Originally Posted by bocastephen

I know - hence my complaint. Marriott's attitude, as echo'd by this property is "you're entitled to the room that you booked, and if we feel like it, we may enhance your view with the same room type, or lie to you and put you in a "suite" which is actually an unused Japanese tour group room with 3+ single beds, which you won't discover until you walk in." This is followed by "policy forces us to give you a free breakfast, so here is a teeny-tiny hamster-size plate of industrial grade stuff that will almost force you to order off the menu and pay us some extra cash."

The mystery to me is who or what drove these changes with the Starwood Hawaii properties in O'ahu - because the franchisee was always very welcoming and generous with perks and upgrades for both elites and regular guests, except for a few rude check-in staff at the Moana.

Were these changes that forced out the prior management team driven by the franchisee who felt more empowered under Marriott to take away the perks, or were the changes forced down on the franchisee by Marriott corporate, or something else? This franchisee owns the crown jewels of the non-NYC properties, so it's a little hard for me to imagine Marriott getting away with forcing these changes unless the owners are so weak or non-confrontational that they refused to tell Marriott to go pound sand.