One Sheraton guest chronicles their Kafkesque quest to have the Sheraton Grand Seattle honor Marriott elite benefits. Traveler reports are that they’ve been out of compliance for years, and becoming even less customer friendly, which saddens me – because I used to much like this hotel.
Credit: Sheraton Seattle
Marriott Platinum members are entitled to club lounge access when they stay at a Sheraton. As a separate benefit, the program’s terms (4.3.c.iii) offer a ‘welcome amenity’ choice that Platinums and above can select at check-in:
- 1,000 bonus points
- Local amenity
- Restaurant breakfast (for the member and one guest, each day of the stay)
If the hotel fails to honor this choice, the terms say they are required to compensate the guest with $100.
For about a year and a half the hotel has refused to provide restaurant breakfast as a benefit choice. On the weekends, their lounge offerings reportedly barely qualify as a continental breakfast. They reportedly claim to be “exempt” from the offering “since we have a club lounge” which is not how the program works.
Credit: Sheraton Seattle
The hotel describes the weekend offering as “Starbucks espresso, steel cut oatmeal, fresh baked pastries and an array of market melons and berries.” One guest reported it was “nothing but a fruit bowl with oranges, apples and bananas on weekends. No breads, pastries or ceral offered.”
Back in March, one customer decided to call them on it.
I informed them of that Section 4.3.c of the Bonvoy Terms and Conditions explicitly state that breakfast in the restaurant is one of the welcome amenity choices and that failure to abide by the terms would be a $100 on-the-spot cash payment as penalty. The operator put me on hold for several minutes to talk to the manager. She then confirmed that they will violate the terms. Her reasoning is that they are a convention hotel. Im calling bonvoy
The guest relays being told to call Marriott at check-in when they’re denied the benefit. The guest also created a form that they asked the check-in agent to sign!
This form documents that, on __________________, Guest checked into Property, a Sheraton Brand, with reservation number _________________ and has selected breakfast in the restaurant as the Elite Welcome Gift.
As of the date indicated, Section 4.3.c.iii of the Marriott Bonvoy (Loyalty Program) Terms and Conditions specifies that “Platinum Elite Members and above receive one Elite Welcome Gift (of their choice where multiple options are offered).” The same section specifically states that Sheraton properties must offer an Elite Welcome Gift of “1,000 Points per Stay or amenity per Stay or breakfast in restaurant per night of Stay for Member +1 (including Resorts)” and that failure to offer the amenity results in a Guest Compensation of $100.
Property has offered breakfast in the Lounge or 1000 points, but does not offer breakfast in the restaurant. Lounge access is already a separate guaranteed benefit under Section 4.3.c.iv and thus not applicable as a substitute for the Elite Welcome Amenity.
Property hereby [ ] accepts or [ ] declines Guest compensation of $100 pursuant to Section 4.3.c.iii. Guest certifies that selecting to decline compensation will result in escalation to Marriott Bonvoy Customer Service and is subject to review and appeal. Guest reserves the right to pursue any or all other legal remedies.
Credit: Sheraton Seattle
At check-in they were denied breakfast. (Unsurprisingly) the agent refused to sign this form. The guest called Marriott, who acknowledged the benefit terms and initiated the $100 benefit guarantee claim.
The hotel denied the claim. Marriott doesn’t enforce the $100, they send it to the hotel to decide. A couple of weeks later, the guest re-filed the claim. Marriott said the guest was entitled to payment. The hotel refused. They were told they should expect funds in 7-10 days, but the money never arrived. Eventually Marriott offered 40,000 points themselves because they could not make the hotel pay.
The same guest returned to the hotel this week.
This time they told me at check in that they don’t have any king rooms [which was what was reserved] and would give me a double. I then bring up that it’s ok, since that triggers the room-type guarantee of $50. Suddenly they unblock a king room.
