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.
This is a big problem for me. I have horrible allergies and always have to request feather-free bedding. Yes – there is a check box for me to submit the request. But I do think hotels used to read the notes and it will help to increase the likelihood it would be done.
Note that, for pretty much all hotel chains (including Marriott), the direct phone number is included in the e-mailed reservation confirmation. What I do literally every time is call the morning of my reservation, speak with the front desk, and ask them to pre-assign a room with feather-free bedding for me. If I don’t do this there’s a good 80% chance it won’t be done when I get there (doesn’t matter what chain it is). If I do make that call there’s about an 80% chance it does get done. So definitely do that if you have a similar challenge.
And I have no comment on Marriott in general. As we all know, their customer service has been going downhill for years with no signs it will get better anytime soon unfortunately.
Terrible Marriott treating their Ambassador member requests in their US hotels. Nothing supplied and even welcome amenities are missing !!!
The range of Marriott hotels didn’t take care your request is from courtyard to Luxury Collection in Boston.
Marriott is such a failure in customer service. Peggy you should be fired!!!
Eh, if they’re gonna ignore them anyway, might as well save me the time to type them. The enshitification continues… Bonvoy!
Running hotels, will say many guests do tend to be a pain and unreasonable with some of the requests anyway
Huh, I swear I just saw this box the other day, but at pre-check in time on the mobile app, they had a new design for it.
“At Marriott, we care so much for you, we won’t have you waste time typing request we will ignore anyway.”
I’m just ticking I can no longer type in “no brown M&Ms.”
@This comes to mind — “So there I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o’clock in the morning…”
Up the oligarchy. You voted for this, now enjoy it
I wouldn’t know I dont have Plebians issues such as this. I simply reach out to my personal ambassador, problem solved.
I noticed this field disappeared a couple weeks ago (also on a Sunday I think) and I drew the same conclusion- that they had intentionally removed it. But then it was back the next day, as it is today. So I guess either it has to do with weekend system maintenance or maybe they are beta testing it for permanent removal.
Anyway, for reasons I cannot explain, some properties do not seem to be able to see notes that you enter into that field- or claim they don’t anyway. It also gets overwritten or erased sometimes. Fairly useless but I’d still rather have it than not, on the rare chance that any hotel ever sees it and pays attention to it
@747always — Ah, yes… if only I’d voted for the other guys, then, surely, my ‘preferences’ for my state at a Courtyard Marriott by an airport or highway would actually be honored… @L737, this reminds of the iconic presidential debate between Jack Johnson and John Jackson in the 3000 Election. If I recall correctly… John felt that Jack’s three cent titanium tax “didn’t go too far enough.” Regardless, of course, Nixon won.
The solution is simple. Don’t stay at Marriott. They obviously don’t care. If they did, they wouldn’t have removed it from their website. An intelligent person would have deduced that.
Another new year and another reduction in customer service by Marriott. Anyone surprised?
Even as a Lifetime Titanium member I could tell that my requests were not read real, let alone acknowledged.
Marriot/Bonvoy is an overpriced 3 star chain.
Anyone get an actual room upgrade at a domestic Marrtiott lately? Seems like loyalty programs have become one-way. they want our loyalty (and $$) but aren’t really loyal to us anymore.
Even as a Lifetime Titanium member, I could tell that my requests were not read let alone acknowledged.
Marriot/Bonvoy is an overpriced 3 star chain.
I’m lifetime elite at Marriott in return for many, many years of stays all over. Unfortunately, Marriott’s shift away from a great customer experience for guests to providing only the minimum necessary for travelers has pushed me away. I’m now IHG and am very pleased.
I’m just Lifetime Gold but I started with Starwood in the late ‘90s. That program was wonderful, and the good benefits and ease of use continued even after the switch to Bonvoy until a few years before the pandemic. For the past three years, I’ve been so disappointed in Marriott and mostly stopped using them.
I will say that my stays in Marriotts in Canada have been quite different. I’m still treated like a valued guest, given upgrades and such. Overall hotel quality and customer service is better, too.
Last week I used most of my points to reserve a free 5-night stay (in a resort hotel I love and I know is run well) this spring and then I’m basically done with Marriott.
I have stopped using my Bonvoy AMEX except for a small charge now and then to keep it active. Marriott in the U.S. is not worth it to me anymore. I’m always disappointed with the rooms (design, decor, bathroom, TV, etc. and the upkeep, although often the staff is pleasant enough and seem to be doing their best.
The entitlement is just oozing here. Expect the worst, hope for the best will bring you serenity.
I can’t begin to say how annoying this crap has become. Our ancestors slept on the ground. Perhaps you can do without your scented goose feather, but allergan free pillows.
No wonder society seems to be collapsing, while to the top 10% aren’t noticing.
I’ve only stayed at a Marriott hotel twice within two months, in 2025. During that time, they’d removed bath robes, complimentary slippers, toothbrush, shower caps, cotton buds and pads, and reduced the size of the complimentary water bottles. My message to those who made this penny-pinching decision is – it’s a false economy. You need to build on loyalty, not set a full-scale erosion in progress.
Man you guys complain a lot. You all should probably just stay home. Welcome to the modern world. No cares about your requests.
Well written.