Infinity pool at Renaissance Uluwatu Bali
I’ve made a mistake in trusting hotels and Marriott Bonvoy to credit me with the correct the amount of points earned for my stays. I would usually just check if I’ve received the correct number of nights and some points and move on with my life.
So yesterday, I decided to do a random check on the amount of points credited for my stay at The Ritz-Carlton Bali a few days ago and found a shortage of points. I then went ahead and check the amount of points received from other stays before that and shockingly found that I’ve received the wrong (shortage) amount of points on 5 of my last 10 Marriott stays!
If you’ve been as lazy as me, this post should be a wake-up call. I’ll show you a method of doing it as easily and quickly as possible.
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Hotels that posted shortage of points
Here’s a list of my Marriott stays (in the past 24 months) where I found points shortage. I should also point out that I’ve stayed in some of these hotels more than once and points shortages were always repeated.
How do these mistakes happen?
From my observation, it looks like the mistakes were made by the hotels.
Marriott Bonvoy’s system have never failed to correctly credit welcome points and bonus points (if any). The system also automatically credits me with the right amount of elite bonus points (75% for me), depending on the base points that I’ve received.
Every Marriott Bonvoy member, regardless of status, should receive 10 points per USD spent at the hotel, excluding taxes and fees. Sounds pretty straight forward right? Unfortunately, this seems to be a challenge for some hotels as I noticed that the mistakes were always started by the wrong amount of base points credited.
Wrong base points would lead to wrong Elite member bonus and also wrong double points bonus (if any).
Easy way to check
Now that we know where the problem lies, it is a lot easier to double-check if we receive the correct amount of points after every stay.
Step 1: Find out how much you’ve spent at the hotel excluding taxes and fees.
Step 2: Convert this amount to USD. Let’s call this value ‘A’.
Step 3: Now, check your Marriott Bonvoy account activity and look for the amount of base points that you have received for the stay.
Step 4: Divide the amount by 10. Let’s call this value ‘B’.
Step 5: Check if A = B.
If B is less than A, I’m afraid you have been short-changed.
Here’s a quick example of my stay at The Hague Marriott in Feb 2020:
Invoice of my stay at The Hague Marriott
I’ve spent EUR 370 (pre-tax) at the hotel. At that time, this would convert to about USD 400. This means that I should have received about 4,000 base points.
Well, I did not. The lower base points also meant that I received less Elite bonus points.
Points breakdown in my Marriott Bonvoy account
Unfortunately, this stay was over 12 months ago and can no longer claim the missing points.
Quick resolution
I’ve always found Marriott’s support team on Twitter fantastic for quick resolution whenever I face problems with billing. Hilton’s and Hyatt’s are great too!
To claim the missing points, all I had to do was forward them a screenshot of my payment receipt from the hotel along with the confirmation number. I typically receive a reply within 1 or 2 hours.
This method is a lot faster and easier than reaching out directly to the hotels.
Remember: Always ask for our receipt/folio to be sent to your email address upon check out.
My Twitter conversations with Marriott Bonvoy yesterday
What about other loyalty programs
I am an active member with Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt as well. I have also checked if I’ve received the correct amount of points for all my stays with these 2 loyalty programs and all of them tallied perfectly.
Hilton’s points breakdown is a little better than Marriott’s as it shows where the extra points are coming from, instead of just lumping everything into ‘Extra’.
Hilton’s points breakdown
Hyatt’s points breakdown is much better! Your ‘Qualifying Spend’ is clearly shown in USD, without having to do your own conversion!
Hyatt’s points breakdown
Bottom line
There is no way for me to know if these are honest human errors or something more serious. In some properties, the short-changed amount were ‘convenient’ round numbers that is equivalent to 20 or 30 USD. It’s a pity that members of the loyalty program have to do this extra work just to check if they received what they were promised.
Looking at the poll on Suitesmile’s Instagram story, it looks like the majority of you guys have been diligently double-checking the points credited for your Marriott stays. 👏 If you have not, well, you should.
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