I’m curious if I’m the only one who seems to have this issue with some regularity?
In this post:
I far prefer electronic hotel folios
After a hotel stay, it’s of course useful to have a copy of your folio, in order to track expenses, for accounting purposes, and also in case a stay doesn’t post correctly. Typically when you check out of a hotel, you’re asked if you’d like a paper copy, or if you’d prefer to have the folio emailed to you.
Like many people, I far prefer to have it emailed. Not only does it save paper, but it’s much easier for me to pull up a receipt at any point in the future if it’s in my email inbox, rather than on a piece of paper in some closet.
I find that hotels in the United States belonging to the major hotel groups have no issues emailing folios. They seem to actually come automatically at check-out, without even needing to ask for them. However, outside the United States it seems to be a different story.
This is often an issue outside the United States
On my current trip to Germany and France, I’ve stayed at three different Marriott Bonvoy properties (two Autograph Collection and one Marriott). At each property, I asked for a copy of the folio to be emailed to me. Not a single one of those folios actually arrived in my inbox.
For what it’s worth, I’m using a standard Gmail address, and I double checked that the folios aren’t in my spam folder. At the third hotel I even stood there and waited while they tried to send it. They tried three times, and I just didn’t receive it.
So unfortunately I end up just asking for both a printed version and a paper version, because it seems the electronic versions can’t be relied on. Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident, and I’d estimate that maybe half of the time I don’t receive the electronic folio that I request when staying at a hotel outside the United States.
I just don’t get it? Do I just have exceptionally bad luck in this regard? Is there something in hotels’ systems that just prevents them from sending a very basic email? Is there something I can do to improve my chances of actually getting these emails?
To top it all off, go figure that so far, not a single stay has posted correctly to my Marriott Bonvoy account. The first stay didn’t post at all, the second stay posted totally wrong, and the third stay hasn’t posted (though that one could just take some more time).
Bottom line
While totally minor, I can’t help but point out how I’ve consistently had issues with hotel folios being emailed to me when staying at international properties. And I just don’t get it. I check my spam folder, and I’m not using some obscure web service for my email, and hotels in the United States seem to have no issues with this.
Is there something I’m missing? Does anyone else have this issue?
@Ben, there seem to be varying experiences here. But, I'll double down on your experience with Marriott. And, no, for those who think it's gmail, it's not. I always get a paper folio in Europe and the Middle East as the emailed folios never arrive. In one case (in Wales) it didn't arrive in my gmail. I called and asked them to send to my work address. Then my EA called and asked them to...
@Ben, there seem to be varying experiences here. But, I'll double down on your experience with Marriott. And, no, for those who think it's gmail, it's not. I always get a paper folio in Europe and the Middle East as the emailed folios never arrive. In one case (in Wales) it didn't arrive in my gmail. I called and asked them to send to my work address. Then my EA called and asked them to send to her. Finally, they faxed it. And, further, while my US folios will show up in my online account, my international ones don't. This is clearly a systemic problem for Marriott.
Get the paper... Some hotels really resent printing, as they frequently don't even have a printer at the front desk now. But, they're going to resent the irate phone calls from my EA even more.
I always request both for this reason
Unfortunately it's just you Ben.
I have stayed in Accor Hotels in Berlin regularly. The invoice just gets emailed to me. I don't even have to ask for it.
I always request both print and email copies for this very reason. This seems to be more an issue with European hotels as I seldom have issues getting email folios from hotels in Asia and North America…
Ben, I have this exact same issue with Marriott properties in Europe. I ask the receptionist to email my folio when I checkout and... Nothing. I have to follow up with a message to the hotel via chat in the Marriott Bonvoy app. Also, the folio doesn't post in the receipts section in the Past Stays area of my Marriott account.
I usually check what email address they see, as sometimes that have a old email address or just a plain wrong one. It does seem that the hotel has their own local record of you, and the record that is in your account. And the local record does not necessarily get automatically updated from your account.
For domestic stays, I just go to the app and 99 percent of the time I can push it to my email from there. This does not appear to happen on the international stays. Fortunately, I don’t have to track those as closely.
