Can we refuse to change room in the middle of week's stay?

We just checked in the Grand Residence Tahoe today. Upon check in, we were told that we have to change unit the last night of our 7 night stay, and it is not guaranteed the room is immediately available after we move out.
I was really upset upon hearing this. I had made the reservation for 7 nights more than 12 month in advance with 20% Destination point premium. During those 12 month, could they not have contacted me in advance to let me know this will happen? I have no desire to spend my New Year's day packing/unpacking and moving. Plus, I paid for 7 nights/days, if they do not make the unit immediately available, then am I losing half day of what I already paid for? Can I refuse to move? Who can I contact at Marriott to have this resolved if it can not be done locally here? (General manager won't be in till Monday. )
If anyone has experience dealing with similar situations, your advice is greatly appreciated!

The only way I see that this could have happened is if you have 2 separate reservations totaling 7 nights. If that is not the case I would refuse to move.

I would move ONLY if:
1) They moved all of my belongings. I wouldn't mind packing most of my stuff the day before if I only had another night to go
2) The new unit was available immediately
3) They gave me a generous cash incentive to move

Otherwise, I have a weeklong reservation, I stay in one unit for a week. They are obviously between a rock and a hard place so they are trying to figure out if they inconvenience you or the next people checking in

spottie said:

Upon check in, we were told that we have to change unit the last night of our 7 night stay, and it is not guaranteed the room is immediately available after we move out.

I had made the reservation for 7 nights more than 12 month in advance with 20% Destination point premium.

I have no desire to spend my New Year's day packing/unpacking and moving

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Did the hotel give you any reason why they are asking you to move? Did the hotel ask you to move or tell you that you'd have to move?

Legally I don't think they can make you move just as removing a guest from a hotel or timeshare can be similar to the eviction process (it takes a while)

In the instances when I've moved rooms mid-stay due to a problem with the room the hotel has always offered assistance in moving (packing and moving bags). I'm not a huge fan of others packing my items but I'm okay with someone storing/moving my luggage (depending on the contents of the luggage).

If you are open to moving (with or without assistance), then you could negotiate some form of compensation (refund 1/2 your Destination Points for the last night?, complimentary dinner?, better villa?) to help offset your burden/inconvenience.

spottie said:

We just checked in the Grand Residence Tahoe today. Upon check in, we were told that we have to change unit the last night of our 7 night stay, and it is not guaranteed the room is immediately available after we move out.
I was really upset upon hearing this. I had made the reservation for 7 nights more than 12 month in advance with 20% Destination point premium. During those 12 month, could they not have contacted me in advance to let me know this will happen? I have no desire to spend my New Year's day packing/unpacking and moving. Plus, I paid for 7 nights/days, if they do not make the unit immediately available, then am I losing half day of what I already paid for? Can I refuse to move? Who can I contact at Marriott to have this resolved if it can not be done locally here? (General manager won't be in till Monday. )
If anyone has experience dealing with similar situations, your advice is greatly appreciated!

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I would speak with and discuss this issue with the Front Desk Mgr. ASAP! Good Luck!

Here are two (2) Toll Free Numbers to Marriott:
Reservation: 1-888-2362427 and to Marriott Customer Support: 1-800-721-7033.

It comes down to who has to move. It seems that somehow with inventory control, they have an overlap on a unit. SO either you move for the last night of your stay or the next guest moves after the first night of theirs. Who gets preference here? Is the next guest an owner staying on an owner stay? If not, do they have a higher level status?

This is an issue that we have discussed at great length with regard to points based stays. It could even be more problematic at properties where they have fixed week fixed unit ownership. Sure you can book a 7 night stay, but if it crosses a normal checkin/out day, you might just need to move on that day.

Hotels operate under different eviction rules in most areas. They don't necessarily need to go to the courts to evict you like an owner of a home or apartment needs to. I don't find it likely that they will evict you if you refused to move. They would just force the other person that is to be moving in to instead move.

I, myself wouldn't be one to argue this much. Given that we are probably starting to partially pack things up the day before checkout, I would be the one that is willing to move. Living out of a small overnight bag for the last night of your stay probably wouldn't be much of an issue.

