A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, AS MVP, UA Silver, WN A-List, Marriott LT Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 52,587
Even in moments where I'm not paranoid that Marriott is spying on me, this seems like an expensive way to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
If it's for dinner reservations, I have a smartphone and Opentable for that. (Maybe Marriott needs to put their own restaurants on Opentable and make sure guests are aware of it.)
If it's for music, just deliver that through the TV - either a smart TV with Pandora or by letting me connect my phone. A hotel that wants to provide a little better audio quality can make some decent Bluetooth speakers available. Even ones that cost about what an Echo does usually sound good enough in a small quiet room.
If it's for Amazon, I already have that on my phone.
If I really want something else that Alexa does, I can use my own.
By providing it everywhere, even with the guest needing to take some action to turn it on, I have to think that Marriott is setting itself up for a lot of unintended consequences, a lot of requests for support from people who haven't used Alexa, lots of unfounded accusations of spying when Marriott isn't doing anything malicious, and guests who just end up unhappy with how limited Alexa actually is.
Hilton's approach makes more sense to me. I'll decide how connected I want to be via my own phone. And I'm one who likes Alexa and would probably use it for music in a hotel room if it was easy to do.