Tag Archives for marriott.
One guest tweeted a photo of the breakfast coupon at the Courtyard By Marriott Halifax Downtown where the pre-printed US$10 has ‘US’ blacked out, and the property would only honor 10 Canadian dollars (US$7.21) a 29% devaluation.
Marriott’s Courtyard by the Venice airport blocks guests from turning the air conditioning down even to 73 degrees, and charges US$5.47 (5 euros) for a second room key. It’s a deposit that they promise to refund to you when you return the room key at checkout.
An internal document outlines that name changes on award stays are not to be handled directly by properties especially within 48 hours of check-in. If a property is asked to change the name on a paid reservation, they should remove the loyalty number and require payment details from the new guest.
With today’s announcement dubbed “If It’s Yellow Let It Mellow, If It’s Brown Flush It Down” the global hotel giant will encourage guests to flush in-room toilets less frequently.
When Marriott took over Starwood and then launched the Bonvoy program, they told owners that the economics would work out better for them. Part of how they did it is by forcing these scam charges on their customers. Yet their owner contracts explicitly allow Marriott to halt these fees.
A guest at Marriott’s Courtyard Battle Creek in Michigan discovered a lewd drawing on the wall-mounted toiletries that was presumably left by a previous guest.
Housekeeping either doesn’t clean and refill the bottles, or saw it and didn’t care enough to change them out when turning the room. Since the guest reports that showing a photo to the front desk elicited a shrug, either option seems equally likely.
The hotel incentivizes giving 9s and 10s. A hotel that actually wants to be better would incentivize providing constructive feedback. Here they incentivize helping them skirt Marriott brand standards. That’s the most franchised Marriott thing ever.
The guest reports that hotel’s direct phone number was disconnected. After about ten minutes, someone emerged from the open front door stating that the hotel was closed and that canceling the reservation—even late—would incur no charge. How could it possibly incur a charge? Eventually they found a room at a Residence Inn in Port Arthur, stuck with a rate of $300 per night.
A Marriott employee recently warned on social media that Bonvoy has been pushing hotels to report guests who try to share loyalty accounts. If your spouse is staying under your account to use your benefits, and let you earn the points, this could get you audited.
However, he adds not to be a jerk to the front desk – the reservation might not be honored, but they probably won’t waste their time reporting you.
The ‘number of members’ is really just ‘records in the database.’ The more rooms you have, the more people are booking them, the more sign up for a program usually just to avoid paying extra. A large marketing file is valuable! But it says little about the value of the program. Far more interesting is which programs outperform the size of the chain.
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 »
