There’s a great video of the owner of the Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale, Ben Mallah, complaining about what Marriott required him to spend on his Sheraton property. He talks about how Marriott was telling him to bring back food and beverage after the pandemic and he threatened to pull the Sheraton flag over it.
In the end, he sold the Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale at Cypress Creek for $28 million. But it’s a clear articulation of how owners believe Marriott will cave to them, and that they don’t need to deliver to customers.
Credit: Marriott
It appears that he still owns the Four Points by Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport Westshore, and also the Holiday Inn Tampa Westshore – Airport Area. I know to avoid those properties!
Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano, known for joking that they’ll put ‘net rooms growth’ on his tombstone for his willingness to accede to anything to attract owners, says that the chain is planning to devolve control of its brand to regional offices. This should provide better flexibility to owners.
The CEO emphasized a key philosophical shift: moving decision-making power away from corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and into the hands of regional leaders. This change particularly affects Marriott’s operations in international markets.
“We should have our India team based in Gurgaon — having grown up in that set of markets, having worked in Taj and Oberoi, knowing all the players and how business gets conducted locally — they should be making local market decisions,” Capuano said.
Capuano shared an anecdote about a meeting with Antonio Catalan, a partner in AC Hotels. When Catalan expressed interest in various initiatives, Satya Anand, who runs Marriott’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa business, was empowered by Marriott’s new structure to make immediate decisions without needing headquarters’ involvement.
He says that people think “his priority is property owners” because he “spent over 20 years of his career on the development side of the business” but that is not the reason!
- Hotels seem to do as they wish, regardless of brand standards
- When customers complain, Marriott finds reasons to side with the hotel even when the hotel is wrong
- Or Marriott just sends the customer back to talk to the hotel, which is being non-compliant in the first place
Capuano has said that guests need to be ‘more sensitive to the needs of owners’, willing to pay higher rates while receiving less in return. He’s argued for reducing brand standards to reduce costs for owners and spending less on breakfast and in-room amenities. And it’s not just guests who are expected to sacrifice for owners – Capuano says workers make too much money, too.
Marriott seems far more concerned with placating owners than with taking care of customers. It’s a huge change at the company since acquiring Starwood, and it accelerated under Capuano. They earn money from owners, and want to make it easy for owners to choose Marriott. In turn, Marriott gets more rooms under its flag and shows growth to Wall Street.
That Sheraton owner didn’t hide what he could can get away with. His language is NSFW (and not safe for work from home) describing that there’s nothing Marriott can do to his non-compliance, and he’d just leave the brand.
I’m going to tell you right now: If it has to do with food and beverage, you tell them [Marriott] we ain’t got nobody who wanting no [f’ing] food. I don’t care. What are they going to do to us?
If they [Marriott] ever gave us a f’ing problem and they won’t want to work with us, I’ll take the [f’ing] sign down.
Credit: Marriott
Marriott’s approach is short-term gain and long-term a huge risk to the business. They’re eating away at the brand value they’ve built up, and that’s the only value they have as a company. Since they don’t own the hotels, the value they offer is an ability to deliver customers to hotels.
Hotel owners call Marriott Bonvoy members ‘prospects’. That is what the hotels are paying for. And if guests no longer see the brand as giving them a clear sense of what to expect from their stay, and a clear understanding of how they’ll be rewarded from booking through Marriott over and over, then Marriott will no longer have anything to offer to owners.
Consistency needs to be a top priority – or else they will shed business customers en-mass to Hilton and IHG.
Vacationers may not care about a consistent experience, but frequent traveller’s demand it. I want to know what I am getting based on the nameplate. It’s the entire reason I choose a brand.
