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.
They call this going green so maybe my Marriott April Fool’s post was a little too on the nose?
You can price these cards here. Standard PVC cards with magnetic stripes or RFID chips generally cost $0.04 to $0.30 per card for bulk orders. Custom printed and eco-friendly options, such as biodegradable or recycled materials, cost a little more – perhaps starting at $0.08 apiece for the largest bulk orders.
High-end electronic cards can cost more, too, around $0.12 to $0.26 apiece in bulk.
So is it any surprise that this is their approach to Bonvoy Ambassador member upgrades, bearing in mind that’s a status that requires not just spending 100 nights a year with Marriott but also a minimum of $23,000?
Starting 48 hours out and then as late as 3 hours before arrival, Marriott’s website and the Marriott mobile app showed every category of suites available. Upon arrival, the Front Desk clerk said suites were only available for an “upsell.” I asked about a complimentary upgrade and was again today suites were only available if I paid for one. I asked for the manager. The manager claimed the Front Desk was wrong and that they give upgrades but there were no suites available. When I asked why the Front Desk offered to sell me an upgrade if no suites were available, the manager was speechless.
Credit: Courtyard Venice Airport
They’re also an airport hotel that charges for use of the airport shuttle.
Well then, let’s not stay there. Tell your friends!
Marriot, the landbased Ryanair.
There is one reason and one reason only why they went green – in order to save money.
Air conditioning is massively expensive in large hotels. This is a perfect way for them to be really cheap by couching it in the name of the environment.
Similar to airlines. They gouge anyway they can.
The BMI pricing is inevitable.
https://brothke.medium.com/your-bmi-is-your-ticket-price-the-next-dimension-in-airline-pricing-c0592c755a8f?sk=6d63de598dbaa96540b9f3fc9255e571
Sigh. Nobody loathes their loyal guests like Marriott.
We stayed at this Courtyard last October and are booked again for October 2025. The accommodations and helpfulness of the staff were minimal at best. The only incentive is its proximity to the Venice Airport (VCE).
Italians will rob you blind if you let them….
Custom print job? Yeah, I’ve got something I’d like to see printed on Marriott room keys….
I think the upcharge he was looking for is the Vegas Sandwich
And you know, those who TRULY believe in “going green” should be infuriated by businesses that pull this kind of crap. It belittles the movement by making it a butt of jokes — and feeding into questions regarding is it all just a corporate / government scam.
I know most of the ways to remove the limiter for hotel thermostats. But even then some only go to an uncomfortable level of not really cool, so I always travel with heater tape. Wrap it around the thermostat, plug it in and the thermostat always thinks it’s 90 degrees in the room no matter how cold it is. Take that air-conditioning Nazis!
Silver elite here. 20$ and a smile at check in. Being understanding and also having worked in the industry gets me more upgrades than your normal platinum road warrior.
It’s not just this Marriott I have stayed at many hotels where the temperature would not cool the room below 73. The thermostat says 68 but it never gets cold.
Typical for any Marriott property in Italy. They don’t care what status level you are. Stayed in the Sina Bernini Bristol in Rome and they wouldn’t even give me an extra bottle of water and basically laughed in my face.
I feel like I’m missing something here, but why would anyone expect to be able to upgrade their room without paying the difference? Why would such an upgrade be complimentary?
Ask for a fan? 73 ° and a fan would be perfect. Otherwise go for Stan’s heater tape
Welcome to Silly Manager Tricks!
Step Right Up!
Be Amazed!
If you are not happy buying what they sell…there is lots of competition.
Then…
3…2…1… The newly renamed Aeroporto Hotel leaves Marriitt by mutual agreement. I)nvestors lost out.
the city itself charges every visitors for admission. just don’t go there. problem solved.
It is amazing to me that this trend of lets charge the most and provide the least value we can, continues. I have chosen Marriotts over the years because how well they took care of you during your stay. As a person who has spent about 1 in 9 days of my adult life in an hotel, is a lifetime titanium, I continue to see some of their hotels treat me poorly. I get much better service on average and more appreciation from other brands, even ones that I have no status at. I know which Marriotts treat me and others well. I stay at those. Problem is when you are in a new city, it is a crap shoot.
Why shouldn’t the manager lie? After all, Marriott corporate are the masters of dishonesty. It’s called ‘trickle-down immorality’. What one has come to expect from today’s Marriott
Wow, Alicia, tell us you don’t understand elite travel rewards without telling us.