This happens with some frequency at Maui Ocean Club, when owners are booking 3BR units with points. In many situations, they have to move (and are just as unhappy as you are). I would suspect that you are overlapping with a home week owner, and that the property is allowing the home week owner to stay in the room. Candidly, I think that is the right thing for the property to do, and I hope you are able to move with minimal inconvenience.

Marriott really needs to add a disclaimer on certain properties that indicates that a reservation may require a move change if it crosses Saturday. Wyndham does this, and it fairly alerts the guest of the possible risk.

Enjoy your trip! You're still on vacation!

Best,

Greg

bastroum said:

The only way I see that this could have happened is if you have 2 separate reservations totaling 7 nights. If that is not the case I would refuse to move.

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This.

If these 7 nights are a single DC Points reservation with a single confirmation number, this is the only first-person TUG report of someone being required to change units during a single-reservation stay. Even after Greg's lengthy thread about his having to move during a multi-reservation stay, I still don't understand how/why a single reservation with a single confirmation number can require a move at any time during the stay.

I think of it this way - the reservation IT system is where all underlying inventory controls are differentiated for auditing purposes as required by mandate. They may not make the information transparent to us but if ever they're legally required to disclose it, such as in any of the lawsuits questioning their inventory controls, they have to be able to prove that they're allocating inventory correctly throughout all aspects of their two products. If the system is merging inventory from separate "buckets" under a single reservation number, then what are they doing otherwise to protect our ownership rights as far as inventory control?

Spottie, if you are working with a single reservation with a single confirmation number, I'd go beyond the resort and Owner Services all the way up to the MVW Executive Leadership with a letter directed to the President. I would want a completely transparent explanation of how/why the IT system is allowed to book a single stay that requires a move.

SueDonJ said:

This.


Spottie, if you are working with a single reservation with a single confirmation number, I'd go beyond the resort and Owner Services all the way up to the MVW Executive Leadership with a letter directed to the President. I would want a completely transparent explanation of how/why the IT system is allowed to book a single stay that requires a move.

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Definitely! Changing villlas, with all the food, extra clothes, etc. scattered throughout multiple rooms on a on a ski vacation is not the same as switching a hotel room in Hawaii with one little suitcase and minimal clothes. Even if the resort moves the actual packed up possessions, they really are losing a day of uninterrupted vacation. Of course we drive to Tahoe, so bring way too much. Neverthelless, i would be more than annoyed to have to do two "departure" mornings in one week! If that is required, generous compensation ought to be offered, especially since they were not informed in advance with the option of not booking under those circumstances.

GregT said:

This happens with some frequency at Maui Ocean Club, when owners are booking 3BR units with points. In many situations, they have to move (and are just as unhappy as you are). I would suspect that you are overlapping with a home week owner, and that the property is allowing the home week owner to stay in the room. Candidly, I think that is the right thing for the property to do, and I hope you are able to move with minimal inconvenience.

Marriott really needs to add a disclaimer on certain properties that indicates that a reservation may require a move change if it crosses Saturday. Wyndham does this, and it fairly alerts the guest of the possible risk.

Enjoy your trip! You're still on vacation!

Best,

Greg

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That might be the reason. At grand residence, weeks start on fridays and you are deeded the unit you own as the units are not floating. grand residence was sold as fractional so it could be marriott owns a quarter, owner traded in for dc points or mrp points and marriott put up the unit for use. Problem is op is crossing the marriott week so the owner of the next quarter is probably checking in on friday and they have to move the op. Hope this helps with the explanation.

OKAY .. real world issues which might NOT play during booking ... but has happened at my regular resorts where either I or my guests had unit reassigned last minute:

1) a handicap unit is involved (and all the swapping required to met their needs as the handicap unit was booked by non-disabled person)

2) unit "out of service" due to emergency repairs (like a sprinkler supply pipe breaking taking out an entire "Stack" of units in a 10 floor building)

3) family "stay over" due to hospital stay - stroke, heart attack.

