Updated Cancellation Policy Effective for Stays Beginning January 1, 2015
Demand for lodging is at an all-time high, and across the industry, more rooms are being occupied than ever before. We expect that 2015 will be another record-breaking year for occupancy, which means now is a good time to modify our reservation cancellation policy to help hotels better manage their inventory.
Overview of Policy Change
The new policy will change the cancellation deadline from the day of arrival (e.g., 12:00, 4:00 or 6:00 p.m.) to 11:59 p.m. local time on the day prior to arrival. The change to the cancellation policy gives Revenue Management more time to manage inventory and make strategy adjustments, thereby increasing the ability to mitigate loss from short-term cancellations. Many of our competitors have already moved to a 24-hour cancellation policy, and many hotels within the Marriott portfolio have already implemented a more aggressive cancellation policy (note: hotels currently following a more restrictive policy will not be impacted by this change).
We anticipate most hotels will want to follow the new policy and we will coordinate centralized changes for all participating hotels. For any hotel(s) wishing to continue to offer a “day of arrival” cancellation policy, the franchise management company can opt the hotel(s) out of the centralized changes by submitting a request to Marriott by October 20, 2014.
Special Corporate Pricing for 2015
In preparation for this change in policy, Marriott’s Pricing & Accounts Services (PAS) team has been presenting the new policy for Americas hotels to centrally-priced accounts for 2015 pricing. If the cancellation policy is a requirement of the RFP, the PAS team will be posting an addendum question in MarRFP asking if the hotel will agree to the account’s requested cancel policy terms. If the account did not specify if the cancellation policy was a requirement during the RFP review, the account may still renegotiate on a hotel’s cancel policy. The property will have the ability to accept or decline their request through the renegotiation process. If the hotel agrees to a “day of arrival” cancellation policy for an account and the account accepts the pricing, then the property will be notified by the Global Account Leader to update the terms & conditions and add a special request code signifying the “day of arrival” cancellation policy on the account’s rate programs in High Performance Pricing (HPP).
There will also be a list of centrally priced accounts that requested or mandated a “day of arrival” policy available at the end of January 2015 to help revenue managers ensure that they’ve accounted for this in HPP for any accounts that accepted their pricing.
Global Reservation Sales & Customer Care
Going forward, Global Reservation Sales associates will be able to cancel reservations for all brands past the cutoff, up to 11:59 p.m. on the day of arrival, and they will advise the guest they will not be charged. Associates will simply ask the guest why they need to cancel (noting on the reservation that the penalty has been waived and the reason) before giving the guest the cancellation number.
Sales associates will transfer exception requests to Customer Care, which include:
- Reservations with a deposit such as, but not limited to, advance purchase rates,
- OTA bookings,
- Group rate bookings, and
- Reservations made under all other cancellation policies (e.g., 48-hours or 72-hours).
Additional Information & Next Steps
In an effort to minimize the work required of hotels to implement the new policy, Marriott will coordinate centralized changes by December 1 for arrivals beginning January 1, 2015. There are a few small items that will need to be reviewed and updated by the property’s revenue management team by December 1 as well. Hotels will receive notification of this change and links to resources, including Revenue Management Procedures, via the October 13 Franchise Weekly Update.
If you should have any questions regarding the new policy in the meantime, please reach out to your account executive.
Best regards,
Liam Brown