Originally Posted by
cartman7110
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.
I think you're missing one critical detail with your entire post. The hotel (usually) does not belong to Marriott. The only authority Marriott has is to fine them for pre-determined program violations, and eventually remove them from the program in very extreme situations.
There isn't a single person at Marriott that can tell a (franchised) hotel what to do.