Generally speaking, i would say when requested, i am provided with the late 4pm checkout.

However, in a recent stay and upon checkin the late 4pm checkout benefit was basically sidestepped, ignored, or avoided altogether. When pushed about it, you'd obviously hear them say they can check on the day of checkout. Of course you know where this is going at.

(beside the hoopla i had to encounter in said very nice hotel -- request for towels ignored twice; Meal credit was forgotten to be added to room; marriott calling hotel and they promise manager to call me but never happned), in that recent stay, i ended up seeking out the manager who insisted explained that a doctor's convention is happening so "my type of room" is needed (incoming doctor > already residing customer) and they can not extend my room.

The manager "asked that i meet her halfway" with a 1pm checkout (noon was regular checkout), when i said, halfway would be 2pm, she said 1pm is the best she can do. LOL.

Worst 30 minutes and 10 minutes before noon, not 1pm, noon, housekeeping keep knocking the door to check if i was leaving. I told them both times, 1pm.

Now, i'm not a PITA customer. I understand the service industry and of course when a hotel reaches almost full capacity, chaos ensues.

However a couple things must be reminded:

- It is a service business, so you want to extend exemplar service to your customer.

- You are dealing with a "guaranteed" benefit. In the most basic thought as a customer, if this is guaranteed, and truly you can not accomodate* you then give something as compensation; maybe a discount, points, a guaranteed suite upgrade, etc. but something right? This is especially irritating because upon checkin, the hotel does not forget to tell you (obviously as a spiel): "thank you for staying and being a [insert status level]." If you acknowledge the customer's importance, realize the benefits they are entitlied to.

- *can not accomodate, really is not true. not unless you are totally sold out. she said so herself, 95% occupancy, so a certain number of rooms are kept off being made available to market. So truly what happened was, the room i picked is oversold. They oversold it. So since they got themselves into this mess, they should properly handle it.

Now what's the take away:

To the hotel, if its a guaranteed benefit, and you can't accomodate, properly compensate or offer the sincerest apology and offer something maybe not even on the current stay but for a future stay; something that would appeal to the customer. A real win-win solution.

To Marriott Corporate, thank you for calling the hotel but enforcement should really be handled at your end. The hotel basically sidestep the enforcement by accepting the front desk agent saying oh we'll have the manager call the guest. They should have said, wait. No, do this or that. Don't leave this to the manager and the guest when the matter was escalated. To be fair with corporate, after calling them back and reporting the result, they offered points, which i said, that's exactly what the hotel should have said/offered/thought, not corporate.

And to the guest, Yes guaranteed benefit but remember there is no "or your money back" promise. Its a ruse.