I have the exact same issue, and it's not just international hotels but also any Accor hotel even in the USA - and I work for a large email provider and have the issue with both my personal and work emails. That said, I'm also blonde and a gay man like Ben, so maybe my aura is the real issue here!
Ben, Did you see the flood at Frankfurt airport? I have never seen water that high at an airport. With their layouts, they usually don't flood, but this is something to see.
Check on google for images.
Just happened to me during a mixture of international Bonvoy stays(Autograph and Design properties). One explanation I received from a hotel manager is that the hotel is loosely associated with Marriott and they have to post the stays manually within the Bonvoy system. I didn’t ask for additional background but if the international properties are somehow having to double-key stays in multiple systems perhaps that could also have something to do with it.
(Former Rooms Controller at Marriott) Remember to opt into efolios in your Bonvoy profile and also not book 3rd party. 3rd party reservations usually opt out of efolios on your behalf (really so we don't have access to your email address prior to check-in) so you won't get it then... and you have NO idea how many people would call and scream at me or my call center agent for not getting their efolio and...
(Former Rooms Controller at Marriott) Remember to opt into efolios in your Bonvoy profile and also not book 3rd party. 3rd party reservations usually opt out of efolios on your behalf (really so we don't have access to your email address prior to check-in) so you won't get it then... and you have NO idea how many people would call and scream at me or my call center agent for not getting their efolio and when I check their Bonvoy account they have opted out of efolio.
I have learned in my thousands of hotel stays to ALWAYS get a printed receipt handed to you upon checkout. Why, you ask? Because you should always check your receipt for errors. It is nearly impossible to dispute a billing error a week after you checkout. You can contest a charge right there at the checkout desk and ensure nothing is billed to your credit card that you did not authorize.
I cannot tell...
I have learned in my thousands of hotel stays to ALWAYS get a printed receipt handed to you upon checkout. Why, you ask? Because you should always check your receipt for errors. It is nearly impossible to dispute a billing error a week after you checkout. You can contest a charge right there at the checkout desk and ensure nothing is billed to your credit card that you did not authorize.
I cannot tell you how many extra charges were added without my consent, such as a meal, bar bill, etc. Contest it on the spot and make them provide documentation for any charge you feel you are not responsible for. No way to do that once you have checked out and returned home. The cost of calling, waiting on hold, the language barrier and the fact its much easier to contest it in person is the reason I ONLY get a printed bill. They can always email it you as well, but if it doesn't come through then just scan your paper copy if you really need or want a soft copy.
Gmail will put some doubtful emails in your Spam folder.
Others it will suppress without even putting into Spam.
And ISPs along the path may also suppress what they consider to be spam.
The Gmail rules are varied by user - i.e. if you have clicked delete without reading on lots of emails from a given source, more that look similar to Google will be diverted/blocked.
And having recently learned about the need...
Gmail will put some doubtful emails in your Spam folder.
Others it will suppress without even putting into Spam.
And ISPs along the path may also suppress what they consider to be spam.
The Gmail rules are varied by user - i.e. if you have clicked delete without reading on lots of emails from a given source, more that look similar to Google will be diverted/blocked.
And having recently learned about the need to set up SPF and DKIM so that marketing emails are not blocked, it would not surprise me that many hotels have not configured their email servers to reduce the chance of their emails being incorrectly treated as spam. It is something that needs to be checked after any migration too, even though one has not explicitly changed the settings.
I have had no issues getting emailed folios from marriott and hyatt properties in Asia and Central and South America. Maybe it’s a Europe-specific issue as some of the comments below seem to have indicated.
I won’t leave a hotel without a paper folio, especially when traveling for work and overseas. Was burned too many times years back by hotels assuring me they’d email it and then nothing would come. Wasted so much time on the phone trying to track down a folio a week or so later when filing my expense report.
What's the difference between "a printed version and a paper version"?
I also encounter this problem at Marriott properties in Europe, especially Autograph and Design Hotels.