4) weather with airports closed in major portion of US.

Whichever of the various scenarios suggested in this thread applies, even if a move is necessary/justifiable, I am sure that the resort should be able to go the extra mile to ensure the new room is immediately available after you move out.
Fortunately, we have only very rarely had to move and only during a long stay and then always been able to complete the move with no time gap between the two rooms.

frank808 said:

That might be the reason. At grand residence, weeks start on fridays and you are deeded the unit you own as the units are not floating. grand residence was sold as fractional so it could be marriott owns a quarter, owner traded in for dc points or mrp points and marriott put up the unit for use. Problem is op is crossing the marriott week so the owner of the next quarter is probably checking in on friday and they have to move the op. Hope this helps with the explanation.

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I understand why a move might be necessary for any number of reasons. What I don't understand, if in fact this is the case here, is how the IT system can book consecutive nights in different units under the same reservation confirmation number.

All the DC Points searches I've done for consecutive nights have shown me whether the nights can be booked consecutively or as individual nights, and if I book any part of a stay as individual nights then it's understood that a move may be in order. That's how it's always worked with Weeks and I expect the same with DC Points because it's an inventory control issue. If I were in the OP's shoes this is one issue I'd be willing to take up with a qualified attorney if MVW Exec Leadership is unable to explain it satisfactorily.

I don't think Spottie ever confirmed that it was in a single reservation/single confirmation, although the 12 month advance/ 7 night reservation indicates that it probably was so. Without that info, a lot of this is speculation.

Wyndham is very quick with indicating separate inventory primarily because there are several fees related to multiple reservations-housekeeping, transactions, guest fees etc. Even so they try to keep people in the same room and will refund some of those fees if they aren't applicable but want to make sure they are paid if unable to accommodate.



RCI points inventory doesn't break down by unit inventory. They do note that various scenarios may lead to one or more changes in room and if that is the case multiple housekeeping fees may apply. Again the resorts try to mitigate this but in originally fixed week/units it happens when you don't check in/out on the regular check in day.

SueDonJ said:

is how the IT system can book consecutive nights in different units under the same reservation confirmation number.

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Sue, the system does do this, even though TUGgers don't think it should.

Marriott really needs to add a disclaimer to alert the reservation maker that reservations that cross a certain day may require a room change.

Best,

Greg

WOW, I read this thread and I get worried. I have 9 reservation #s for an upcoming 4 week stay. I've never been asked to switch rooms and it's a similar situation each year.

jimf41 said:

WOW, I read this thread and I get worried. I have 9 reservation #s for an upcoming 4 week stay. I've never been asked to switch rooms and it's a similar situation each year.

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If your stay is at a property that is all floating weeks/units, then you will not have a problem. It's when there are fixed weeks/units involved that it comes into play.

Where are you going for your stay?

Best,

Greg

GregT said:

If your stay is at a property that is all floating weeks/units, then you will not have a problem. It's when there are fixed weeks/units involved that it comes into play.

Where are you going for your stay?

Best,

Greg

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MFC, I have a fixed week 7 surrounded by DC [point ressies.

This is a single 7-night reservation and we were told an owner would be moving in. We had booked reservations before at Mountainside when single 7-nights were not available and we had to make do with 2 reservations. When we checked in we requested to stay in the same room and they were not able to accommodate that. In that case, I did not mind the move as much because at the time of the reservation, I knew that was a possibility. However, in the case of Grand Residence Tahoe, there were no indication that I will be expected to lose access to the room from 10 to 4 for a day at the time of the reservation.

I agree with Greg that it is the right thing to do for the owner. However, what I don't understand is that they have 12 month to potentially work this out. What makes them to think it is ok to sprang this at the time of checking-in, "or by the way, you have to move and we can not guarantee the next room is immediately available? " To be fair, we have been Marriott owner for 12 years, and this is the first time I felt disappointed.

Other than the prospect of spending my New Year's day packing/unpacking and homeless for half a day the vacation has been great so far. The property is right next to the Heavenly gondola, the room seems larger than the regular Marriott timeshares.

