Originally Posted by iainarmstrong
Decided to use the Elite Offer: Buy 1 weekend night get the 2nd free this weekend at the Marina Del Ray property in LA to take the kids to the beach in Santa Monica. $249 a night was the rate.
Thirdly, at checkout they lost my Elite Offer voucher so had to do battle with them to comp the second night per the offer. Eventually they caved and let me have the 2nd free.
Fourthly, they charged $30 for two 1 minute and 1 two minute phone calls. I haggled with them on that because no one in the hotel could actually tell me the phone call rate and got that down too.
I guess there's a different view of weekend travellers versus weekday biz travellers.
Hello Iainarmstrong,
Regarding the Exclusive Elite Offer voucher: In my experience, I have always printed two copies of this offer from the "Gold or Platinum Offers" section of the Marriott website. I would submit one at check in to make them aware of the offer. Usually, they don't credit your folio right away for the cost of 1 night. By the time, you checkout, the credit adjustment or removal of charges never happens. So, I would show them the second copy indicating that I was to get 1 night free. Then, they would either credit my account or actually remove 1 night's charges from my folio.
Regarding the phone charges: As someone mentioned earlier, I would never use the hotel phone to call out; their rate per minute and/or surcharge fee is too expensive. I recommend using your cell phone, or a calling card when using the hotel phone. You could also get the fixed phone rate that most of the Marriott brands have by using their intenet services. The prices may vary but I have seen fixed rates of $9.95 per day (Crystal Gateway Marriott) and $12.95 per day (Atlanta Midtown Suites on 14th Street). These rates include unlimited local and long distance calls made in the U.S.).
Hope this helps.
Marcell