Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - Power Out -- same rate?

I got stuck working this weekend and got really unlucky being stuck in Northern Virginia where we had some bad storms on Friday night. Power has been out since. I finally found another hotel today with power so I checked out this morning. They didn't adjust the rate. I did ask if they were doing anything for the guests. The agent said she'd add some points to my account, which was nice. I felt kind of torn -- it's completely outside their control, on the other hand -- the rate I was paying should have included electricity, tv, air-conditioning, access to room service, etc. So what's the norm in cases like these?

Just curious. How many points did they give you and was the power out for the 3 nights (Friday, Sat & Sun)? It sounds like they didn't give you "enough" points to make up for the inconvenience, but at least they did offer it ;)

I know lots of areas lost power and the heatwave is brutal on the east coast now.

did you pay for the room? or was it using a cert? or using points?

don't think you'll find a norm for this type of situation

I got stuck working this weekend and got really unlucky being stuck in Northern Virginia where we had some bad storms on Friday night. Power has been out since........ So what's the norm in cases like these?

I know lots of areas lost power and the heatwave is brutal on the east coast now.

In developing countries, like US, hotels typically have back up generators just in case.

I checked in on Thursday evening. Power went out on Friday at about 10PM. I checked out at about 7AM on Sunday morning. So two nights with no power or A/C. It was a paid stay -- but since it's the weekend, the rate is deeply discounted (normal is about $269/night but my rate was $99). I didn't even ask how many points, but she only gave them when I asked -- I don't think they were doing anything automatically.

In developing countries, like US, hotels typically have back up generators just in case.

They did have a generator running. They had minimal lights on in the lobby (to the point where they had LED lanterns set up) and hallways, two elevators were running and the water (including hot) worked.

Was staying at Waldorf in New York some years ago ( when I was in gainful employment ) no hot water , line at checkout was long and loud protesting. Duty manager asked what we would like to pay , voice from the back shouted " Super 8 rate " Duty manager said OK and we all paid $ 50 . Thought it was neat solution.

The eastern seaboard has gotten slammed w/ storms & million are without power - including multiple hotels.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/30/us/extreme-heat/index.html

I read gleff's blog this morning (he's w/o power & was looking for a hotel to check into for the weekend). Excerpts:

"I rang up Hyatt — the nearby Arlington and Crystal City properties had no power.

I rang up Starwood, there was a 15 minute wait time to speak with an agent. Local landlines were down, we couldn’t get responses from some hotels to figure out whether they had power or not. The closest hotels, Westin Arlington and Le Meridien Arlington, were without power. The Sheraton Crystal City was down. Even the Westins in Reston and near Dulles were non-responsive. The Westin in Georgetown was fully booked.


I called back to Hyatt and while they thought that the Hyatt Reston might be without power (with landlines out this was difficult to confirm for certain), they had just managed to get through to the Hyatt Fair Lakes in Fairfax.

Shortly afterward I arrived at the Fair Lakes Hyatt and found that they did indeed have power and air conditioning. They were refrigerated and fully staffed. So they had food.

They didn’t have any internet, their reservation systems were down...Their system wouldn’t show open rooms or clean rooms, they couldn’t even pull up my reservation.

I gave them my confirmation number, I told them my room rate. They found a room, sent someone up to check that it was empty and clean, and let me in. They couldn’t create any keys.

Guest demands were extraordinary. And the hotel staff performed marvelously under pressure. They were ever pleasant and helpful. They did what they could with hobbled systems."

To the OP: I don't know that there's a 'norm' for "Force Majeure" events. I'd say wait to see if the points hit your account, & if they're enough, then be glad you were able to switch to a hotel that wasn't impacted by the storms & move on. And be glad you're not one of the ones who won't have their electricity back for weeks.

Cheers.

Yeah, I'm not upset about it, these things happen. I was a little uncomfortable last night and didn't sleep well but thats nothing compared to the people who died on Friday night. Ive got a nice cold room at the IAD Marriott now...

