Unfortunately, I need to report a bad experience with this recently opened hotel as a Titanium Elite Marriott Bonvoy member. I made the reservation back in April’24 and sent the request to use some of my Nightly Upgrade Awards (NUAs) to upgrade our room to the Overwater Sea Villa. 3 days before the check in (beginning of October’24) I received the confirmation from Marriott Bonvoy that the NUA request was confirmed and our room was upgraded to the Overwater Sea Villa as requested. Almost 10 hours later, the assistant Front Office manager sent me an email informing me that the Overwater Sea Villa was not eligible for upgrade and that there was a system glitch issue between Marriott International and the hotel. They offered me instead to be upgraded to a One Bedroom Villa and to have the NUAs credited back. After several iterations with their Loyalty Manager and their Resort Manager arguing that customers should absolutely not bear the consequence of hotel’s system issues and they should have honoured the confirmed upgrade and even after suggesting to offer us 2 nights out of our 4-night stay at the Overwater Sea Villa, they refused to do so. Consequently, I have cancelled the reservation and asked for the refund of the 1st night deposit immediately.
Total disappointment and terribly not up to the Titanium Elite Marriott Bonvoy member standards! Especially since I was giving a surprise to my partner with this stay!
Piece of advice for anyone attempting to use their NUAs for the Overwater Sea Villa -> I’ve checked and it’s still possible to request it in the app but as mentioned earlier, even if the request comes confirmed they will not honour it!