Conclusion To My Marriott Upgrade Denial & Room Invasion

Not to repeat myself but Thursday I chimmed in about your carrying on and tonight I see you've gotten worse. Grow up! Life is too short for this crap. Be your getting rewards at all. If I were managing the hotel and my staff was doing the best to make your stay with us and they had an emergency I'm happy that they realized how important 'your' stay with us is. And, I do understand, and agree with you, the child should have been left in the lobby or hallway. Nice job getting this individual fired or reprimand. Maybe the next experience you'll be happily informed your room isn't ready or available because they staff could come to work or they can't find staff to hire. I guess you'll complain about that to.

If the hotel has only 10 suites and on average 50 arrivals a day, 35 of them are Platinum and Titanium elite or Ambassador ones, how would you think the hotel employees should determine which guest gets a complimentary upgrade? Plus, the hotel should try to sell suites at the premium rate. If you want a suite- then book a suite. Or pay for an upgrade at check in. At least try to understand that out of 35 Platinum arrivals the hotel must say "no" to complimentary upgrade request to at least 30 of them. It doesnt mean the hotel values you less than a Platinum/ titanium guest checking in next to you, who gets an upgrade. Complimentary upgrade is based on many factors such as: duration of your stay, were you complimentary upgrade last time, value the company you work for the hotel, are you here for a special occasion, service recovery, SNA requests, etc. Please keep all these in mind before you complain about you not getting your complimentary upgrade. I feel for the front desk employees.

I work Front Desk at a small Marriott franchisee (86 rooms). When it comes to Marriott today the biggest problem is there are way too many Titanium and Platinum guests. When they absorbed SPG they failed to account for that. Gold isn't even worth having anymore. Honestly, Platinum really doesn't even make you special anymore. We just can't upgrade everyone there just isn't enough suites to go around most of the time.

Also Idk why you were ever given that room if it had plumbing issues. That just tells me they panicked an tried to fix it cuz you were going to be in there, other wise they might not have sold that room. Communication error between maintenance and Front Desk maybe? Also manager should have got off her ass an went an told maintenance to get out or at least tell the girl to come with her back to the office to wait for them to finish. I can see the frustration with that for sure.

I recently was forced to stay in a Residence Inn in Indianapolis (booked by the employer). I realize the employer got a discounted rate, but does that mean we can't get insect- free rooms and toilet paper (it took 3 requests and actually going up to the desk to get one roll handed to me by the manager on duty the next day). The cleaning staff also flooded the kitchenette (I heard most likely because they didn't know how to work the dishwasher) and hot water was hit-or-miss for 5 weeks. When renovations on the upper floors got into full swing, they broke the sprinkler system and a coworker had a waterfall in the center of her room. They didn't even offer to move her room, let alone move her to the Courtyard across the parking lot.

As a lifetime Marriott platinum guy that spends half his year in hotels and the other half trying to book those hotels, your experiences are not unusual. I haven't gotten a requested upgrade in well over a year. They just don't do that anymore, regardless of what they say. People walk in rooms without knocking or with a single tap on the door regularly. The rooms in my area have been upgraded, but it's just a white washed facade. It just feels like the whole bonvoy program is under water. It's much worse that the old program with fewer rooms and more difficulty across the board. I'm close to scrapping it with marriott completely.

@Amy

Let’s just assume Ben “demands” an upgrade and not asked for one (I personally don’t believe that’s the case here but we can agree to disagree). You would “despise“ the customer and give them the “shittiest“ room possible?!
You also ignored the situation with the maintenance guys with the little girl. I would like to know how a “despised” customer should react in that situation? Even after telling the management team over and over again.
This is from someone who is “proud” to be a front desk employee from a “well managed” Marriott said a lot about the state of the Marriott Corporation.

An entertaining read! Slightly hysterical but still entertaining and very valid points!

Marriott should be shamed for advertising one thing and implementing something else. The "no blackout policy for awards" is the height of lying and double speak. The "room upgrade based on availability" is another total lie. This must be either a corporate policy to be very fast and loose with the truth on upgrade availability or it must be an encouraged corporate Marriott culture. This is easy to provably challenge and should be contested in every instance.

This is so typical of Marriott lately as they've declined rapidly in recent years - especially after the merger.

My wife is Platinum Elite and I'm Gold. She booked us at a Marriott property in Birmingham, AL, last weekend. The associate who checked us in said there were no upgraded rooms available (the place was dead), she checked us into a room that was already occupied, then it took more than 15 min of waiting to get booked into a different room. So we go to the bar for drinks to use the free $20 Platinum credit and - shocker - there is no credit on our account.

We've had similar issues in different cities so it's not just this one Marriott property. I think we are done with them.

