Do Marriott Hotels Charge For Incoming Phone Calls

The 2 reasons I don't utilize Marriott mobile bank check-in

February eighteen 2020

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6 min read

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Hotel companies around the world continue to invest heavily in upgrading their technology, including providing mobile room keys and chat features that let you connect with the property directly through the app. When people think about hotel applications, one of the most basic functions that comes to listen is mobile cheque-in for an upcoming stay.

I'm a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium elite member, and recently got back from a month-long trip that saw me staying 23 nights across eight different Marriott properties. Not one time during this trip did I apply Marriott's mobile check-in option in the app, and in that location are two important reasons why.

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(Photo by Ethan Steinberg/The Points Guy) — My Marriott elite condition helped me score an upgrade to an overwater villa at the W Maldives. (Photo by Ethan Steinberg/The Points Guy.)

I get upgraded without using mobile check-in

There are generally two reasons why people use mobile check-in services: convenience, and because they retrieve it will enhance their chances of an upgrade. I don't really buy the convenience argument since at 99% of hotels you notwithstanding need to end past the front end desk-bound, evidence your ID and swipe your credit bill of fare to pick up a room key, simply I'm finding the upgrade argument to hold less and less sway as well.

Related: Which Marriott Bonvoy credit card is right for you?

I don't know what'southward changed, merely in the last six months or and so I've noticed more than and more hotels have started upgrading me two or three days before arrival, with my new room blazon reflected in the app. I don't know what caused this sudden change or whether I'thousand just getting very lucky with the specific hotels I've been staying at, but I never utilize mobile cheque-in and so that doesn't explain information technology. For example, my upgrade to an overwater villa at the Due west Maldives was showing in my Marriott app the day before I arrived in Malé.

When I got to the W lounge to wait for my seaplane flight, Adam from the W team was and then excited to tell me I'd been upgraded. I decided to play dumb while he gave me a potent handshake and the biggest smile I'd ever seen when he told me the good news, only I'd already known near the upgrade for nearly 24 hours.

Of course, I don't get preemptively upgraded like this at every holding. More often than not, there are better rooms (including suites) available but I'll only get upgraded if I ask specifically at check-in. In that case, checking in on the app doesn't help at all as I still need to cease by the desk.

Related: Maximizing redemptions with Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott's elite benefits guarantee

You might exist thinking to yourself "fine, so there'due south no clear do good in mobile cheque-in but I'm going to keep doing it because at that place's no damage either." I'll admit that this 2nd point is a bit nitpicky, but for aristocracy members, especially those who've felt burned under the new Bonvoy programme, this signal is worth paying attention to.

Marriott publishes an elite benefits guarantee, which conspicuously details the major benefits that come up with unlike tiers of elite condition, and more than importantly, what compensation y'all're entitled to if the hotel fails to evangelize on published benefits. If y'all're a Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador elite, you're entitled to a choice of welcome souvenir at most properties. The exact options vary by brand, but will ordinarily include bonus points, free breakfast, a food and beverage credit, or some local assiduities.

I know exactly what souvenir I want to select based on the brand I'm staying at: free breakfast unless at that place's a club lounge or it's included already, and bonus points every bit my backup option. The important line here is that y'all'll "receive a selection of souvenir" when checking in. If Marriott fails to run across this guarantee, you lot're entitled to bounty of $100 (or the equivalent in local currency) at almost luxury brands, and $25 or $50 at some extended-stay or budget properties.

So how does this relate to mobile cheque-in? When y'all check in through the app, you automatically select points as your welcome amenity, though you tin change to costless breakfast or whatsoever of the other options by stopping by the reception desk (again, erasing whatsoever benefit of having checked in in advance). Once you select the points, you lot tin't and then turn effectually and claim that Marriott didn't offering you your option of welcome amenity: the benefit has been provided appropriately.

Related: How to go free hotel breakfast

Thankfully in all my travels I haven't yet come across a hotel that failed to offer me my choice of welcome amenity, forcing me to claim compensation under the elite benefits guarantee. Marriott properties are getting much meliorate at uniformly recognizing elite status, and I can imagine that most properties that still drop the ball there also have other issues that would demand to be addressed.

One of the reasons I've been so content to deal with all the ups and downs of Marriott Bonvoy is that Marriott has done a good job adequately compensating me every time things become wrong — absurdly long agree times, points not posting correctly, you proper noun it. The aristocracy benefits guarantee is another prophylactic net, so that if Marriott doesn't deliver every bit advertised, you'll be compensated appropriately.

Lesser line

Mobile check-in is very easy to practice, and hotel apps do a great job of sending you push notifications to encourage you to use the feature. Yet, when you break information technology downwards, there isn't much benefit in doing so. For starters, you'll almost always need to end by the physical cheque in desk to verify your ID and pick up your key, and past using the mobile cheque-in you'll end up invalidating an aristocracy benefit guarantee that y'all might need later.

Of course we'd all rather hotels stick to the script and practice what they're supposed to do, but claiming the compensation you're entitled to when they don't helps proceed them honest and reminds them to play by the rules.

Featured photo by

St. Regis Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island. Photo by Ethan Steinberg / The Points Guy

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