Platinum Marriott Member Forced to Sleep in Car Despite Guarantee
Meg Butler July 27, 2018
FlyerTalker pooker shared this unfortunate experience with a recent Marriott stay in the forum yesterday:
Hi Team,
I made a booking for a hotel in the bay area as all the hotels were selling out quickly (it was hard to find a hotel less than 300 per night).
When I went to check-in the Front Desk Agent (FDA) informed me that Marriott had an issue with the system and they could not honor my reservation. I asked about booking me another hotel for being Platinum, plus the 100 dollars in cash and 90000 points (this is a Fairfield inn) – She said I had to contact Marriott for that. So while in the parking lot, I contacted Marriott Customer Support and she asked to speak to the FDA who confirmed that there were no hotels available within 60 miles, so I ended up sleeping in my car.
So my question is, what is the policy when the Hotel cannot abide by the T&C (i.e. booking me another night) & does Marriott pay out the $100 and 90,000 points?
There seemed to be a bit of back and fourth; the FDA told me it was Marriott’s fault, & Marriott told me it was the hotels fault (they didn’t close their inventory).
Have any advice? Join the FlyerTalk in the comments’ section here.
You’re Reading
Today, 8:02 am #124 jjmoore Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: DEN Programs: UA 1K 0.9MM UC | *G | Marriott/SPG PP (LT PT) | Hertz PC | SBux Gold | Global Entry / TSA Pre✓ Posts: 2,197 Quote: Originally Posted by OpenSky View Post It happened and you slept in your car. All other advice is moot at this point, the event happened. Full disclosure : I am not a lawyer but come from a family full of lawyers ( US based) I assume you have the confirmation page with the reservation etc, guaranteed preferably with money or a credit card. I assume also you can pull up Marriotts terms and conditions regarding guarantee etc. And understandably, since you had to sleep in your car there were losses involved, i.e loss of work, billable hours etc, since you did not have the amenities of room, a desk to work on, a telephone ( call me old fashioned) and wired internet? Add all these up. If this was me the losses would be in the low thousands if it was a business trip, due to inability to work remotely. Enough with the hotel blaming Marriott and Marriott blaming the hotel. Go to the small claims court in appropriate jurisdiction Sue both the hotel and Marriott, for losses due to their "negligence". Sue for the amount of your losses. Name both the hotel and Marriott as defendants. The room guarantee thing will fall into place later.At best you will walk away from that and some $. They can't give you a room on the night you wanted it. That ship sailed. Note this strategy won't work for the airlines, in the US, those are covered by the airline deregulation act. A whole other can of worms You may want to consult a CA lawyer, if you know of one. I would also find out who regulates Hotels in California (if any) and file a complaint re: this incident also. DO BOTH. These folks need to learn a lesson. Speaking as someone who has personally been walked before. I support this 100%.... though for the Platinum member(s) impacted, I would recommend working directly through marriott for the $100 + 90,000 points compensation, as I believe this is far superior than any judgement that will be awarded through the court system. All others, I would contact Marriott for some sort of compensation first prior to taking legal action, as many times, they will compensate well, especially since this was a fairly high profile instance of an IT issue resulting in blatant oversale of the property. Regardless of who is at fault, Marriott needs to compensate all of those that were impacted, as this was HUGELY disruptive to those people. I know how much it stinks to be without a hotel with no option for 50 miles (due to ice storm / power outages in the midwest on another occasion)... and to have that be the fault of the hotel that couldn't accommodate me, I would be seeking my compensation through whatever means legally possible. Like MSPeconomist likes this.
I forgot to add it seemed such terrible thing to do to you especially since your a world travel blogger that Marriott should know let's see what they have to say. Good luck
SO you know Marriott was informed
Sure, it was the hotel's "fault"! But your reservation was made through Marriott, accepted/transmitted by Marriott, and confirmed by them. For Marriott to fail to substantially compensate you is grievous error, and you should pursue remedy publicly and loudly.
So what did you finally do with Marriott? After 4100 nights at Marriott I do find this hard to believe can you supply us with more details after all it's a pretty damning statement