefits and/or earning elite night credit for me (which I might try to achieve my reserving a room in my name and adding Joe as an “additional guest” so that he could presumably check in without me present). Unlike Hyatt, Marriott does not provide a way for elite members to share benefits with others, so there are probably some members who Marriott thinks are abusing the system in this way.
Similarly, Marriott has a policy against gifting free night certificates to others. While Marriott does allow you to redeem your points for a reservation that you gift to someone else (up to a limit of 5 gifted award stays per year), they do not allow you to give your free night certificate to someone else. Presumably, they want some breakage there and want to make sure that only the member receiving the certificate can use it.
It’s worth noting that although Marriott has a way to use your points and gift a stay to someone else 5 times per year, they don’t make it easy. You have to call to do it, which means that you have to find a phone representative familiar with how to make the reservation. The member to which you gift the stay does not get your elite benefits and neither of you receive elite night credit. You can see more detail here.
Even if we accept that what Marriott is trying to enforce here is reasonable, the implementation is sure to cause some confusion and frustration. I think of the many times I have arrived separately and met my wife and kids at a hotel. Particularly when our sons were very little, I can only imagine my wife’s frustration if she arrived at a hotel ahead of me and was turned away because I wouldn’t be arriving until later in the evening. The obvious “solution” is to have made the reservation in her name, but what sense would that make if I would indeed be staying, albeit arriving a few hours later?
The reports I’ve seen indicate that in such a situation, my wife would be turned away and that my account might be reported for fraud and closed without warning. That just doesn’t make sense to me. I understand what they are looking to avoid, but the method of doing so here doesn’t appear to leave enough room for reasonable accommodation of members.
To be clear, enforcement here is up to the property, and it has long been against program terms to book a stay for someone else (apart from those 5 award stays per year that can be booked over the phone). I imagine that enforcement will always vary widely here, but the word on the street is that Marriott is pushing properties to be more vigilant. While I’m sure that properties don’t want to honor elite benefits for non-elite guests, I could also imagine a lack of incentive for them to turn away a paying guest. I’m not sure what to expect in real-world experience, but it’s worth being aware that this may be on the radar.
For what it’s worth, I imagine that most front desk agents won’t be looking to report a member and get their Marriott account closed unless they either have increased reason to suspect fraud or the person trying to check in early (or the member who made the reservation) reacts rudely (whether in person or in calling the front desk), but I could imagine some members being unpleasantly surprised here if “enforcement” ramps up.
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If Marriott starts enforcing this more, I will stop staying with them. I get that they want everyone to have their own accounts, but I feel they should allow spouses to check in and stay with or without the account holder. In my case, I often make all of the family reservations since my husband works long hours. I feel like I should be able to make reservations for my whole family, just my spouse or myself with these points. Either one of us should be able to check in on these reservations.
Yes, absolutely annoying!!
The only gripe I have is the inability for spouses to “share” an account. My wife doesn’t travel like I do but why SHOULDNT she get to enjoy the benefits I earned, whether or not I am joining her on the trip?
My husband and I frequently meet up and do not arrive at the same time. Will be very frustrating if the properties begin disallowing check in by one of us because the reservation is on the other’s account. Not knowing our travel schedule ahead of time when booking and then having to switch reservations around at last minute will be an issue – especially if it is a sold out property.
Marriott needs to focus on why it has been 8 months and the jacuzzi is still not working and the same lie is being told but we are paying $300 a night. Also to the fact that the carpet is dirty, I have found roaches in the hair dryers, no hot water in one of my bathroom etc…… The prices for the hotel rooms do not match the quality!
Extremely disappointed with Marriott policies. The way they handle this is very frustrating and almost humiliating. We are going to move away from Marriott.
It’s definitely happened to me in South Africa at the Westin in Cape Town. My brother booked a reservation. I was staying under his booking and he was showing up a few days later because of his flight delay. It’s never been a problem in the past and they let me check in eventually, but it was after a lot of bitching and moaning.
Hilton Diamond and I don’t have to worry about it…
I wish Marriott allowed at least extending benefits to the spouse, or to have direct family members pool their nights for benefits.
This would cut down on the problem dramatically and also encourage more loyalty.
You are a writer, please stop using verbal crutches like “for what is worth”, “ at the end of the day”, etc, that screams poor writing skills, have some creative thinking.
