Marriott Refunding Service Charges Collected By Three Resorts

In the past couple of days, Marriott has contacted select Bonvoy members who have redeemed their points or award certificates at three resorts in Latin America.

These hotels have collected service charges included on award reservations (they should have called them resort fees or destination charges that are OK by Marriott) that the hotel chain is now refunding.

You can access Marriott Bonvoy here.

READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions

The affected hotels are:

• JW Marriott Los Cabos
• Courtyard Nassau Downtown
• Westin Cozumel

Here’s the email from Marriott:

Once you have done the review:

Marriott promises to send you a gift card for the value of the service charges.

Conclusion

Hilton and Hyatt cover resort and destination fees on awards issued on their points, but Marriott does not and never has. It seems that these three hotels had mistakenly called them “service charges” that are not allowed per the Marriott Bonvoy T&Cs.

Marriott is not refunding these charges in cash but instead issues an electronic gift card that can be used towards any non-prepaid expenses at most Marriott affiliated hotels (there are very few that don’t accept them like Design Hotels).