"De Beers' Marriott code D86 is for the diamond mining and retail conglomerate. De Beers has a very small global employee base (under 10,000) concentrated in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Canada, and London. The code is niche enough that US Marriott front desk staff have limited familiarity. No FlyerTalk or Reddit thread discusses De Beers Marriott verification incidents. The company's small headcount and non-US focus mean hotels are unlikely to encounter legitimate De Beers code users — or to scrutinize them."

"It’s about 80/20 for me. 80% of the time I still have to go to the front desk. I’ve asked the front desk folks, and they always say “our property has a policy to not allow mobile check-in”… I guess Marriott allows this at the property’s discretion. One property said they don’t want the guest to get stuck with full charges if they end up having travel issues and mobile checked-in the day before."

"I used to China often for work and book directly. I’ve never been asked, if you have a sticker or they can see something with the company logo they assume you work there. I’ve only been asked in Korea and was a hot mess until a manager stepped in."