Tag Archives for marriott.
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.
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?
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 »
