Checking out shouldn't be so difficult

[Quilter]

Last week we checked out of SurfWatch and I used 2 Marriott gift cards to settle room charges. One front desk clerk had to show another one how do take care of the charges. No problem, it's all part of new people being trained, right? It took a while to do the transaction but we were finally on our way. One card was thrown away, the other I took with me.

Today we began week 3 on Hilton Head by checking out of Barony. DD arrived last night. She's an ER nurse. . .I had made an appointment for a 4 p.m. relaxation massage to surprise her. HHI resorts have a practice of cooperating with each other when guests are moving from one resort to another. We didn't have to leave our unit at Barony until we were called by Grande Ocean that our new room was ready.

We got the call to move shortly before her 4 p.m. appt. After emptying the room, loading the car, I went with her to check-in at the Spa and tried to get charge for appt. sent over to front desk so I could settle up on all charges for the week with the balance on the Marriott gift card I had used at SurfWatch. Spa was having trouble entering charge so I said I'd deal with the front desk. Walked across lobby and waited. 2 people at desk and a continuous line of Friday check-ins. Finally my turn. I explain the problem Spa was having with charge. Front desk person picks up phone, calls over to the Spa and they have a phone discussion that causes her to seek out help from manager behind "the door". It was very obvious the Spa was challenging the ability for it to be charged to room but in the end the Spa lost. Then the gift card was run and it showed a $0 balance. By now I'm probably into this by 1/2 hour. I explained that the previous week I used the same card at SurfWatch for $22 charge and the remainder ($250 - 22) should still be on it. Once again the front desk person goes behind "the door" and comes back with the manager. They pull up record of charges at SurfWatch and see the entire $250 was removed from the card instead of just $22. More work in and out of "that door". I head to Marketplace for a cup of Zen tea. By the time I'm done it's close to a hour from the start.

I'm home at Grande Ocean for a week. Spent the gift cards so it's an easy peasy credit card.

 

[aka Julie]

I had the same problem with Marriott gift card at Lakeshore Reserve last December. When I went to check out there was money left on the gift card I had given them upon check-in. Same problem as you -- they had wiped out the entire amount at check-in. Told me there was no way they could "refund" the balance.

No manager was on duty, and I wasn't about to leave without my money. In the end they gave me a paper gift certificate. It appears they don't get gift cards too often, unlike hotels. I'll never use them again at a Marriott TS.

 

[jpc763]

Similar problem at Shadow Ridge for us. We bought them from the kids school as a fund raiser. Had 10 - $100 dollar gift cards to pay for our incidentals (several days of golf for DW and I). Took about an hour for them to figure them out! Never again!

 

[KathyPet]

THe hotels are no better at using these than the T/S. A few years ago w stayed at Frenchman's Reef. Told them when we checked in that we would be using Marriott gift cards. THey still took the credit card and we were told that when we checked out we could change the payment method. We get our bill under the door and discover that the charge has already been put on the VISA. We go to front desk and tell them we want VISA Card credited and that we are paying with two $250.00 gift cards. It took three clerks at the front desk hovering over each other to figure out how to accomplish what should have been a simple task. One $250.00 card was used in full and the other one had about $50.00 left on it. I didn;t trust anything they were doing and even though our bill said our balance was zero I kept everything including the gift card that was supposed to have the zero balance. SUre enough we got our VISA bill and the hotel charge was still on it. It took multiple phone calls to corporate Marriott to get the matter cleared up. I was not a happy camper at the hassle I had to go through. THey obviously provide no training to their staffs on how to process these cards.

 

[classiclincoln]

Didn't have a problem at the Ren Aruba last year using the Marriott gift card. Check out was fast, friendly & easy.

 

[BocaBoy]

I have found that some properties (both timeshares and hotels) can swipe the gift card just like a credit card and it is quick and easy. Others have to make a phone call to get the balance, wait on the phone line for awhile, and then somehow it all works (like the early days of credit cards). The ones who can swipe the card don't understand why all properties can't do it that way, and the ones who can't don't seem to believe that other properties can.

 

[dioxide45]

I had to leave my gift card behind once at a Courtyard so the Manager could run it when they came in. I was a little nervous but it worked out in the end. It was still one of the old Visa type cards. The new ones work differently I believe.