Please see the terms and conditions of this benefit as below.

vii. Guaranteed Room Type. Guaranteed priority for your requested type of room at the Participating Brands listed below when your qualifying Elite level and specific preference are noted on the reservation for your stay (pillow, room location, extra bed, crib requests, etc. are not included in Guarantee). A Platinum Elite Member or above who makes a reservation on the same day he/she plans to arrive at the property is not eligible to receive the Guaranteed Room Type benefit. Outside of the United States, Canada and Europe: Smoking/non-smoking preferences may also be given priority, based on availability; exact bed sizes may vary, and only Titanium and Ambassador Elite Members will have guaranteed priority for their requested type of bed and room. The Guaranteed Room Type benefit does not cover room upgrades. Guaranteed Room Type is not available at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, EDITION, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Design HotelsTM and Vistana properties. Guaranteed Room Type is offered at the following brands: The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels, Sheraton, Delta Hotels, Le Méridien, Westin, Autograph Collection, Renaissance Hotels, Tribute Portfolio, Gaylord Hotels, Courtyard, Four Points, SpringHill Suites, Protea Hotels, Fairfield, AC Hotels, Aloft, Moxy, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites and Element.

Points redemption reservations are not excluded for this benefit. If you would provide your reservation details to us via private mail here or by email below, we are happy to assist you with this.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

[email protected]

This is typical of oligopolies; doesn't matter if it's hotel or airline programs. Large/super chains know they have a large, steady revenue stream from corporate customers that doesn't disappear overnight. Some have additional stable (may be seasonal) streams from tour operators. Properties in business districts or major cities generally don't need to care what individual customers think or do. Regardless of what they say publicly, the property GM's first, second and third priorities are revenue numbers for this quarter and pipeline for upcoming quarters. If those are solid, most other things are forgivable. A property can get 1000 5* reviews and hundreds of "thanks, you're the best of the best hotel" letters every month, it won't matter if it misses 2 consecutive quarters. It's not that the GM doesn't care about guests satisfaction. It about what has most impact on the health of his job and compensation first, everything else second.

Given that, guests have very little leverage. There's little individual guests can do to affect revenue unless the issue blows up in the media or attracts legal attention. Both are extremely rare and would take a special kind of stupid/malice to accomplish.The one other path is your corporate procurement/contracts team formally complaining; assuming you are with an organization that has significant financial contributions or a strong public brand.

Personally, I don't sweat the small oversights and don't seek to correct things with the front line person or FD manager beyond asking nicely about it once. If they are incompetent or just plain jerks, nothing you say will change that. I might talk to the property GM opportunistically but most often I just ping the elite desk. I have friends in different large Marriott/SPG properties that run PR, F&B and corporate sales and their guidance is apologetically aligned with this approach.

Good that the lurkers clarified this. Strangely, I swear I read through the terms in March for the bed guarantee and something along the lines of the old spg rule with no guarantee on bed type for awards was in there. Reading it again now, it's gone (page says revised June 2019).

Now I'm wondering if I mis-rembering things, but whatever language was in there in March was clear enough to me to not push the guarantee when I was given 2 double instead of 1 King on a CY award stay.

Exactly my experience. Out of my last few applicable stays I'm right there at 50% and I have received the same answer from both hotel staff and Customer Service. I'll even expand on the latter by adding "If the hotel does not add it at check-in, we are unable to override it here. Sorry." There is no point trying to explain that it has been done before and my time is more valuable than sending endless emails that go unanswered. Before I'll spend another 30 minutes on the phone over 1000 points I'd rather have the 25K certificate back that they made disappear a few months ago and now cannot find.

hang up and call back

Or why not email with a copy of your folio. That takes no time. There are a few CS email addresses that have fixed incorrect points within 24 hours of emailing. It takes no time to tap out a polite email with the reservation number and the folio scan with what I expected to post. They always give a few more points. Works for dining spend too when you don't stay.

