Tag Archives for marriott.
And you thought you have been Bonvoyed, I don’t know that there have been many Marriott stays worse than this one.
A guest at the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa went to the ocean “for a midnight swim.” Nobody told her that this might dangerous.
Back in March I wrote about the JW Marriott Los Cabos charging award guests an extra $30 per night fee to stay, calling it “the most Marriott Bonvoy thing ever.”
This flat fee was described as a ‘service charge’. Paid rate guests pay a service charge of 10% of their room rate, and with paid rates under $300 service charges are lower for guests paying cash than those paying with points. Marriott is refunding everyone who was charged this fee for a points stay at this property and two others.
Marriott’s top executives have shared that they are considering eliminating alarm clocks from rooms. They’re also looking to ‘simplify’ and reduce the cost of breakfast at brands where that’s included in the room rate for all guests.
I dunk on Marriott a lot for its failure to deliver on promised benefits, for its clueless customer service agents, and its broken IT. And Starwood members are generally unhappy with the Marriott Bonvoy program. To be fair, benefits aren’t received as consistently as they used to be for Starwood members. The credit card’s earning isn’t as rich. And top status is harder to earn, with a minimum spend requirement at the 100-night level to receive ‘Ambassador’ service that no longer includes an individual assigned Ambassador.
However, for Marriott Rewards program members the Starwood merger has surprisingly been a blessing and that’s really easy to forget.
The Fort Wayne, Indiana Fairfield Inn by Marriott is billing guests a surprise “energy surcharge” that appears to be 4% of the room rate. This surcharge isn’t disclosed to customers when booking their room.
Marriott’s new CEO admits that Bonvoy isn’t as generous as Starwood Preferred Guest was. He dismisses guest desires for hotel services as customers having a “short memory.” And he explains lack of service and generous benefits as a need to hold down hotel owner costs.
Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano makes two points about low wage workers in a recent interview. Amazon pays entry level workers too much, and that’s making it hard for hotels to hire cheap ‘in some markets’. And after mass layoffs in 2020, workers don’t trust hotels as a place to build a long-term career.
Taken together a booking through the Marriott platform could make sense. Currently inventory is sufficiently scattered that I think it’s important to check multiple platforms when planning a trip.
Existing American Express Marriott co-brand cardmembers who enroll between July 14 and September 15, 2021, will be able to earn 6x Marriott Bonvoy points (up to 4 additional points) for each dollar of eligible purchases through September 30, 2021 in four categories.
I can be down with most any party, but this party bus just doesn’t seem “on brand” for an airport Marriott.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
