Marriott is threatening to shut down the account of a top-tier Bonvoy Ambassador for the high crime of complaining about legitimate service issues he has encountered during recent stays.
Marriott Threatens To Ban Guest For Complaining About Service Failures
Some people are just incorrigible. I once traveled with someone, who shall remain nameless but he certainly matched what he left in the toilet bowl, who entered our hotel room, made a beeline for the toilet, defecated in it, then called downstairs complaining that there was feces in the toilet. What a piece of s….
This case is different. I happen to know this traveler, can vouch for his integrity, and recognize that he is a loyal Marriott Bonvoy customer (to his great detriment…). He’s not the occasional traveler who has unreasonable expectations. He does not exaggerate or make a mountain out of a molehill. Rather, he travels for work and leisure, is (or at least was…) fiercely loyal to Marriott, and spends a ton of money at Marriott hotels around the world.
Marriott has done a terrible job of holding some of its franchises to brand standards, both when it comes to cleanliness and upkeep and when it comes to elite recognition. A handful of issues he has brought up include:
- A valet dinged his car and the hotel only offered 10,000 points
- Hair from a previous guest(s) all over the bathroom and bed in his room
- Hotel claimed it was not a resort and therefore did not have to offer elite breakfast, but had “resort” in its name and imposed a resort fee
- Downgraded from a king bed room to a room with two double beds, even though Marriott has a bed-type guarantee and both rooms were still for sale during check-in
- Found a dildo beside his bed upon arrival in hotel room
- Mold in hotel rooms
There’s more, but you get the picture, I hope…these are not just trivial matters and bringing them up should be welcomed, right?
But instead, after a recent complaint to his Ambassador Services agent, his account was flagged for chronic complaining. The Loyalty Program Risk department reached out, noted that his complaints represented 9% of his total lifetime nights with Marriott, then threatened to close his account for complaining too much.
Yes, that’s right: hotels failed, but the customer is to blame. The correspondence from Marriott essentially accused him of fraud…does this sound like fraud to you?
Sorry, but no one should have to just grin and bear these service lapses, especially when Marriott properties charge a premium specifically because they know they can draw from a wider and more loyal customer base under the Marriott brand. As View From The Wing reasoned, “Marriott consistently underdelivers. And when an Ambassador member complains, they do try to offer compensation – but do very little to rectify the underlying problems at their hotels. So a frequent guest encounters frequent problems. That’s on the chain, which has been degrading its brand.”
CONCLUSION
Apparently, spending $200K on Marriott is not enough…the true customers are the hotels. This traveler has now shifted to Hyatt and cancelled his Marriott co-branded credit cards, which is a good first step, but Marriott owes him an apology…and Marriott owes all of us a duty to hold its hotels accountable. That’s the deeper issue here.
image: Marriott
Unfortunately, it seems like Hyatt is going down the same road as Marriott.
Why doesn’t he simply take his $200k business elsewhere? I gave up complaining about bad services and speak with my wallet. Yes, Marriott may not care but he will feel good. I totally shifted my hotel stays to boutique and local hotels and would never go back.
I can’t speak for him, but the idea of a certain level of consistent brand standards is part of the Marriott promise and earning points for aspirational property redemptions and not having to be nickel-and-dimed for things like upgrades and breakfast does give some peace of mind.
I agree 100% but he is on the driver’s seat here. Starwood used to be fantastic but that was lost when Marriott bought them. Maybe I am getting old but I have up wasting my time with complains and fights where I have little chance to win. Simply stay somewhere else and the loss will be for Marriott and not for him.
“Simply stay somewhere else and the loss will be for Marriott and not for him.”
Except in many markets Marriott is the only viable alternative.
Not really, no.
I mean, the biggest issue is that neither this guest nor any other are the actual customers of Marriott. The only customers Marriott cares about are their franchise owners,
At least Marriott still manages about 30% of its properties. While there are some bad Marriott-managed properties, most of the bad Marriott properties are franchised. It’s even worse at Hilton and IHG, which have much higher number of franchises. Hyatt is going that way too.
The valet issue is huge. A Marriott Valet totaled my friends car, and they wouldn’t tell him. They just said to keep waiting and the Marriott told my friend that the valet us a 3rd party. So it’s not their problem. It was a huge mess for my friend to untangle.
It is very rare I drive my own car to another city where I need to overnight at a hotel so it has been over 20 years I handed my own car to a valet. I would never ever do that. I have friends with horrible stories about their valet experiences, these are not professional drivers but in most cases very young guys with no experience in driving. I give rental cars to valets but I have full insurance and the car is not mine. Feel sorry for your friend.