Stopped using Marriott for a bit after I got double billed because my wife couldn’t use my reservation. What a nightmare. I think it would be easier just not to use the rewards program. I have been using The Holiday Inn instead. I have been with the Marriott for 30 years. The rewards program is not worth the hassle. Maybe they have a special account for spouses. The majority of my bookings are sports related and things change all the time.
I think this has to do with fraud. Last year, somebody hacked into my hotel account and used my IHG points to book a room in Bangkok. When I checked with customer service, the person who checked in had the name of Sun Yee (nowhere close to my English name), and I guess it never occurred to the front desk agent that somebody else was fraudulently using my account and points for a free room. They should require that the person named on the hotel points account be present at check-in time
Yes Arnold that is correct. Protecting a Bonvoy members account is a priority & if mishandled the responsibility rests on the hotel & staff. We have a way to verify reservations that have ‘mismatched info’ & can resolve issues before the guest arrives.
As many people have mentioned, the times where this could be an issue are where spouses arrive at different times and the non-Bonvoy member arrives first. I think there is a simple solution to this. If the goal is to avoid certain benefits that you only get when actually staying being received ( ENC, platinum/titanium breakfast and other benefits, receipt of the points, etc…) the solution could be that other guests on the reservation can check in, have access to the room, etc… but to get the ENCs and other perks applied for th Bonvoy member on the reservation, when they arrive they just need to stop by the front desk to show they are there. I have actually been surprised I haven’t had to do that when making reservations under my name as a Platinum member and my husband checks in hours before I do. Yes, my suggestion is a pain but certainly better than not letting the rest of the family who arrives earlier check in.
This is the correct way this should be handled. It is very easy at checkin to simply remove the Bonvoy number from the reservation, thereby preventing any benefits, and then add it back if the account holder shows up later.
YMMV, but in all my years both at and above property level, I have never seen anyone completely turned away. At worst, they are offered the current best available rate if they do not qualify for the booked rate and the Bonvoy number is simply removed or changed to the actual guest.
While that’s not unreasonable, I do not have faith that every person working the desk at a random Courtyard in the middle of nowhere is going to properly handle adding me back into the reservation. Marriott generally doesn’t train their people on how to accept gift cards (money that’s essentially already been given to Marriott!) — I can’t imagine that taking someone’s number off and then putting it back on is something that would happen smoothly across the board over thousands of hotels. You’re right that it works in theory, but in practice I imagine it being more difficult to execute than it sounds.
Nick-that’s exactly how it should be done & handled. & yes we know how to redeem a gift card.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have opened the gift card conversation because it isn’t really relevant to this except to say that I find Marriott training to be incredibly inconsistent and uncomprehensive.
When you say “we know how to redeem a gift card”, you might speak for yourself — but my extensive experience in using gift cards has universally been that nobody ever knows how to accept them. I make a habit of stopping at the front desk hours before checkout (or often the day before checking out) because I haven’t yet found a front desk person who immediately knew how to redeem a gift card and have found many managers who didn’t know how and had to take the cards and call someone and get back to me later. That experience has ranged from Courtyard/Residence Inn all the way up to St. Regis level properties, both in the US and abroad — I have not yet had the desk employee know how to do it without help. I’m always ultimately able to use them, but my point here is that training isn’t consistent over the thousands of properties and probably hundreds of thousands of front desk employees worldwide, so a change that requires the employee to first “mess up” the reservation by removing a loyalty number and then requires potentially a second employee to “undo” that when an honest member shows up at the desk (as I imagine they do in the vast majority of cases) seems more likely than not to cause hassle for “good” members as opposed to making a meaningful dent in bad actors.
Again, it’s not that doing it that way it unreasonable, it’s that as a member with a lot of travel experience, I would feel very skeptical of that operating smoothly.
Let’s give this an analogy: Imagine a street with a 2hr parking limit. The person policing that comes by once and marks your tire with chalk (essentially a warning letting you know that they’re checking and a way for them to monitor who is abusing the time limit that doesn’t do honest car owners who any harm if they play by the rules and return within 2hrs). If the cop comes by again and the chalk is there, they know to give you a ticket. If they come by again and there’s already a ticket there, they know to put a boot put on. If you still haven’t shown up a day later, they see the boot and know to tow you. To me, taking a member’s number off the reservation and putting it back on if and when they show up would be akin to that police officer proactively towing your car before applying any chalk and without knowing whether you’d be back to the car within 2 hours and then saying “well it’s no big deal because you can get it back as long as you get to the tow truck joint within 2 hours”. Sure, I might be able to get my car back for free if I get there in time, but wouldn’t it make more sense to assume I’m honest and give me a chance and then warn me if I mess up?