I’ve had this problem with my Gmail address. Others have noted the technical reasons for it. I’ve had to have folios sent to my corporate address to receive them from hotels in Europe.
Thanks Ben, for another interesting article.
Unfortunately, I have learned to ask the front desk at checkout to both “kill an electron and a tree” and to please email and print out a hard copy.
I am Ambassador with Marriott, Diamond with Hilton and Globalist with Hyatt.
While I normally do receive the emailed folio, it is not rare that I do not. When I don’t receive the email, then perhaps corporate did not....
Thanks Ben, for another interesting article.
Unfortunately, I have learned to ask the front desk at checkout to both “kill an electron and a tree” and to please email and print out a hard copy.
I am Ambassador with Marriott, Diamond with Hilton and Globalist with Hyatt.
While I normally do receive the emailed folio, it is not rare that I do not. When I don’t receive the email, then perhaps corporate did not. Therefore you need to take a photo of the printed folio to send to corporate to receive your night(s) and dollars spent s credit. If you don’t have a printed backup, you can go down the rabbit hole trying to get your credits.
This happens to me almost equally in the USA and international. Hyatt seems to have more problems with both not showing up or showing up with errors.
Maybe just my narrow slice of pie experience and bad luck.
Safe Journeys
I have this problem fairly regularly, it feels like. Never with Hyatt, frequently with IHG and Marriott properties. Doesn't matter whether it's my work email or Gmail.
I have to say my stays are generally Marriott and IHG and they both fail.
I find it very common, and not only (although especially at) Marriott properties. I use an outlook email and most of the time I don’t receive the folio. For that reason and because most of my stays (around 70-80%) of Marriott stays don’t credit the points properly, I have decided to always request the folio to be printed, as it is a nightmare to ask for it after the stay.
I feel that many...
I find it very common, and not only (although especially at) Marriott properties. I use an outlook email and most of the time I don’t receive the folio. For that reason and because most of my stays (around 70-80%) of Marriott stays don’t credit the points properly, I have decided to always request the folio to be printed, as it is a nightmare to ask for it after the stay.
I feel that many Marriott properties try to scam me with points, as I said most of the time I receive less points that I should. Sometimes less than 50% of the points. I already have a template email to ask Marriott for the points difference (they are usually pretty quick to solve it by email).
So when people here say "folio", they mean the hotel bill/invoice/receipt or something else as well? I have seriously never heard the word "folio" used in the context of a hotel booking/stay before reading this post.
Yes. "Folio" is frequently in the hotel industry to indicate an itemization of hotel charges and payments or credits.
I always ask for both but Marriott in Europe is a problem. I also have Gmail, it seems to work everywhere else, at least as I write.
Take a picture of the paper folio and it syncs to the cloud with a timestamp to find it later.
IME - this is a Marriott problem.
Hiltons in Europe: folio in my inbox without fail. Often several copies.
Marriotts in Europe: no emailed folio. Difficulties getting it emailed when asked.
Of course, you can also download the folio from the Marriott bonvoy site after the stay, though that doesn't help with checking for accuracy before departure.
Well, as you note, it's imperative to get your Marriott folio - and then check your account like crazy - because 90% of stays will never post. It's actually insane that their IT is so bad in this day and age.
Interestingly, I often have this problem with hotels here in the US. I now always ask for paper folios as most of my hotel stays are work travel and I *must* have that documentation.
Just spent 44 nights in Europe. Half Hilton, half Hyatt. Received all folio’s emailed to my gmail account.
Gmail enabled email host validation to curb spam. A shocking amount of European Mailservers are configured incorrectly and thus banned.
I disagree with some of the posts. I estimate I receive e-folios about 80% in the US and maybe 60% internationally (with a low N admittedly). The vast majority of these are Bonvoy. Should be 100% no doubt
100% of the time the hotel folio reaches my inbox, reads more like a “you” problem.
Similar to cash, paper is king. Yes, ask for the email but always get a paper copy. Save paper? It is recyclable.
