Niagara Falls/Ontario Courtyard called police for requesting welcome gift guarantee
Nov 24, 22, 10:11 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 12
Niagara Falls/Ontario Courtyard called police for requesting welcome gift guarantee
This just happened to me and I've already sent an email to the Bonvoy Champion email but I thought I'd get this community's opinion and see if this happened to anyone else.
The gist of it is... just the title basically.
I've written up a longer version with more of the conversation to send to Marriott if needed, but I thought I'd condense it for y'all.
Platinum, stayed 1 night at a Courtyard in North America. Breakfast was closed. Morning of check out, asked if I could use $10pp F&B amenity on grab-and-go from the pantry. Agent initially says yes but when I come down later and get the food, man (didn't identify himself but supervisor I'm guessing) comes out and says no, you have to pay. Point out the elite amenity on Marriott website, supervisor says no. I point out that goes against the elite welcome gift guarantee, supervisor says take it up with Marriott, but you have to pay otherwise you can deal with the police for shoplifting. I ask if he is the general manager since I would like to speak to the GM. Man says, now you're making threats so I am calling the police, picks up the phone and starts dialing. I leave and say you are free to charge my card. Later receive a updated folio with the additional F&B charge.
I have hope that Marriott CS will make it right but wanted to get everyone's thoughts?
The gist of it is... just the title basically.
I've written up a longer version with more of the conversation to send to Marriott if needed, but I thought I'd condense it for y'all.
Platinum, stayed 1 night at a Courtyard in North America. Breakfast was closed. Morning of check out, asked if I could use $10pp F&B amenity on grab-and-go from the pantry. Agent initially says yes but when I come down later and get the food, man (didn't identify himself but supervisor I'm guessing) comes out and says no, you have to pay. Point out the elite amenity on Marriott website, supervisor says no. I point out that goes against the elite welcome gift guarantee, supervisor says take it up with Marriott, but you have to pay otherwise you can deal with the police for shoplifting. I ask if he is the general manager since I would like to speak to the GM. Man says, now you're making threats so I am calling the police, picks up the phone and starts dialing. I leave and say you are free to charge my card. Later receive a updated folio with the additional F&B charge.
I have hope that Marriott CS will make it right but wanted to get everyone's thoughts?
Nov 24, 22, 11:05 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
Welcome to FlyerTalk. The hotel probably put 500 points in your account as a welcome gift you didn't want. Since you selected $10 F&B and the hotel refused, make sure they pay $50 in cash Guest Compensation besides refunding the F&B item. You may need to elevate this issue since there is weak enforcement from Marriott.
Nov 25, 22, 2:51 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Silicon Valley
Programs: Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 1,235
Cell phones!!! Start recording the interaction so that its not a he said/she said situation. Also, the staff member "might" reconsider his actions knowing that they will be preserved for all posterity, or at least a TikTok post.
Nov 25, 22, 2:57 am
#7
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 2,102
It is always difficult to assess the situation by reading a post. Dreadful customer service? Yes. How was OP's behavior in this situation so staff wanted to call police? We don't know.
Generally I think these kind of posts would be much more helpful if the property would be named.
Generally I think these kind of posts would be much more helpful if the property would be named.
Nov 25, 22, 5:24 am
#8
Join Date: Sep 2022
Programs: Discount Den and Delta Miles
Posts: 136
It was at a Marriot in New York State "that was lodginging the homeless or whatever the people were who murdered the college student's father in the lobby; "Paul Kutz was killed by stray bullets in the Marriott lobby on Oct. 2 while grabbing a cup of coffee and getting ready to check out. He had been upstate for the college’s family weekend."" Marriot seems to be another formerly great company now racing to the bottom. The company in this case was bending over backwards to serve the people not paying their own way and the result was a dangerous breakfast area. Marriot staff, according to the articles that followed, knew the person who committed the crime and thought it was funny until things went horrible. In your case, the staff seemed very zealous about giving you a rough time. Maybe the Hilton hotels are the better, safer choice. I don't know.
Nov 25, 22, 6:51 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 12
Welcome to FlyerTalk. The hotel probably put 500 points in your account as a welcome gift you didn't want. Since you selected $10 F&B and the hotel refused, make sure they pay $50 in cash Guest Compensation besides refunding the F&B item. You may need to elevate this issue since there is weak enforcement from Marriott.
I wish I could but the staff member in question refused to introduce or identify himself by name or title and did not have any kind of name badge etc. So my guess is he was some kind of supervisor, but could have easily been the GM, the owner, the son of the owner, etc? I have no idea.
There is going to be an element of he-said-she-said but I can categorically say I never raised my voice or in any way was aggressive or made any kind of threat. I would be confident if Marriott or a third party pulled the audio/video from the CCTV tapes (which are in the hotel's possession) they would find that to be true.
Nov 25, 22, 7:20 am
#11
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Programs: MB Ambassador, WOH Globalist, HH Diamond (Aspire), AA Gold, UA Silver, DL Silver
Posts: 3,984
Given how they treated this situation I have less than zero confidence at all they would be forthcoming in any kind of compensation. Hence why I'm hoping Marriott CS steps up.
This was at the Courtyard Niagara Falls, ON.
I wish I could but the staff member in question refused to introduce or identify himself by name or title and did not have any kind of name badge etc. So my guess is he was some kind of supervisor, but could have easily been the GM, the owner, the son of the owner, etc? I have no idea.
It's sad, as a frequent hotel guest but fairly new platinum (formerly long time free agent), I've had nothing but great experiences until this particular one. Hell, I'm typing this right now from another (limited service) Bonvoy property that is going above and beyond. So this experience was particularly jarring.
This is my biggest regret and lesson for the future (which hopefully I wouldn't need) - unfortunately at the time the situation escalated so quickly I did not realise to record it until basically the end of the interaction as I left. Plus with the threat of the police already on their way, I wasn't immediately sure off the top of my head if it was a single-party-consent jurisdiction (as it turned out, it was).
There is going to be an element of he-said-she-said but I can categorically say I never raised my voice or in any way was aggressive or made any kind of threat. I would be confident if Marriott or a third party pulled the audio/video from the CCTV tapes (which are in the hotel's possession) they would find that to be true.
This was at the Courtyard Niagara Falls, ON.
I wish I could but the staff member in question refused to introduce or identify himself by name or title and did not have any kind of name badge etc. So my guess is he was some kind of supervisor, but could have easily been the GM, the owner, the son of the owner, etc? I have no idea.
It's sad, as a frequent hotel guest but fairly new platinum (formerly long time free agent), I've had nothing but great experiences until this particular one. Hell, I'm typing this right now from another (limited service) Bonvoy property that is going above and beyond. So this experience was particularly jarring.
This is my biggest regret and lesson for the future (which hopefully I wouldn't need) - unfortunately at the time the situation escalated so quickly I did not realise to record it until basically the end of the interaction as I left. Plus with the threat of the police already on their way, I wasn't immediately sure off the top of my head if it was a single-party-consent jurisdiction (as it turned out, it was).
There is going to be an element of he-said-she-said but I can categorically say I never raised my voice or in any way was aggressive or made any kind of threat. I would be confident if Marriott or a third party pulled the audio/video from the CCTV tapes (which are in the hotel's possession) they would find that to be true.
Nov 25, 22, 9:09 am
#15
Suspended
Join Date: Feb 2022
Posts: 853
