Wow, a true horror story this one...

Definitely take it up with your CC, and clearly reapproach Mr Marriotts office. In the meantime I had decided to take my vacation in Phuket next year., at the JW... now I am seriously rethinking. Not so much what went wrong, but in accordance with other posters, how dreadful were your experiences to get it put right... only to find the Hotel now wants to continue the war with its guest!!

I neither have the time nor inclination for long battles, but when I get the bit between my teeth, then my view is "bring it on". However whilst many have posted about their positive experiences during the course of this thread, why set myself up for a long and bitter battle to acheive fairness if errors do occur? Marriott has many wonderful alternatives worldwide and in the current recession, no doubt other hotels will be happy to recieve my leisure business, and hopefully deal with me fairly if things go wrong, which in my experience is very rare (save problems with calculting the USD exchange rate for points... I do have to deal with that problem every 3 or 4 months, worthwhile though, just been credited 8000 points due to errors in calculations!).

I am afraid I have turned from a carefree teenager into a curmudgeonly company director, but Marriott copes well with my expectations, sometimes exceeding them (Marriott Cap d'Ail, Marriott Preston and Marriott Royal Bristol are especially good).

I run my own business in the UK and am not perfect, nor are my staff. When mistakes are made I frankly admit these to the customer, treat them fairly and reach a fair settlement, as a result all my customers are very loyal... Keeping their patronage is very important to my business. In all those cases where mistakes have been made and rectified, the customer has returned, after all, their experience shows that we can be trusted to do a good job and compensate properly if we foul up.

This hotels approach is wrong on so many different levels!!!