Navigating Challenges with Marriott Bookings: A Noteworthy Experience!

Booking Troubles at Marriott Ghent

Recently, when I arrived to check in at Marriott Ghent, the front desk informed me that I had two reservations. One was a Point + Cash booking that I had canceled back in December 2025. The other was a reservation I made using 35K FN + 5K as an alternative, which should have been the only active booking.

Two days prior to my check-in date, everything in my My Trip section was displaying correctly. I had around ten reservations from December to January for stays in April, mostly at cash rates. I also frequently checked to see if any prices dropped.

Everything was fine until two days before check-in, which was the last time I reviewed each reservation in My Trip before heading to the hotel. When the front desk mentioned I had two rooms, I thought they were referring to bookings on two separate nights, especially when they asked, "Would you like to stay in the same room?" They then handed me room keys for both reservations. I immediately corrected them: "No, I only booked one room." The front desk insisted I had two bookings.

Then, at 3 AM EST (9 AM CET), I received a confirmation email for the Point + Cash booking, with the same booking number as the one I had canceled in December. Clearly, I had not made any new reservations! At the front desk, I tried to locate the cancellation confirmations I had received back in December. Thanks to my organized inbox, I found them within minutes.

The booking manager requested that I forward both cancellation confirmations to the hotel's email. She checked the hotel system but couldn't find any information about the cancellations. I even noticed that My Trip now displayed two bookings for two nights. This made me certain that they hadn’t appeared just two days before when I checked.

Moreover, the cancellation details were no longer listed under the Canceled section! Notably, 24K had been deducted from my account because the canceled reservation reappeared. Typically, it would only cost 20K and had been refunded when canceled. Thanks to the cancellation emails, the booking manager was able to cancel both duplicate bookings with the same cancellation number. However, she had to open a case with Bonvoy to refund the 24K points, as she mentioned the hotel couldn’t refund points for bookings made directly on the Marriott site.

But clearly, no one had made this booking, at least not me. No one could comprehend how these errors occurred. I was truly relieved to check in and discover these duplicate reservations. If someone changes their plans and just cancels without double-checking, they might not realize the issue until they are charged as a No Show.

Response from Bonvoy

Eventually, Bonvoy responded promptly and agreed to refund the 24K the following afternoon. The issue was resolved. Since this wasn’t the hotel's fault, there was no gesture of support from customer service.

Oh, and another interesting thing happened during my next stay at Marriott Brussels, where the room rates were 190 euros and 199 euros for the two separate nights. During check-out/recheck-in, the staff wanted to authorize 420 euros for the second night. Once again, management had to step in to resolve this issue. This staff member mentioned that Marriott had recently implemented some system updates, which might have caused the confusion.

She requested to see the price confirmation. But before I could pull up the email, she found it in the system. Therefore, the amount that would be authorized was indeed correct.

Lessons Learned

The lesson I took away is that you must ensure you receive confirmation emails for every reservation and cancellation. You never know when you might need those supporting documents if things go awry. Additionally, having an organized system for storing emails for easy retrieval is essential.