Last year the Sheraton Grand Seattle added a $25 per night ‘destination fee’ and made it seemingly tough to use the benefits – a $10 uber credit daily where you had to get a code from the desk and a $25 food and beverage credit that excludes their main restaurant. You can use it at the Starbucks, though. But it’s tough if you want to use the food and beverage credit to buy, say, lunch. They’ve since reduced the credit to $20.
Marriott takes a light hand with hotel owners because they want to keep them all on board. Their CEO says ‘net rooms growth’ will appear on his tombstone. But if Marriott doesn’t begin to control their hotels and enforce the benefits they promise to guests, customers won’t trust the brand any longer – and then Marriott will have nothing left to offer owners. Customers won’t just go to Marriott.com to find their hotels any longer.
I hope everyone having these bad experiences are posting on Trip Advisor to warn others. There are still good honest properties out there. The best way to change this behavior is to punish by taking business elsewhere and discouraging others.
Boo Hoo.
Marriott should start to pay attention since Hilton and I’m sure others have pretty strong programs. Two of the people I frequently travel with have already switched to Hilton and I’m seriously thinking of doing the same. I’m about to reach titanium for this year and have only stayed to reach lifetime status (which doesn’t mean much these days). A number of the hotels (Sheraton, Westin, etc.) which I use to stay at closed their lounges and won’t offer anything in exchange. The lounges which are open pale in comparison to the Hilton lounges my coworkers have access to.
Had the same type of issue at a Marriott in Boston. Has reserved king room 6 months in advance. We get there and they inform us there are no room available and they can put us in a “partner” hotel….which was not part of Marriott and not a 4 star that we reserved at.
After denying this option they said a room was available. We all on and there is no desk, closet or counter space. The room was basically a bed and barely painted walls. We called Marriott and they wouldn’t do anything to accommodate…even rebook us in a different Marriott hotel.
Never received a can again from Marriott about the issue even though I pressed it for several years.
We still stay at Marriott properties if necessary, but I’ll never forget.
Already sh1tcanned Marriott after having ben Titanium Elite for years. There no longer are “Loyalty Programs”. When you remain loyal to them, they show no appreciation for said loyalty. Doubling or tripling points for free stays, eliminating benefits, cincing on lounge offerings. Nope. Call me a Hotels.com guy now.
The last two rooms I have booked at Marriott properties, I have booked thru 3rd party websites? Why? The rates have been so much lower. I spoke with Mariott Bonvoy reps about this. Apparently their lowest price guarantee thru their website is not really much of a guarantee.
I have found it doesnt pay to be loyal to Marriott because they are a bunch of empty promises.
I’m sorry to hear about this. I have been a Marriott Bonvoy member for years and have received excellent customer service. I’m Titanium Elite and becoming Ambassador this year. At smaller hotels, they struggle but they always provide the points or welcome item and upgrade when they can. I have used pints twice this year and both times received outstanding customer service being treated like a VIP.
Your 1st problem is you went to Seattle, its pretty much downhill from there.
i am marriott titanium for over 10 years.I travel all arround Latam and i always stay in marriott hotels ,they are awsome to give all the benefis .In USA the service ,and the options are not the same .USA hotels are in decadence ,they charge too much for nothing .
How about the Travel bloggers stop putting out articles claiming how great Marriot is and speak the truth instead? There are multiple blogs out there claiming Marriot has the best hotel loyalty program. Apparently not…
Marriott “could not make the hotel pay”? They are the manager of the hotel! They could probably make themselves do something if they wanted LOL.
You join this type of program for out of the USA stay because USA hotels are getting worse every year and who has the energy to keep fighting for those benefits if they just make all kind of excuses not to provide
I got $100 out of the Sheraton Grand in Seattle on more than one occasion. They do not acknowledge status and did not offer welcome gift and denied me when I asked about it. Both times I checked in, went to my room and came back down and asked for the MOD. I explained my point and both times they tried to back track and offer the choice but point out that it’s too late, the program is clear and I’m entitled to compensation. Both times were personal stays so I agreed to $100 credits on my invoice instead of cash. Fine with me.
