Originally Posted by
pinniped
There was a point in time where I would have said Marriott's greatest strength was consistency. High quality, well-trained staff, and a sort of traditional aesthetic but one that always lived up to a certain standard. By contrast, many other brands like Hilton and Sheraton were quite variable - you didn't know exactly what you were going to get when you tried out a new property. Stuff worked well at Marriott, and on the rare occasion it didn't someone solved the problem quickly and professionally.
I was willing to make the trade-off for most of my stays: the style is a little boring, but stuff works. Customer service, the loyalty program, the quality of the properties themselves.
The problem is that when the systems, service, and loyalty program are in shambles, boring and traditional starts to feel like outdated, broken, and unprofessional. Now in 2019, I look at Hilton as the one that has stepped its game up with both aesthetic and technology, and has a customer service function that isn't a complete trashfire, thus leaving Marriott in the dust.
This is getting off-topic, but Marriott's flagship Marriott brand isn't even consistent anymore. You have some properties, particularly outside North America, that are a throwback to when Marriott was genuinely upscale. Full-service restaurants, room service, shoe shine, doormen, a real concierge; you name it. Then you have the considerable number of properties here in the United States that aren't different from a limited-service Courtyard property, except for a bar-slash-casual restaurant that serves food off a menu.
Owners and developers don't seem willing to invest in genuinely full-service Marriott properties because they can make as much or more money with a limited-service brand, thanks not only to high labor costs but also to high staffing turnover because, unlike other countries, hospitality in the United States is more of a low-wage "job" as opposed to a career.
Personally, I put the blame on Marriott allowing most of its properties, across all brands, to be managed by third-party management companies. I find Marriott-managed properties to almost always be better.