Radiation Station

I’m glad you had a good outcome. From a logistics point of view, I have no idea why managers would walk elites as they are on the hook for quite a bit of compo. They must have really screwed up!

Raffles

Let’s remember that it’s a ‘sweet deal’ on purpose - to stop hotels damaging the Marriott brand by doing this.

UA-NYC

Realize too that I'm guessing the vast majority of walked travelers aren't aware of this benefit, and a similar vast majority of hotel reps on-site may offer some token amount of compensation but not likely the Marriott "approved" amount.

It's an unethical company that profits from the breakage and it's own shoddy IT and bad policies.

emma dog

And it works...

I stayed in the Ermita Cartagena in April. I'm an ambassador and I used OLCI with a late arrival notation. When I arrived at 10p, the front desk told me they didn't have my reserved room and the one they had left wouldn't fit my two kids and me. After some back and forth nonsense, I told them that they needed to pay me $200 in cash, give me 90k points, and refund my first night. The hotel rep told me he couldn't do any of that and I'd need to talk with them the following morning. I wasn't having any of that, especially since they also didn't have a plan for where we'd be spending the night.

Magically the room type we had originally booked appeared. While it was an absolutely s**tty room (ground floor, 10 foot high "privacy wall" was located ~3 feet away from the window blocking almost all sunlight), it technically was the room we had paid for... and we didn't have to deal with switching hotels.

All this being said, I'm so disappointed with Marriott and the Ambassador program. This is something that should never happen to a top customer paying cash. No one from the hotel's management apologized to me for this mess, and no one ever responded to my negative survey answers. I didn't bother with the Ambassador reps since my experiences with them post-COVID (and gutting of the department) haven't been fruitful for anything. The end result for Marriott is I will be falling to Titanium by shifting all of my luxury and higher end stays to other brands (or freelancing by using the Amex FHR program) and only using Marriott for free nights or for budget hotel stays when traveling to smaller towns. In short, I'll be going from ~$20-25k/year spend to $5k because of the absolute dumpster fire that is Marriott Bonvoy.

Radiation Station

I am sorry you had such a bad experience. Well done for standing your ground, though - it takes guts, and they usually just rely on you folding. I have a rule that I resolve any issues at checkin, rather than bump the problem down the road to ruin a later part of my stay, but it’s not always pleasant to stand your ground.

I have had similar disappointing experiences with the Ambassador team, albeit I qualified for the first time in 2021 by accident. The Ambassador team have no balls or teeth, and just won’t fight your corner. I will never deliberately aim for Ambassador status, based on my recent experiences - there is no demonstrable tangible benefit over Titanium status and I would rather direct my money elsewhere. I am aiming for Titanium status and minimal expenditure at Marriott Bonvoy hotels this year, using points where it is good value and prioritising decent cash rates at hotels we want to stay at. Marriott Bonvoy needs to offer genuine value to all Ambassador Elite members, not just the occasional outlier who frequents this forum and claims to have a personal Ambassador and be greeted by a choir of angels and a suite every time they check into a hotel.

Kacee

Except based on what's happened to the program over the past three years, Marriott's current management has apparently decided the brand is teflon-coated. I'm surprised the Guarantee hasn't been watered down ("payable at property discretion") or pulled entirely.

HNLbasedFlyer

Well - they have good reason to think so - the stock is at all time highs and profit off the chart.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

We are very sorry to hear of your experience.

Could you please share your account information, reservation details and email address via PM so we can help to follow up?

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Abbey L
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

JBKettle

I'm going to pick a nit with this one sentence. It shouldn't happen to a top customer, period. Cash or points.

Of course, we all want to be treated like royalty on every stay, but forced to choose, I'd rather be treated 'bad' on a cash (read: expensed) stay and treated 'good' on a points stay.

DallasEsq

Yep. I can imagine plenty scenarios where $200 + 90k points would leave the traveler worse off (especially with the devaluation of points at the higher end properties).

emma dog

Thank you, I sent a private message.

mecabq

So we could have fun speculating, as per clickbait protocol:

It Finally Happened, After Nearly 3,000 Nights in Marriotts...

... The Platinum amenity points posted
... I ordered a room service burger "rare" and it actually came "rare"
... The "valet parking" guy was fake and stole my car
... The bar was equipped to make a Ramos Fizz
... The cute front desk agent accepted the offer of my phone number

Or of course:

... I got upgraded

emma dog

I wanted to follow up with the board regarding outcome. I received this email today:
This email doesn't address my concerns and doesn't even go through the effort of an apology. This is precisely why I didn't bother to contact the Ambassador group and why I don't see any value in maintaining my previous levels of spend with Marriott.

stvr

I just discovered this but I find it hilarious that Marriott lurkers INSERTED themselves only to slap you in the face. Why???

iknowthings

Lurkers can only boost your signal, as it were. They got a response from management, but they can't control what that response will be.