margarita girl

British Colombia is currently under lockdown (no indoor dining). I want to give kudos to 3 properties which excelled at providing the breakfast benefit a few weeks ago in spite of Covid restrictions.

Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle: entree, juice, coffee/tea could be ordered from Showcase Restaurant. No outdoor dining available, so you were asked to pick up your food at the restaurant and eat it in your room. Food was served in take out boxes with plastic cutlery, but everything was hot and as well presented as it could be in a box. ​​​​​​ I don’t eat meat but the Lox and bagel was very good per my friend.

Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour: order anything from the Fire & Water breakfast menu, up to $23 worth (even though we went slightly over and were not charged). We ate in the large, covered, outdoor patio area which was equipped with heaters (chilly in the morning). My friend said the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict was outstanding.

Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort: order anything from the Lure breakfast menu including cappuccinos. Breakfast was served on the outdoor balcony which wraps around the indoor dining area. Again, there were heaters for added comfort. The smoked salmon on a bagel was highly recommended.

I’ll post the menus in the individual property threads for those who are interested.

Just goes to show that reputable properties in NA can offer a very decent breakfast in spite of restrictions. It would have been very easy to say “we don’t have enough outdoor space to offer free breakfasts to Tit/Plats”. I plan to continue patronizing these hotels. ​​​​​​​

margarita girl

Will the Marriott Insiders FB group suffice? See post # 1147 for a link.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...2021-a-77.html

Intl359Widget

I can’t wait for Canada to reopen its borders so that I can go and enjoy Victoria for the weekend and Vancouver once again. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

ChurnieEls

Another CLT area property to add to the list; Courtyard Billy Graham Parkway. 750 points at check in, told the agent I'd prefer the $10 F&B pp, got told some word salad about COVID etc etc & he brought up my rate (!) as if a lower rate implies its ok to forfeit the elite benefits.

They will happily advertise that they'll sell you a to-go breakfast bag for $3 though.

Messaged Bonvoy on Twitter to register my unhappiness again (for all the $hits they'll give ). I don't have the energy or time for another back & forth battle over the compensation, which I guess is what Marriott Bonvoy Lurker etc are betting on.

Nothing doing except to move stays to Hilton & Hyatt going forward, even if the elite benefits are reduced with them they are at a minimum consistent. I'll be avoiding playing elite roulette with Bonvoy to the greatest extent possible until things change.

anteater

Which property was this?

MePlatPremier

At least when one’s at home one isn’t paying north of $200 to sleep overnight... so, at least for some of us enjoying fresh towels every day and a daily change of linen is also part of the hotel experience.

jwvw89

I have just about had it with this crap and wish that Marriott Corporate would crack down on these hotels that are bad offenders.

Just completed a stay at the Marriott DFW North and it is laughable what they are doing. First, I checked in and there was no recognition of my Titanium status, very transactional check-in - Name? ID? Credit Card? I later had to inquire about what the breakfast benefit would be. The night desk agent said that I would be receiving a hot "grab and go" breakfast - the idea that they are still doing grab and go even after Texas has had restaurants open for nearly a year now is laughable but I thought whatever. In the morning I go down to get breakfast and they tell me this would be $14.99 and it is not the Titanium breakfast benefit. I go to the front desk and inquire and they inform me I was giving wrong information and that the breakfast benefit is a "Continental to Go Bag" that has a cold pastry, yogurt and fruit. I told them that is insulting especially when other full service restaurants around the country have resumed their normal breakfast and they are offering a better breakfast already. If the Marriott LAX (where LA has some of the strictest Covid rules) can start offering a full normal breakfast again - certainly this property as well as all other properties in the US can do so as well.

Summer travel is coming, planes are full. These properties better get their act together in the next couple of weeks because now that the CDC says no more mask, in the mind of the public - Covid is over. This cost saving and screw the elites crap was getting old 4 months ago and at this point it is pathetic especially in a place like Texas where there have been no Covid restrictions since March.

Points Scrounger

Sadly though, it's not just Marriott! At a certain Hilton HGI over the past few months they've offered a hot sandwich and coffee for around $12 (with tax, sold separately). Elites have a breakfast benefit there, usually the unlimited buffet. However, these days the "elite benefit" consists of a (cold) "continental" bag instead (no coffee).

Adelphos

1) Hotel demand and rates are still well below normal, especially for business travel oriented hotels. Hotels will bring back things like hot breakfast only when demand returns. Local restrictions are less of a driver. While Texas has been open for a while, business travel is still down

2) Hotels will be looking to formalize many of the cost saving initiatives that they implemented during Covid on a permanent basis. Some things will come back, others won't. With labor and food inflation high, and demand uncertain, hotels will need to focus on the bottom line

The Road Goes On Forever

I would counter that demand in a lot of places is far from below normal and if anything is back to something resembling pre-pandemic. Except in very limited circumstances, local restrictions have never been an issue for any property. A lot of myths and urban legends have been posted on this site regarding rooms staying unoccupied between stays as policy or a standard which is far from accurate. The overwhelming bulk of US hotels have always had/have the ability to do as they please.

On the question of when amenities will return, that's complicated. No parent company that I know of has given any guidance and as an example, the management company that runs the Hampton where I work has laid it down to all properties it runs (a few hundred across multiple brands and states) that full hot breakfast will not come back until the parent company issues guidance requiring it.
Long term my opinion is that things that were free (i.e. daily housekeeping) will only be done for a daily fee or for an increased daily rate almost like a Spirit Airlines model. Services at full service properties will be likely be very different than what will be offered or included at limited service properties.

Segments

So new post Covid elite benefits will be daily housekeeping in lieu the breakfast benefit? LOL…can’t wait to see how they spin these enhancements.

bocastephen

maybe for Marriott, but I just had another stay at a Holiday Inn Express with a full hot breakfast including omelets, sausages, biscuits, gravy, hot and cold cereal, made to order pancakes, yogurt, fruit, etc.

There is plenty of room for Marriott to step up. This is like Southwest offering lie flat seats while Delta is offering all coach 29” pitch with water for sale.

razorg

Hotel demand may be down in some states, but not much in Texas. Everywhere I have been lately has been very busy.

razorg

Any "full service" hotels that cut housekeeping and breakfast benefits will be punished by customers after they perceive the crisis to be over. Elites in particular will have no reason for loyalty. The hotel industry is very different than the airlines because there are already so many different service levels in the hotel industry.

Staying at a higher end hotel that charges more for housekeeping will find their rooms empty.

I remember the Carter induced gas crisis. The gas station industry was adamant that in the future no one would be able to use a credit card to buy gas. That was wrong too.

The Road Goes On Forever

I don't know about that but my best guess is that we'll see almost a two tiered system in place where at full service properties you may eventually get the amenities and services offered pre-pandemic, but watch where rates go in the process. Limited service places I think go to where if you want daily housekeeping you need to pay a fee for that or possibly it might get waived for top tier frequent stay members but it definitely won't be there for all rooms/guests. It's a whole new world and no one knows where things will be in the industry in six months or in a year. All I know is that as long as standards are allowed to be interpreted versus enforced (and that's what is happening right now across the industry with every major brand) and until property audits return in a more stringent format, expect things like shuttles, pools, gyms, breakfast and housekeeping to be closed/suspended/modified indefinitely because that's what the owner/management company wants to help pad their bottom line.