Musken

Hi,
A friend of mine would like to contact this hotel with a request. Does anyone have the email address of front desk or reservations for Marriott Shanghai City center directly (no central office)?

Thanks!

travelsg

I don't have the email. But if your friend has made a reservation, and want to add requests, there will be an email coming his/her way which will contains link for exactly that purpose. So just wait...

Musken

Problem is my friend was not able to reserve what she wanted and she has some questions. That's why she wants to contact them. She does not have a reservation yet.

nacho

Why don't you go via Corporate using the contact form @marriott.com? They forward your questions to the hotel concerned.

moondog

Why not just call the hotel? That would be much faster plus have an interative component that email lacks.

Musken

She tried that but got a standard reply that was not helpful. When asking again about specifics (rates, specials, differences between two different suites) she was asked to make a reservation since these things would change all the time. In my experience, a hotel would be able to answer the kinds of questions she has if contacting them (instead of central reservation) directly. Then one could first get her answer and then make a reservation. She wants to do it this way because she would like to get the cheapest (non-changeable) rates.

Some people prefer email.

travelsg

You didn't say exactly what the problem was here.. Did she saw a reservation before and it disappeared from the website now?

If the rate is not available on the website, most likely it won't be available over the email either.

If you still cannot find an email, I'd suggest to go ahead to make a cancel-able reservation, and see if the follow up email contains more details about the property contact. Whatever it is, cancel it later...

moondog

If her Chinese writing is extremely clear and to the point and/or the request is extremely simple (e.g. what time does your business center close on 10/1?), then this might be an okay approach. Otherwise, it is likely to require far more iterations than necessary and result in unnecessary confusion.

Musken

Really? You mean they cannot handle a normal request written in English? Or was this a joke? I thought this hotel would be used to handling international customers writing or speaking English.

moondog

Your request doesn't seem so standard to me. The hotel has a set of (dynamic) rates that it publishes on various channels and you're hoping to get something different. Yes, that has the potential to confuse.

DJ_Iceman

I am sitting right now at the JW Marriott in downtown Shanghai (looking at the Marriott City Center outside my window). Of all the countries I've visited over the years, China has the least number of fluent English-speakers, even in western hospitality chains. So an e-mail with a complex request will be hit-or-miss, and does your friend really want to take that chance? So Moondog's advice was most certainly not a joke.

Not to be too nosy, but if you share the specifics of the request here, maybe someone will have another suggestion as to how to get it fulfilled.

chriskuo

I would agree that the way to go is to make the most favorable cancelable reservation.

If that is not satisfactory, follow up with a request for what she wants. If they do not meet her minimum requirements, cancel it.

Musken

I am aware that not everyone in China is fluent in English which was one of the reasons why my friend rather wanted to email them instead of calling. Other advantages of email is that you do not have to take time zone differences into consideration and that you have in writing what was answered plus my friend is also not fully fluent and prefers to write to make things clear. I am normally doing this all the time myself - also for China, but I tend to stay in more luxurious hotels (Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons etc) where this has never been a problem: easy to find the email addresses (they tend to be standard across a certain chain or they are clearly written by the internet sites) and my requests have always been answered promptly and to my satisfaction. That's why I recommended my friend to do things the same way, but I understand now that Marriott, at least in China, should be done differently.

My friend has decided to make the most favourable cancelable reservation now and will follow up with a request for what she wants as you suggested.

Thanks for your help.

moondog

I would actually say that Marriott recruiting in China is among the strongest of all the major flags. They are extremely adept at finding the best young English speakers that their (well above average) budget allows for, and once they get them in the program, they provide extensive training. In fact, a number of the trainees I met when I first became familiar with Marriott/RC Asia ~10 years ago have gone on to become assistant GMs and GMs at prestigious properties outside of the region.

That having been said, the reality of the economics is that people who speak truly outstanding English in Shanghai can easily find employment for Y10,000/month these days... and no hotel pays its rank and file at this level. Sure, both prestige factor and advancement opportunities are worth quite a bit, but not a $1,000/month hit.

So, what you end up with are enthusiastic people who are good at English, but not excellent. I've exchanged emails with many of them, and frankly a lot of details get missed in the process. By contrast, in person or phone communications never fail to get to bottom of things in short order. It's true that I speak Chinese so I always have that as a fallback whenever an impasse comes along, but I try my best to communicate with them in English because that's what most prefer (i.e. they are very hard, so I'm loath to demean their accomplishments).

Musken

Happy to hear that my friend will most likely meet great employees during her stay.