Marriott Still Letting Guests Show Up To A Closed Hotel — Weeks After Learning It Went Bankrupt

Last week I wrote about a hotel guest showing up at a Marriott property only to find that it was closed. They had prepaid the $1,000 stay with a debit card, and the hotel went bankrupt. Marriott wouldn’t give them their money back.

• It’s a Marriott franchise hotel. They’d booked at Marriott.com.
  
• But it’s actually the franchise owner that charges the card, and that took the money.
  
• So Marriott doesn’t have the money to give back, and doesn’t stand behind the stay.

Credit: Marriott

Marriott has an ‘Ultimate Reservation Guarantee’ but they couldn’t enter the hotel so they weren’t considered to have been walked. The guest wasn’t entitled to compensation. They were told they could book another Marriott hotel – at full price.

This happened at the Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Louisville North. But it keeps happening. You’d think that Marriott would be going to some lengths to reach out to guests with resevations at this property, to let them know their bookings wouldn’t be honored, instead of showing up at the hotel just to find that it’s closed. But it does not seem like that is happening:

Platinum elite member. I booked at the Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Louisville North, two rooms, cash pay, for tonight. We pull up to the hotel and it is closed with a sign to call Marriott support.

The closest Marriott with availability was 37 miles away but through the app I found one 1.7 miles away but they wanted me to pay full price for the stay (more than $500 a night) compared to the $178 I booked the Fairfield for. There’s an event going on so all other Marriotts in Louisville were sold out. They wanted to give me 5000 a room initially.

I pointed out the ultimate reservation guarantee said I would be compensated $100 plus 90,000 points and they informed me the most they could give me as 20,000 per room. I asked them to open a ticket and I will escalate it when I get back from vacation. They said I would have to deal directly with the hotel for more compensation. Is this right?

Marriott’s Ultimate Reservation Guarantee does not apply to closed hotels! When you make a reservation and show up and the reservation isn’t honored, but Marriott uses a loophole to avoid honoring the booking or providing compensation it is not really an ‘ultimate guarantee’. But when Marriott at this point clearly knows that the hotel is not open for guests and not making contact with Platinum guests in advance, well, I don’t even know what that is.

Credit: Marriott

There was a sign taped to the glass that read,

Uunfortunately Fairfield Inn & Suites Louisville North is temporarily closed. You may have received communications from Marriott Reservations in regards to the relocation of your stay during this closure. If not, please contact reservations directly at:

I’ve written that with Marriott you are no longer the guest, you’re the product. You’re what they sell to owners. (The CEO of ownership group Diamondrock Hospitality refers to Bonvoy members as “leads.”) But how long will they have the product to sell if they treat members this way? They reportedly even sent the guest an email inviting them to check in online for this stay.