#Bonvoy-ageMarriott

We had a bad experience with a non-corporate Marriott a couple of years ago. My husband traveled exclusively using Marriott Hotels. We went back home to see his family for what would be his final trip home. He called ahead and asked if they had a wheelchair available and was told yes. When we arrived it was not an adult sized wheelchair. He was not comfortable in it at all. He asked is this all you have and was told yes. He asked for the manager. He complained to her. He suggested she try to sit in it. Her response was I do not need one. This Marriott had just been remodeled. We called and asked for a stool or chair for the shower. He was able to get in the shower but needed to rest once in there. They didn’t have anything. We were able to obtain a different wheelchair from a relative’s friend. We went to a family gathering. We returned to the hotel and the maintenance man was in the wheelchair making fun of my husband not being able to sit in it in the lobby with the front desk clerk. They think they were funny making fun of a dying man. I could feel my blood start to boil. My brother-in-law took my husband a retired combat army officer veteran of almost 40 years upstairs. He returned to those idiots and told them he should kick their a—- for their behavior. I went down and asked for the owners business card. The next day we moved to a Hyatt. I have about 2 million Marriott reward points from husband but that experience left a bad taste in my mouth. The owner did nothing and neither did corporate Marriott.
I will say we had one of our best experiences at the Bonn Marriott World Conference Center in Germany. The staff there could not have been nicer or more helpful. If all staff could be like them, I would stay with Marriott. But sadly they are not.

I know for sure that hotels hide rooms for either revenue purposes or just plain bastardry. I suspect that this is not necessarily the fault of reception, but management rules. But it is counter-productive. I call it the cake shop principle. A baker has twenty buns, all different sizes. If you give every customer the smallest bun first, then every customer feels ripped off. If you give each one the biggest one left, then you have 20 happy customers. Same 20 odd sized buns, but completely opposite levels of satisfaction.

@Bill while I personally am prepared for issues with brand new hotels, they don't ALWAYS have issues:
Good hotel brands have dedicated launch teams to avoid this kind of experiences.
I stayed at a new, upscale IHG property and they opened in stages, starting with a few rooms, increasing to full capacity over several months to make sure they can provide seamless experiences... rather than throwing the doors open and not being able to cope ..
I stayed at a midscale Accor hotel and the complete management staff was on the floor, making sure things went smoothly, rather than hiding in their office like the nice, but ineffective manager in Ben's story...
Hilarious story and thanks for calling out Marriott - they deserve it and need to do better...

@Ahmed - while I agree Ben was looking at the child from his own perspective at being stared at by said child, he does say "For the safety of the child".

I'd agree that I'd have sympathy for bringing a child to work but entering unannounced with her and leaving her unsupervised in the bedroom with a stranger doesn't seem like a safe thing by US standards, even if a parent is just in the bathroom. If it were my male partner texting me about this situation, I'd probably ask him to move to the lobby to work for a while or push a bit for a room replacement under the guise of "so they can resolve the issue with the bathroom in due pace".

I'm a woman and usually vacate my room when there is maintenance or cleaning and would definitely do so if someone entered unannounced. I wonder if the manager would have proceeded the same if it was a female customer. Perhaps you and Ford can discuss if using the security latch and deadbolt would be prudent for your privacy. I know you were expecting him to come back but he could probably text/call you when arriving or have a special knock so you can unlock from the inside.

A truly disastrous experience, to be sure. Of course, the salient point that any experienced traveler had to recognize but which is glossed over entirely: “Well, today I checked into The Ben, a new Marriott Autograph Collection property in West Palm Beach...It literally opened just a couple of days ago.” Anyone who stays at a newly opened or reopened hotel and isn’t expecting bumps and bruises is a fool. Ben should have known better, too. New hotels always have staff service issues, always have room coordination issues, always have computer glitches, always have maintenance issues, always have food delivery and preparation issues, always have staff newly trained who don’t know the proper procedures, etc. So while it was disastrous, it also isn’t entirely to be unexpected. Come on, now. If we want to assault Marriott for an obviously poorly opened brand new independent hotel, let’s also assault the choice to stay at a brand new hotel and somehow expect a good service experience. Reality check time.

Ben - This is why your website is my favorite thing on the Internet. I absolutely love this story and the tone in which you told it. And really love the Winston pictures. I really appreciate that compared to some other travel websites, you really hold hotel chains accountable and give real, detailed examples of when they fail to meet the most basic expectations.

And, totally agree with you on the upgrade nonsense since the merger - I am an SPG Lifetime Platinum / Bonvoy Titanium and I never get an upgrade anymore unless I apply an SNA.

Your website is fantastic - thank you and keep it up!

That is quite an unfortunate cascade of events. If I had paid for a water-view room and was allocated the one you were assigned I would be very unimpressed. Why wouldn't the manager go to the room herself knowing then entered without knocking and with a child in tow? She should have prepared 2 key cards for the junior suite in the event it was needed, speak with maintenance directly and upon learning about the issue then present the offer of a junior suite upgrade and help you move rooms. Once you are settled, have the bar call your room and offer you 2 drinks of your choice on the house. Not too difficult really?

I wonder how Marriott will respond to this trip report debacle.