Originally Posted by flyerfmaz

I stay at Marriotts weekly (right now at my usual haunt, a SS in Phoenix), and each room here has its own peculiar set of circumstances. The toilets flush differently, the A/C isn't quite the same, and there are points of wear and tear that really should be addressed. Maintenance at most hotels is spotty at best -- they're probably short-staffed and underpaid. It often shows with the sloppy caulking and other lack of attention to detail. Almost all hotel maintenance (except at the most expensive properties, I suppose), is purely reactive -- they fix things when they break but do very little proactive maintenance. No one is running around with a clipboard doing double-checks on rooms to be sure everything is "just right". They should do this, but most don't.

The running toilet you experienced is at the very least a waste of water -- and at worst an audible nuisance. However, you could have simply closed the bathroom door and turned on the A/C fan to eliminate the sound of the toilet running.

If the hotel could have moved you to another room they almost certainly would have. I've never known a Marriott to be anything less than accommodating.

That being said, we are all paying customers -- we're not staying at a relative's house for free and have no choice but to put up with a maintenance problem.

A running toilet is a borderline problem. Marriott probably did the right thing by offering you points rather than a refund. If it was a more serious issue such as lack of air conditioning then that might be a different story.