Back many decades ago when I was trying to do serious journalism, and serious journalism was still the norm, had I turned in that copy I would have gotten red-circled by my editor for what I remember as being called a "hanging lead". While not an impossible occurrence, it is outside the norm. But there is not date of occurrence stated, no real attribution even if the name of the source is deliberately being withheld, no indication if management or Marriott was subsequently contacted by the guest, no indication the hotel was given a real opportunity to state its side of the story, and no discussion if there was any resolution.

Whether it happened last week, last month, last year, or last millennium is of immense importance to a guest thinking of booking this hotel. Timing is everything. Context is next to everything.

Several months ago there was a FT thread that was somewhat similar on the surface, but the context was way more involved. After wasting too much time looking I am unable to find it--but there does not seem to be a master thread for Schaumburg so I suppose it was elsewhere. (Briefly, the hotel insisted it had been sold out for quite some time and notified Marriott it had no inventory, but Marriott,com continued to rent rooms. The hotel apologized to guests but told them to look to Marriott corporate for compensation. But we batted it around for about 300,000 views and lots of theoretical lawyering. I recall the situation problem being unraveled and explained, even if not universally agreed with. Maybe one of you can find it).

This could be a lot of things but all we have is a very limited tease, followed by advice to check in by phone early. Could be a rogue hotel. Could be a rogue GM. Could be Marriott IT. Could be a mechanical issue that left a significant number of rooms unrentable, but the manager went home and left a poor FDC stuck on the tracks all alone without the time or knowledge to look for alternative lodging. We are left hanging.


Now that I'm done philosophizing about the journalism career I abandoned (both because it paid bad and I could see the end of print news as we knew it coming): I do have a hotel franchise question some of you may know.


Is some level of hotel manager a direct Marriott employee?

Too many years ago to be still considered relevant I was living in business hotels almost every week, but mostly in the same small handful of hotels over and over. I got to know several Marriott and Hyatt managers, some GM and some just below, reasonably well. I came away with the impression they had to be acceptable to the franchisee, but were actually direct corporate employees.

Does anyone know or related to a GM (or not far from it) that can answer the question?