As far as I can see, Marriott properties that deny breakfast benefits are engaging in fraud…the short of bait-and-switch that should be intolerable to the Marriott brand.
Dear Marriott, Denying Breakfast Benefits Is Engaging In Fraud
The premise of the Marriott Bonvoy program is simple: in exchange for loyalty to Marriott-affiliated properties, you will be rewarded with perks like room upgrades or free breakfast. But we are seeing more and more hotels seek to “have their cake and eat it too” by taking advantage of the Marriott brand but denying the benefits that are commensurate with that brand.
Fraud is “a deliberate act (or failure to act) with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized benefit, either for oneself or for the institution, by using deception or false suggestions or suppression of truth or other unethical means, which are believed and relied upon by others.”
By my estimation, this is exactly what hotels engage in when they deny breakfast benefits. While Marriott Bonvoy breakfast benefits are already more arcane than reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, we do know that Aloft and St. Regis hotels are obligated to provide breakfast among elite check-in choices…there is no fine print that I find that would spare these hotels from offering this benefit.
Yet recently the St. Regis Macao and the Aloft Dublin have unilaterally eliminated breakfast benefits.
And thus far, Marriott has not forced these properties to honor its commitment under the Marriott brand.
Bait and switch…that’s what this is.
I won’t even get into the mind-numbing justification these hotels use to justify the elimination of breakfast except to say that Marriott cannot and should not tolerate this.
CONCLUSION
Let’s all monitor this together, push back at properties that try to engage in fraud, and put Marriott on notice that it is playing a dangerous game. A class action lawsuit is not the goal here, but is an option on the table if Marriott continues to allow its properties to rip off Platinum and Titanium elites.
image: St. Regis Macao
What can we do? Email corporate? Or the hotel directly?
In Ben’s story, the pushback was met by gaslighting but also backing down. We need to push the envelope at each property.
You ask why Marriott does this. The answer, while unpleasant, seems pretty straightforward: Because they loathe their guests and especially despise engaged loyalty members. Combine that with an absolute lack of integrity and you have today’s Marriott.
Put these properties on blast via social media. Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, etc… Also, write reviews on TripAdvisor and Booking.com, etc… Calling them out publicly. They really do feel that. And of course, if the hotel or Marriott send you a post-stay survey, take the opportunity to call them out.
Dude, we can’t get Democrats to agree on what fraud even is, do you think they care about this?
Unfortunately the end result will be the removal of the breakfast “guarantee” if they get enough grief over it.
Mayor Pete did!
Mayor Pete would make a particularly fine president: smart, fair, possessing plenty of common sense, empathetic, capable, and a decorated military officer. That’s better than our last president and light years ahead of our current one who has zero of the listed characteristics.
Hell no he was on paternity leave while the entire cargo handling ability of our ports went to the crapper. The moron did absolutely nothing while cargo was not offloaded and delivered to thousands of business in time which resulted in millions if not billions in losses. Guy has no business being anywhere near the levers of power.
It’s not paternity leave if you keep working….the whole point is that you step.seay temporarily to focus on your family.
When you go on paternity leave, someone else is supposed to manage your work for you; it’s how it works.
And the Republicans don’t care about fraud if turning the blind eye serves their interests, so what can be done?
The Aloft Asuncion also engages in these shenanigans on award stays. Stayed for one night — was informed that breakfast was only included for paid stays. Wasn’t worth the argument for what I assume is bad coffee with the mall next door.
Here I am on the sidelines, booking the cheapest livable hotel through a credit card portal scoring 10x points, watching people melt down on Marriott, sipping on Matthew’s favorite coffee (Starbucks) and earning valuable SkyPesos. Life is good with one less thing to obsess about
More power to you!
Why do hotels engage in this type of behavior? For the same reason they’ve gotten away with “resort” and “destination” fees, and why dogs lick a certain part of their anatomy – because they can. Nobody bothers to hold them accountable, so why should they?
You are ultimately correct that the answer is to vote with your wallet, but color me skeptical that enough customers will actually follow through.
For 7-9 May you can choose between paying €250 per night for a base room at the solid 4-star Aloft or €195 for a junior suite at the solid 4-star Carlton Blanchardstown. The cheapest 4-star on Trivago is the Maldron Merrion Road- 8.8/10 review score, base room going for under €130 a night.
Unless one has to stay at Marriotts due to corporate policy (in which case I readily sympathise with their predicament), choosing the Aloft under such circumstances is tantamount to paying a stupidity tax or defrauding one’s employers/clients.