The only thing I ever actually used my Marriott Ambassador for was tracking down all my folios
I use gmail as well and haven't had a problem except once with a Hyatt. I just got done at a Marriott luxury collection hotel in Buenos Aires and got a kind thank you email with my food and beverage and my room folios attached. I travel for work internationally once a month so maybe there is something weird with your email? Some filter you've applied? It is strange and frustrating, I am sure!
I get about half of the folios I request. The other half I have to call and ask them again to email. And then I get about 90% of those, and sometimes they have to email it yet again because their system isn’t getting it all the way to my gmail.
I should note i’m talking about US hotels not outside the country!
The cause of the issue is the Property Management Software that Marriott uses. Within the US, Marriott uses FOSSE and FSPMS which are both managed centrally by Marriott HQ. Overseas, Opera is generally used however this is managed on a property level and therefore there is more variance to the configuration and if something goes wrong is generally just left to the hotel IT to fix.
In Europe sending sensitive documents via email is not allowed by law (GDPR etc). Also since the email service is based on US, a European company needs your explicit permission to send you sensitive document via email hosted on a non-EU location.
I'm sorry, but this is a complete nonsense - as proved by the fact that dozens of hotels (and plenty of other companies) send invoices by an email without any legal issues. I get 99% of my invoices, from cell provider to hotels, on my Gmail. Invoice is not a "sensitive document" and sending an invoice to an email the customer provided to, you know, get the invoice sent to is not considered a transfer of data abroad.
I'm not a lawyer, especially in Europe, but many hotel invoices have at least a name and at least a unique identifying number (memeber account #) and possibly a physical address. All of that is considered Personally Identifiable Information which would be covered under data privacy laws.
Yes but that doesn't forbid having them sent via an email. If that was the case, at least 90% of European companies would be in breach of the law, since having an invoice emailed is the standard way to conduct business in Europe.
Surely if my bank can email me my entire account statement every month (and I'm pretty sure they have a very good legal team ensuring they are compliant with GDPR), a hotel...
Yes but that doesn't forbid having them sent via an email. If that was the case, at least 90% of European companies would be in breach of the law, since having an invoice emailed is the standard way to conduct business in Europe.
Surely if my bank can email me my entire account statement every month (and I'm pretty sure they have a very good legal team ensuring they are compliant with GDPR), a hotel can send me an invoice which contains my name and address (which by the way is public data anyway).
Do you even have a bank account outside US? I have one and my bank informed me few years back that they are no longer sending account statements with pdf attached by default. The default is to send a notification that the statement is available to download.
I have to opt in if i still want pdf statements sent by email.
Of course I have a bank account outside the US, since I never lived in the US. I have accounts in Germany, Latvia and Slovakia - all are EU member states, thus GDPR applies. At least one of those sends me my account statement via an email.
Don't disagree about it being nonsense, but that doesn't stop lawyers in companies applying it!
This problem occurred to me in Europe but never in North America or Asia. I have noticed that in some hotels across South Asia or China, the invoices may take a day or two to arrive. I have had little luck in pinpointing the issue. I have noticed that the problem has worsened since the GDPR laws were instated.
Can’t you just pull up past stays for the invoice? I’ve done that before, although normally I’m only doing domestic stays.
Not just you! It happens to me 80% of the time and it’s not a gmail account!
Have you tried looking up your reservation on their site? With Hilton, your PDF receipt will be there too.
I agree with the others: Gmail is the problem.
Most of the time I don't get one even when requested.
The hotels aren't the problem, but your email is. I've encountered this a lot as a travel agent when we sent out itineraries or invoices to gmail addresses.
Sometimes Google decides just not to deliver your mail, because they deem you spam.
Even when the client sent us an email first, sometimes our reply would not be delivered.
When many different entities have issues with sending YOU an email, why would think it's...
The hotels aren't the problem, but your email is. I've encountered this a lot as a travel agent when we sent out itineraries or invoices to gmail addresses.
Sometimes Google decides just not to deliver your mail, because they deem you spam.
Even when the client sent us an email first, sometimes our reply would not be delivered.
