I sent my Ambassador an email several days ago and within 24 hours, received a email about an online survey of my emai customer service experience with Marriott.
The first question was "would you recommend Marriott?" On a scale of 1 to 10, then a box to type in some open ended comments, then about five more 1 to 10 questions.

Starriott doesn't want to document the answers to these questions, although we know what they are.

So I’m almost done with my nearly month-long business trip, during which I’ve had tremendous Ambassador treatment, service, and suite upgrades. I also get good treatment because I bring large groups, of course, but not to all of the following hotels.

Non-group hotels (all Ambassador status here!):

Ritz-Carlton Washington (1 stay): upgraded to much nicer room, air con not pre set as requested, but eventually had a very nice stay. They went the extra mile for me.

Ritz-Carlton Boston (1 stay): pre-upgraded to Executive Suite, air con pre-cooled though needed engineering fix, blackout panels installed, extra water, really went the extra mile.

Ritz-Carlton Georgetown (1 stay): no upgrade (booked a suite), many service issues, but they comp’d a night and really tried to make up for mistakes, excellent service recovery, Dir of Rooms called me from home, Dir of Rooms met with me last morning.

Coming up:

Ritz-Carlton Chicago (1 stay): already pre-upgraded from Executive Suite to Lakeside Suite

Group hotels:

Le Meridien Arlington (3 stays): always pre-upgraded to my preferred Executive Suite (with 2 HVAC units to keep it very cold), always goes extra mile for me, always pre-cooled to 65 F for me.

Sheraton Philly Univ City (3 stays): always pre-upgraded to corner one bedroom suite, usually pre-cooled to 67 F for me

Courtyard New York Chelsea (1 stay): no upgrade, otherwise fine stay, pre-cooled to 65 F for me

Courtyard New Haven (2 stays): always pre-upgraded to junior suite, usually pre-cooled to 67 F for me

Renaissance Providence Downtown (3 stays): always pre-upgraded to Capitol View Corner specialty suite, some issues with air con, WiFi, room assignments, details. I think this hotel is great but I had more trouble than usual here.

Le Meridien Boston Cambridge (2 stays): pre-upgraded to Ware specialty suite, always pre-cooled to 65 F for me, always goes extra mile for me

Sheraton New York Times Square (1 stay): I always hate this hotel and still find myself here due to low group rates...and they always manage to piss me off. No upgrade but didn’t even care, couldn’t even pre-cool room or get a room with working air con, moved rooms, another tragic stay. When will I learn?

After having a not-so-good Ambassador at first, I requested a change and got a new Ambassador I’ve been very happy with.

I recently contacted my Ambassador with requests to post a missing Design Hotels stay as well as modify two reservations to add extra guests to the rooms since Marriott’s garbage app and site aren’t built with functionality in mind. I received a response that “due to internal policy” they’re not allowed to post Design Hotels stays and instead have to prod those properties to process their own paperwork to post the stays to Marriott accounts, while for one of my stays, since it’s prepaid, they’re unable to add an extra guest to the room while for the other stay, the hotel needed to be contacted to request the change. It’s been two days now and the other stay hasn’t been modified yet to reflect the change in guests.

I’m not sure what the point of Ambassador service is if Ambassadors are powerless to do anything in the constraining environment that is Marriott. I really like my Ambassador personally and appreciate the help I get, but the stupid rules in place coupled with features that counterintuitively require an extra step and no guarantee [cough Your24 cough] make this status level seem like nothing more than a poorly-conceived marketing gimmick.

khabah