Depending on the brand, I believe you are owed more compensation ($$$). See here regarding welcome gift guarantee: https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/mem...s/guarantee.mi

Unfortunately the T&C's contain this rather unfriendly rule:
" If an Elite Member believes that compensation is due with respect to any aspect of the Elite Benefits Guarantee, he/she must request payment of the compensation while still a guest at the Participating Property, prior to checking out. "

So basically if a property is shafting you, YOU have to persuade them to stop shafting you, BUT ALSO to give you lots of money on top. You almost couldn't design a system more hostile to consumers.

Question for the group re: bed type not being honored. This happens to me ~10 nights/year and I've never bothered to follow-up on it as I'm generally pretty passive. However I've come to the realization that any sort of loyalty as a Titanium beyond my lifetime Marriott Platinum is basically worthless. The "new" Marriott program is a huge downgrade from the legacy SPG program and the systems and processes are terrible. Marriott management seems to operate in a different Universe (8:1 mythical people prefer new Marriott over legacy programs) as to what their new program has done to hotel operators and guests. With that preamble aside I've decided to now hold Marriott accountable to the complex rules of their complex program when there isn't a Hyatt convenient to where I'm staying.

First stay of 2020 and viola, hotel didn't honor confirmed bed type (not pre-paid reservation, CC guaranteed, room wasn't upgraded, and reservation was made on Marriott app) and hotel is in US. They didn't mention room change at check-in so no "consent" from my side. The next morning, at check-out, I asked for my $50 (was at a Four Points) and I proceeded to get yelled at. Literally yelled. I wasn't aggressive, I didn't raise my voice, I simply wouldn't accept no as an answer. I even pulled up the T+Cs on my phone. After about 2 min of the Front Desk Associated realizing I wasn't going to walk away she adjusted my folio down by $50 and told me to leave. Bonvoy!

Now with that being said:

• I don't necessarily need/want a verbal assault every time I claim this. How do I avoid?
• I'm on an expense report so while I like holding the hotel accountable to their mistake I'd rather the benefit paid to me vs a bill deduction, is that possible?
• How do I escalate in the instance where it needs to be escalated since the T+Cs clearly state I have to deal with this on property but its pretty obvious that front line associates at most properties don't have any idea
• Does anyone at Marriott care that their program is motivating very frequent guests to actively AVOID Marriott properties? Owners/property managers of certain hotels are likely to figure this out and it will slowly erode itself from the inside out but this is like watching a very slow motion train wreck

Thanks in advance.

What lesson? The lesson that we can’t expect Marriott to keep the promises they make to guests?

The compensation is supposed to be paid out in cash. As you noted, some properties don't comply with that. As a side note, I tend to give the property the opportunity to correct room type at check in. If they don't/won't, then I will go the compensation route. I guess I have been lucky.

Over all of my years with Marriott I can only literally remember a couple of times where I needed to go the compensation route. The last time was about 18 months ago at the Hotel 201 (Philadelphia Sheraton that has to renovate to meet standards before getting its flag back) and they tried to offer me (and lots of other guests) 5000 points in lieu of the reserved bed type. I refused and eventually after 15 minutes of waiting and two trips to the "manager" in the back a king room magically appeared. That is the only time I have ever had to play hardball over guaranteed bed type that I recall.

The other time I remember is when the platinum arrival gift guarantee had just been rolled out. This is approx. 10 years ago. A SHS forgot to offer it to me and I pointed it out at checkout and just asked for the normal platinum welcome amenity points. The property insisted on giving me the $50 for the guarantee and the welcome points. I tried to turn down the $50 and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

Other than that I have had to email or request via the MR Web Site that titanium welcome gift points didn't post. While annoying to have to request it after the fact, they have been promptly posted after I make the request. YMMV...

--Jon

Vote with your wallet. Dealing with Marriott isn't worth the stress when there are no shortage of better options out there - Hyatt if you want the best top tier status, Hilton if you want to shortcut your way to the top (via CC) and need a broader property base.

To be fair, I think objection to the assigned bed type ought to be raised at check-in, rather than the following morning.