I am switching to Hilton. Tired of being jerked around for what used to a much better travel experience. We shouldn’t have to wrangle with a desk person to get what we paid for.
Forget about speaking to Marriott corporate because they’ve demonstrated time and time again that they side with the hoteliers.
It’s time for guests to start taking these claims to small claims court.
You traded a nicer room in exchange for an acceptable room affording you a very generous late check-out. Get over yourself.
Oh so when things don’t go your way you’re entitled to $100? Yeah I wish it was that way for me. I’m currently stuck because I tried to get gas and Google took $16 out of my account for what I don’t know. It’s Sunday to boot so I can’t contact Cash app or Google to dispute it so I’m screwed and cannot get gas. I didn’t get $100 from anybody. What I’m trying to say is “go duck yourself”.
I stayed here Jan 2023 as a Platinum, frontdesk didnt ask me to select my ‘welcome amenity’ choice. I wrote them on chat I was entitled to $100 cash but would accept waiver on parking that totalled $120 .. they agreed to waive parking without a fight
I didn’t know things were so bad. I blame mega conglomeration of the hotel. Sheraton used to be a single brand in the early 80s. Excellent service; we stayed a month in penthouse suite in Istanbul Sheraton. Those were the days. Excellent service. My Dad’s company paid for everything. I still remember how my breakfast how and toast were hot buttered and everything ready to eat all hot. Marriott was discount hotel like holiday Inn.
Holiday Inn is better and cheaper than a Marriott. I love Hilton too. There beds are the best; however its a bit move expensive.
Marriott all show and mirrors but just suck. I wish I could decouple Sheraton and let go back to the elegance of 1980s.
I was a big Starwood fan. Their Amex was my primary card. I ran away as fast as I could when Marriott bought them. I’ve never regretted it.
Stayed 3 times at a delta by Marriott and they refuse to even credit my points for the stay. I booked a reg price through the app so no special excluded rates.
Gary it’s obvious to anyone that’s ever read one of your hit pieces about Marriott that you have an ongoing issue with the hotels, the brand and especially the rewards program. Why don’t you just drop the pretense and write an article that explains why you hate them so much? No rewards program is worth much of anything these days. Rewards programs will never be what they promise and there’s always some legal cover to get them out of living up to it. Blame the lawyers and move on. Why continue to beat a dead horse?
I used to love the Marriott brands but customer service at the hotels declined.
I switched to using Hilton and much happier.
Repeat after me: class action lawsuit. Contract violation should be treated seriously.
Could you imagine being as arrogant and idiotic as Marriott’s executive team? What a bunch of scumbags that take their entire business for granted. The effort to which elites go to actually avoid the chain cannot be overstated. It’s become like my in law’s house.
Holy smokes. Look how the Marriot staff (who are obviously a bunch of ratty foreigners) tried to get into the comments and fool everyone into thinking they were actual customers. Notice anything strange about the 3 good reviews out of 50 bad reviews? The good reviews all speak poor English. Hmm…what a coincidence. They would rather scam, lie and cheat…than just do what they promise. Crazy. A breakfast is so simple. If youre cutting corners on breakfast—youre cutting them everywhere.
@James — Listen, many of us do not like Marriott’s dishonesty, but no need to disparage anyone as a ‘ratty foreigner’ or whatever. I’m with you on the problem of proliferation of fake reviews, but where someone is ‘from’ is irrelevant. Just saying, there are plenty of so-called ‘home-growns’ that happily scam our own, too. Like, please, direct your hate at the correct issue…
I go to Bakersfield about once yearly, sometimes twice, and always enjoy my stay as a silver elite member. It would cost me more if I did a direct booking, even from third party sites, than it does for the annual credit card fee, So I’ve been happy to pay it. And the service there is always outstanding, maybe because it’s not a high traffic area like Seattle.
Too bad. It’s disappointing that they can’t offer a few eggs as promised and have to run away their customers. Why pay for a premium brand that wants to cheat.