I will see what will happen if I manage to talk to the GM tomorrow.

GregT said:

This happens with some frequency at Maui Ocean Club, when owners are booking 3BR units with points. In many situations, they have to move (and are just as unhappy as you are). I would suspect that you are overlapping with a home week owner, and that the property is allowing the home week owner to stay in the room. Candidly, I think that is the right thing for the property to do, and I hope you are able to move with minimal inconvenience.

Marriott really needs to add a disclaimer on certain properties that indicates that a reservation may require a move change if it crosses Saturday. Wyndham does this, and it fairly alerts the guest of the possible risk.

Enjoy your trip! You're still on vacation!

Best,

Greg

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If it's a 7 night reservation, one confirmation, NO WAY would I move. This is their problem. Don't let them make it your problem. It's not.

GregT said:

Sue, the system does do this, even though TUGgers don't think it should.

Marriott really needs to add a disclaimer to alert the reservation maker that reservations that cross a certain day may require a room change.

Best,

Greg

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Greg, it isn't a matter of what I think the system should or shouldn't allow; it's that I don't understand how the system can allow it and, at the same time, account for inventory controls that are mandated. In the same way that Trust Members sometimes see that certain nights are only available using Trust Points, all DC Members sometimes see that a multi-night stay must be booked in pieces because it can't be booked as a single stay. It's always made sense to me that that's because the same unit may not be available for all nights of the stay.

It doesn't make any sense to me that a stay requiring a unit change can be booked under a single reservation number, and I'd argue that all the way to the exec level with support from a qualified attorney if I found myself facing that situation. Floating and fixed Weeks breakage has always been available for cash rentals through marriott.com and this has never been an issue - it shouldn't be an issue with MVW either. Of all the questions and calls for class actions based on a lack of transparency in the inventory control process since the DC was introduced, this one issue is the only one that to me clearly shows the possibility of MVW improperly allocating inventory. Whether it originates in the IT system or is a result of onsite personnel incorrectly placing guests in the available units (in a mistaken effort to always satisfy owner requests for the "best" units?) it's a major concern.

We had a similar situation at a DRI resort. We booked two weeks. At the end of the first week they asked us if we could move because they accidentally put us into a unit that was fixed unit/fixed week. They offered to move all our stuff, and offered a $100 coupon for a local restaurant. We accepted and everybody was happy. The view wasn't quite as good because it was one floor down from the first unit, but it was worth getting a nice meal for free.

If it's their mistake, you shouldn't have to move without some kind of compensation.

spottie said:

This is a single 7-night reservation and we were told an owner would be moving in.
...
However, what I don't understand is that they have 12 month to potentially work this out.

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And the cracks in the foundation of the false points program (aka, Marriott exchange program with some trust ownership), that promises no hassles, "just reserve your days, 1, 2 or a week," grow larger.

Expanding on the false premise of the weeks program that made TS owners believe they were buying deeded interests in Marriott properties (as opposed to HOAs managed by Marriott), the DC Club fails to notify owners that they are just buying into an overlay of interests in underlying timeshare weeks, or the chance to trade a la II.

I can't recall this little hiccup being mentioned in my last sales presentation.

spottie said:

We just checked in the Grand Residence Tahoe today. Upon check in, we were told that we have to change unit the last night of our 7 night stay, and it is not guaranteed the room is immediately available after we move out.
I was really upset upon hearing this. I had made the reservation for 7 nights more than 12 month in advance with 20% Destination point premium. During those 12 month, could they not have contacted me in advance to let me know this will happen? I have no desire to spend my New Year's day packing/unpacking and moving. Plus, I paid for 7 nights/days, if they do not make the unit immediately available, then am I losing half day of what I already paid for? Can I refuse to move? Who can I contact at Marriott to have this resolved if it can not be done locally here? (General manager won't be in till Monday. )
If anyone has experience dealing with similar situations, your advice is greatly appreciated!

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To the OP: What was the final outcome of your thread?

pedro47 said:

To the OP: What was the final outcome of your thread?

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There is no outcome yet, it was just started yesterday and the move isn't until New Year's Day.