The other way to win on this is to drive a car with a manual transmission. Present day valets have no idea how to drive a stick. Your car will usually be parked in the valet lane right in front of the door, right where you left it, when you return.
Great point! My dad taught all of us to drive a manual transmission car and even though I haven’t driven a shift car in about 30 years, I’m grateful for the training. The problem now is that, at least in the US, it is almost impossible to rent a manual transmission car, let alone buy one. But love the approach! I imagine if you pull in with a manual car, these young valets well ask you, “what is that stick between the driver and pax seat and why do you have 3 pedals! 🙂
Is this statement factually true from the Loyalty Risk Department? “The Loyalty Program Risk department reached out, noted that his complaints represented 9% of his total lifetime nights with Marriott.”
That he complained 9% of the time?
Marriott (and most other hotel chains) are just too big to consistently be good. According to ChatGPT (LOL) Marriot has 9,361 properties across 144 countries. If a hotel chain wants to be good, they have to stay small. Instead of being loyal to a certain brand, just go look at reviews on GoogleMaps before booking. It’s that simple.
The way the hotel dismisses complaints as whining is by arguing this client didn’t communicate with the manager via email immediately to detail their dissatisfaction and asked for a specific resolution.
I have around 300 nights in at Marriott properties over the past 20 years and I have complained only once, because for the most part I don’t think it will make a difference. Also it seems to me that complaining about Marriott is somewhat like complaining about Target– for the most part you should already know that it’s not going to be a high end experience when you go there, and it’s clear that the low to mid-grade experience is what the company is trying to produce. For the times I want something high end, I’m going to look somewhere else.
You do know that Marriott is not just the brand Marriott, right? Marriott has lots of brands, including luxury brands.
Yes. They have over 9,000 properties, and tiny fraction of them– perhaps 2% or less– fall into what I think of as a high-end property, but it’s by far the exception not the rule. The best resorts and hotels I have stayed at in my life have been far better than the typical Ritz-Carlton.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect your hotel bed to not contain someone else’s dildo at any price point
It’s quite the innovative welcome amenity though!
But what am I going to to if I’m attending a WNBA game? This is an important amenity.
this is silly…if 1/10 nights he stays there, there is an issue he needs to quit staying there. i get that he likes the perks that come with status, but it won’t take long to accrue status at any other hotel chain if you are dropping 200k/year.
Look, I’m not questioning your friend’s sincerity. I would say that more than 9% of my nights in a Marriott have a problem, but lets look at a few them.
-Mold: For better or worse this is pretty darn common at most limited service hotels in the South. Should it be that way, probably not, but it’s just a fact. Surely that’s where this his happening.
-A Dildo next to the bed: I guess that’s a little funny, but what does he want them to do? A new room should suffice, right? It doesn’t seem like a real problem.
-Hair from a previous guest: If you’re a road warrior at limited service hotels in the USA, this happens all the time. If they immediately gave him another room, it seems like the problem is solved. Even if it was the St. Regis in Bangkok, surely a new room was provided. Is that really an inconvenience that deserves compensation.
-Resort breakfast. Was there a lounge at the property? If so they weren’t in violation, and regardless what’s he really missing out on. A banana and a bottle of water. If breakfast is important to him, why is he staying at Marriott resorts?
I don’t mean to apologize for Marriott, all of these scenarios seem par for the Marriott course, but it sounds like they’re not meeting his needs. Most of these complaints are pretty small and easy to fix. If he’s formally complaining every week, maybe he’s not worth keeping. We’ve seen airlines end relationships with chronic complainers. I simply don’t know why he continues to stay with Marriott. Would he care to share how much compensation he’s been paid out in points/freebies/refunds over the last year? That’s relevant here.
If he’s spending 200K a year, I don’t see how brand loyalty could possibly matter, and if it did, wouldn’t he want to go for Lifetime Globalist? I wish him well and would encourage him to stop staying at Marriott properties.
Not 200K a year. More like 25K/year. 200K was cumulative.
So he’s “barely” an Ambassador, yet possibly averaging $300+ per night (unless he’s a 200/nt road warrior). There’s a lot of hotels out there that would love to give him a free breakfast and a king bed, but if they’re in Florida, they’re probably still going to be moldy. Cut and run, brother. Also, I hope he doesn’t fly Delta as well, unless he’s a true glutton for loyalty punishment.
Exactly. At this stage, he is consciously and voluntarily feeding his victimhood.
One must ask: what perks, a used sex toy? That and the Book of Mormon don’t really sound like perks… 🙂
Curious if there was a specific reason for using the picture of the Marriott Knoxville. It’s a fairly new hotel and has very nice rooms and public spaces, including a marketplace for local artists. It’s almost certainly the best points hotel in Knoxville, TN and one of the better hotels overall (the best is The Tennessean which shares some facilities and space with the Marriott).
