Zelucifer

I've had stays like that. Well, more like the opposite, stays ruined by elevators. There's very little more frustrating than staying on the 40th floor of a hotel with 4 elevators and having to wait 20 minutes to get to your room.

RogerD408

Yes. of course. But if you want any chance of the feedback getting to people associated with the property then TA is a much better avenue. Maybe if an owner reads about issues with his/her property they just might look into it. Posting of FT has very little chance of getting any attention (some exceptions do exist) and our exposure is pretty limited compared to the people that read TA.

C17PSGR

Agreed. I think some GM's have bonus plans tied into TA scores. It certainly has more posters and TA makes sure their posts appear at the top of google searches. So I suppose its normal for the property to pay attention.

That being said, I can't read more than a couple of TA reviews without losing interest. My sense is that most posters on TA either rarely travel or are retirees traveling on a tight budget.

GM's would be be well advised to see what their best customers think and that's on FT!

bhrubin

GTJoe

damon88

Very true. Only once in 15 years do I remember a GM reaching out to me after reading a post on Flyertalk. It was many years ago for the Pulitzer in Amsterdam. They had a wonderful manager who really cared about his guests. But RogerD408 is correct. TA is the way to go if you want attention.

Chewie

swintec

they took the easy route and simply remapped the new statuses into the old codes (and renamed 5 star to pp with amb). it makes you wonder if a secret tier (like plat premier used to be before its devalue) / 5 star level for super VIPs is in the works or else what are the mitt romneys of the world suppose to have now?

helvetic

I quite liked the JW Marriott Dubai but totally understand how half the reviews are negative specifically calling out the elevators. They are INFURIATING, they make me want to commit unspeakable acts. Every. Single. Time. Argh, I'm getting PTSD just thinking about it.

(Otherwise great stay at a great hotel)

helvetic

Out of curiosity: what is five star? First I hear of it.

Chewie

yeunganson

Apparently the Board of Directors of Marriott also hold the Five Star status.

I am only from the SPG side so I see the Starwood VIP status similar to the Marriott Five Star. Starwood VIP was given to senators/Congressman to help "educate" the contributions of the hotel industry. President George W Bush was given Starwood VIP status after staying in the St Regis Beijing.

It's also a tool to grease the wheels in abroad where rule of law is weak. Some times Marriott Five Star treatment brings stronger persuasion in negotiations. Most times, things get done. Once a rare while, you get caught like Goldman Sachs did in Malaysia.

C17PSGR

Interesting ... I was greeted at check in at a legacy Marriott the other day as "Thank you for being a VIP member." I thought it was odd but was with someone so I didn't follow up. Later, I was down at the desk with a questions and asked a different FDA what status she saw and she said "you're VIP status, that means you have an ambassador." I was in a hurry and didn't have time to ask her to show me the screen.

CCIE_Flyer

I like the sound of that a lot better than "oh, you're a Plat - the place is crawling with your ilk."

deac83

I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of the the program but having a very good relationship with my Ambassador, I have learned a few things.most all being that they don't have 'authority' over the hotels, they are dependent on the hotel responding and executing any special requests they make. That being said, they will call the hotel and 'pester' them about upgrades (non-SNA as that is all systematic and they cannot impact them), they'll ask them to do special things for you, like an extra welcome gift, especially when you are on a special vacation. If they've been around a while they have relationships with various properties and they can usually work more magic with them than a random property they've never spoken to (i.e. the entire Marriott brand).

The odd flaw in the process is that if your Ambassador wants to do something special for you, if they don't tell you, you don't know they asked the hotel to do it. So are you supposed say 'hey btw, I didn't get anything special delivered to my room when I checked in'. It's not a guaranteed thing. All I know is the first 3 Ambassador's I had did nothing special on my personal vacations with Mrs. Deac83, the only way I knew I was missing out on anything was because I had colleagues that had Ambassadors that would send things like wine and chocolate covered strawberry's to them each time they checked in.

Having been PP for many years at Marriott and now many years with an Ambassador, I can say the failure point is primarily with the hotel. At least with the Ambassador you have someone that can watch your back and when things don't go right they can work with you to make it better next time. I only felt like the hotels really recognized me as PP about 10% of the time (in part because of Marriott's insistence of using 'platinum' in that designation) with an Ambassador I feel like the hotels are aware 70-80% of the time.

As someone else said earlier, I look at the relationship as a team effort, she's not my personal assistant, but we work together to make my hotel stays as good as possible.