Tag Archives for marriott.
A Marriott Courtyard has a sign posted on every floor that ‘outside food and drink’ is not allowed. Like a movie theater, if you want to eat at the hotel you have to buy your food from them. You can’t carry in food (or leftovers from where you went to dinner), and you can’t order DoorDash either.
They’re seeing surging leisure rates, a move to last-minute bookings, and are managing a major tech overhaul for the business. Swelling Bonvoy membership is driving revenue – from both hotel owners and banks. How that will pair with growth from lower-end chains, and in light of still-sluggish business travel, remains unclear.
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. It’s a clear articulation of how owners believe Marriott will cave to them, and that they don’t need to deliver to customers.
Hotels are nickel and diming guests for things I never used to hear of their charging extra for. The Aloft hotel in McAllen, Texas reportedly billed a guest $80.50 for washcloths because she used them to remove makeup.
While Marriott eliminated its award charts, that doesn’t mean the Bonvoy program can’t give members advance notice that they’ll be making major changes to the points price of a free night at its hotels, or at least communicate with members at all about their decision to gut the value of points. Yet they chose not to respect their members this way. That leaves us to analyze the data ourselves.
Marriott no longer publishes award charts or tells members when they alter their pricing models. They just increase the cost of award nights at their hotels whenever they choose, with no notice. This appears to be one of those times.
The Trump family stayed at St. Regis D.C. for the inauguration, based on video shared by President Trump’s granddaughter Kai who took on a much larger profile this past summer at the Republican Convention.
Marriott appears to be testing a requirement that guests give up housekeeping during their stay in order to get the cheapest room rates.
Marriott Autograph Collection properties in Mexico seem to take the autograph part seriously, and love NDAs. The Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun reportedly required non-disclosure agreements by guests before “allowing medical assistance or letting them leave” the property over Christmas, after becoming ill over the holidays.
Marriott promises a lot to members, and frequently doesn’t delivery. Hilton doesn’t promise much, and so it rarely disappoints. Some Marriotts have even figured out a new way to avoid handing out upgrades, and I have to say that it’s really clever.
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 »
