schmitty2000

Let me first start by apologizing if I go into way too much detail but I think that this is better than having to give more details later.

We stayed at the Residence Inn (Keeneland) in Lexington, Kentucky from April 27 to May 2 of this year. We actually really liked the hotel and enjoyed our stay, until the last day. On the last morning, we went down for breakfast in the hotel at 9:00am. After breakfast, my wife and our kids went outside to play basketball on the hotel court. I went to get gas. Checkout was 11 or 12 so we hadn't even thought about checking out yet at this point. When my wife went upstairs to go back to our room, she met the housekeeper in the hallway who told her that she had our passports and her sunglasses and that she would bring them back to her. My wife thought this was really strange at the time but didn't think too much of it as the housekeeper did bring back our passports and her sunglasses. When my wife got back to the room, she noticed that all of the cash that we had on the bedside table as well as her own personal pillow was also gone. We later discovered that my 9 year old daughters envelope with her own American money was also missing. We phoned the front desk right away, who phoned housekeeping and $60 of our money was brought back, as well as our pillow. The housekeeper told us that she thought we had checked out so she "took our stuff". Unfortunately we do not know exactly how much cash was on that bedside table. It was our last day traveling to the United States so it was our leftover money. All we knew was that it was somewhere between $60 and $200 (which we had taken out the day before at the bank machine).

We immediately went to the front desk to complain. The front desk clerk told us that none of our stuff should have been taken and agreed that housekeeping should not have been in our room. The hotel's policy was that housekeeping would only come into your room if you actually requested it the night before. The housekeeper had absolutely no reason to be in our room. The room had not been tidied up. All of our personal items had been left alone, but all of our valuables had been taken. We told the front desk that we were filing a formal complaint with them and that we expected something to be done about it. We considered filing a police report but we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us with 2 young children so we didn't want to be held up any longer. The front desk clerk promised us that her manager would call us as soon as they got in. This is not over 2 weeks later and we still have not received that call. I have contacted Marriott through their website, through their Facebook page and have contacted the hotel GM numerous times through email. I did get a form letter back from the GM that says the following:

"Dear Mr Schmitt

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experience while staying with us. Providing the highest level of hospitality is our number one priority and I sincerely apologize for failing to meet your expectations. I have shared your feedback with the team to ensure the necessary guidelines are in place and reviewed to prevent this issue from occurring in the future.

I hope you choose to stay with us again when your travels bring you back to the area.

Sincerely,

General Manager
Residence Inn by Marriott Keeneland Airport Lexington

This was sent to me after I completed the Marriott rewards survey for the stay. In the emails that I have sent to her as well as to Marriott I have stressed that we really liked the hotel but that this incident and this employee put a black eye on our trip. We travel to Lexington every spring and we will never return to this hotel. I have a 9 year old daughter who has anxiety issues and now she is terrified to stay in a hotel as she is afraid that someone will come into our room without our permission.

When I started this entire complaint process, I made it clear to Marriott that it wasn't about the money, although we would really like to get it back. It was about the fact that one of their employees came into our room and robbed us. They can't use the excuse that they were cleaning our room as room cleaning wasn't even an option at this hotel. I didn't know what to expect back from the hotel or from Marriott but I certainly NEVER expected to be completely ignored. To this day, except for the email shown above, I have not received a single email or phone call from the GM of the hotel. I just want Marriott to make this right for me and my family. Whenever I contact Residence Inn by Marriott through their Facebook page, I do get replies quite quickly but every single time it directs me to only talk to the hotel directly. The hotel 100% completely ignores me.

I'm hoping that someone on here might read my story and know what I can do to get some sort of action. Even if it is just an apology. I'm actually more upset about being ignored than I am about being robbed.

Thanks
Matt Schmitt

Out of my Element

write back to the GM who sent you a form letter and briefly inform him or her that the response was unsatisfactory and you are prepared to take this to the local police and see what response you get. Or call

SPN Lifer

That was your big mistake.

Fortunately, you and all FlyerTalkers reading this report can gain a very valuable lesson learned, indeed.

When a crime has been committed in a hotel, always call the police. Posthaste!

Otherwise, the property has every incentive to "sweep it under the rug" and cover up.

Calling the police is vital to making a record. Dial 911. "What is your emergency?“ "I was just a victim of theft from my hotel room."

Thank you for helping spare others from being similarly victimized.

The Road Goes On Forever

This matter is strictly between the guest, the property and local law enforcement, Marriott corporate has nothing to do with this (unless they manage the property which is highly unlikely) and they will not get involved. File a police report ASAP. The only other option to escalate this would be to reach out the franchisee corporate office and bring them into it.

