Originally Posted by
Reindeerflame
An alternative approach would be for Marriott to reduce the room rate to zero, and encourage hotel guests to leave an "appropriate amount" for their stay.
Tell you what. I'll make a deal with Marriott. I'll start leaving tips on days when the maids clean my room just as soon as Marriott starts crediting my bill a few bucks for everyday that I leave the "do not disturb" sign on the door. Think I'm crazy? that is already the way it works at the LVH.
I'm a really clean guest, and rarely need housekeeping, but I don't get a tip for that.
Originally Posted by
imverge
What Marriott is saying is they will not pay their staff and employees and, should anyone complain, they will blame their guests.
Marriott International's Fiscal Year 13 net profit was a shabby $1.71 billion (US).
Nope. I've seen variations on this misinformed but common attitude in the comment area following this story on all the websites. So let's clear this up: the overwhelming majority of Marriott's are franchises. (Same with Hilton. It is similar, but a little different over at Hyatt and Starwood.) The hotels are not owned by Marriott. If you do not like what the staff is being paid, then please complain, but to the hotel's owner, who is not Marriott.
Otherwise, this could quickly digress into a general whining session about the salaries of corporate executives, which has happened to this story on some other websites today.
Bottom line, this announcement has nothing to do with Marriott's bottom line. This was a deal to grab some left-wing brownie points by partnering with Maria Shriver. If it has the intended effect, getting Maria Shriver followers to stay at Marriott, then good for Marriott, but this announcement was a marketing plan, not a business plan.