Marriott should charge for children entering the club lounge
 

A lot of hotel is just being too polite to elite members, I saw a lot of people, here in Taiwan( such a shame), one member bringing 2 kids to club lounge for " dinner" and take the lounge as a all you can eat buffet for his family.

While another member, bringing his third adult guest , must pay, is this making any sense? Just because it's children so one member can brining as many as he likes to the executive lounge without charging? Even his whole family?

I suggest Marriott properties should strictly charges for all third guest to the lounge, without any ages ! This is the only fair way to all members and bring us a peaceful lounge environment.

I guess you don't have kids.

I feel your pain about kids - I used to despise flying with or being around them. I just wasn't a kid person and I could not justify being around them when they were so obviously disruptive. I was never having kids - they were too disruptive. Imagine my surprise when I was well into my late 40's and I finally had one.

Now I get it. Kids are difficult. Kids are tough. Kids can be a nightmare for other people. But I learned that this is not always the case. Some kids are super well behaved. My daughter has been on plenty of flights and stayed in many hotel rooms so far this year. She is has become an excellent traveler. You would not even know she was there most of the time. Best of all, she is 6 months old. She learned early to deal with the weird schedules and strange beds.

Instead of railing about the kids, rail about the parents. Not all kids are bad, and certainly not all parents are good. When kids misbehave in public I tend to look at the parents now. Parenting is hard - and requires a massive amount of time. Some parents will or cannot provide that. When that happens, the kids are out of control. Even now I dislike being around out of control kids - who wants a bunch of screaming ill behaved brats around?

Were you ever a kid, did you get out? much

What's your real problem?

If you can't beat them join them, have some kids :D

How do you know they didn't pay? There have been times where I've paid for a third lounge guest in my party when I checked into the hotel, but to other guests in the lounge it might look like I'm bringing in an extra person for free.

When I travel for hockey tournaments with my son, I bring him into the lounge for snacks at night and breakfast in the morning. He is 10yrs old so is not disruptive. I may have created a hotel snob though because every hotel we stay in his first questions are "Are we in a suite?" and "Does the hotel have a lounge?" haha.

only to others right? But if you are getting preferred treatment, I'm sure you won't complain about hotel being too nice to you.

So you have no problem bringing in TWO adults with you for "all you can eat buffett", but a family of 4 shouldn't be treated "too nice".

And yes, it does make sense, kids typically don't eat as much as adults. Adults typically stuff themselves, kids typically stop when they feel full.

You might have a case if this was 1820s when people have 8 to 10 kids. Modern age it's 1 or 2, you're crying and whining over 1 or 2 children, probably eating less than 25% of what you eat at the lounge.

I find most children in the lounge to be well-behaved and quiet. However, the same can't be said of obnoxious DYKWIA adults that cries and complains loudly, either to each other or the staff. If the lounge isn't quiet or peaceful, 99.9% of the time it isn't the children.

Or even better . . .

A Modest Proposal

If I may...

You mention that this happened in Taiwan. IME across E and SE Asia, families buy up to club (in $$$) for exec floor rooms, often for "staycations" for the local urban well-to-do class. This contrasts with the US where elite upgrades are more common. In short, their room rate was calculated for the kids' club access.

That said, I do like properties that restrict children's access during the cocktail hour.

A bit off topic, but I've never understood the merit of "staycations". I see what you mean as my work is mostly in East Asia now and management does tell me many of their patrons are locals! They would literally live maybe 15 to 40 minutes away, book a weekend stay, and spend the whole weekend enjoying the hotel amenities. Guess that's why East Asian equivalent hotels are usually way superior against western ones, because of the culture of "staycations"

Marriott doesn't change guests. Individual hotels charge guests. The notion that Marriott (or any other hotel group) is going to somehow force all of their hotels to charge this type of fee is a bit ridiculous. Individual hotel owners don't take kindly to micromanagement from distant city (or distant continent in this case).

There are very few issues where a hotel group will force their franchises to do something. Aside from life-safety concerns and adherence to brand standards that are part of the legal franchise agreement, someone like Marriott Corporate has almost no leverage.

If this issue is so concerning, you should speak directly to the hotel management at each hotel you frequent. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll find an Operating Managers or General Manager who finds kids as disruptive as you do.

Two things are true: the OP gets criticized and parents swear that their children never misbehave in Marriott club lounges.

Based on my read of previous postings, I believe you and I tend to share a similar outlook. However, in this case, I have to respectfully disagree. It would seem Marriott has been quite successful in enforcing its so-called "brand standard" to ensure properties aren't giving away amenities above and beyond said standard, yet at the same time they're almost completely inept when it comes to bringing individual properties up to the same.

For me as a parent it is even a pre-condition that my two kids have access to the lounge with us. Especially in Asia that is easy to negotiate. Before I book I usually send an email to the hotel confirming that with my booking my platinum benefits are clarified and that they also count for the kids, esp. free breakfast and lounge access. Most hotels agree and even offer more like a room upgrade for the kids room. that is also how I booked our next vacation in Thailand over Christmas. That said, I don’t feel bad at all bringing my kids to the lounge, as it’s part of my negotiated package and therefore I paid for it. I am Accor Platinum and Marriot Gold, so my experience described is with Accor hotels.

Again, the worst behavior on club lounges I've found are adults who ought to know better than scream on videos calls, pick their feet at tables. Kids? Yeah, sometimes loud but usually settle down and parents usually try to stop them.

But those rude adults? Their calls can often go on for hours like that business exec at the Westin Guangzhou who held several conference calls for several hours that everyone on lounge could hear.

I have inside knowledge now on that US company's entire international operations. Never did invest on it but it sure seemed a dog

Try putting your phone down near the loudmouth where he can see it, and press the "RECORD" button.

Neither unruly children nor adults should be welcome into the lounges. Last week, I was in a lounge where there was a family with 4 children all under the age of 6. I'm sure the parents thought that Audrey was a little darling based on the number of times I heard her name called as she ran back and forth across the lounge.