jwlowry

Hello again, everyone.

I was finally able to get a copy of my folio, so I have all of the details. Before I jump into it, let me clarify a few things: First, when I booked this award stay at the end of November, the Marriott Rewards Terms and Conditions had not yet been updated to state that Atlantis is exempt from offering points on non-room rate purchases. The T&Cs were updated on January 3rd or 4th with an effective date of December 26, 2014. Second, Marriott Customer Care has been very, very helpful in assisting me with having my questions answered and in attempting to resolve my issues. Third, I should certainly have checked here in addition to Marriott.com and AtlantisBahamas.com while doing my research, although some of the information here was not available when I booked.

The details: My wife, my 14 year old son, my 11 year old daughter, and I booked an award stay for three nights, starting December 27th and checking out December 30th. We reserved a King/2 Queen room in the Beach Tower. I am dividing my issues into those that I think can or should be addressed by Marriott and those that are specific to the rules and policies of Atlantis.

Things that I think Marriott should address:

1. Anyone 12 years and older is considered an adult. Any adults over two in your party incur an additional fee of $50 (in the Beach Tower), plus a $10 (20%) tax, $5 gratuity and $15.95 utility fee per night for a total charge of $242.85. This was not disclosed when I booked the trip, and Marriott Customer Care agreed in advance to pay this fee for my son since they were not even aware of it themselves. I think Marriott should disclose these additional fees during the booking process.

2. Atlantis does not honor many of the Marriott Elite benefits. As someone with Platinum status, I expected the following: guaranteed room type, upgrade (if available), complimentary tiered internet access, points for purchases (this has since been updated as part of the T&Cs, as indicated above), priority late check-out, gift shop discount, and platinum arrival gift. According to Atlantis management, they are "special" and are only obligated to provide the room upgrade, internet access, and the arrival gift. I received the upgrade to a water view and internet access, although the internet wireless access was an order of magnitude slower than that advertised by Atlantis (about 0.4 Mbps as opposed to the 5Mbps that they advertise. I know, YMMV with internet speeds). Our room included 2 double beds (this may seem nitpicky, but the 6 inches difference in width between a queen sized bed and a double can be a big deal when you're used to sleeping on a king sized bed). The VIP check-in folks took my request for the platinum arrival gift, but we never received it, nor did I receive the points. Again, this may seem nitpicky, but when water is $8.50 a bottle, there is a practical, if nominal, side to this benefit. As to all of the other elite benefits mentioned above, I was essentially, and much more kindly, told to pound sand. In particular, as I will detail below, the late check-out became a pretty big issue.

At a minimum, I think that Marriott should make clear in their Terms & Conditions and their Member Benefits precisely what we can expect from Atlantis. I would be more happy if they would put pressure on Atlantis to provide these benefits.

Things that I think Atlantis needs to consider:
1. Our room was supposed to include a flat screen TV with in-room entertainment. This can be particularly nice at the end of a long day to help the kids settle down. Our TV did not work, yet we were still charged $15.99 four times for movies we had no access to and did not request. These were not the only overcharges, including an attempt to charge a $15 delivery fee for our amenities (we had requested bottled water and mixed nuts), which never arrived.

2. As mentioned, my daughter is 11 years old and thus exempt from the extra adult charges. At check-in, I had to demonstrate her age by showing her passport, and the person who checked me in still tried to check her in as an adult, despite my repeated insistence that she was not an adult by their definition. We had to wait for a supervisor to come, which took forty minutes, and the charges still appeared on my initial folio. Also, at every buffet meal, we were forced to prove her age, which meant a twenty minute delay the first time while I went back across the property to our room to retrieve her passport. After that, we had to keep her passport with us at all times or else return to our room before each meal. This would be nothing more than an inconvenience, except that each time, the person taking our money offered to let her dine at the adult rate. This seemed like more of a dishonest money grab attempt and was more than a little insulting. Management later admitted that their employees are trained and encouraged to do this.

3. As mentioned above, Atlantis advertised 5Mbps wireless and, more importantly, queen sized beds, and did not provide either.

4. No turn-down service, as advertised. This is only a big deal because it would have meant that our in-room bottled water supply would have been replenished twice a day.

5. Atlantis advertises that their waterpark in open from 9:00am to 5:00pm, but this is true only of the pools. The other attractions (slides, Current river, etc.) opened between 10:00am and 10:30am during our stay. This became an issue on our last day, when we intended to spend a couple of more hours in the waterpark before heading to the airport. When I inquired if we could leave our luggage in storage for a couple of hours and check out at 1:00pm instead of 11:00am, I was told that we would incur another night's charge ($399 plus the additional charge for my son, which would have come to about another $80 or so), in addition to a "service fee" of $249. This was ludicrous, so we just left early and spent the next five hours in transit to and at the airport.

6. Atlantis states clearly that they sell waterpark passes to outside individuals and groups, most frequently cruise ship passengers. They also claim that these passes are limited by the expected occupancy of the hotels. This seemed pretty vague to me, so I contacted the property prior to booking to get more details. I received an email from someone in management named Michelle who told me that it is Atlantis's policy not to sell passes beyond 115% occupancy. Since they were anticipating being booked for the holidays, they had limited the passes sold to that number. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once we arrived to discover that there was no space available in the waterpark, I made further inquiries. The best answer that I got was that the "limit" on how many outside passes are sold is based on how many they can sell. There are no limits, and this resulted in lines of over two hours for the most popular slides, and the pools and Current river being so full as to be effectively unusable. Thus, the primary reason for bringing our kids along on the trip was essentially negated for two of the three days we were there. Further evidence that they way over-sold the waterpark passes: on Monday, December 29th, there were few if any cruise ships in port, but the hotel was at full occupancy. There were also no lines at the waterpark. We all had a blast!

7. My wife injured her head when her inner tube was turned over in the Current river. It was not bad, but she needed, on the advice of the lifeguard, an ice pack. It took us over ninety minutes to get some ice for her head, with the nurse on duty laughing when we told her what we needed and handing us an empty plastic bag that she suggested we have filled at the nearest bar. That took another hour. Not good, Atlantis. Not good.

8. My main issue is how I was treated when I attempted to resolve the many issues that came up. With each interaction with hotel staff and management, I was told to go talk to someone else and then invariably told that everything would be taken care of at check-out time. When I tried to resolve these issues on site the day we checked out, I was given the run-around (literally, I had to run from one place to another on the property in order to see the people that claimed to be able to help me), with one manager finally admitting to me that it was her intention to delay my check-out until after 11:00am so they could "collect the additional fees due" to them. Not kidding; those were her words, not mine. For that reason alone, I think Marriott should pull their affiliation with the charlatans that manage Atlantis.

If Atlantis wants to cater to Marriott elites, I would seriously recommend that they are more forthcoming as to their real policies, that they adhere to the Marriott elite benefits, and that they deliver on the amenities that they claim to provide. If my experience is any indication, they are unwilling or unable to do any of these things.

There are plenty of better places to go that offer better service at better prices. I will never subject myself or my family to the kind of "service" that Atlantis offers. My opinion is that the folks at Atlantis have come to believe their own press; nearly everyone to whom I spoke claimed that Atlantis was "different" and "special" and not really part of the Marriott family. Marriott has been good to me over the years, so I guess Atlantis is not part of my family, either.

As of now, I have spent close to two hours on the phone with Marriott Customer Care, most of which was just trying to get a copy of my folio and resolving the issues contained on it. I have detailed these issues via Customer Care and am now waiting to hear back from management at the property. I will keep everyone posted on how this gets resolved.