Arriving Guest Information [merged]

[BigDawgTUG]

I was informed by online Chat today that, effective yesterday, you can no longer update guest information via online Chat or phone support. The only way now to do so is by use of the Form and that most likely explains why the link to the Form is now showing up in the reservation sections of our accounts.

I have also been told that updating the guest information via Marriott.com is not adequate. Accordingly, as a reminder, as stated at the top of the Form, "Failure to provide the required information 30 days prior to arrival will not allow for an adequate guest notification period; therefore, [MVC] cannot guarantee that Family Member or Guest names will be able to be added to reservations in which [the Owner] do[es] not intend to stay."

Given the certifications being asked of Owners on the Form, and MVC's ability to track the frequency of submissions of the Form by an Owner, it appears this may very well be MVC's initial efforts to crack down on what they deem to be "commercial" activity.

 

[dioxide45]

I have also been told that updating the guest information via Marriott.com is not adequate

I suspect that until they make is so people can't update on Marriott.com, many (most?) people will continue to do that. What they will likely do is lock down any changes on Marriott.com so we can't even add our Bonvoy numbers to a reservation. Thanks renters

 

[VacationForever]

Out of all of my ownership, at Chairman's Club level, I only rent out 2 weeks of 1BR every other year or so to the same person. Everything else is for personal consumption. This declaration of not using for commercial use is a little disturbing. I rent out to barely cover maintenance fees for the 2 weeks, and I don't see it as "commercial use". I also have no issue to stop renting as I book those weeks anyway and they will go to II. We will have to stay tune for TUGers' experience.

 

[dioxide45]

Out of all of my ownership, at Chairman's Club level, I only rent out 2 weeks of 1BR every other year or so to the same person. Everything else is for personal consumption. This declaration of not using for commercial use is a little disturbing. I rent out to barely cover maintenance fees for the 2 weeks, and I don't see it as "commercial use". We will have to stay tune for TUGers' experience.

That is a problem with many of these declarations, it is really up to the HOA/Management company to define the term. I don't beleive commercial use is defined as it isn't capitalized in the documents. Wyndham took a strong stance on renting. Going so far as to check Facebook group listings. Facebook has a "real name" policy. Thus it was fairly easy for them to match up rental listings to owners. Some got dinged for a single rental, others are still skating by with dozens.

Marriott does have a big problem with availability within its points system. I know a lot of owners who comment on my videos complain of availability issues. So I can see why Marriott may be looking more closely at renting point reservations.

 

[davidvel]

Out of all of my ownership, at Chairman's Club level, I only rent out 2 weeks of 1BR every other year or so to the same person. Everything else is for personal consumption. This declaration of not using for commercial use is a little disturbing. I rent out to barely cover maintenance fees for the 2 weeks, and I don't see it as "commercial use". I also have no issue to stop renting as I book those weeks anyway and they will go to II. We will have to stay tune for TUGers' experience.

Also, as many have noted, sales pitches almost universally tout the ability to rent your weeks or points as a great feature and reason to pay tens of thousands to MVC. Just a few weeks a go Kenny in Park City talked about renting both his legacy weeks and points and showed us a check where he was paid over $15,000 for his ski week rentals by a broker. So, I hope everyone can document all the presentations they have been on where this "benefit" was proffered as an inducement to buy, to counter the eventual crackdown on rentals.

 

[dioxide45]

Also, as many have noted, sales pitches almost universally tout the ability to rent your weeks or points as a great feature and reason to pay tens of thousands to MVC. Just a few weeks a go Kenny in Park City talked about renting both his legacy weeks and points and showed us a check where he was paid over $15,000 for his ski week rentals by a broker. So, I hope everyone can document all the presentations they have been on where this "benefit" was proffered as an inducement to buy, to counter the eventual crackdown on rentals.

Sadly, timeshare companies have the "licence to lie clause" in their contracts.

 

[Quilter]

Also, as many have noted, sales pitches almost universally tout the ability to rent your weeks or points as a great feature and reason to pay tens of thousands to MVC. Just a few weeks a go Kenny in Park City talked about renting both his legacy weeks and points and showed us a check where he was paid over $15,000 for his ski week rentals by a broker. So, I hope everyone can document all the presentations they have been on where this "benefit" was proffered as an inducement to buy, to counter the eventual crackdown on rentals.

Marriott needs to accept responsibility for creating the big time rental monster and need to come up with a better way to DEFINE commercial and phase into a level of tolerance in the entire system, points and weeks. It needs to be both points and weeks because MVC modified the program to be flexible and it should be fully flexible.

