Are you one of Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson’s customers making noise around the edges? Have you been unable to redeem your points because of website errors that also conveniently save Marriott costs? Is your Marriott account messed up?
- Stays don’t post
- Points weren’t converted properly from Starwood
- Years of lifetime elite status are missing
Maybe you’ve emailed Marriott, like I have, and gotten no response for months. Or perhaps you’ve called customer service, waited on hold, and gotten absolutely nowhere (or, in the case of one reader, been called a liar).
Now Marriott has you covered because their Le Meridien brand has launched a new campaign called “Dial 0 for Lip Service”. (HT: Rapid Travel Chai)
Seven months since the launch of the new Marriott program members tell me the chain fails to even offer lip service acknowledging their frustrations. That, apparently, changes now.
Alas it’s not a step forward in patronizing customer service but a new lip stick offering they’ve been developing — investing in cosmetics, just as they’ve been investing in branding, all the while devaluing your points.
Beginning today, a limited-edition lipstick exclusively created for Le Méridien will be available on a custom ‘lip service’ menu as part of a suite package at participating hotels in the United States, Canada, Europe and New Caledonia.
Le Meridien Chiang Rai
Some might even be tempted to call it… lipstick on a pig? Seriously you have to wonder about the people who signed off on giving their customers lip service when the chain continues to have such troubles.
Every time I think your blog has jumped the shark, you jump it again.
This post is just bizarre.
@chopstick
There are no sharks.
I will not stay at Marriott, except to use the one free night in my account. Then, we will be closing our credit cards and not looking back. Delta, I have plan for you, too…
Wow. I’m a data geek, not a marketing expert. I’m with you Gary, this is a huge marketing fail.
I’ve always considered this the worst merger in loyalty history though I’ve heard some others
that feel United’s merger was worse
But whatever side you stand on the facts are the new international call centers
are inferior to what they had just a few years before the merger
If you do get a legacy SPG agent you have won the lottery
Whats missing?
a dedicated Marriott Rewards line for program questions and issues
A Consumer Relations line for hotel stay issues
The new hires most are clueless and struggling to get the basic understanding right.
Have had to go through travel agents when the Marriott reps cant book whats on their own company website.SAD!
I would have hoped if anybody understood the importance of reasonable customer service Marriott would
Hoping they get their act together.
Who Knew Hilton and Hyatt could look so awesome?
If only Hyatt could manage Marmots customer service I could be their customer most frequently of all
So after writing a post last week that we were all crazy for expecting customer service from Marriott, you write a post this week embracing most of the comments from that post?
Why did your mind change so quickly over the course of a week?
The money Marriott spent on placing a Book of Mormon in every SPG room on the planet plus the extras they have in housekeeping could have been spent on decent IT and decent customer service.
I was happy to cancel 10 days of rooms due to the new Marriott BS LINE OF GARBAGE Maybe Sorensen doesn’t give a damn, however I do. Going elsewhere to be treated as valued customer. And I’m a Titanium Elite or whatever they’ve decided to “code” us folks this time around. I suggest that cut the tens of millions in Bonvoy ads and start “pretending” to care for money- spending patrons.
Marriott will succeed because they look after the spiritual by placing a Book of Mormon in their rooms.
@NC these posts entirely are consistent – one says customers are frustrated by problems, and the other suggests Marriott has always had problems
I have an upcoming 12 night trip that I’ve changed from Marriott to Hyatt. Hyatt Globalist treatment is consistent, I see no difference in treatment as a Marriott Titanium vs my Platinum colleagues.
We are the biggest chain. We can lose 3 loyalists if in this travelling boom we get 2 new guests who don’t know much and 1 of them overpaid , plus we save on perks to loyalty.
No worries on noise around the edges.
If their campaign promises to do nothing about a problem, that’s the first time in recent memory that I completely believe them.
Ktc: exactly. Prepaid rates are the biggest scam, because almost never have I seen a non-prepaid rate that eventually goes down if you check often before your stay. Prepaid=overpaid, and the newbies to the program would graduate from an OTA are used to that anyways. So yeah, it seems Marriott wouldn’t care about savvy elites in that case. I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud, because 1-3 day cancellations are probably next to fall. The currently policy has saved me so much $$$ over the years (even more when it was all 1 day or even 6pm day-of).