Deposit at Marriott
So I made my reservation back on May 17th. I was getting worried because the first nights deposit still had not come out of my account for the room.
I called and double checked earlier this month to make sure I had the convention rate and that everything was set for it.
I called today again because its 10 day till the con and the deposit STILL hadn't come out. I had to make them manually take out the first nights deposit because it wasn't on the records to be taken out. Hopefully within the next couple of days the deposit will come out.
Just thought I would post this to see if anyone else had this problem with the Marriott.
When making a reservation - at least, when doing it by telephone - after you have given the dates and duration of your stay, and made sure that you mentioned the code for the AnthroCon rate, have the clerk at the other end read back all the details - Arrival Date, Number of Nights, Check-out date, room type, rate in dollars, (the clerk should mention that you are getting the group rate), and your method of payment (what credit card you are planning to check-in with).
If everything read back is as it should be, the clerk will then offer you a confirmation number. Write this down, and then add it to your document collection (the AC Registration receipt, your airline reservation, etc). For an added measure, if you have a PDA or a memo-section on your cell phone, make an entry of the hotel name, dates, and that confirmation number.
Before you hang up, ask the clerk to send via e-mail a statement of your reservation; some hotel chains can also do this by FAX, as well. THis will provide you with a document for careful review, detailing and confirming all that you have requested - and will be pretty hard for the hotel to later deny or make changes, when you get there and try to check in.
IF NO MENTION of a first night's deposit was made, and they haven't taken it out by the time you arrive, don't press the issue; you are already aware that they might do this; if they fail to do so for some reason, they cannot turn around and state that your reservation is invalid, or deny you the quoted group rate.
The point of the first night's deposit and the non-refund policy, is to ensure that you actually show up to take the room; once you are there, the point becomes moot.
EDIT: You should be able to go to the Marriott Hotels website, and enter your confirmation number, and it should be able to pull up the details of your reservation for you to see; if you have a printer, print a copy of that, as well. This should alleviate any worries which you may have.
I called the Marriot last week to confirm my reservation and was told that a deposit wasn't needed because I reserved the room using a credit card. My reservation is confirmed so I guess I will just leave it at that and pay for the entire stay when we arrive. Right now I would heseitate to make them take out the deposit as it is so close to the con. I wouldn't want to have to pay for 1 night twice if their wires got crossed or something.