It’s good to see that people are tuning into the reality of today’s ‘Marriott world’. But it’s not just about brand anarchy, decimated service or the depletion of loyalty benefits. Going ‘glocal’ is Capuano’s strategy to make one significant operational aspect much easier: corruption. His plan to devolve control of its brand to regional offices makes local corruption so much easier to manage and enables Marriott HQ to promote its ‘no responsibility, no accountability’ ploy further, while keeping owners happier at the same time
I have been campaigning against Marriott corruption for a decade, since the merger in fact. Let’s be honest here. Marriott is fully content to place its name on any building, even illegal ones, if it makes the short term cash flow easier. Marriott is also happy to manage properties that it knows to be illegal and play its part in that illegality
As an example, the St Regis Bangkok was constructed and continues to be operated illegally; local corruption allows for this to continue without challenge. Exposing this in the local media resulted in cruel retaliatory processes against me by both hotel owner and brand owner. FCPA violations took place.The police were bribed to interrogate and scare me and I eventually fled the country in fear of my life. And the St Regis Bangkok does not stand alone. Just remember, illegal construction leads to insurance fraud, the breaking of local and ‘international’ law, and results in dangerous health and safety processes that put guests, employees and locals all at risk
In 2019, after travelling to the USA, I started my first anti-corruption hunger strike at Marriott HQ in Bethesda and was eventually granted time with Arne Sorenson. During our meeting he informed my that compliance routines like KYC and due diligence were largely unnecessary at Marriott, because “we trust our owners to provide a legal and safe building”. Today, Capuano is simply following through on the Sorenson plan, but probably in a much ‘meaner’ way than was ever intended.
It’s a mistake to book a Marriott or any other brand without looking at the reviews. There are always cost-benefit tradeoffs.
It’s also worth reading the one and two star reviews. If the issues are serious and management doesn’t sound committed to fix them, keep looking.
I miss the old Starwood days
Lifetime Titanium member here. Got gold status at Hilton via my Amex card and they treat me way better. Burning down my Marriott points and it is now my choice only if I have no other.
Choosing Marriott is a choice. We don’t have to go business with them. They are just a vendor that we owe nothing to. Just build your trave point wit capital one, chase, Amex.
IMHO, Marriott brand quality and consistency have greatly diminished since COVID, unlike Hilton and particularly Hyatt that have recovered nicely. I think corporate would be well served in the long term to increase focus on the guest experience by maintaining quality and consistency across properties.
I’m just a traveler that scraped into Titanium with Amex nights. I have pretty much given up on valuing the brand and status unless I know from experience or reviews that the property is a good one. Right now, Marriott seems to attract a premium price over similar class competing properties in a market, so things may not change until more people like me begin changing their habits.
Two fairly recent breakdown of benefit examples that (both of which went nowhere with customer service).
Stayed at a property where the lounge offered only a (mediocre) breakfast, reporting that they went to breakfast only since reopening the lounge after COVID. Marriott’s website describes M Club as Complimentary buffet breakfast, Complimentary light snacks through the day; Complimentary hors d’oeuvres in the evening. This property offers one of three. It is selling rooms with M Club access today at a premium (just looked). Particularly if I paid for the benefit, I’d be pretty darn disappointed (even more disappointed than as a worn-down Titanium) to not get what I paid for. I got customer service to say they’d get me a response after they contacted the property. After several follow ups by me, silence. I don’t blame them. What are they going to say? Yes, its true the property doesn’t follow the benefit requirements, and we aren’t going to do anything about it?
Second, held over for a late day flight at a large Westin. Asked for a late checkout. Was told fine, but that the property had begun charging for late checkouts, even for Titanium. Called customer service, who called the hotel. The assistant manager then told me they couldn’t accommodate my request because they needed the room, and that the employee that had offered that I could stay for a fee shouldn’t have. The hotel seemed empty, and a different sympathetic employee that overheard the whole thing offered the hotel explanation was garbage – the hotel was 30s occupancy (visually seemed right). Liar liar pants on fire, but unlike the first example, no admission to a corporate channel that they were blatantly disregarding benefits. No recourse for the guest, though.
Could go on, though want to add I have super unexpected moments at properties, too. When someone craps in the swimming pool, it effects all swimmers. Some day, Marriott probably figures this out.
Indeed. On travels my mom would go right past a choice of decent hotels to go to Wyndhams as much as possible. Why? Consistency. Decent rooms, decent price, and a decent breakfast. There will be people turned off by Mariott if the hotels become too ‘hit and miss’,
It’s owners like him that are screwing over Marriott. That guy is crying over his his hotel’s lost business while he’s shopping for luxury yachts and flying first class.
I’m done with Marriott.
Just stayed at this property for a second time yesterday for the weekend and I would never eat there. It’s an older property and they are doing what they can to keep it up, but I don’t normally eat at hotels anyways. Food and beverage is not a deciding factor for a stay. Price and comfort are.
