eyeball1

Recently at a Marriott Sheraton property in Hawaii I reserved a two queen room, all that was available was a king room. When I mentioned the Titanium guarantee I was immediately offered 200$ bill credit or 20000 points, which I think is actually above the required compensation. The payment would not be given in cash, however.

uppereastsider

The only time I did this request (booked a king and got two doubles), the front desk person basically accused me of trying to steal from them. The manager was condescending to me, but ultimately offered me 25k points vs paying out the 150 (it was a westin).

Just not worth it. Another worthless “perk” that you have to fight tooth and nail for. Echo what @UA-NYC said... Hyatt is just easier to deal with

jtp1947

Did you then get your two queen room?

eyeball1

Not until the next day, when that room type did become available.

belynch

Are you supposed to figure this out via telepathy? If the front desk person doesn't tell you what room you've been assigned and the app doesn't have any room info I'm not sure how this is supposed to happen.
For the stay in question last week I checked in at 2a (yay ATL) and my primary motivation was sleeping not fighting over $50 at check-in.

Marriott's MO seems to be to force the guest to advocate for themselves instead of helping the guest advocate with the hotel that's in violation of the T+Cs of the program.

Jon Maiman

At 2AM in the morning, I would have most likely just accepted the room I had been given as well. When I check-in at a more reasonable time of day, if I went up to the room and it was the wrong bed type, I would immediately go back down to the Front Desk and complain. Fortunately, I have never had this happen. Whenever a property tried to give me a different room type, they were forthcoming about it during check-in. I would consider it especially poor form by the property not to do so and I would also ensure that I took the time to slam them on public review sights even though I virtually never post reviews on social media. Hope you have better experiences at any future upcoming stays.

--Jon

kaizen7

Marriott try to shift the responsibility to enforce some of the t&c back to the members.

MSPeconomist

To be fair, the front desk agent should ALWAYS tell the guest at check in when a downgraded room is being assigned or when the assigned room has different bedding.

Once you're in the room and discover the different bedding than what was reserved, you don't necessarily want to take all your luggage and go back to the front desk to stand in line again.

Kacee

No. Oral communication with the person who's checking you in should suffice. If the room type discrepancy is not discovered until you get to the room, a quick call to the front desk is certainly in order.

I'm as critical of Marriott as anyone in this forum, but just taking the room without objection, then demanding $$ the next morning strikes me as classic sandbagging.
I agree with the first point, not the second. If the room type error matters enough to demand money, then it matters enough to either pick up the phone or head back down to the lobby once it's discovered.

Jon Maiman

I disagree. If one is totally exhausted and getting in very late, the last thing you typically want to do is go argue with the front desk. Letting the property off the hook for sneaky, bad behavior (e.g. changing room type or other room downgrade without mentioning it during check-in) should not be encouraged nor permitted. Reporting the issue the next morning should be more than sufficient for putting the property on notice and requesting compensation. Properties shouldn't be rewarded for bad behavior by being allowed to get away with it by making it inconvenient for a guest to report it immediately. My two cents...

--Jon

belynch

Here's the thing; it actually doesn't matter to me (unless I get double beds). How terrible Marriott has become is what matters. My original post on this topic yesterday indicated I accept a room downgrade without any comment from my side on approximately 10% of my stays last year. Marriott wrote the rules of the new program and I'm aggravated enough at all things Marriott that I'm now going to start holding them accountable, when they make a mistake. This isn't me concocting something out of thing air to try and get something over on a hotel.

I was just rather shocked at my first attempt at accountability that I was yelled at by the front desk. I'm not sure dealing with it at 2am would have yielded anything different other than less sleep for me. If I had checked-in at 4p and had nowhere to be for a couple hours I'd certainly deal with it as soon as I realized what was happening.

To put this in further context I actually worked at the front desk of a Sheraton in college. I know how these things work and I'm reasonably confident that come 2a I was assigned the only room type they had left. When someone moved me earlier in the day to accommodate another guest they accepted the business risk of doing that. Part of that, defined, business risk is they pay out. It shouldn't matter whether the claim is made at night or in the morning. And a guest certainly shouldn't be shamed for enforcing the rules of the program (and why as a guest I have to enforce it is beyond me. It should be automatic).

Exactly.

DJ_Iceman

Lots of good points being made in this thread, and I very much sympathize with those who haven't been getting their bed type. And no guest should ever get yelled at by any hotel employee--that's just shocking.

I do agree with Kacee that if one accepts a room with a different bed type without even attempting to get it changed, then the next day demands the room type guarantee, it kind of rubs me the wrong way. If the bed type thing isn't important enough to you to complain at the time, then it doesn't really seem worth the compensation, either.

Kacee

I can assure you, when I discovered that HR Bloomington (MSP) had given me a regular room instead of the suite I'd booked, it really didn't matter how late it was (after 1 a.m.) or that I'd just arrived from SFO. I was back downstairs immediately to let them know this was completely unsatisfactory.
Who said anything about "letting the property off the hook"? Made up facts. Either you care enough about the room type to object when you discover the problem, or you don't.

cfischer

Agreed. You either complain right away or that's it. Sometimes it is an honest mistake or maybe an upgrade otherwise but with a different bed config.
I have only had to evoke the guarantee once and it was reluctantly paid.

MSPeconomist

Sometimes when it's a nondisclosed room category downgrade, you must go back to the reservation to check what was booked, then the hotel's website to compare room category descriptions and associated amenities, etc. It can take some time and research to ascertain that you've been downgraded and to document this or find "proof" to show to the hotel staff.