Originally Posted by EuropeanPete

In the end I had a very good stay here, but felt playing fast and loose with the English language and the Marriott terms created a lot of unnecessary distrust on their part. This is the best hard product in Barcelona (a city with lots of great choices), but I am uncomfortable with their "Marriottism" of standards.

As mentioned above, my confirmation booking said that as an Ambassador I was entitled to a "one category" upgrade on arrival, subject to availability. It seems clear to me this is against the programme terms and so I raised the issue with my Ambassador. He rather surprisingly came back with the interpretation from Marriott that the fact that terms say hotels can pick which rooms are in the upgrade pool means they can also pick to only upgrade people a max of one category by standard if they so choose. I obviously challenges this as it 1. Is not a valid interpretation of the English language and 2. Would mark a huge and unannounced change to the Marriott programme. For now I wait.

Secondly, I booked a room on a special rate incl. €50 and a one category upgrade at time of booking. Needless to see I didn't get an upgrade at time of booking which the hotel explained was because when I booked a Superior Room on an "Upgrade at time of booking" rate, I was already booking an upgraded room and so I had already received the upgrade. Again, unacceptable in my view and a manipulation on their part of what their own terms mean (upgrade at time of booking is a fairly standard concept).

In the end the drama was all for nothing as I was upgraded 2 categories to a "Loft Room" which is advertised as their entry level suite. That worked for me and met my expectations, but I will point out to anyone booking it that the Loft Room is in no way a Suite, Junior or otherwise. It is a marginally larger room with a second seating area and a second table. If I had paid for a Junior Suite I would be extremely unhappy.

Onto the stay itself, I really liked the hotel itself - such a shame to pointlessly pollute the experience. Service was excellent, the quality of the hard product is amongst the best I have ever seen at a Marriott anywhere and I liked the F&B offerings - from the cool rooftop to the London-inspired Punch Room and the high quality room service.

Make of this all what you will - Similar to my relationship with Marriott overall, I need to trade off recognition and great hotels vs. a lot of unnecessary ........ in the overall experience.