No reason to single out this hotel. Just needed stock image with Marriott logo.
Ok good! My sister’s a professor at UT Knoxville and I typically stay at the Marriott or Tennessean when I visit (she also booked a block of rooms there for her upcoming wedding), so I was worried that there was something specific about these properties I didn’t notice previously. I have nothing but good things to say about both, and I rarely say that about a Marriott.
I traveled for years for business, and stayed at every large chain in the US, Europe, and Asia. They all have their positives and negatives. However, the US brands have really gone down hill over the past 10-15 years to the point where now I am only loyal to IHG. And if IHG doesn’t have a property where I am traveling or I don’t like what they have to offer I book a local boutique hotel. Marriott and Hyatt have cheapened their brands and dumbed down their properties to the point where they are no longer enjoyable. And given the outrageous prices they charge for what they offer is offensive.
I haven’t stayed at a Marriott, Starwood, or Hyatt property now in a few years and hope to never again. Let’s see how long IHG can maintain their properties standards.
I’d like to know what IHG hotels you’re booking because your average Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza is pretty tired if not dumpy.
IHG has also dumbed down their hotels.
They no longer require a bar of soap at any brand, including Regent and Intercontinental.
At Holiday Inn, they’ve also eliminated the extra pillows, eliminated the requirement for a plastic laundry bag, and no longer require daily housekeeping. They’ve also switched their restaurant concept from a full-service restaurant to a bar/coffee counter like a Courtyard with a basic food menu.
I like do like Holiday Inn Express but only in small towns and flyover country.
Intercontinental is very inconsistent. Kimptons vary greatly. Some Kimptons don’t even have a restaurant on weekends.
I was recently at a Courtyard in McAllen, Texas (granted not a resort destination, but whatever). The place was always pleasant, clean and quite adequate to the task of providing clean, safe accommodation… well… its transitioning to a Fairfield Inn and the collapse in basic service and amenities is all to apparent. Unfortunately, a place like McAllen, TX doesn’t really have a plethora of lodging choices.
It looks like an older Courtyard. Marriott likely required significant renovations, including exterior renovations, that the owner wouldn’t pay for. So, Marriott not wanting to lose a customer allowed it to convert to a Fairfield. I’m surprised they didn’t let it become a City Express.
Marriott did something similar in the UK with a lot of the older Marriotts. They were converted to Delta because the owner wouldn’t invest in the required renovations, etc.
What is kind of confusing is that Marriott has several revenue streams. Two of them are their reservation system and loyalty program. But another is licensing the property brands. If Marriott fails to police brand standards and the benefits of the loyalty program, they are destroying the assets for two of their revenue streams. It takes far longer to build these assets than to destroy them. It may take a while for competitors to emerge but when Morriott doesn’t stand for quality and elite benefits are not delivered, only a fool will continue. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
“But another is licensing the property brands. If Marriott fails to police brand standards and the benefits of the loyalty program, they are destroying the assets for two of their revenue streams.”
Marriott’s pattern seems to be just buy or launch a new brand. Existing brands, especially the ones that are predominately franchised, keep going in a downward spiral. Look at brands like Le Meridien, Renaissance, Four Points, etc. Marriott is doing NOTHING with those brands anymore. They just exist. Marriott’s latest obsession for growth and franchise fees are CitizenM, which is like a Moxy-Aloft, and low-end brands like CityExpress, Studio Res, etc.
The oligarchy doesn’t care about “paying customers”. Prior to the SPG buyout, Marriott had some competition. Today, that is non existent. You can be a lifetime Marriott ultra platinum studded with rubies, but you’re nothing more than a rube to them.
Marriott needs breaking up
How is Marriott surprised that a frequent guest comes across more instances of Marriott not doing their job overseeing all the properties they are supposed to hold up to brand and Bonvoy standards? I get that from Marriott’s perspective it can be annoying to be called out on them not doing their job but if you want frequent guests, especially the kind that spend 200K a year, you can keep making promises that you don’t deliver and not get an email or a call about it.
But the real question is…. did he get to keep the dildo?
That is an excessive amount to complain frankly, especially if he has been issued gobs of points. I hit titanium last year and platinum the year before that and I’m on track to hitting titanium again this year. I think I have complained one time which was at the JW in Venice because our heater was out last November and they promptly moved us to a better room the next day. Actually one other time I had some annoying neighbors and was promptly moved by the hotel. I think I’ve called the corporate number twice to make a gifted stay with points. I never called them with a laundry list of complaints.