Well I have certainly been one of the biggest Marriott bashers of late so just to prove that I am an equal opportunity poster I thought I would let you all know what they did right last night.

I got an email from my wife last night telling me she got a call from someone in Bill Marriott's office and what should she do.

So Immediatly I started thinking, maybe they figured out that I was unhappy because the MR program is less than forthright with thier upgrades and benefits.........Maybe they somehow found out that I qualified Diamond with Hilton and was planning on cutting back with Marriott this year and were looking to see what could possibly be done to keep me on board...........maybe they were going to add me to the "Platinum Preffered" program that everyone on this board is talking about..........etc, etc.

Seems the real reason is related to a reservation that I have for a suite in Sturgis, SD (area) next year during the big motorcycle rally, that I booked on the web back in July. At the time I was pretty surprised that I even found availability but even more surprised when they booked the entire week at $89 per night. Actually I haven't really thought much about this since, but the call went like this:

She said that my reservations were accidentally booked at the normal rate $89.96 per night (for a mini suite- queen bed with a sofa sleeper). The rate for Rally week is $175-$195 per night, but they will honor the $89 rate if I confirm them and pay in full by May.

I thought that not only was this the right thing to do, but more importantly it helped me to believe that the major credibility issues we are all talking about with the MR program are probably not inherent with the corporate folks but more likely with the individual properties, in a misguided effort to maximize revenue at the cost of promises made by the corporation.

In any case I felt it was only fair to give Marriott credit for doing the right thing here, even if it is what they should have done. This proactive action certainly shows integrity and I wanted to give them credit where it is deserved.

Cheers!