mikebor

I travel close to 300 nights a year so I have earned Lifetime PP and Ambassador. I was recently made aware of an internal system that seemingly any Marriott front desk employee or higher can access, that has comments from hotels that you frequent. And basically this system is not of the positive variety.

What happens is, any complaint the guest has or any issues, the hotel in question puts remarks and comments about it in this system. Now if it was only for service breakdowns that would be one thing. But no this system also contains comments from managers, supervisors, etc... which in my opinion is very unfair. Using myself as an example. I was made aware of a comment from 1 particular hotel I stayed at 2 years ago that said I spit food all over the floor in the concierge lounge and it was gross and I didn't care smh. The truth was, I choked on food, I gagged and spit it out and immediately went to get napkins to clean it up. The concierge woman was busy sitting at a table talking with 1 of her regulars and when it happened she glared at me like I did it on purpose and I called her out on it. Well obviously only HER SIDE went into this internal database system and made me out to look horrible. Also was told(by a sympathetic front desk agent just recently) that there are other comments about me, basically saying not so nice things about me in certain properties. She was the one who told me about this and said all Rewards members that travel frequently are pretty much put in this system, basically to "warn" other hotels about us.

I don't know about all of you guys and gals reading this, but I think this is completely unfair and 1 sided. Pretty much any manager or supervisor can put anything in this internal system and we the guests have no way of disputing it. The woman who shared some of these comments with me pretty much came clean and said I have a history of complaining and being rude to staff based on what's in this system. But I told her I travel literally 10-11 months out of the year and the vast majority of the time I have great stays. She acknowledged that and said I am a great guest but this database system she said can give employees a preconceived notion about somebody before they stay. She also told me the pickier you are the quicker the red flags come up and they start reading about you. I was shocked and disgusted!! I admit, if I request extra pillows or an extra fridge and it's not in the room, sure I'll complain. Obviously though, some of these hotels will be nice to your face and apologize but then go and criticize you in this system. Also at least for me probably because of my status if there are some service breakdowns I will be offered Marriott points. Some managers insist even when it's something minor and I eventually agree. Well, that gets shown in there too, The nice front desk agent told me that she reads these kinds of comments about lots of travelers and they are always negative.

Sorry for the long message but I wanted to alert the frequent Marriott travelers about this imo AWFUL UNFAIR 1-SIDED SYSTEM!! To be allowed to basically write anything about the guest without the other side of the story is wrong on so many levels. And for the few on here that I'm sure will feel the need to attack me about how I carry myself? Look I admit I'm not perfect but I do my best to tip the staff(because I know I can be a bit high maintenance) and be as friendly as I can. I'm an east coast guy so I think that personality type can rub people the wrong way. And I will be clear, I travel 300 nights a year so maybe that many nights there would be more room for issues. That aside, my real issue is that they have this internal system in the first place and no recourse for us as guests to counter any of the negative stuff put in there. It's not right.

And I'll end with this. Called a Residence Inn recently to discuss a potential upcoming stay. Spoke with the GM who was "temporary". She didn't seem over friendly but answered my questions. Since it was a new hotel I asked about motion sensors in the room that shut off the air. I like it cold when I sleep because I have a medical issue and sweat a lot on my medication. She told me the hotel has them and they cannot be disabled. I explained to her my situation and told her that every other hotel I have stayed with that had motion sensors in the room, the engineer was able to disable them so the air can run continuously. She told me she would look into it, got my phone number and would call me back. Four hours later she calls me and tells me they won't disable it and they don't want me staying there. She said any further questions I could call Marriott. Nasty and she hung up. I called the Platinum line and the woman I spoke with put me on hold, called the hotel and spoke with her. The GM told her she read that "internal system" about me, saw that I had problems at other Marriott's and didn't want me to stay!! Then she hung up on the Platinum lady!! The Plat lady apologized to me and told me I should let my ambassador know which I did. And the Ambassador manager apologized and said he will look into it. Honestly, after how that awful temp GM treated me I would NEVER want to stay there. But the fact that she was able to read a one-sided internal database system about guests, me, and essentially ban me from the hotel?? Awful and wrong on so many levels. I could give her 10 names of GM's of hotels that I stay at regularly that really like having me as a guest. I have cellphone numbers of a few that we text about sports because I've gotten to know them. This terrible temp GM didn't appreciate me asking for(in her mind) something not the norm, so instead of researching how to disable the motion sensor she researched me, used a bunch of negative comments put in by other staff over the years as a justification to claim I was not a guest worth having. Makes me sick and that's why I decided to post all of this to all the frequent travelers on here.

