and yet another tale of being #bonvoyed
 

A friend once said "people will step over dollars to pick up pennies". It seems companies can do that too.
Here is how Marriott's Guest Experience Assistance Team will cause a 35+ year member start going to Hilton over ~10K points.

I had two experiences recently that caused me to interact with guest services.
The first was a busy front desk person who charged the incorrect card. I asked if the charge could be moved, raising a case. No response, but time passes, oh well.

The second involves a booking at the LAX Airport Marriott, where I wanted to extend an upcoming booking of two rooms on points, so I called in instead of just using the website.
The rep I spoke with was very attentive, great interaction, and helped me extend. Unfortunately, during this time, after one room was booked, the price to extend the second room jumped by 10K points. Yes, during the call.
The rep apologized, and let me know he had no control over rate changes. OK, I get that, so I suggested maybe he could credit my account with points to compensate. Hotel desk personnel will do that often if there is a issue.
He says "I can't, but a supervisor may be able to, would you like me to transfer you?"
"Yes please, and I'd like to tell them how great you were to work with, can I have your name?" to which he gives me is full name.

I speak with the supervisor, explain the situation, and her response is "we have no control over rate changes"
I had already suggested a point compensation, and received the response "we have no control over rate changes"
No matter how I rephrased the question, she never said she couldn't credit me, only "we have no control over rate changes"
So, I asked for her full name so I could escalate, and she yelled (yes, yelled) "I DON'T HAVE A LAST NAME" ( I didn't realize I was talking to Lizzo)
I ask for a case number and she says her full name will be on that case.

A few weeks pass...

I call Marriott as I have not received any response to my case.
Me: "can I have the status of case xxxxxxx"
Rep: "let me ready through the notes"
~jepordy music~
Rep: "can you tell me what you want to know?:
Me: " will I recieve any response, has it been esclated, oh, and BTW - the person who has no last name said her name would be on the case information, is it there?"
Rep: " I don't see any names associated with the case"
Me: "None?"
Rep: "No"
Me: " funny every software I have ever implemented records the users name that enters the record, especially ones like a case"
Rep: "umm, well, yes, there is a name, but... "
Me: "great, so can we escalate the status of this case?"

A few more days pass....

I receive an email from the "Guest Experience Assistance Team"

just a few excerpts:

"According to your comments, an interaction took place and you claim that the person that you spoke to was rude. Allow me to extend my apologies for any difficulties you may have had. We strive to provide the utmost in service excellence and I am sorry if that may not have taken place"
Great lawyer speak, especially the "You claim" part.... kinda feels like a really tone deaf apology... followed up by the canned "your comments are important to us"
no resolution provided nor any indication that there would be any follow up from Marriott.

4 emails later :
"Please know that I am a supervisor in the Guest Experience Assistance Team and have the appropriate tools and resources to respond to your inquiry. We do not have further teams or levels for escalating your inquiry."

And the last email ends with:
"I apologize since additional forms of service recovery will not be provided."

So, for about $85 worth of points, my 100+ nights of business travel a year now move to Hilton.

Kudos to you, Guest Experience Assistance Team

Do you not think it was your booking that caused the price of points to increase?

Is your complaint that there was only one room available at the reduced pricing? Because that's just par for the course for dynamic pricing. I wouldn't expect Marriott to give me 10k MR just because the rate I'd like isn't available anymore. (Just like I wouldn't expect marriott to give me a cash discount if I book two rooms, and the price of one room is higher than the second)

I suspect that what happened is that your first booking took the last available inventory for the base room. Hence, the price went up by 10,000 points because only a higher category was available.

Such swings in points pricing for a base room can happen, but it's extremely rare outside the most expensive luxury properties and the LAX Marriott really doesn't meet that criteria.

Having just put some random dates in I can see no base rooms available and then various other rooms at higher points cost.

I suspect the failure here was the initial representative (despite your positive feedback) not identifying this and explaining it. The supervisor then appears to have also failed to articulate it and - based on your description - failed to behave professionally.

Technically you are due no compensation if my theory is true. However, given the apparent customer service failures 10,000 points is not an unreasonable ask. It probably cost Marriott more anyway to deal with the back and forth of this.

I avoid ever contacting Marriott over the phone if I can help it. My interactions are rarely positive. In contrast my interactions with the Lurker team here have always been superb.

Good for you. If more people acted in this manner corporations would treat their top customers in a better manner.

Over entitled.

Good for you. It wasn’t the points, but the way they interacted with you. It seems no one really tried to understand what the situation was. Had They said “I’m a supervisor and listened to the call recording. Please accept my apologies for an interaction that did not meet our standards. We will follow up with the employees.” They don’t need to give you the points at the end of the day, but they do need to be empathetic.

And I just had Hilton screw me out of 10,000 bonus points on a promotion because they said I had no "proof" I registered because I didn't take a screen shot.

So see you on the other side.

My impression is that Hyatt may give slightly better service in this regard than the other major chains.

But remember--the CEO of Marriott has publicly stated that the company's customers are the hotel owners, not the guests.

And here we see the cause of ever declining customer service standards.

"I'm willing to accept poor service, and therefore better than you."

Hi Smiley,
Sorry if I was unclear. I had 2 rooms booked, called to extend both for a night, and the rep gave me a number of points per night to extend. first room goes through fine, second room, oh, sorry, this will now be over 10K more. Sure it could be an inventory thing, but to get yell at by the "supervisor" that says "I DONT HAVE A LAST NAME".. no matter what, that's not acceptable.

MrM,

Perhaps I am not due compensation based on your theory, however their customer service is the thing I'm sticking on here. Being yelled at or told later in an email "You claim.." is not a good look for the customer experience team.

OP - the grass can actually be greener elsewhere...Marriott is no longer interested in providing good CS to the actual end consumer

Marriott still interested to make their valued customers happy btw.
(unfortunately their valued customers is not the elites that stay in their branded hotels)

But then again OP story is interesting as it apparently Bonvoy agent have to process each room extension sepataely and the price can change during the agent process the first room.

I can’t believe this is the hill you chose to die on, to be honest. Your request for them to credit you with an extra 10,000 points is an entitled one, and it sounds like you exhibited a high degree of belligerence.