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Booking a Hotel room for my son

1Kflyerguy

1Kflyerguy

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
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Nov 20, 2012
Messages
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Location
San Jose, Ca
Resorts Owned
HGVC Kings Land, Elara, and Marriott Destination Club Points
My adult son is heading to Los Angeles for a wedding and Disney in a couple of months. He wants to stay at the Anaheim Marriott. I know i can book a room for him from my Marriott account, by changing the name on the reservation. But does that really accomplish anything? Or should he just create his own account and book it himself. I am guessing none of my Plat benefits would roll though to the reservation since its in his name.
 
1Kflyerguy said:
My adult son is heading to Los Angeles for a wedding and Disney in a couple of months. He wants to stay at the Anaheim Marriott. I know i can book a room for him from my Marriott account, by changing the name on the reservation. But does that really accomplish anything? Or should he just create his own account and book it himself. I am guessing none of my Plat benefits would roll though to the reservation since its in his name.
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If this is going to be an award reservation you should call Bonvoy reservations and have them book the room from your account in your son's name.
 
1Kflyerguy said:
My adult son is heading to Los Angeles for a wedding and Disney in a couple of months. He wants to stay at the Anaheim Marriott. I know i can book a room for him from my Marriott account, by changing the name on the reservation. But does that really accomplish anything? Or should he just create his own account and book it himself. I am guessing none of my Plat benefits would roll though to the reservation since its in his name.
Click to expand...
I think this is another example of where are the actual rules and enforcement are different. Technically if you were using a free night then you would not be able to transfer it. If you book with points then you could get it in his name. If so, I would recommend looking at then calling the hotel directly. If that is unsuccessful then you can call and have them change it to his name.
 
I've successfully booked stays using Weeks, DC Points, Bonvoy points and certs, and cash for our adult children, adding their names as the primary guests via telephone calls to Owner Services (for timeshare stays) and Marriott/Bonvoy (for Bonvoy points, certs and cash stays) after receiving the email confirmations. Most stays all of the perks associated with our timeshare/Bonvoy status has been granted to them but when not, I didn't try to fight for it because I expect that would be a losing battle.
 
Thanks, originally this was a all cash stay, But i see i this is Cat 5 property and i have extra cert in my account, that i don't have other plans for.. Think i will try booking the two nights as cash, use the cert for one night. Sounds like i should book it in my name, then change the name after the bookings.

My son is paying for everything, and is authorized user on my Marriott CC, so no matter what i will get those points...
 
1Kflyerguy said:
My adult son is heading to Los Angeles for a wedding and Disney in a couple of months. He wants to stay at the Anaheim Marriott. I know i can book a room for him from my Marriott account, by changing the name on the reservation. But does that really accomplish anything? Or should he just create his own account and book it himself. I am guessing none of my Plat benefits would roll though to the reservation since its in his name.
Click to expand...
Book the room..call the hotel front desk and tell the associate your son will be checking in and have them put his name on the reservation..I do it that way anytime I book for my son or daughter..never had a problem..although never used a cert.
 
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Be careful with the use of the certificate as they are non-transferrable and you are required to stay in the room. I would hate to go to the trouble of making a reservation for your son just to have your son meet a front desk agent who requires you to be there sometime during the stay so that you can use the certificate.
 
You can not use a certificate, but you can use points to reserve the room for your son. I have used points, but was told I could not use the certificates.
 
I ended up just books a cash rate for all three nights he needed, and add his details in the guest info.

I could not get the certificate to work as part of longer cash stay, it only seemed to want to combine with points.. Since my son was more than willing to pay me back for reservation, i decide it wasn't worth the effort to try and get the cert to work. I have until April to use that up anyways..
 
The MR website can be finicky. When I book a multi-night award stay, it will automatically offer to use any applicable certs I have in lieu of points for the night(s) for the reservation. I can choose (select a radio box) whether I want it to be all points or a combination of points and a cert. I have never tried it for cash+points reservations. You might have needed to make to back to back reservations: one award and one cash in order to use the certificate.

All of that said, by the rules of the program, you can only use certificates for your own stays. Standard award point reservations can be transferred to another person (friend or family). It just has to be a gift (e.g. you can't be selling the points reservation). While you might have gotten away with using your certificate for your son (especially if he has the same last name), I don't think it would have been worth the risk. Moot point since you decided to go with an all cash booking anyway. Just FYI for other folks who are in a similar situation in the future.

--Jon
 
jonmaiman said:
The MR website can be finicky. When I book a multi-night award stay, it will automatically offer to use any applicable certs I have in lieu of points for the night(s) for the reservation. I can choose (select a radio box) whether I want it to be all points or a combination of points and a cert. I have never tried it for cash+points reservations. You might have needed to make to back to back reservations: one award and one cash in order to use the certificate.
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The website did pickup the certificate correctly, and the Customize Payments box provided options to pay with cash or points for each night of the stay. It just didn't actually work when i pushed submit. I kept getting a Gateway Authorization error with a code. I tried a few times but it always failed. Not sure if that's a temporary issue or perhaps the mixing of cash, and cert have never worked.

I just used a cert and points for a long weekend a few months back, and that worked fine. Not sure if i have ever mixed points and cash before or not.
 
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