We stayed at the Sheraton Grand Seattle two weeks ago Front desk handed us a card describing the property benefits. The daily fee is now $28, and included one of the restaurants plus the $10 uber credit as you had described. So you could actually get $38 worth of food and uber per day, which we did for our first night. Our checkout folio only showed $20 credit per day, so we showed them our receipts for food picked up at the restaurant each day, and they immediately adjusted our folio.
@AC you seem to not understand what entitled means. When you enter into a contract and fulfill your end of it, you are entitled to the benefits of said contract.
It is just getting worse. The inconsistentcy of the Marriott Brands is what has driven this lifetime Titanium to use other brands now. I get more recognition and benfits from some of the brands as a newbie. From not following through on the their room cleaning schedule, to denying benefits, to even poor quality properties. What is the point of having the most rooms available if your customers aren’t willing to use them.
The real solution here is for Mayor to now the bullet and start slashing their loyalty benefits, like the airlines have done.
Why an Independent Quality Check Could Be Valuable:
* Unbiased Perspective: An independent body wouldn’t have the same internal biases that Marriott might, potentially leading to more objective assessments.
* Customer Advocacy: They could act as a stronger advocate for guests, highlighting issues that might be overlooked or downplayed internally.
* Consistency: Their focus would be solely on ensuring a consistent level of quality, regardless of the hotel’s individual management.
This is exactly why I dumped Bonvoy!!! The inconsistencies across the country are massive! Don’t Marriot reps travel and check the owners? It’s a franchise agreement; a legal document. Someone is supposed to! Seems like Customer Relations would be addressing consistant complaints such as these.
Maybe it just doesn’t matter anymore? They near the top of Fortune 500!! Maybe it’s just easier and cheaper!!! Who knows!! Maybe it’s part of a scam to make us think we’re getting something… and every owner/franchisee just does whatever they want! Not this man!! Burn me once, shane on you. Burn me twice, shame on me! I learned my lesson years ago. Won’t ever give them or any of their brands my money again!!
Thank you for letting me share my opinion and thoughts on this brand. Let’s keep the hater to ourselves!!
I’m not sure I would draw the same conclusion as you. This particular guest returned to the same property a week later and paid them money to stay in their hotel? That only reinforces the position of the hotel and Marriott corporate.and I would never expect them to change until their rooms started going empty in volume, which can only happen if their loyal customers choose to stay with a different chain.
Always read the fine print!! I was Titanium status for awhile and always brought up my “earned” benefits due to the property neglect. Sometimes it took letter writing but did best I could to recover funds due! Always kept a copy of contract available. Max pay out per day is around $250. That’s always a challenge to reach!
Oh, Just great. I have noticed but didn’t realize it was a pattern. I just accepted the reduction in benefits without a fuss. Now I’m mad. I trigger Marriott platinum lifetime last year just in time for these shenanigans. Which now that I had put that spend and time at Hyatt.
I made a reservation for myself and my wife to celebrate my wife’s Grandmother’s 80th birthday
in Cambodia where they are from.
The reservation operator at Marriott suggested to add my wife to the reservation since she is arriving on a earlier flight and this way she would be able to check in under my reservation.
When my wife tried to Check in at the hotel they refused to allow her to check in even if she was added to my reservation.
They claimed that there was no code add so she couldn’t register on my reservation.
My wife had to register under her name and wasn’t able to use my points which I originally was going to use for the first night.
I have been going round and round with Marriott’s customer service agent’s and their supervisors but no one will accept that the operator who took my original reservation didn’t add some code. I explained to 7 different people at Marriott but it’s like talking to the wall.
I hope all of the people who have be inconvenienced by Marriott get a class action suit against them. They deserve to be taught a lesson, you can’t keep treating your guest this way!
The Sheraton Times Square is also lacking. The name used to mean something but Marriott has let their brand slip.
My guess would be its not a corporate Marriott. I’ve been to some franchise hotel and they skimp out on anything they can. And it seems alot of the franchise are owned by the same group.