Yeah, I'm not upset about it, these things happen. I was a little uncomfortable last night and didn't sleep well but thats nothing compared to the people who died on Friday night. Ive got a nice cold room at the IAD Marriott now...

Things got pretty bad. I've lived in the DC area (Arlington) for close to 10 years now and it's the first I've been without power that long. Power went out on Friday night, not knowing how long it would be before they would restore, decided to wait and see. After a pretty hot night with fire alarm going off in the middle of the night, first thing I did on Saturday morning is call Platinum reservation to see what hotels had power and availability. Was able to secure a reservation for a pretty decent rate ($118 AAA rate) at the Renaissance Arlington just in case power was not restored by Saturday night. Luckily I called super early (around 7 am) and by that time, all the Marriott properties in the area had availibility. I checked the website back around 10am and only 3 in the entire DC metro area (including VA and MD) had any rooms left and some at pretty high rates. (Local news even report Motel 6 charging $500 for the night). At 5:30pm power came back on and was able to cancel my reservation. I'm one of the lucky few who got their power restored in less than 24 hours while some others are still waiting and could take up to 7 days.

In developing countries, like US, hotels typically have back up generators just in case.

in the US those generators don't power the entire hotel, just critical systems

I live in DC as well and power went out at about 11 pm Friday. First thing Sat morning I went in to work where we did have power and booked Sat night at the CY in Herndon ($71) and Sun night at the Marriott Fairfax ($67). Sat late afternoon as I was checking in to the CY about three cars of folks pulled up behind me looking for rooms, but the hotel was full.
The desk clerk let me know that he still had rooms for Sun night if I wanted to extend but I explained that I wasn't sure, depended on whether I got power back.
I am pleased that Marriott didn't take advantage of the situation and raise the rates.

I am pleased that Marriott didn't take advantage of the situation and raise the rates.

In fact, the rates I've seen are the lowest I've seen in the area all year. I'm paying $89/nt at the IAD Marriott.

Last summer I had a situation where power was off only in the hotel property on an extremely hot and humid day from about 11 am to 4 pm. The room got disgustingly hot (southern exposure with no blackout drapes) and since other buildings around us had power, I assume it was the hotel's fault in some sense.

This was a RI and when I went downstairs at the start of their evening reception hour, the manager told me very aggressively that there was nothing due to the power outage. No apology (even in a not taking responsibility way) for either the power/AC issue or the lack of the reception, which wasn't announced at all. It seemed like poor service to me and somewhat surprising in a Marriott (brand standards?). I guess I expected them to try to provide something that day, even if only cold beverages. Of course no points or rate adjustment.

In my opinion, The time to ask was Friday after you lost power.

By staying until today, you proved that the Hotel was providing at least some benefit, otherwise you would have left earlier.

In my opinion, The time to ask was Friday after you lost power.

By staying until today, you proved that the Hotel was providing at least some benefit, otherwise you would have left earlier.
True, but sometimes in these situations there can be a tendency to wait and see if the issue is resolved--power is back--within a few more hours. The hotel guest might not have had an alternative if all hotels in the area were gouging, full, or without power.

The hotel staff, including the assistant manager on duty, were probably swamped trying to handle the situation, although good service would have been for the manager to reach out to guests and voluntarily offer something in compensation. The power outage wasn't the hotel's fault, but still a hotel room comes with certain expectations including power, water, and AC on hot days.

I'm 9 miles north of IAD and we got slammed Friday night by the T-Storm, just ask my tree or whats left of it in the front yard but luckily the lights never even flickered and my AC fired away all weekend

Power lines were down in western part of the county as were traffic lights and the power to the baseball field we were playing at was out.

I tried dummy bookings at hotels just to see if they had any rooms and it was so bad at one point that the websites would just time out.