@Tired F. Idiots — We don’t know if @Alicia is merely ignorant (and is unaware that with many hotel and airline programs, those with ‘status’ may receive such benefits as a complimentary room upgrade), or if she is a corporate shill, bootlicking for her company, attempting to astroturf us into thinking it’s ‘lazy’ or ‘entitled’ to want a better room without literally paying extra for it. So, @Alicia, what is it? Are you unaware, or are you carrying water for these greedy corporations?
Since we’ve been brought into the spotlight, we’d like to clarify a few points:
-We do apply a €5 charge for key cards that aren’t returned – not because we’re being picky, but because we’re proudly Green Key certified, and reducing plastic waste is something we take seriously.
Sustainability matters, and every little bit helps! By the way, the key room in the picture is from HYATT Group. We are part of Marriott Int.
-Regarding upgrades, we provide them in line with Marriott’s standards – subject to availability.
Our front office team always tries to go the extra mile whenever possible.
-While we don’t offer a shuttle service, we’re more than happy to assist guests in booking a reliable taxi or suggesting the most suitable transport options.
We truly look forward to welcoming you soon – and giving you the real experience of our hotel, beyond the headlines.
Warm regards,
The Hotel Owner
All this “going green” by hotels and also airlines is nothing but a scheme to cut costs by appealing to virtue signaling in order to offer less service and amenities.
Why? Because the real business of these chains has become franchising. Many of these franchisees are shady Motel 6 wannabe operators and the chain has little to no control on how they operate their properties.
I’ve had similar experience with upgrades as a Diamond with Hilton. Saying nothing available yet the rooms still on sale whilst stood at the desk checking in. When you call them out on it they’ve even tried to tell me that if I booked it they’d downgrade me on arrival as the system was wrong. Nothing worse than bare faced lies from staff. Especially when your partner has worked for Hilton, IHG and marriott.
Maybe it’s something to do with being a Stan, see his prior message…
I travel with a small IR gun.
One Marriott I was in just would not get cool, so I placed a call to engineering. The engineering manager came out and said cooler is coming in to your room.
I used the IR gun to point out that it was coming in at 74°, which would make it impossible to cool the room to below 74. He sheepishly admitted management had told him to limit the air conditioning. He got me a couple of fans, and I left the next night. After not traveling during COVID (and a few years before that), I’ve discovered Marriotts have gone downhill. Way downhill.
So as a regular traveler, but not a road warrior, also someone to isn’t going to get a credit card, what’s the best chain?
I used to be Hilton Diamond, but switched to Marriott since there seemed to be a lack of Hilton locations where I wanted to book on my points for personal trips. Only ever got to Gold on Marriott with the similar usage.
What would be my option?
Stan – can you recommend a particular heater tape that you use?
Two points here:
1. Italians
2. Marriott
Here’s a thought, if you need two keys then return it and get your $5 back! I always use the mobile key anyway. And as far as lower than 73, how flipping cold do you need it. You’re looking for reasons to bitch and I celebrate anybody that works to be green and certainly as a company tries to save money.
Upgrades, for all intents and purposes, are an antiquated relic. .
I have been all over the world. Venice is my least favorite. Smells like thousands of years of sewage. Very hot there and sometimes air conditioning is not even allowed there in April once over 80 degrees, Hotel Danieli, the finest hotel.
Was HORRIBLE. So they opened a window, brought in a fan and bugs filled our room. Will NEVER go back.
Venice sucks. My opinion.
Visited several countries in Europe last year, and found in most of them the AC won’t cool below 20 C. They say it’s regulatory. I think the Hyatt in Barcelona was an exception. Great breakfast buffet there as well!
Many hotels seem have the AC off or barely on in the common areas and elevators, gyms even as well especially in Asia… Prior to the COVID era all areas had the AC running. I live in Marriott served apartments, and this is exactly what has happened, and as said it’s noticeable in most hotels now as it’s becoming the hotter season.
One little problem with your theory on key pricing Gar-Gar, you can’t just buy them from any website that offers them.
You always have brand approved sites for everything and yes, it is trackable for something like this.
PLI (Plasticard Locktech International) is the world’s largest key manufacturer and ideally, where every parent brand is directing their franchisees to buy from.
There are other smaller players, but honestly, PLI has a pretty strong hold on the industry.
Price wise for brand approved generic keys, you’re looking at 900ish dollars for 5000 keys, shipping not included.
@The Road Goes On Forever — Just curious, when you said ‘Gar-Gar’ (I’m assuming for Gary), phonetically, did you mean ‘gar’ (like car), ‘gare’ (like wear) or ‘jar’? For some reason, I read it as if it were Jar Jar Binks!
@Courtyard by Marriott – Venice airport
“We do apply a €5 charge for key cards that aren’t returned – not because we’re being picky, but because we’re proudly Green Key certified, and reducing plastic waste is something we take seriously.”