There is HISTORY of sales department TOUTING RENTING. There is also history for “how to use your ownership” as PRECEDENCE to show MVC ENCOURAGED, FACILITATED and TOLERATED rentals.

When we bought in ‘99 Marriott gave the option to rent through them. As I remember it, Ocean Pointe it was a 65/35 split but at Aruba Ocean Club it was 40/60. Then after points were initiated MVC no longer wanted to facilitate this option and limited the weeks they would accept. Since renting wasn’t prohibited but was no longer facilitated by MVC owners found other options and the big rental monster was born.

I say it wasn’t prohibited because OS reps we’re understanding when you called to change names on the ressie. They would even ask if you were staying or asked if you were renting and remove your personal Bonvoy information. The PRECEDENCE was MVC was ACCOMODATING!

HISTORY, FACILITATION, ACCOMMODATION, PRECEDENCE, TOLERANCE, SELLING THE OPTION.

MVC needs to ACCEPT responsibility for the big rental problem, define commercial and make allowances for what they promised as part of the program they sold.

It’s the Marriott Way.

 

[Dean]

Out of all of my ownership, at Chairman's Club level, I only rent out 2 weeks of 1BR every other year or so to the same person. Everything else is for personal consumption. This declaration of not using for commercial use is a little disturbing. I rent out to barely cover maintenance fees for the 2 weeks, and I don't see it as "commercial use". I also have no issue to stop renting as I book those weeks anyway and they will go to II. We will have to stay tune for TUGers' experience.

I see zero risk here but I feel there is a lot they can do to make rentals difficult, including changes to the POS. The reality is they too are renting so to block renting completely would be difficult as a minimum. But I do feel they could leverage the 13 month reservation option and certain high demand weeks. Having a rental website and renting significant volume year after year is where the risk lies, IMO.

 

[Superchief]

I occasionally 'rent' points reservations to friends and family members to cover the costs of my maintenance fees. I don't make any profit, but if MVC gets overly aggressive regarding this issue they may prohibit these types of situations. I always add the names when I make my reservations, so I hope they don't eliminate that ability.

 

[DRH90277]

I did discuss this with our sales guy who knows the territory. Rentals by those of us who rent here and there to cover our maintenance costs are not the problem and rental has long been an option for us "non-commercial" owners. Also, this seems to be more of a problem for the points program. I'm confident MVC is trying to solve a problem without alienating a bunch of great non-commercial customers.

I'm going to continue my use as in the past. Timeshare owners are quite imaginative and can probably figure out how to get what they need.

One other thought - What would the points program be like if week owners stopped depositing their weeks for points? Just "imagine" that.

 

[WahooWah]

Is this a new thing? When going online to add a guest to a reservation, the owner is asked a bunch of invasive questions and Marriott makes a bunch of indemnifying language for itself and warnings about commercial use violating the Abound Exchange rules, yadda, yadda. This notice was also included at the top:
"NOTE: Failure to provide the required information 30 days prior to arrival will not allow for an adequate guest notification period; therefore, we cannot guarantee that Family Member or Guest names will be able to be added to reservations in which you do not intend to stay." 30 days? When did this become an issue within 30 days?

What is going on here? Is this an attempt to crack down on rentals? And how long will it take to get the guest certificate confirmed?

 

[alexb]

I have just contacted Marriott to add a guest name to a points booking they are telling me you need to fill in a special form they send you and it can take 30days to add guests name.
anyone else aware of this change

 

[DanCali]

Yes, it’s been reported here before, but not applied consistently yet.

Making a change to the policy is one thing. Having it take 30 days is ridiculous, especially when guests/renters have to confirm airfare. Changes to should lead to greater efficiency, not owner inconvenience.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The Colorado Kid]

I was recently changing the name in my Bonvoy app...is that also no longer working?

 

[jme]

I did it yesterday....I called Owner Services to make the name change, and the rep says there's a new way to do it now.......
We both logged on to the MVC site and she walked me through it......how to get to the form and how to fill it out, etc.......