Be Careful if you complain, next thing you'll know they'll be a file created about you and not a nice one.

estnet

So my response to this (unless it hasn't really impacted your stays) is to find another place to spend your money. They have demonstrated over and over that they really don't care about their "loyal" guests

jeanie

A lot of companies do this. I know that AA does it as well.

mikebor

Starting to really feel that way doesn't it? Much harder to want to do though when I have Lifetime PP Status and an Ambassador. And like I mentioned, the vast majority of properties I stay are fine. It's just the few that write untrue or exaggerated stories and these negative comments keep piling on. It's not like this stupid internal system has both good and bad comments. No it's only negative so the perception is from someone reading it is that the guest is terrible. It's just a shame. It really is.

m0hamed

Pretty sure every CRM has input for positive and negative comments.

Abuse an employee of a company? Of course they will note it down.

Have you been forgiving during a massive service failure? They will note that down.

I believe the term is 'Difficult Guest' in the hotel industry. Sometimes it means you complain a lot, but I have also seen it marked where it means a hotel needs to pay extra attention to you because of a previous mistake they have made, e.g. when a GM invites you to return and look after you because of a poor previous experience.

mikebor

Do I consider myself a "Difficult Guest"? I don't know maybe to some staff and that's the problem. I have a few requests and as a 300 night per year traveler, am a little high-maintenance I admit that. Haven't guests earned that a little bit by becoming Lifetime PP'ers? And I'm blunt at times which I think can cause some staff to feel like I am mean. But I have been told by more than a fair share of staff that I am a great guest and they love having me lol. And I believe them. I think it really depends on the particular staff member and how easily they get defensive or angry when you point out service issues or complain about something. But that goes to the problem, 1 hotel loves you but puts no comments in that internal database, the next hotel thinks you are annoying and demanding and types that in. Hence you are criticized usually unfairly and now every Marriott can see it. And it piles on and on and on etc.. It's just not right and doesn't tell anywhere close to the whole story of who you are as a guest and the many POSITIVE relationships you have built over the months and years with lots of other properties.

mikebor

Great comment, but what constitutes abuse and how fair is it? Let's say the front desk agent is rude and rolled her eyes and talked down to guest. Guest gets upset, raises voice, calls her rude, asks to speak to supervisor who doesn't really care. Escalated to manager who apologizes but guest unhappy and tells manager they will never stay again. Manager puts in the internal database that guest was irate and yelling and cursing and abusive. Guest wasn't any of those things but manager puts it in anyways because well, he or she can. Maybe manager didn't like guest's tone, maybe manager is having a bad day, maybe manager backs staff no matter what and doesn't believe guest. Heck with this internal system you don't need a reason it seems, to access it and skew the story to fit their narrative. And 99% of the time, the guest will never know that the manager put extreme fabrications and lies into this database and that from now on if they want, basically any front desk employee can access and read these lies. Yup, real fair.

hedoman

Yup, can be traumatic experience if you're on the wrong end. In time you'll get over it. Better to skip the blind loyalty. Hardly a two way street and the mergers make matters worse. If you can think of yourself as a piece of cargo and realize these service people are not your friends, it helps.

mikebor

Well said.

m0hamed

This is conjecture, but my point remains that every company has a CRM and I'm amazed that you never knew this existed....

UKTraveller4Fun

It is certainly interesting, any UK legal experts out there that know if laws in the UK giving access to any information about yourself could be used in this case get obtain any such information or because the htoels are accessing the information on a non UK based system they can exclude it?

dayone

Your self-evaluation is meaningless. Marriott maintains an internal CRM system for use by its hotels. It is not open to your review, comment, challenge or evaluation. Your only way to influence your customer record is to be civil, be reasonable and understand that frequent good behavior does not excuse or indemnify intermittent bad behavior.

Paranoia will destroy ya.

Lizie

Whatever is held on your file has to be truthful. In the UK under GDPR you can request all your information held on their computers for a fee. They cannot refuse. Might as well know now they clean this up before sending it out.

geminidreams

How about having a concerted campaign to get staff who like you put positive notes in your file!

mikebor

It's funny you said that because I asked the super nice front desk agent about that and she basically told me that internal database is used for negative complaints. She said all the comments about guests that she has ever read in that system is negative. It's basically like a private "complaint" internal forum where staff can write negative stuff about you without the guest ever knowing. She told me it's supposed to be used to help "alert" other properties if a guest complains too much or is abusive but it's really a bunch of juicy negative stories about guest issues with the spin slanted 100% towards the hotel. She was so cool because she kept it real to me.

As I wrote earlier, it's really a shame. Us PP'ers and Platinum's and Ambassador members who spend a fortune with this company are literally being gossiped about and criticized and defamed by bad supervisors or managers that are spiteful and want to absolve them and their hotel of any blame. They screw up, guest suffers, complains, get's angry, maybe raises his or her voice, demands corrective measures or fair compensation for the issue and hotel spins it in this awful system. Guest gets 10,000 points and thinks situation resolved. Little does he/she know that hotel writes awful and untrue stuff about them(not always but I'm sure lots of times) to make it seem like guest was the second coming of Charles Manson. And poor guest has no clue about it. It's unreal.