I'm 9 miles north of IAD and we got slammed Friday night by the T-Storm, just ask my tree or whats left of it in the front yard but luckily the lights never even flickered and my AC fired away all weekend

Power lines were down in western part of the county as were traffic lights and the power to the baseball field we were playing at was out.

I tried dummy bookings at hotels just to see if they had any rooms and it was so bad at one point that the websites would just time out.

And good luck trying to get someone on the phone. Never had to wait that long to talk to someone on the Platinum Reservations line, even hotels were not picking up at some point.

And good luck trying to get someone on the phone. Never had to wait that long to talk to someone on the Platinum Reservations line, even hotels were not picking up at some point.

Well if their phone lines were electricity-based, that would do it. ;)

Cheers.

In my opinion, The time to ask was Friday after you lost power.

By staying until today, you proved that the Hotel was providing at least some benefit, otherwise you would have left earlier.

or at checkout on Sat.I know the OP had a res till Sun, but Im sure under the circumstances the hotel would have allowed them to leave early w/o any penalty. By staying and knowing the problems it was saying Im OK with it

Personally I would have driven as far as I needed to in order to get a room in a full working Hotel ASAP

Personally I would have driven as far as I needed to in order to get a room in a full working Hotel ASAP

That's assuming you could get through to a hotel to find out out if they had electricity & availability - and assumes you have a full tank of gas.

Back on topic - I think short of adjusting a room rate, adding points to a guest's account is appropriate.

Cheers.

That's assuming you could get through to a hotel to find out out if they had electricity & availability - and assumes you have a full tank of gas.

Back on topic - I think short of adjusting a room rate, adding points to a guest's account is appropriate.

Cheers.
Also, sometimes a person really needs to stay in a particular area; for example, driving to a hotel two hours away is impractical when you have an early meeting the next morning. Of you might not have a car and it could be tough to rent one when there's a regional power outage.

or at checkout on Sat.I know the OP had a res till Sun, but Im sure under the circumstances the hotel would have allowed them to leave early w/o any penalty. By staying and knowing the problems it was saying Im OK with it

Personally I would have driven as far as I needed to in order to get a room in a full working Hotel ASAP

Reservation was originally through Tuesday. I left on Sunday. On Saturday evening, they told me the closest hotel with power and availability was 81 miles away.

Normal points hit for the stay, no extras though. Will need to follow-up...

Well if their phone lines were electricity-based, that would do it. ;)

Cheers.

True, but I think most of them were getting a ton of calls to inquire about availability.

left earlier? and gone where???
without power in the area how was one supposed to find a place to crash that was available? without power, even if the OP had a rental car (or was driving themselves) gas pumps wouldn't be operating; phone service (if electrical) wouldn't be available; restaurants wouldn't be operating; etc

the only thing proven here was the OP was stuck at the hotel without anywhere known to be available (with power) nearby available.............now, I'm not placing fault on the hotel as their electrical back-up systems only provide limited power to essential areas, but due to an act of nature the OP isn't at fault here but caught between the preverbial rock and the hard place.....

In my opinion, The time to ask was Friday after you lost power.
By staying until today, you proved that the Hotel was providing at least some benefit, otherwise you would have left earlier.

left earlier? and gone where???
without power in the area how was one supposed to find a place to crash that was available? without power, even if the OP had a rental car (or was driving themselves) gas pumps wouldn't be operating; phone service (if electrical) wouldn't be available; restaurants wouldn't be operating; etc

the only thing proven here was the OP was stuck at the hotel without anywhere known to be available (with power) nearby available.............now, I'm not placing fault on the hotel as their electrical back-up systems only provide limited power to essential areas, but due to an act of nature the OP isn't at fault here but caught between the preverbial rock and the hard place.....

Agree w/ the above. Although I'd amend it to say both the hotel & the OP were caught between the proverbial rock & hard place.

To the OP - call at the beginning of next week to get your points if they don't post before then.

BTW - I feel sorry for the 1.2million people who are still without power.

Cheers.