Do not trust Sheraton/Marriott ever! I used to use them all the time and the international brands were the best. I booked at the Sheraton Sand Key in Clearwater, FL over Thanksgiving and when we arrived at the hotel they said sorry, no rooms available! Confirmed and paid booking! They turned us away, did not send us to any of the other nearby brands, and the hotel was obviously not full. All classes of rooms were still available for booking on their website. They never resolved the issue and neither corporate or the hotel responded.
Ben Mallah. I was wondering why his name sounded familiar so I looked him up. He’s one of those social media business gurus. Doesn’t surprise me one bit that he talks a big game.
I try to avoid certain ownership groups with shady business practices. Adding this one to my list.
The result of corporations getting too large, what a surprise! Now I avoid all the mega Brands like the plague the lowering of standards has been alarming over the past decade.
Ben Mallah could have a mile long parade with the number of red flags he gives off. Jesus. Blech.
Marriott has seriously eroded its brand. While I am Lifetime Titanium, I am now using a combination of Hyatt, Radisson Blu (in Europe), with some Marriott, plus VRBO and Airbnb.
Since Bill Jr retired, Marriott’ brand has steadily eroded. His philosophy for Marriott, as articulated in his book, now longer applies to the wonderful hotel company worked so hard to develop and maintain. Very sad, and loyal customers (now “prospects” no longer can say to staff, which I used to do, “Marriott is the best in the business.” No longer true. So Mr C, congratulations on undermining a formerly outstanding company’s reputation! (How’s your bonus this year?)
I heard ramblings of complaints from customers about hotels with Marriott brand… about two years ago or so …Didn’t think much of it until I read … Thank you for this article ..
I guess I will stay away from this brand Marriott- RIP – and let my points die.. Too bad about this brand.
Look things have certainly changed post COVID. But owners such as myself still follow the standards. Have many hotels in the top ten percent of the brand. Don’t lump up everyone with this guy.
Sheraton had the most inconsistency out of all the Starwood brands when Marriott bought them. They used to let owners get away with murder.
As a side note people need to understand that a lot of hotels are still at a point where they are not making ends meet. People want more all the bells and whistles at a dirt cheap rate. You just can’t expect the world anymore. The vendors we are forced to use are raising prices and it’s trickling to through. Some markets have recovered to pre pandemic levels but with the rate of inflation and interest rates we are seeing it’s not the same as it was before.
Have a little compassion and understand one owners views are not that of the whole.
I think you missed the point of that old Ben Mallah YouTube. I just watched the whole thing. He wound up agreeing to pay for the hotel improvements Marriott asked for. The whole point of the video was “spend money to make money”
Marriott closing the Club Lounges from (after breakfast Friday morning until Sunday evening) in many hotels is not making guests who have that perk and not being able to use it happy at all. Business men are the only ones using the perks during the week for the most part unless a family or solo traveler can utilize this part of the hotel. Bad move on Marriott’s part in my opinion and many others I’ve spoken to.
Long time weekly business traveler. Ambassador elite and life time Titanium with Bonvoy and life time Diamond with Hilton. My suggestion is not to choose a hotel because of the brand but by individual ratings, reviews and personal experience! There is no consistency between brands anymore!
As a consumer, let me tell you that I miss the days where my parents could get a book from AAA, every year, that had objective reviews of hotels/motels. The bloody brands need to police their franchised properties and penalize them when amenities such as pools and spas and gym equipment degrade (or are out of service with no consumer revelation,) especially in tourist destinations.
If I’m paying a premium, the bar and restaurant should be open, the pool and spa should be open, the gym equipment fresh, and the effing brand the same as last time; not downgraded because the shiest is falling apert.
If you don’t get the profit you want, don’t sign up with the brand and pay that fee. Your due diligence for the customer base is required. Falling apart hotels that go from from one badge to another is a disgrace. And now the norm . The industry sucks for the consumer.
@Mark Johnson — I applaud you for wanting better for us consumers. The only folks who win when ‘objectivity’ is eliminated are those in power–the owners, majority shareholders, and management. And they are indeed abusing their power–outright lying, denying guaranteed benefits, and worse. The hotel guests, airline passengers, and the workers, all pay the price when such false narratives are allowed to persists and proliferate. I do not know what it will take for things to finally improve, if ever, short of a full-blown recession, because at this point, the owners simply do not care, and the law, or lack of regulation, is certainly not coming to save us. Hoping for better days. Take care.