Choosing the Aloft under such circumstances and then complaining for the lack of a ‘free’ breakfast is the sort of thing which is probably reserved for those who would make strong candidates for Darwin Awards.
I’m surprised this is going on in Ireland of all places. They actually have rules, consumer protection, and good governance there.
I read once that the true customer of all hotel franchises is the hotel owners and the product is its members, but nowhere does that feel more true than with Marriott.
The W Scottsdale does this as well. “Free breakfast” in the room only but mandatory $14 delivery fee and you cannot pick up the food yourself. It’s more expensive to eat a frozen breakfast burrito for free than it is to go next door and have an actual breakfast. It’s fraud plain and simple and the last straw with Marriott.
Same with the room upgrades. “When available” means never. I actually got an upgrade by accident because I asked why my room did not have a microwave and the clerk was new and gave me an upgrade to a better room. Well if the room was available, why wasn’t I upgraded at the beginning?
Only chain where games haven’t been played is the Hyatt.
So sad. Once a corporation devoted to in house food development to a shell of it’s former self. They have recently laid off 800 employees. For efficiency. Push back on the individual properties, as corporate will likely be unresponsive to anything they don’t wish to hear
Short answer, because they’re selling to the hotels, and the consumer is the product.
They’re also too big today with little meaningful competition after the Starwood buyout. So where are you gonna go?
Hyatt when I can which is about 95% of the time and Hilton as a backup with the Aspire card. Globalist benefits have always been delivered and Hilton has always delivered with food credit. Hilton rarely upgrades me in the states which sounds like what’s going on at the Marriotts except now with SLH there are actually some good redemption values. Unless you’re tied to a contract it’s not worth it. Kinda sucks because I’m about to convert to the Ritz Carlton Card.
I don’t get the competition point, at least from a consumer perspective. I’m sure Marriott have lots of hotels in Las Vegas, North Carolina and Quintana Roo, but that doesn’t really have any impact on my choice of accommodation when I am travelling to Dublin, Slovakia (3 Marriott properties, all of which are in the same city and look rather overpriced) or Minas Gerais (population 20.5m, zero Marriott hotels).
You want to get Marriott’s attention? Seriously? Go after Tony Capuano’s daughter, who has used the corporation, Daddy’s connections and money, and Marriott properties to portray herself as a combination of Paris Hilton and an Only Fans whore. Marriott has, obviously, always had a bit more religion in its corporate HQ due to the Marriotts themselves. And … to see what the gal has done … let’s just say that Daddy may be proud of his little girl, but not proud when someone points out her simulating sex acts (with mom looking on proudly) at the Ritz in Miami (can’t recall if the South Beach or Key Biscayne is her fave).
Yes, there’s a story here and more to the story then I am putting here. But you (or anyone else) want to go after a weakness at Marriott (hint: it’s not them proudly hosting Nazi events in their ballrooms), it’s Tony’s family.
The easy solution is to stay with Hilton or Hyatt or even IHG. That’s what I’ve been doing the last few years even though I’m Lifetime Platinum. Marriott does not deserve loyalty if they won’t abide by their promises.
Yes, same here (in reverse sequence i.e. IHG, then Hyatt, then Hilton). I find Hilton to be somewhat similar to Marriott.
Is there any particular reason behind your choice to focus on those three as opposed to Accor and/or independent hotels? Hyatt and Marriott are almost always substantially more expensive than the competition in Europe, and Hilton hotels are competitively priced in the UK but not in many/most places on the continent.
If you’re US-based, Accor’s presence is…dubious. They’ve got Fairmont in North America and not much else. Which stinks, because I love Fairmont (especially the ex-CP Hotels side), but they’re an isolated bit over here. It’s a bloody shame that Hyatt didn’t bag Fairmont instead.
But it’s the same thing with Hyatts etc in many parts of the world.
The logical approach is to look at each purchase separately even if you aren’t technically a free agent. I have status with GHA and Accor, and some orphaned Hilton points, but when I went to Seoul I chose a Japanese chain because they had a good hotel in my preferred neighbourhood and the price was right too.
I’m not a lawyer, but if the brand standard is “breakfast is included” and the hotel isn’t exempted from that and doesn’t display this on the Marriott website (I know a few properties get exempted from brand requirements on occasion – usually a side-effect of a weird acquisition or a property constraint), I’d hit them with a chargeback for the cost of breakfast or for the required compensation ($25 Aloft or $100 Westin) since that is all pretty explicitly advertised. Ideally do so with a card not affiliated with the brand, but when Marriott says in plain language “We will give you X or here are the liquidated damages we offer if we fail to do X”, I’d think you’re on pretty solid ground in fighting them.