Originally Posted by
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Just returned from a 1-night stay at the Courtyard in Poughkeepsie NY. The check-in clerk tried to tell me that the breakfast benefit is $10 for the member, not the member + 1. They seemed to have some confusion about this, with one person at the front desk saying that it was for member + 1 and another saying that's not what they do "at this location" whatever that's supposed to mean. In the end I got the $20, but I just wanted to give people a heads up. Then when I went to use it, the person at the counter asked me for the voucher, and the front desk person told me it was on my account. But the person at the counter insisted I had to have a voucher. So he made me walk the 30 feet to the front desk, where they proceeded to yell at each other across the lobby area about this until they finally decided to issue me a paper voucher. It was a bit of an "are you kidding me?" experience.
Otherwise my stay was just fine and the staff were very nice.
This is totally par for the course. At the Courtyard in downtown Miami, I had to argue for a second voucher, since the second registered guest was checking in later. Even if she'd been present, they probably would have offered only one $10 cert. Then, because I was staying two nights, I had to explain that the benefit was per night. After a lot of discussion, they tore up the first certificate and issued four $10 certificates. However they were dated for the check-in night and the day afterwards...which could pose problems if you wanted to use them the following mornings for breakfast. But the check-in staff said that wouldn't be an issue.
When the time came to actually use them, for breakfast, I was told at the bistro that I couldn't combine them for $20 value per day. Instead, if items on each came to less than $10, I'd forfeit the remaining value. After I'd ordered, the attendant rushed the certificates over to the front desk for some sort of reconciliation.
Things were different at the Courtyard in Little Rock, AR, but still not quite seamless. I was initially offered a $10 cert for a one-night stay. When told there were two registered guests, I was issued with two certificates. The bistro attendant had no problem combining them to yield $20 value.
Both cases were better than my experience at the Paso Robles, CA Courtyard in spring of 2021. There, the bistro had recently reopened and was serving what the front desk attendant described as an abbreviated breakfast menu. Therefore, I was informed I'd instead be receiving 500 points for the entire stay, which is worth $3 to $4. I said the abbreviated menu would be just fine, since going off-site is a nuisance. The agent said no dice, and suggested a well-regarded neighborhood restaurant a few blocks away. After settling in to my room, I pursued the matter with the manager on duty, asking for Marriott's official compensation of $50 for violation of terms. But I said 10,000 points would be just fine as a substitute for the money (some places prefer to give points, which they can buy in bulk at a discount). The on-property manager said she couldn't authorize this compensation in the absence of the GM, who was off-site. But surprise surprise, within 5 minutes the GM called my room and offered 20K points....OK, maybe this ended up being the most profitable outcome, but I hate the inconsistency...