Originally Posted by
writerguyfl
The devil is in the details. Did anyone tell you (particularly in writing) that you were guaranteed the required room type?
The answer to that question is important to know where to place blame. In one hotel in which I worked, groups were offered a slightly cheaper rate for "run of the house" rooms compared to guaranteeing room/bed types. If the group contract didn't allow for the ability to specific room types, I think the blame falls mostly on the group organized, not the hotel. After all, they would also know that the group "skews heavily geriatric" far more than the hotel.
You may have already moved forward with addressing this issue with Marriott. If you haven't, I'd talk to the person who set up the group contract and ask for details before talking to Marriott.
He has an email confirming he requested the room, which I recognize as not being a guarantee. And I would ordinarily agree that, given how things went down, it feels like maybe a disconnect occurred between the group organizers and the hotel.
However in discussing this further in the context of the FT thread, he told me something I didn't previously know, which is that less than two days before our arrival, he contacted the property directly and was assured he had a room with a roll-in shower.
He also says that in the past, if he made an online reservation for a roll-in shower room at a Marriott that didn't have one, they have always contacted him shortly thereafter to inform him that room type was sold out and offering alternate accommodations at a nearby property. So it seems they do have some history of not deliberately overbooking these room types.
We agree the primary goal is to make sure it doesn't happen again to him or anyone else. He's not interested in a punitive cash grab, just incidentals and maybe points for the stay.
(If people want more followup details I may have him join FT himself so I don't have to relay
)