Tag Archives for marriott.
Maybe the most Marriott thing ever is allowing a hotel using their brand to get away with failing to meet brand standards and treat customers well – with a sign about how they aren’t going to do housekeeping, and proving it with a used band-aid in front of it that hasn’t been cleaned up by housekeeping.
Somehow rates here run from the mid-$200s to mid-$400s. There’s actually another Autograph Collection property just a few blocks away. You’d probably like the Morrison House much better.
Marriott CEO Jim Capuano once said, “When I die, they’ll put the net-rooms growth number on my tombstone.” Marriott will seemingly take a fee from any hotel, of any quality, diluting their brands in the process.
Here’s what you get for spending $23,000 a year at Marriott hotels, in addition to benefits like occasional room upgrades and continental breakfast. The hotel chain has sent out end of year holiday gifts, and a reader shares that they received a lego puzzle set of a Marriott Design Hotels property in Iceland.
It appears at one point to have been – at least in part – a money-laundering operation, and pocketed more in insurance damage claims than the hotel was worth. And then they invested very little of that back into the property. Still, renovations were supposed to be completed a year ago. So how are things going?
Marriott has the toughest criteria for a published, top tier status. Bonvoy Ambassador requires 100 nights in their hotels and minimum spend of $23,000. Or does it?
They’re making changes so that owners don’t have to spend as much, but they’ve reassured investors that this won’t come out of their end at corporate. That means coming out of the guest experience. And they’re cutting costs across their own operation, too. I don’t see Marriott getting better for guests in 2025.
Marriott appears to have added a new benefit for ‘overachieving’ Ambassadors who spend at least $40,000 in a year – at least it is a benefit for 2024 spend.
Ambassadors who spend $40,000 are being invited to extend the same status to a spouse, significant other, or other member of their household.
Marriott recently updated its terms and conditions for its Uber partnership, removing details of how many points you earn and referring you to their partnership page for that instead. It seemed pretty clear that they’d be updating points-earning with their Uber partnership. Now those details are live.
The Warsaw Marriott Hotel, once a symbol of post-communist transition in Poland and a landmark of international hospitality, quietly ended its affiliation with Marriott in recent months.
Management dropped rates below $100 on some nights – but that attracted a different clientele, “a rise in drunken and disruptive guests.” With reduced revenue, the management company HEI pushed out long-time employees who delivered the high quality service the property was known for. Then “[m]ore homeless people entered the hotel and fentanyl contamination showed up in lobby bathrooms.”
The property blames the pandemic for reduced staffing in 2024. Remaining employees have been told they “no longer work for a hospitality company” but “for a real estate company” instead.
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 »