Again, I understand Marriott wanting to prevent account sharing, I just think that the stance that a member is guilty of doing something outside the terms until they can prove that wasn’t their intention is a poor way of doing business.
Nick’s experience with gift cards is consistent with mine — at a great many properties over time. Almost never (though there have been rare exceptions) does a regular desk clerk know how to apply a gift card. Usually a manager does, if one is available, but that is certainly not always the case. And occasionally one runs into a situation — to be specific, the front desk manager at the Westin in Jackson, Mississippi in February 2024 who not only did not know how to apply a Marriott gift card to my room charge but got huffy when I offered to show the point by point instructions which a Marriott manager had helpfully posted to Reddit in response to one of the numerous threads complaining about exactly what Nick describes above. Her “are you saying that I don’t know how to do my job?” followed by her repeating for the third of fourth time that my gift card was invalid (I had checked the balance before coming down to check out and, in fact, used it successfully at my next stop the following day) — neither of which she said even remotely politely — should have prompted me to report her to both her hotel general manager and Marriott’s corporate offices. Lazily, I did not. So, no, while you may know how to redeem a gift card, the majority of desk clerks at Marriott properties look at us as if we are offering them a Spanish doubloon just fished from a wreck in the Caribbean.
There are some hotels that already do it this way, specifically the JW Marriott Cancun and the Vancouver Sheraton. They let you check it, but no elite benefits (other than room upgrade) until the named member shows up.
If I book a room with my wife’s Bonvoy account bc I’m an authorized user of her Bonvoy credit card, how does that work? I mean, the credit card is in my name but tied to her Bonvoy account so wouldn’t the stay credit her account anyway?
Being an authorized user on her credit card doesn’t entitle you to use her Marriot Bonvoy account. As much as they might sound related, those things really have nothing to do with each other.
The payment method you use has nothing to do with how the stay credits or the loyalty number attached to the room. You’re confusing the hotel loyalty program that’s administered and owned by Marriott with a credit card that’s administered and owned by a bank (and rewards customers with points from a hotel loyalty program).
The bottom line is that Marriott doesn’t want your wife to book a room using her hotel loyalty account if she isn’t going to stay at the hotel. It doesn’t matter whether you pay for the stay with an authorized user Marriott card or your own card or your wife’s credit card or money from your wife’s purse or a credit card you stole from someone else. Marriott just doesn’t want you to be able to check in for a stay booked from her Marriott account. The payment method doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Now if you book a stay with your Marriott Bonvoy account and you pay for it with the authorized user card, you will earn points from Marriott for the stay and you will earn elite credit from the stay and your wife will earn Marriott points from the credit card spend. Those are separate things.
If that’s confusing, let’s create a different example. Let’s imagine that your wife has an individual gym membership. Let’s say she pays for it with her credit card and you’re an authorized user on that credit card. You can’t show up to the gym and get yourself in just because you’re an authorized user on her credit card account. You’re not a member. The gym only cares if you’re a gym member. She’s the gym member, so she’s the one who gets into the gym. You can’t use that membership just because you have a card tied to the account that pays for it.
Marriott gives their elites benefits? Does anyone have any data points on this?
I think the solution for all these hotels is similar to what I think Amex has done or perhaps it’s United where you can create a family group of all members. Points in the status in my name with Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton. And I often make reservations on behalf of my husband and our daughters if I am either arriving late or even not at all, so far, we have not had a problem until most recently in Boston at a Hyatt with which we are globalists and, though I was fully intending to join on that trip, our younger daughter became ill, and she and I were no longer able to make the trip. My husband was denied our globalist benefits at the front desk upon check-in, and I say our globalist benefits, because it is because of family travel that we have acquired that status together. I called the front desk the next day and the manager on site agreed to allow him to have the free breakfast.
So this is an interesting article to me to find out that this is becoming a more widely police situation. Again, I totally understand if you’re booking for a friend or a random person, but a spouse or a child should be indicated on your profile perhaps as a named account member. There are so many ways they could manage the situation so as not to ruin relationships with their most loyal members. Turning away spouses and children of account holders is not the way to do it.
You don’t understand – the account is tied to a person not a family which you are conflating it with. Your husband is not you no matter how close you two are. Having two people on the same account regardless of your relation is the issue. Checking in late isn’t an issue if the account holder can go to the front desk same day to verify themselves.
Your situation is effectively a GOH in name, only that your husband didn’t get apply anything.