wendySFO

Specifically regarding dealing with a case of a unsatisfactory hotel stay.

I had a bad experience with Marriott Customer Service team regarding a case I opened for numerous issues encountered at a property of my stay.
I thought they are supposed to be in a role on behalf of customers to deal with hotels for customers’ issues unresolvable by customers alone.

But I found Marriott corporate side has no authority over properties to follow certain standards but just a relay to pass messages back and forth.
Moreover, it came to my shock that a case opened by me since October without a resolution and lack of follow-up since December last year was closed by the property without my knowledge.

I don’t understand what’s the point of having Marriott Customer Service’s team if they can't do anything and they allow property to close customer cases (well, they told me this is corporate policy that property can close cases).

This is my only experience of opening a case for bad hotel stay in 10+ year with SPG and now Marriott. It is probably lack of data point so like to hear experience from others.

Reid

Had the same issue very recently. Opened a case with customer service, the hotel didn't respond. I followed up and learned the case was closed, they reopened the case, and the hotel closed it again. Customer service was zero help in enforcing the advertised guarantees.

nacho

Same thing happened to me too, I asked the lurker here to escalate and it worked.

calguy77

It seems with the chat on the app, customer care, surverys, etc...there are too many ways for a guest to communicate to the hotels. It needs to be simplified and they need one outlet. the chat on the app sucks. First off I don't want to download another app, why can't they just text you or you text the hotel? This way no clutter with another app.

I already posted about my thoughts on surveys, they seem counter productive. You've already left the hotel, There's no way to correct a stay that already happened. I also thing TA and most travel reviews are BS. People over exaggerate their "terrible" stay.

Customer care has been hit or miss. I was charged wrong and the hotel didn't respond, the customer care took about 4 months to get it resolved.

My favorite hotel communication was at a Hyatt, I got a text message about 10 minutes after I checked in and said "How is your room?" I liked it so I replied that it was good. The next day I got a text saying "We wanted to check in, How's your stay going? If there is anything we can do for you, please let us know". I felt like they were really involved and connected. They seemed to actually care and want to help if needed.

CCIE_Flyer

As has been so astutely noted here on many occasions, to Marriott the customers are the property owners/operators, and we are the product that Marriott delivers to said customers. It's a scenario almost exactly as OP describes that caused me to abandon Marriott for SPG some years back.

This is why it's important to air your grievances as publicly and in as great of detail as is possible (e.g. TripAdvisor, Yelp, social media, etc, - and of course here also!). Even if you can't expect any satisfaction from so-called customer service, you can at least hurt offending properties where it counts the most by driving away at least some bookings in telling your story publicly.

MePlatPremier

Without knowing what were the issues raised it’s difficult to say if there was anything CS could do. Marriott can only enforce the loyalty program’s rules and that brand’s operational standards—and even then, only those that are clearly enforceable and not dependant on the property’s subjective assessment. Apart from that, Marriott may only suggest a resolution regarding a dispute with a guest, which the property may or may not accept, without any consequences. In those instances, depending on jurisdiction, guests may find better outcomes with local governments, tourist boards, bbb’s, etc. People tend to think Marriott has some sort of authority over the hotels, but it hasn’t: it doesn’t own the real estate nor the business venture operating the hotel and very frequently it doesn’t even manage the hotel on behalf of its owner. Marriott licenses its brands and management and booking solutions to third-party companies that operate independently from it under a few loose guidelines.

miloworld

MePlatPremier

Kacee

Apparently to alert the property that a case has been opened, so the property can promptly close it with no resolution.

wendySFO

This is not a thread about issues at the property so I leave it out for some other time. What I want to find out is if I have the wrong expectation of Marriott's "Customer Service" team. They are listed as "Loyalty Program Members Customer Service" when I looked up their phone number. But some how I don't see they did anything to support me as a Loyal Program member.

I assume Customer Service team has guideline and judgement calls to accept cases, Marriott corporate should have influence and means to manage the properties who bear the Marriott brands. It is unreasonable to expect Customer Service team can have magic to turn things around but I don't feel it is right they don't followup what they said they will (for example, some one suppose to get back to me on certain date, it never happened after two months), and allow property to close case opened by customers without justification and not even notify whoever opened the case.

miloworld

MePlatPremier

freezephotog

Marriott's Customer Service is literally non existent. Called the Platinum Service line and had to hold for over 10 minutes. Its awful. So sad the merge happened. Everything that was great about SPG is now gone.

EuropeanPete

I speak from a position of some privilege as an Ambassador member (and someone with a really good Ambassador), but even I've got the impression that a significant part of the acquisition cost savings have come from weaker central programme enforcement of benefits. Starwood had a reasonably good reputation for all its guests at taking action when hotels did not fulfill either the programme benefits or basic hotel expectations, whereas now I have little to no confidence that even with my superstar Ambassador I would have any compensation in anything but the most egregious service.

MePlatPremier

There is now this idyllic version of how wonderful and marvellous the SPG times were and how everything worked just perfectly and smoothly with them. I understand that it is part of a coping mechanism regarding this transition and the result of a Marriott-bashing culture that is now become the normative narrative on this forum. However, as a SPG member since 2001, either Gold or Plat for most of that time, I’ve had a handful of cases opened with them and I can tell that the outcome was zilch. Each and everytime they sided with the property or simply decided there was nothing they could do about it. I’ve also had during those years a few cases of communications to SPG not being answered or issues being dropped by them without any notice. True, SPG staff was always extremely deferential and apologetic and always grateful for my continued loyalty and very honoured to be dealing with a distinguished plat member such as myself. Marriott addresses me on a first-name basis and has an unfriendly, no-frills dry approach in its communications to customers. However, the end result is almost always the same.