I've noticed this on a lot of my recent Marriott stays, including my recent Renaissance Pere Marquette stay in New Orleans: they cut staff to the absolute bare-bones on the weekends. Restaurants and bars operate limited hours, and it's unpublished. I've noticed that lounges don't open on Sunday nights, even though the sign on the door typically says they do. (However, in those cases, I've usually been offered a comp appetizer in whatever restaurant is open.)

But the upside is this: every single one of my Marriott weekends in the past year or so has included Bonus Bucks, Premium Pounds, or an EEO. Basically, I end up paying below the Priceline rate to get service that is certainly better than that. Many Marriotts give me breakfast certs and, of course, a good room. (Although oddly enough, I rarely get a major upgrade even if the hotel is obviously very empty. Just a desirable hotel room, usually on the C-level.)

So my question becomes: what's the alternative? My weekend stays at Hiltons usually do include an open lounge, but they don't have anything comparable to EEO or Premium Pounds. Am I willing to pay 2x for a room just to get continental breakfast and a couple of Cokes? Not really...

At the end of the day, I won't complain about the bare-bones service as long as I'm paying bare-bones prices. If I were paying weekday rates, I'd probably be a lot less content about it, but so far that hasn't been the case for me...