What a crock of garbage. As someone who works in plastic injection moulding, 1 hour of runtime on an industrial machine puts out 100x the plastic waste of lost hotel key cards in your establishment, for an entire year. Likely more.
If you really cared about the environment, you’d go to wooden cards; which do exist. The only part that isn’t biodegradable is the RFID/NFC chip set. Yours is just another sad excuse to fleece guests out of every penny
“-Regarding upgrades, we provide them in line with Marriott’s standards – subject to availability.”
You have quite a few reviews that say otherwise. It’s bad enough it made a VFTW article. The one saving grace is many, many hotels do the same; ive been denied upgrades several times, only to call from a secondary phone, ask to start a booking for 4-5 suites, be told there’s availability, then be forced to witness the backtracking and half assed excuses when I ask why an upgrade can’t be fulfilled.
“Our front office team always tries to go the extra mile whenever possible.
-While we don’t offer a shuttle service, we’re more than happy to assist guests in booking a reliable taxi or suggesting the most suitable transport options.”
No issue here; you’re not required to offer a shuttle. HOWEVER, being an “airport” hotel, you can’t be shocked if guests have a negative perception if you DONT have one; because many of your competitors WILL.
More and more hotels are getting extremely restrictive on the temperature range you can set the room thermostat at, all in the name of saving energy. One of my recent encounters with this was at a Hyatt property in Detroit. The thing was, though, I wanted to turn the temperature UP in order to shut off the air conditioner, because it was chilly in the room. Instead, I had to open the window and let the air run non-stop while I had all of the windows wide open. Talk about wasting energy SMH. I guess I should just be glad that they actually had windows that would open.
Cheap run down courtyard great for last min desperate people running out of California!
Stayed there once…
@IsaacC – If you’re looking for a chain with better hotels, at least decent elite benefits, and lots of locations you’re kind of stuck with Hilton. If wildly sporadic or nonexistent elite benefits don’t bother you then Marriott might be your best bet. IHG has a lot of hotels but there’s an awful lot of lower tier properties.
I’m Lifetime Platinum with Marriott, Gold with Hilton through my Amex business platinum card, Platinum with IHG through my credit card, and Globalist with Hyatt mostly through 40-50 nights in rooms and the rest through credit card spend. My general preference is Hyatt, then Hilton if there’s no Hyatt around, then a full service Marriott, then IHG, then lower tier Marriotts.
Your determination not to get a hotel credit card may actually be holding you back. If you get the (pricey) Hilton card then you get automatic Diamond status. Depending on how many stays you do and where you visit – Asia is great on both upgrades and top notch club lounges – and how important upgrades are to you the card may be worthwhile.
Either way, good luck!
More whining from entitled Americans about first world problems, who probably then wonder why others don’t like us.
Uckfay arriotMay. I used to be a rewards club member, but after staying in a poophole in Traverse City, and then they didn’t even want to acknowledge my complaints, I went to Hilton. Never going back.
I am not making excuses here but ..
I was recently traveling in the UK and Ireland staying at both chain and non affiliated hotels. I was surprised to find that some hotels simply disabled the climate control all together either by disconnecting the wall mounted controls or rendering the old radiator control useless with no other control present. My hotel in Dublin would only allow temperature changes to stay in effect for 90 minutes during daytime hours and at 8pm you loose all control over the HVAC until 6am. The same hotel digital control only would allow you to adjust heat up to 24C.
An upscale Hilton affiliated hotel in Cork had a similarly strange system that would only allow changes between 21.5C and 23.5C that quickly reset to “off” in what I estimated to be about an hour. Making the room quite cold overnight when the outside temperature was 0C.
So it’s not just Marriott who is messing with us!
View from the wing editor is stupid. Posting articles without actual facts. All locks had been upgraded to ULC technology. The keycards prices increased from 0.30 cents to 0.70- 0.90 cents. Keycards also depends on which lock company it is used for. And yes cost adds up when guest abuse by getting multiple keycards and never return at front desk. Over years guest are use to not coming to desk to checkout and taking key with them or throwing away. Nothing is free in world.
Go to any McDonald’s anywhere outside America and they charge you for ketchup or give you one packet.
Starbucks outside America don’t give your points or stars.
Thanks Christian! I never paid much attention to Hyatt. One of the places that I like to go has a really nice Grand Hyatt according to my brother.
Maybe I’ll try Hyatt for a while.
I’m trying to avoid new credit cards but if the spend requirements aren’t too onerous maybe I’ll get one from Hyatt to get some basic status.