So, the "form" is on the MVC website and you simply click on it, fill in the guest's info (name, address, phone contact, & email)
and check/acknowledge boxes on 10-12 random questions
(standard issues such as "will owner stay there at all, or not at all?", "damages are responsibility of owner when a non-owner will not stay", etc, etc.)
and SUBMIT.
After doing it, it's very easy if you can first find it to click on.
Marriott then sends you a new confirmation email with the guest's name on it. They state that they will also send out the same confirmation emailI to the guest.
I got my email by the end of the day.
Meanwhile Marriott will verify guest info you submitted so that the guest can check in....if Marriott cannot verify, the guest cannot check in, as it states on the form.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

I did it yesterday....I called Owner Services to make the name change, and the rep says there's a new way to do it now.......
We both logged on to the MVC site and she walked me through it......how to get to the form and how to fill it out, etc.......

So, the "form" is on the MVC website and you simply click on it, fill in the guest's info (name, address, phone contact, & email)
and check/acknowledge boxes on 10-12 random questions
(standard issues such as "will owner stay there at all, or not at all?", "damages are responsibility of owner when a non-owner will not stay", etc, etc.)
and SUBMIT.
After doing it, it's very easy if you can first find it to click on.
Marriott then sends you a new confirmation email with the guest's name on it. They state that they will also send out the same confirmation emailI to the guest.
I got my email by the end of the day.
Meanwhile Marriott will verify guest info you submitted so that the guest can check in....if Marriott cannot verify, the guest cannot check in, as it states on the form.

@jme Great details...thanks! For this part...do you know if you hear back when Marriott has verified the guest and does that occur right away or closer to actual arrival? "Meanwhile Marriott will verify guest info you submitted so that the guest can check in....if Marriott cannot verify, the guest cannot check in, as it states on the form."

 

[Fasttr]

Some discussion about from this last week, and how to find the form here…

Arriving Guest Information [merged]

Perhaps it's been there for awhile, and perhaps reported here and I missed it, but I was looking at my ressys yesterday, and I am pretty sure it was not there then.... But now when I go to my week ressy listings on MVC website, at the top right of the listings, there is a link which says...

tugbbs.com

 

[jme]

@jme Great details...thanks! For this part...do you know if you hear back when Marriott has verified the guest and does that occur right away or closer to actual arrival? "Meanwhile Marriott will verify guest info you submitted so that the guest can check in....if Marriott cannot verify, the guest cannot check in, as it states on the form."

I told the guest to let me know when they receive the Marriott email of confirmation (I usually have a "relationship"
with the guest by this point, so we converse every now and then at the least. I will follow up, though).
Anyway, the "guest info" I submitted to Marriott is absolutely correct, and I'm 100% sure the guest is highly motivated to want to check in,
so I don't foresee any problem. I will step in if anything hits a snag, but that is doubtful.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

I told the guest to let me know when they receive the Marriott email of confirmation (I usually have a "relationship"
with the guest by this point, so we converse every now and then at the least. I will follow up, though).
Anyway, the "guest info" I submitted to Marriott is absolutely correct, and I'm 100% sure the guest is highly motivated to want to check in,
so I don't foresee any problem. I will step in if anything hits a snag, but that is doubtful.

Thanks - I am the opposite and cherish my current ability not to be involved in any way with the renter and Redweek or Koala take all required actions. Will be interesting to see if this guest verification becomes part of their process as well.

 

[vol_90]

No issues updating the guest name via the Marriott website this morning. Log into account, go to your trips, find reservation, click on view / modify, go to guest information and update name. Confirmation e-mail received within 10 seconds with the updated name on the reservation.

 

[bbts]

I "chatted" with owner services yesterday to add a guest's name to a points reservation and was told the new policy requires that I complete the form online. When I pressed the agent as to why they were requesting such detailed information about the guest (with all fields "required"), the agent responded that it is to "ensure compliance with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OPAC) guidelines" (quoted from the transcript of the chat). A very interesting use of a federal regulation. Also, now, 24 hours later, I have received nothing back indicating that the reservation was updated.

 

[Superchief]

Has anything changed for adding guest names to reservation when you are making a points reservations? I typically add the names when I make the initial reservation.

 

[kyaustin]

If i’m traveling with family to a 3br and we will all be there at the same time so I can check us in. Can I not add their names at that point to be able get a new key if they lose their key?

 

[jmhpsu93]

Has anything changed for adding guest names to reservation when you are making a points reservations? I typically add the names when I make the initial reservation.

I just went onto Marriott.com and was able to change reservation names if I wanted to on Abound points reservations...I just can't change the Bonvoy number like you can with a cash reservation.

 

[dioxide45]

If i’m traveling with family to a 3br and we will all be there at the same time so I can check us in. Can I not add their names at that point to be able get a new key if they lose their key?

Yes, you wouldn't use this form. You would just add guests to the room at checkin.