A 41-year-old American woman posed as the sister of a Marriott employee to get a discount on a hotel stay in Singapore, and now she faces up to three years in jail. It’s a good reminder that if you’re going to do something stupid, don’t do it in Singapore, because it rarely ends well.
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Traveler caught using fraudulent Marriott discount
One of the perks of working for Marriott (or any major hotel chain, for that matter), is that you get discounted hotel stays. In some cases, you can even share those perks with friends and family.
In the case of Marriott, the hotel giant has the Explore by Marriott Bonvoy program, and the idea is that employees and their direct family members can receive deep discounts on the cost of Marriott stays worldwide.
That brings us to this situation, which initially dates back to 2024 (but is only now being fully prosecuted). A woman from the United States purchased an Explore by Marriott Bonvoy membership on Craigslist for around 300 USD.
Obviously it’s against the rules for this to be bought or sold. This also required the Marriott employee to falsely claim that he was the brother of the woman who purchased the pass, and according to prosecutors, she was aware that this arrangement broke the rules.
When redeeming the Explore by Marriott Bonvoy membership, the traveler needs to present the authorization form at check-in, which is where the relationship between the employee and the person using the membership is disclosed. In this case, the woman tried to check in at the Sheraton Towers Singapore.
She used her discount for a stay of five nights. After that, she extended her stay at the hotel on four separate occasions for another five consecutive nights. She then checked out, only to return five days later to stay four more nights. In total, she received close to 1,200 USD in discounts
During her final stay, the manager at the property decided to verify her authorization form with contacts in the United States, and found out that she wasn’t actually the relative of the person she claimed to be connected to. At that point, the manager alerted the police, and the traveler was arrested.
She has already made full restitution, but still faces a cheating charge, which can come with a jail sentence of up to three years, along with eight other charges. Her defense attorney has asked the court to sentence her to a fine of not more than 3,940 USD, arguing that her conduct arose from poor judgment.
This traveler really didn’t think this situation through
In addition to the general issue of buying and selling these kinds of benefits (which breaks the rules), there are two main issues.
First of all, as I hinted at above, if you’re going to break the rules, Singapore really isn’t the place to do that. The country has among the strictest rules that you’ll find anywhere, both in terms of getting in trouble in the first place, and in terms of the severity of the punishment for breaking the rules.
I suspect that in the United States, this would’ve been handled as an internal matter, and we would’ve probably just seen the employee fired, and maybe the woman forced to pay back the amount “stolen,” rather than the police immediately getting involved.
Second of all, it also sounds like this woman was really bad at trying to fly under the radar. Most hotel employees are super busy and don’t have much free time, so wouldn’t typically try to verify if two people are actually related, if they had no reason to believe something was off.
However, I imagine that this woman booking a five night stay, then extending that stay by five nights on four separate occasions, and then staying yet again, definitely didn’t help her with flying under the radar. I wouldn’t be surprised if she also came across as a bit clueless about how it works, required a lot of attention, etc.
So I feel bad in the sense that I’m sure she didn’t think this all through, or realize what she was opening herself up to. But still… c’mon!
Bottom line
An American traveler bought a Marriott hotel stay discount perk on Craigslist, even though it’s intended only for family members of employees. She then tried to use that benefit at a Sheraton in Singapore, and was successful. But then she extended her stay by five nights (on four separate occasions), and then checked out, only to check back in again.
The manager became suspicious, and it was determined that there wasn’t actually any relation between the employee and the guest using the benefit. That’s not going to end well anywhere, but it’s especially not going to end well in Singapore, a country where rules matter, and penalties are strict.
What do you make of this Marriott hotel stay gone wrong?
Years ago I went to Singapore. I remember the flight attendants making several announcements that drug activity in Singapore was punishable by death. It was even printed on the back of my Thai Airlines boarding pass.
Singapore is not the place to FAFO. But some morons will anyway.
She ought to pay the bill in the first place , and not try to game the system . Or , she could have gone to Penang and the "Snake Temple" .
There're far, far fewer crimes in Singapore than in the US, so police in Singapore do have a lot more time to get involved in minor crimes or rule violations.
“if you’re going to do something stupid, don’t do it in Singapore” 100%. Impersonation isn’t great, but the punishment here seems disproportionate (if it were the US, we’d arge 8th Amendment, protection against ‘cruel and unusual punishment’). For crimes mostly dealing with financial deception, fines and restitution seem more appropriate.
Now, the real question is, would Singapore hold Marriott executives accountable in the same way (jail time) if they lied to customers, say, by...
“if you’re going to do something stupid, don’t do it in Singapore” 100%. Impersonation isn’t great, but the punishment here seems disproportionate (if it were the US, we’d arge 8th Amendment, protection against ‘cruel and unusual punishment’). For crimes mostly dealing with financial deception, fines and restitution seem more appropriate.
Now, the real question is, would Singapore hold Marriott executives accountable in the same way (jail time) if they lied to customers, say, by devaluing their program, not providing upgrades when upgrades are indeed available, etc. No, of course not. Rules for thee…
i agree marriott corporate should be in jail too....