I was able to talk to the Manager of my home hotel today. He explained that Marriott has a different than usually policy regarding private franchises. Basically, when a location is a private franchise, they have an exclusive contract that Marriott has no say over their operations, and Marriott cannot intervene in any customer service issues.

Edited to insert: This is basically a privately owned and operated hotel, not associated with Marriott, paying a percentage to be able to use the Marriott name. This is different than a normal Marriott Franchise. Most normal franchise have private owners, but are managed by and/or subject to Marriott's Rules, vendors, etc. They are required to respond to corporate. As they are part of Marriott.

The Private Franchise is not required to follow any rules or policies set by Marriott, and they set their own policies and rules. They simply pay Marriott a percentage of their income, and can fly the Marriott Flag. They are required to address everything themselves, and Marriott contractually cannot intervene. This does not apply to most Marriott's, who are corporately manged franchises.

It seems like a strange policy to me, and I used to work in franchise operations. But this does explain why Marriott is simply doing nothing, contractually they can't.

The Manager of my hotel said he is still shocked that the hotel would behave in the way they did. He wishes it was a corporatly managed location so that they could be forced to respond.

After learning this, I do plan to continue staying at the Renaissance, and possibly other Marriott's, but I am always going to ask first if they are a Private Franchise or not. If they are, I will not be staying there.

Like I mentioned before this was an isolated incident, and the first real problem I have had. I am still shocked by Corporate not explaining this to me, and am still going to shop and share my loyalty far more than I have been in recent years.