The Road Goes On Forever

An opinion from the other side of the desk:

1. Check in time is not guaranteed. With the state of the hospitality world right now and the for the foreseeable future in terms of housekeeping, this isn't surprising.
2. While the FDA is supposed to, I'm at almost a quarter century of mostly desk related work with Marriott and Hilton and I have never acknowledged status once and I never will. No biggie.
3. That's a PIA but the desk should be able to get you as much as needed from their supply. Annoying, but no biggie.
4. The deadbolt is a big no-no. If that doesn't work the room should never have been sold, period.
5. The telephone is also a big no-no. Same, if that doesn't work the room should never have been sold, period.

If they could have moved you to something comparable then to me, you're owed nothing. But IMHO, C is likely what they offer but you should hold out for D since the room should never be sold when the deadbolt and/or phone are not working.

Kacee

This is really common these days. Many properties - even 5* properties - are not spending to update old or broken phones. This is especially true at properties where they use chat for service requests.

The Road Goes On Forever

Either way it's still a brand standard for safety and security to have a working phone in the room. Emergency procedure #1 at most if not every hotel in the case of a fire is for someone to begin calling all guest rooms.

Kacee

I'm not disagreeing with you that hotels should provide a functional phone, but IME many properties do not, and complaining about it typically gets you nowhere.

lilpisher

No issue with not allowing OP to check in early. However, if its after the stated hotel check in time, then the hotel itself sold the room under that condition. Using that logic, I don�t think Marriott guarantees ice, deadbolts, TVs, or telephones.

iknowthings

While it certainly is brand standard to have a phone in the room, it is not for safety reasons and calling rooms is not part of the Global Emergency Procedures for Marriott.

stuartpig

After an experience in a hotel this year, I have to say the phone can be a lifesaver. Husband collapsed in a hotel room when I wasn�t in the room and his the phone, accidentally dialling reception. There were paramedics in the room within 15 minutes.

SHLTP

I've found phones barely work of cordless on 30% of my rooms the phone battery is dead so one can only talk 10 seconds before it disconnects. Real pain

EuropeanPete

I find the same. Indeed, this was true of my stay at the HR Blackfriars.

kennycrudup

Funny you say that; most of the time I unplug the damn thing as 99% of the time when it rings it's never for me (and if the staff needs me that badly they will (and do) call me on my phone).

UndercoverOscarMunoz

This is Marriott we're talking about here lol

EuropeanPete

You can rely on the Book of Mormon, but the rest is a crapshoot.

Happy

That might explain why recently at Le Meridien Cyberport Hong Kong they left a message on the phone without saying anything particular so I ignored it. Then a few hours later there was a message popped up on the TV asked me to contact FD! When I called the FD they told me it was because the staff who tried to deliver a welcome gift wasn't able to do so due to our No Disturb light was on (husband accidentally touched the control w/o ever realize it controlled the sign). They wanted to know WHEN the staff could come to deliver the gift. So we told them anytime as we did not plan to go out for the rest of the evening. Guess what the gift was?! It was 4 pcs of Very Tiny, Mini Size, French Palmiers, you know, the butterfly shape crunchy cookies - probably from the hotel's bakery, in a transparent plastic wrapped thingie tied up with a narrow black ribbon with LM logo... For THAT welcome gift they made such a big fussy on it?!

We had another incident at this property.

We had to change room on 2nd night for a 5 nights stay, actually to a smaller room but much higher floor. We were not able to check in when we returned at 5pm even though the previous occupant who was an elite already checked out, presumably. We were told we could return to our previous room to wait for the new room becoming ready. We waited and waited and waited. Finally after almost 2 hours I was able to find out the reason why - the previous guest not only smoked in the room, but also ate Durian! Housekeeping discovered that when entering to clean the room. They tried desperately to get rid of the smell, using the Ozone machine. They then sprayed the room with air freshener. The FD manager finally led me to the room and asked if it was acceptable. At that time I could smell a wee bit of odd smell undertone but primarily was the air freshener which wasn't an offending or too strong. He said he would get an air purifier machine in if we accepted the room.

The stay was immediately after the Chinese National Day hence the hotel was still very full, that was why we got a very undesirable room on our first night. There wasn't much they could do in changing room. Hence we decided to take the "smelly" room though by next morning there wasn't much smell still could be felt. On the other hand, I of course wanted him to do some service recovery compensation. At first he offered to return the SNAs but I told him it was already October, these things expired at end of the year so returning them was useless to me. I asked for points which he said couldn't do so (probably because I was on point stay?) Eventually he offer HKD500 F&B credit which we used it 2 days later at the very expensive Chinese restaurant where the "tea" per person was HKD25, for a few dim sum dishes, with the 10% elite discount, the bill came to HKD478.xx LOL.

Dublin_rfk

First it shouldn�t matter if it was a RI or a JW. It needs to be �made right� . A quiet word with the FD a a short message / talk with the GM should suffice.
The attitude of the management will determine escalation from there.
On a personal side I would be very hesitant to use any property managed by this team.

KRSW

1) Arrived at 4pm, room was not ready. ...? I checked in on the app, and stated 3pm arrival time. I am one hour late and they're still not done. Had to wait till 4.30pm, but I was pressing the issue.
Not sure of the exact property, but most Marriotts' check-in times is 4pm. 30 minute delay is pretty darn good in my book, especially for a limited-service hotel. Since you said the hotel was full in #6, I'm going to assume that your room wasn't ready because there was another Elite in the room prior who was exercising their Late Checkout guarantee.

2) No acknowledgement of my status at check in
To be honest, I'm embarrassed when the FDA mentions my status and I find it awkward. The best was "Thank you for spending a lot of money with Marriott and our hotel."

3) Ice maker not working in the room, and no ice machines (except front desk) in the entire hotel. If you don't have ice machine, then make sure every room is properly equipped!
It's a Residence Inn. This is typical and not a problem. The GE refrigerators' icemakers are very slow to start, so I usually ask for a bag of ice from the front desk to get us started for the stay. Usually after 24 hours the fridge's icemaker is able to keep up.

4) TVs don't work in one of the room, deadbolt at front door doesn't work
TV not working isn't great, but not fatal. Deadbolt not working is a major issue that should have been picked up. Either way, how quickly were these resolved? If quickly with no hassle, then no problem.

5) Lastly, when I called to raise this issues, the damn telephone doesn't work, so have to walk down to front desk a few times
As others have mentioned, it's a safety issue and some jurisdictions actually require phones in hotel rooms.

6) No rooms available to change to, must wait till tomorrow. I am not a solo traveler this time, this is an inconvenience for many.
Why would you need to change rooms? The TV and deadbolt issues should be resolved within minutes, even if they have to replace everything.