The article doesn’t mention how the traveler made the reservation, unless I missed it. If they booked through an OTA, loyalty benefits aren’t typically honored. Every once in a while you’ll get a front desk agent who doesn’t know the T&Cs and will happily offer your tier benefits. I’ve stopped using OTAs and strictly book directly with the hotels. Throughout the years, I’ve learned that rates are usually inline with the hotel sites. If you find a lower rate, it comes with a lot of restrictions. Plus, if for any reason you need to cut your trip short, you can’t go to the front desk and have them adjust your stay. You’ll need to contact the OTA, then the OTA will contact the hotel, hotel will respond to the OTA, then the OTA will reach back out to you. This could take hours to accomplish when it could have been done in less than 5 minutes if you booked directly with the hotel. I now view 3rd party sites as a glorified concierge with extreme limitations. For me, the recognition and benefits outweigh any lower price from a 3rd party.
I travelled on business for forty years. I was a Marriott Reward member that entire time. I stayed in Marriotts every week and never had any issues. I accumulated many points and took many vacations both domestically and internationally. I have nothing bad to say about the MARRIOTT REWARDS PROGRAM. Having said that however, MARRIOTT BONVOY was introduced about a year before I retired. I was at the highest levels in both programs but the Rewards Program was much easier to navigate. There are far too many caveats now with Bonvoy. As a Platinum member with Rewards there were virtually none. Since I only travel for vacations now it is not as big as an issue but still disappointing.
This is an example of why I left Marriott years ago!!
Hilton has never let me down.
The owner of this hotel and his crew are infamous for being petty. They are also the family that owns (or used to anyway) the Space Needle. I wouldn’t stay there if given a choice…and there are a lot of choices in Seattle. Why go through the hassle? Life is too short, vote with your feet (and dollars).
I’m confused. There’s only one hotel in Seattle? If you’re not getting the benefits you paid for or qualify for, stay somewhere else. Boycott them!
Oh! The humanity!
Lifetime Titanium member here… US Marriotts generally don’t do much to comply with or embrace the loyalty aspects of the program. Sure you’ll get some kind of welcome, like points or a bottle of water. Sometimes you’ll get breakfast. You NEVER get upgraded, even if you ask.
It stinks, because about half of my status earning was with Starwood before the acquisition. Starwood did it right. I got welcome notes from managers when I checked in, upgrades that were sometimes outright dazzling, like when I got upgraded to a $2000/night suite on a points redemption in Paris, and the staff were trained to recognize frequent guests on sight, so most of the time when I checked in to the Westin in Boston I got a “welcome back, Mr. Skinner!” before I even got to the desk.
Now, post acquisition, it’s like going from a Cadillac to a Kia. 99.999% of the time I get what I need from a hotel stay: a clean bed, shower, and toilet; a working AC; and decently fast internet. On the rare occasion that something on that list isn’t working like it should, the hotel fixes it. But there’s nothing special about my stay based on my status anymore.
And guess what? Every other hotel chain takes care of me at that level, regardless of whether I have status or not. I stayed at a Hyatt in DC this week, where I have no status at all, and I felt just as valued as a guest there as I do when I stay at Marriott properties with my big, fancy status. Sure, nobody said “Thank you for being a valued Titanium Member,” but as far as my overall experience went, that one sentence was the only difference between that Hyatt stay and my most recent stay at a Renaissance.
So these days I just pick based on price. I booked my Hyatt stay with HotelTonight and it was $150 cheaper than any comparable Marriott property in the area. The words “Thank you for being a valued Titanium Member” are certainly not worth $150 per night… and HotelTonight gave me an $18 Airbnb credit as a reward for my stay, which is worth a lot more to me than the points Marriott gives me, especially with my large family!
Get your money out of the hotel. Call down and tell em there’s no iron in the room. Boom: free iron. Clean out the lightbulbs and remote batteries. Take the room to the cleaners.
I’ve dealt with exact same things for years. Pisses me off I tell ya.