rylan

Absurd they continue to get away with this. I also find the lurker response quite disappointing and has zero action to actually do anything to address the issue.
1000 points as a 'goodwill gesture' from the hotel is an insult. The hotel may claim that the lack of food/bev is not due to covid, however that info buried on the hotel webpage is also on a page for what to expect due to covid etc, and even has a title of "What to expect in the Age of COVID-19" and the lurker response mentions Covid.

Sorry, they can get staff at this point. Its just clear that the hotel management has no desire to actually spend the money to provide what is supposed to be a brand standard requirement.

I'd assume they also do not provide any 'manager reception' in the evening during the week or anything else. Probably not even coffee?

Add a vote for this hotel to be a a candidate for bonvOYing of the Year Award

bmr12

Sorry, late following up to this thread. I booked this property back in the spring before the dynamic point pricing change, and if the language buried on the dining page of the property's web site was there, I sure didn't see it. My spouse and I arrived late one evening for a relatively lengthy stay. When we checked in we were told there was no breakfast because "this hotel was built without a restaurant". I figured there was no point in arguing with a hotel that had already made that decision, so immediately opened an issue through the "contact us" on the Marriott corporate site.

Marriott referred the issue back to the hotel, which did not respond. I couldn't get Marriott standard customer care to care either, a first for me. I finally sent it to the CEO's email and got somebody's attention weeks after we had departed.

Eventually, the General Manager of the property called me and said that the owners "had spent a lot of money building this hotel" and were trying conserve costs through the pandemic and now by suspending the breakfast benefit. He was sorry it hadn't been addressed during my stay (implying they might have comped breakfast at adjacent restaurants). He ultimately made me a generous offer of points which I accepted, but deflected my commentary about how this should be made much more obvious during the booking process and how deceitful this practice is.

Marriott corporate has done nothing otherwise in response to my complaint, but I'm disappointed that corporate is clearly aware of this approach and has done nothing to stop it.

The hotel was clearly built with a restaurant and breakfast area, quite visible on the second floor (pictured below). In fact, the kitchen was serving catering to folks meeting in the nearby meeting rooms!

I've stayed at one other limited service Marriott property that doesn't provide breakfast, and it is still very clear years later during booking that you aren't getting breakfast (Fairfield Inn Anaheim, pictured below). This property should at least be forced to do the same.

The whole experience has left me with a very bad feeling about Marriott in general. Marriott used to excel at having high standards and consistency across all of their properties; now they don't seem to care. Which makes me as a Lifetime status member think that more competitively shopping my stays is in my future.

If any Lurker would like to explain why this level of deceit is acceptable, I'm open to hear it.



No restaurant was a lie--the breakfast serving area boarded up with the sign covered with paper.

Here's where breakfast was intended to be served.

Fairfield Anaheim still not serving breakfast, but at least it is clearer.

DELee

Residence Inn New Orleans French Quarter/Central Business District = RI.

David

Tanic

They forgot to erase the internet.

DELee

Whoops.

David

p.s. Nice find and post.

Eujeanie

Well, they could be counting on a technicality - a kitchen that serves a breakast area for free is not technically a "restaurant", not sure of the definition but I'm pretty sure it's a place that sells meals, not gives them away.

But it still stinks what they are doing/not doing, saying/not saying, and I really am astonished that corportate lets them get away with this.

Eujeanie

res�tau�rant
[ˈrest(ə)rənt, ˈrest(ə)ˌr�nt]

NOUN

1. a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

Dear bmr12,

We are sorry for the unpleasant experience. If you can send a private message to us with your full name, contact email and stay details, we would be pleased to share your concerns with the relevant management team.

Best regards,

Carrie L
Specialist Social Media
Marriott International
marriott.bonvoychampion@marriott.com

DallasEsq

This hotel is the Geoge Santos of the Marriott chain.

Horace

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II,

Please recognize that this is not a simple case of one guest having an "unpleasant experience."

This is a case of a Residence Inn-branded property failing to provide one of the fundamental things that Residence Inn promises:

https://residence-inn.marriott.com/h...menities/food/

It would be bad enough if the booking process made it absolutely clear that there is no breakfast at this rogue property. I would still be damaging to the Residence Inn brand.

But burying the lack of a usual Residence Inn breakfast, instead of making it clear in the reservation process, is fraud. Essentially, the property is taking money for a room and breakfast, but only providing a room.

The fact that Marriott International allows this fraud to continue reflects badly on Marriott. Are all properties on Marriott.com now allowed to disregard brand standards? Is fraud acceptable to Corporate?

Fortunately, most Marriott properties try hard to deliver a guest experience consistent with their brands. I'm sure the franchise agreements allow Marriott International to kick out properties that fail at this.

It seems there's a property in New Orleans that should lose its branding.

Marriott Bonvoy Lurker II

Thanks for your feedback.

Matters like these are taken very seriously and we would like to follow up with Hotel Management team.

Therefore, we asked for guests� information to review further and take necessary step to follow up.

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Abbey L
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International



[email protected]

Eujeanie

I do not understand why you need a guest's personal information if the problem is hotel-wide, not an "unpleasant experience" of a one-off problem by a guest.

Contact the hotel and say "we understand you are not following brand standards" and go from there. You don't have to say "Joe Smith stayed on Nov. 3rd and said there was no breakfast"....NO GUESTS are getting breakfast.

IslesFan

Can confirm this hotel is still not offering Breakfast as of today (Mar 5).

Additionally, they seem to not be willing to honor the Titanium Elite 4pm guaranteed checkout. Most they are willing to give is 2pm.

KRSW

IslesFan : Be sure to leave an appropriate 1* review on the Marriott site AND other sites (Tripadvisor, Yelp, etc.) as well. It's obvious the property owner doesn't care about the guest experience.

I wonder what Marriott's hesitation to enforce brand standards is. I don't have a RI franchise agreement in front of me, but I do have one from another large international chain, and the process and procedure for addressing failure to meet brand standards is quite clear, and quite expensive for the property owner if violations are found.

DELee

True - if Marriott is willing to enforce. Clearly as this thread documents, there's a blind eye here out of Bethesda.

David