hockeyinsider

Unfortunately, there aren't many great year-round hotels in Michigan. Certainly nothing comparable to a Four Seasons, The Peninsula, etc.

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is the closest, but it's only open from late April or early May through October.

estedman

Any recent stays post COVID?

wheresmycookie

Shame on JW Marriott and Marriott Bonvoy. I am a very loyal Marriott person with over 15 years of elite status and many years of Ambassador status, but have NEVER had this happen to me. At 3 am, I was woken from a deep sleep as my hotel phone rang. Of course I didn’t answer it. Then, a knock on my door. Of course as a single female business traveler, I was NOT going to answer the door at 3am! I was frightened- glad the deadbolt was up- but then someone tries to repeatedly bang open the door against the deadbolt. I started screaming, flew to the door & saw a male through the peephole. He identified himself as security and said there was a problem with my room rate, they tried calling but I didn’t answer. I told him to go away & immediately rang the front desk reporting an attempted break in to my room. He said he had sent security to sort out my room rate…AT 3 am???? He said he tried calling but no answer (I was in my room from 8:15pm and on- no one attempted to contact me). He said they had to make sure the room was occupied. He said they saw me leave the hotel (at 6:30pm) but not return. Another knock on the door made me scream, barricade the door, & call 911. The police arrived and said “it was all a big misunderstanding”. There is NO DECENT HOTEL ON THIS PLANET which a) attempts to break into a female hotel room at 3 am to ensure it is occupied- ONLY if she is endangering people or herself endangered. B) harasses their guests at 3 am over a room rate via phone and breaking in (you call at a reasonable hour or leave a note under the door. NEVER MIND I cleared up what room rate I should have at check in and they have my card on file!! Regardless there is no reason to attempt a break in to a guest room at 3am unless there is a safety concern.
Clearly, they knew when I left for dinner and didn’t see me return- so were thinking it was unoccupied and attempting to steal. Or alternatively, assault a female guest. NO HOTEL in a civilized country attempts to break into a guest room to ensure it is occupied- our key cards are an electronic record of when we enter our rooms - and hotels do NOT have curfews- it DOES NOT MATTER if I was in my room or not. They said they had “new staff in the pandemic who were not trained.” WHO BREAKS INTO A FEMALE GUEST ROOM AT 3 am to MAKE SURE SHE IS THERE? Only someone with nefarious intent.
I was terrified for my life and have barricaded myself in hotel rooms at night since. This is UNACCEPTABLE. Marriott ambassador desk was initially apologetic and appalled, and made it clear that this was unacceptable and deserved a full investigation. However, they closed the case without a word and 15,000 points deposited in my account. I do not care if they deposit 100K points- it doesn't make it right to me until they apologize and explain why this happened, and why I should not fear staying at a Marriott again. I love my years with Marriott but I can no longer fear for my life in a locked hotel room. DO NOT STAY HERE if you want to feel safe.

cfischer

I would probably seek advise from a lawyer, in particular if there is a police report. If half of what you post is true, someone needs to be held accountable for this. Maybe the lurkers can also help to get someone from the Marriott executive team involved in this.

LovetoTravel83

2 posts 10 years apart. Happy you remembered you have an account here rather than creating a new one.

On a serious note, I agree that this is just unacceptable and would also agree with what cfischer mentioned above. Someone needs to be held accountable for this. I would be livid if I was in your shoes.

A similar incident happened to me at FP airport in San Francisco 10 years ago where I was given a room key for an already occupied room (check in was early am's and the guests were already sleeping). I said sorry and went back to the front desk so they can change the room.

WasKnown

Wow. I’m sorry you had to go through that. The behavior described in your post is extremely unprofessional and, frankly, terrifying.

Out of curiosity, what was the issue with your room rate that they needed to so badly resolve? Were you using a corporate discount?

Upon a second reading of your post, I agree that there might be nefarious intent here. Why were they keeping track of you entering and not returning to the hotel? If they really wanted to check occupancy and needed to do it immediately at 3 AM (lol), why not call first?

Edit: it seems they did call. Still weird they needed to resolve it at 3 and not… at another time?

AHC Hospitality owns this property. They also own properties flagged with Hilton and Hyatt. https://www.ahchospitality.com/properties Have you tried contacting them? I know other people are telling you to lawyer up but I suspect you do not want to drag this out any further than you have to.

Curiously, they own a property called “Hotel St. Regis” in Detroit that is NOT affiliated with Marriott’s St. Regis brand lol

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker III

Hello wheresmycookie,

We are sorry that you had such experience. Could you please send us more information such as hotel's name, your check-in & out dates, reservation holder’s name, reservation number & your email address via private message or email us at [email protected] ? Make sure to mention your "FlyerTalk Forums" handle so we can recognize this conversation. We look forward to hearing from you.

arlflyer

Yeah, upon a bunch of re-readings (a bit hard to follow), it does strike me as most likely some sort of harebrained theft scheme. Agent sees guest leave and not come back, calls to verify room empty, guard knocks to verify room empty, receives no response, tries to enter (presumably to steal things if this theory holds true), uses room rate story as cover when room found to not be empty.

estedman

I stayed at this JW Marriott a couple weeks ago. I had no issues and the hotel was really nice. OP is right, there is no reason in the world that any front desk person or security would bang on a door and try to come into the room at 3AM over a rate. It really does reek of something nefarious.

Seat 1F

Quite a stunning event to happen in an upscale hotel. For starters, I'm glad the OP was not physically injured. This incident definitely needs to be investigated by Marriott Corp. At best, it seems the JW Grand Rapids has some very incompetent staff working for them. At it's worst, these staff members (front desk plus security) were up to no good and had crime on their minds. Pretty scary.

Hotel employee crime does happen and I have experienced it myself. Long complicated story I won't go into here but I was a robbery victim of over $2K cash from my room at the JW Tegucigalpa (no idea if it still exists) more than 10 years ago. The perpetrators were two hotel bellhops. I got my cash back.

ElevatorEnthusiast

Very scary story. What strikes me is that the staff at a JW would notice when guests leave and come back - I could see this happening at a boutique hotel (for example, I was just at a Hyatt Centric where the FDA let me know that my maintenance request was taken care of as I was walking to the elevators - I was surprised they connected my name to my face when I had called in the original request) or at a true luxury hotel where personal interactions are expected. However, a JW seems a bit too large for this to occur normally.

Also, the only possibility that would make sense at all for a rate issue to be brought up at that hour is if the card on file is declined. However, even this makes little sense as the card should be charged at check-in (unless the guest goes crazy with incidentals, I guess). Otherwise, any rate business can and should be brought up during normal hours - the hotel isn't going to get scammed as they can just charge the card for any legitimate transactions.

Here's hoping this is just incompetence and doesn't happen to another guest.

mcgahat

Wow. That is absolutely horrible way for a hotel of any variety to conduct business and should be taken to task. I will just add that I don't think it is any more acceptable if it would be a male customer in the same situation to be treated such. Hope you get them straight.

hotelboy

Me thinks there is more to the story than the OP is letting on.

WasKnown

Short of the hotel discovering that OP is a credible threat to the safety of others at 3 AM, I can’t think of how this behavior could be justified.

pinniped

I'm wondering this as well.

Also don't care for the implication that this is acceptable behavior if the room occupant isn't the right gender.

Joined FT ten years ago, this is the 2nd post....wonder what the first post was.

Of course if this incident actually took place as described, then it's abhorrent behavior by the hotel. But that's a big "if" in my opinion.