Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies so far! When the valet manager pulled up to National rental car it was 30 minutes before my re-booked flight that was due to leave at 6:25p. I was sitting on the sidewalk shivering, starving, and waiting and had been for the last 45 minutes. I ran over to the car as fast as I could, grabbed my items (but forgot to grab my GPS case, value ~$20, didn't realize this until this morning...) and darted for the bus to the terminal. The bill could not be settled as the car had been reported stolen so the Marriott valet manager went inside National to sort it out and pay for the gas. No extra fees were levied by National. Despite heroic efforts, I was not in time to board that flight and was bumped to 8:30 to SFO. Thank goodness American Airlines helped me get home and was on time for once!

The hotel hasn't been aloof or anything and has been exceptionally cooperative and up front about accepting the blame -- but this was true incompetence and did result in a lot of unnecessary delay and strife for me. Looking forward to more advice re compensation. I have never talked to the GM, just the valet manager at this point. Maybe someone will call me today and apologize or write a letter. That is probably too much to hope for, I have been burned by Marriott before (Fairfield Inn Phoenix; toiletries stolen one day and locked out of room for 2 hours same night due to maids with sticky fingers and incompetence of maintenance man; see Better Business Bureau for full details) so no high hopes for satisfactory resolution in this situation.

I was traveling since Sunday and the whole situation was especially biting because I have been on the road for the past few months and really was looking forward to the downtime of finishing my job early and getting home to be with my family while it was still light out. In fact, when I woke up yesterday I was planning to stand by for a 1p flight and get home to SF as early as possible. Needless to say, I am exhausted and sore today...

BTW, I looked for similar threads last night prior to posting (for fear of being moved to another thread by the moderators!) but didn't come across any. I would be interested in reading them if anyone can post a link. Thanks all!