Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - Charges for 800/888/8xx Calls

These calls used to be free at all Marriotts, as a matter of corporate policy. Now, more and more, I'm discovering unexpected charges. At Boston Copley Place, I had run up $7 in these charges (at $1/call) before I noticed them and protested. I got a "one-time waiver" (don't you hate that!) of charges for calls made before I complained, but not after.

This sort of nickel-and-diming good customers is quite annoying. At least they could exempt elite frequent customers, as the Courtyard brand has done historically with respect to local calls. Is this still the rule at Courtyards?

Anyone else have similar experiences?

Bruce

The Westchester (NY) Marriott has them on all calls. On top of that, connection quality is terrible and it took me several tries to get in to a 20k connection on my 56k modem. I had to repeatedly call the front desk to get 'non-connecting' calls off the bill.

I wrote a letter to the hotel manager who responded that 'everyone's doing it, and we'll get high speed Internet soon, but we'll remove your phone charges'... which totalled a measly $1 since after I figured out how bad the service was, I just drove to the office and logged on there.

I'm staying away next time.

As bad as this is and some marriotts are worse, For eg, Key Biscayne marriott, is free but after 20 minutes its 10 cents a minute for toll free.

However, Marriott is not YET as pathetic as Starwood and their nickel and diming of its guests. Starwood is truly pathetic

Rennaisance in Munich HAD the modems, no instructions and no one who knew how to set them up. 800 calls were E1.90 EACH.

So now I stay at Hiltons.....

This was also true in SAN. They only give you 20 min. Delta alone can take longer.


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
As bad as this is and some marriotts are worse, For eg, Key Biscayne marriott, is free but after 20 minutes its 10 cents a minute for toll free.

However, Marriott is not YET as pathetic as Starwood and their nickel and diming of its guests. Starwood is truly pathetic</font>

pitflyer: I gave up on Westchester long ago. It is a terrible property. I can't remember if the last straw was the "concierge" lounge attendent who refused to let us turn down the overloud television -- after every single guest in the lounge agreed it was way too loud (no one was watching the bloody thing) -- or the "tip" jar in the lounge. Probably both, now that I think about it.

I now read the telephone cheat sheet first thing in a room, and hardly ever make calls from the room. Not using the 'puter so much is a feature these days....

Discovered the $1 per call, and 10 cents per minute after 20 minutes at several Marriotts. This is the deal at the one I am now at, that Tampa Waterside.

Some Marriotts give you an hour free, but I am finding fewer and fewer of these.

Dang sad.

Oh, and BTW, the concierge lounge here has cut back to Tue-Thur only, and there are no snacks to speak of at night, only jars of peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips. Plus, a few free bottles of soft drinks. They still do offer the continental breakfast when they happen to be open though.

I am not ticked at this right now. If things are this bad for Marriott, I will only offer my sympathies and best wishes. On the other hand, if I find out that this is just an excuse for cost-cutting and ripping their customers off, I am going to be highly ticked.

FWIW

The phone is the new way to make money. I believe its simple economics. Now that more and more people use cell phone/phone cards the cost to operate the phone per hotel room has increased, thereby requiring them to charge higher rate. It's also a way to add to revenue stream.

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mypriceline: I just love revenue streams that I don't contribute to. May phone calls go to $10 a pop! But then, maybe everybody would avoid them, not just us cheapasses.

Seriously, a room rate should reflect the cost of the room. This nickel & dime stuff will drive some of us away. So long as most of the moorons keep buying, it won't change their pricing. Pity.