Note that trying to "prove" these things can be dicey at times. A lot of properties don't have good or any camera systems and innkeepers laws in some jurisdictions are very, very limited in what the property can actually be held liable for. Most GM's will reach out to the franchisee home office for guidance as how to proceed and that usually will involve a fair amount of stonewalling since most guests usually go away/give up in situations involving theft or left behind "missing" items. Good Luck.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

We are sorry to learn about this.

Could you please share your name, account number, confirmation number and email address so we can follow up?

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Abbey L
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

arlflyer

I hate to join the victim-blaming party, but my goodness people...don't leave piles of cash laying around, call the police when crimes happen, this is pretty basic stuff. If the cost to wisen up is a couple hundred USD in tuition at the school of hard knocks, then consider it a gift. There are a lot of bad people in the world and a bit of street smarts and situational awareness will probably save you many times that in the long run.

clarkef

I would respectfully disagree. The OP likely booked the hotel through the website which is run by Marriott Corporation and Marriott Corporation licensed the name to the hotel. One of the reasons why we book at at large company branded hotel instead of an independent. mom-and-pop hotel is so that when things inevitably go wrong, there is someone that we can more easily hold accountable. Whether Marriott Corporation, as a franchisor, bears any liability is unknown at this point.

The Road Goes On Forever

Disagree if you want but let me give you a few facts. Housekeepers steal things all the time that guests leave behind. Most properties have little to no camera coverage and at best weak/loose systems in place for logging items. It's almost too easy. Guests leave stuff behind all the time and very, very few ever call about them. Unless you have "proof" (receipts - photos/video of the items), the local authorities usually can't/won't do much past generating a police report and the franchisee will almost always attempt to bottle up any complaints. Most guests get frustrated very easily and go away. Understand also that for every legitimate complaint a property gets, there are a thousand more embellished crackpot stories that occur which is why places are at times a bit callous. It's like the boy that cried wolf. You hear enough stories where the guest is lying or refuses to accept responsibility for their own poor choices/non-actions or they think that because of a status level no rules apply to them so that when a real issue arises you initially roll your eyes and think "here we go again" even if this one is real.

MSPeconomist

I find it odd that the housekeeper volunteered to return the passports (and sunglasses). Why did the housekeeper say anything to the guest about having entered the room?

Maybe the housekeeper thought she could sell the passports but had second thoughts that the stolen passports were more likely to be reported to the police.

A housekeeper could claim that some amount of cash on or near the bed was assumed to be a tip, but hardly cash taken from two separate places.

azepine00

welcome to ft!

imo this seems like a case of misunderstanding - maybe front desk told housekeeping that you left already or smth similar.. people who steal from you (not "rob" as it has a very different definition) do not come back and return passports etc..

people will come into your room without permission if you stay in hotels - the sooner you explain it to your kids - the better... i'd add that people often leave tips to housekeeping when they depart and perhaps that caused misunderstanding..

it was clearly mismanaged by hotel with a nonexistent follow up that reflects poorly on hotel and marriott and deserves some sort of response however "i was robbed" is an incorrect way to describe what happened.... if you have a specific ask from hotel's gm eg comp a night or whole stay or smth similar - do that in a follow up email

Eujeanie

Did the room have a safe?

MSPeconomist

AFAIK RI generally only provides a safe at the front desk, not in rooms/suites.

Eujeanie

That's really a shame. I've never liked having to store anything at the front desk. You just have no control over who enters your room.

clarkef

That response is wholly unrelated to my post. I would request that you re-read my post as nothing you stated has any bearing on the previous discussion. Perhaps you meant to respond to someone else.

schmitty2000

Thank you everyone for all of your replies. There are a lot of shoulda, woulda, and coulda's but unfortunately I can't go back and change it. Yes, we should have never left a pile of cash on the bedside table, yes we shouldn't trust people, yes we should have filed a police report. It sucks but as in the rest of life, you can't go back and change the past. Ultimately we had only gone down for breakfast that morning, we had not gone away for the entire day with cash on the bedside table. I completely agree with all of you that the hotel must get a ton of fake claims against them. Truthfully when I read complaints like this on a site such as Trip Advisor, I take them with a grain of salt as I suspect that the person is just disgruntled and is looking for free stuff. I was leery to post anything on social media as I was afraid of that backlash (which I got a little bit here). I have my doubts that we will get the money back at this stage but truthfully I just posted on here looking for advice on how to at least talk to ANYONE at Marriott. The hotel still continues to ignore my emails. In the end, if they replied to me and comped me for part of my stay, or all of my stay or even provided me future credit to stay at a Marriott hotel, it would be acceptable but trying to even have that conversation with them at this point is like pulling teeth. Thank you again for all of your comments. I know the hotel is hoping that I will go away but truthfully, their silence just makes me want to email them more and more.