When many different entities have issues with sending YOU an email, why would think it's them that have a problem instead of looking for the common denominator?
I normally like your posts, even the more trivial ones (okay, especially those). But this one.. is not it.
Because it's not many different types of entities, it's only a problem for ONE different type of entity trying to send ONE specific type of email, and for that matter only when outside the US! I bet Ben gets Marriott's marketing emails just fine.
FWIW I have my own custom domain, not administered, registered, or affiliated with Google in any manner, and I have the same problem with hotels outside the US as Ben describes in this post.
As I just mentioned, this is not exclusive to Marriott, as I have had the same experience working for different travel agencies, that either our or the tour operator mails did not go trough to gmail.
Same issue btw, when customers tried applying for e-visa for different countries. Almost always gmail accounts that didn't get the confirmation.
Of course this is just anecdoctal evidence, but when I started reading the post, my first thought was "I bet he uses gmail".
So when many different entities on the receiving end also have the same problem, as per the other comments, what do you call that?
No need for aggression!
Serious question: where in my comment did you sense agression? I'm honestly confused.
To add to my previous comment, I am using a custom domain and not a generic (gmail, Hotmail, etc) address that could be blocked. From an IT perspective if that email were sent, I would have received it. I even verified on the server log side.. nothing comes in.
Ditto here. It's an issue on the property side.
It’s not just you, Marriott IT has a lot of work to do.
Many Marriott folios in Europe have not emailed. I did have some luck emailing the hotel after the stay who manually sent over the folios, but it’s difficult to find the hotel email addresses.
Regarding stays posting: both in North America and abroad, Bonvoy stays have consistently been forgotten (2 in 17 stays have posted correctly). Though the form is...
It’s not just you, Marriott IT has a lot of work to do.
Many Marriott folios in Europe have not emailed. I did have some luck emailing the hotel after the stay who manually sent over the folios, but it’s difficult to find the hotel email addresses.
Regarding stays posting: both in North America and abroad, Bonvoy stays have consistently been forgotten (2 in 17 stays have posted correctly). Though the form is simple enough to fill and credits relatively quickly, it’s abysmal for a program to have such a poor batting average. These are stays that have been booked directly through Marriott with my Bonvoy number linked.
Finally, have any of you had issues recently with SNAs confirming but the hotel not having any idea? SNAs recently cleared for a hotel in Canada, but was provided my original booked room type. It seemed all the suites were sold out, despite the SNAs clearing and a manager understanding that SNAs were CONFIRMED. Been going back and forth with Bonvoy service for the past 2 months to try and get those reinstated. It seems they think I was upgraded.
I don't have the problem (and it's mainly European stays), but if I suspect there might be a problem, I photograph the bill on the counter, email it to myself and ask them to recycle the paper.
I’ve had issues lately at US Hilton brands. For the most part though, I am able to pull up the bill on the Hilton app.
From how for back
Ha same here! For a few months already, I don’t get any invoices from the European hotels. I thought something was wrong in my profile, but it looks like it’s Marriott’s IT…
You named your problem. GMAIL
It is a nightmare for companies - when google decides that your domain is not trustworthy it does not deliver your emails.
If im not wrong gmail is owned and was developed by Google, so it would be a bit odd that ' Google decides domain not trustworthy' .... But feel free to go on talking about topics no idea about. We're on holidays..
Hotmail is no better
iCloud is no better, it’s as if it is not the fault of the email providers but rather the hotel chain IT…
Have the same problem. If I stay at a Marriott or Hilton Hotel outside the US the folio never arrives in my mail account. Hyatt and IHG folios arrive without a problem.
Not sure what the problem is, but I guess it has something to so with the hotel chain software. Had a talk with the front desk at the Sheraton Nice and they use the regular Marriott software (think was called Opera or so)
I've had the same issues only in Europe (Germany and France) so I usually stand there at the check out desk until I see the folio hit my email box. Of course, each time I did NOT receive a folio, I needed it because I wasn't credited properly for the stay (incorrect nights, no nights at all, etc).