Marriott doesn’t want its hotels annoyed by having to deal with guests. So they’ve made it harder for guests to ask to customize their stays.
- Marriott has eliminated the ability of guests to add “requests” or “notes” to a reservation.
- Until very recently, there was a text field that let you type in requests while making a booking on the Marriott website.
- There are selection boxes, but the freeform field is gone.
To be sure, hotels often ignored these requests. But there’s really no way to communicate with the hotel in advance specific requests that aren’t pre-identified checkboxes, like the extra blankets or what you might need for an allergy anymore.
Rmoving the field doesn’t reduce guest needs. It just shifts cost to phone calls at the worst time, when hotels are busy, and increases friction and disappointment on the day of check-in.
Marriott doesn’t publish hotel email addresses on their website. Hotel e-mails aren’t in booking confirmation e-mails, either. They’re hiding this on purpose.
Pick up the phone, I guess, if you can reach the right person – reservations generally reverts to the Marriott 800 number, and the front desk fielding calls probably isn’t going to get you much with requests for a future stay.
You can make requests through the Marriott app, but only after online check-in opens for the stay. You can’t do it in advance, and many properties don’t have mobile chat enabled anyway.But actually writing out a request? Not with Marriott, if you book direct. They push direct booking, but that channel now has less ability to communicate than it used to.
This is yet another reason I’m loyal to Hyatt and avoid Marriott. I will not sleep in a room that has any down bedding – my allergies are bad and I’ll wake up puffy like Pillsbury. At Hyatt? No problem. It’s in my permanent guest profile and they get it right 90% of the time (first thing I check every time I enter a room).
Really cheap hotels are too cheap to use down but they also have many more stinky smoker guests.
I don’t see a box to request that your room have a toilet or shower. It really should, since some Marriotts no longer offer those amenities.
This ain’t your daddy’s Marriott. That’s for sure.
Does that go for all of their other properties, i.e. Residence Inn, Fairfield, etc.?
Not surprising. This falls right in line with the extremely difficult way Marriott uses to book a wheelchair accessible room. You have to first select the room category you want and then select the accessibility option and see if it is available. If not, you return to step 1. You have to do this for every room category until you find an accessible room.
Contrast that with Hilton where you can simply check “Accessible Room” when looking at the room choices and it filters and only shows you accessible rooms.
I have this problem every time. I’m disabled, and I think I’m just being reasonable to try to contact the property in advance. I’ve tried faxes, calling reservations. It doesn’t work. They never get the message. Some properties use the chat feature but only after check-in. It’s just kind of silly. I’m trying to make their lives easier, and they don’t allow it.
Doesn’t this open the door for ADA snafus?
The US airlines (under the Air Carrier Access Act, not the ADA) have this right when you make a booking. It’s infinitely easier. No awkward phone calls, no surprises.
There is still always the optiion of opening a chat through the BonVoy app. This will always go strait to the front desk (not central reservations or the 800 numbers) and can be done after of check-in/day-of check-in.
“We don’t care. We’re Marriott. We don’t have to.”
I used to be a Marriott Elite member, traveling worldwide and racking up the points and I will tell you, Marriott has gone downhill since the early ‘oughts. Bean counters rule there now and I have given up staying at Marriotts. I recommend others boycott this BS.
And good luck using their chat feature! Anything we ask there gets answered in approximately 28 business hours. We’re 2 years from lifetime platinum and thinking of starting fresh with Hilton or Hyatt.
Marriott isn’t about the customer anymore in any shape or form. At least they’ve stopped pretending. Bill would roll over in his grave if dead men could know what’s become of their legacy.
Marriott is so anti customer it just floors me why folks do business with them to any extent
chasing their elite status illusion
I’ve reduced my business as much as I possibly can though I miss my 5 dollar full breakfast coupons which always gets me a nutrigrain bar if I’m lucky
The most obnoxious hotel company in history F them! and their near worthless status and benefits
Late stage American capitalism. If it adds to costs, remove it.