Originally Posted by emanon256

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

The 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.

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 corporate 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 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.