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Apathy… how do you keep your cool?

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Old Nov 8, 2025 | 10:36 pm
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Apathy… how do you keep your cool?

At a Ritz Carlton as an Ambassador. Checked in today, minor upgrade. Door won’t latch/deadbolt. Let front desk know when leaving for a meeting at T-8h. Come back at T-3h. Not fixed. Call for manager. Get promise that it’ll be fixed. Come back almost at midnight. Not fixed. Go seek out manager at front desk, extremely non chalant apathetic response. Seriously… Would a Corporate complaint or ambassador complaint do anything? What would you guys have done here? Pack and move to alternate? Email to the GM?
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Old Nov 8, 2025 | 11:55 pm
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Originally Posted by mdbe
At a Ritz Carlton as an Ambassador. Checked in today, minor upgrade. Door won’t latch/deadbolt. Let front desk know when leaving for a meeting at T-8h. Come back at T-3h. Not fixed. Call for manager. Get promise that it’ll be fixed. Come back almost at midnight. Not fixed. Go seek out manager at front desk, extremely non chalant apathetic response. Seriously… Would a Corporate complaint or ambassador complaint do anything? What would you guys have done here? Pack and move to alternate? Email to the GM?
I would have just moved rooms...

If the property handled that well, then I would let it go. If they were annoying about it and then didn't proactively send up a gesture/card/something after being annoying about it, then I would probably ask to speak to someone on my check out day, let them know I'm annoyed, and (when the person asks what they can do about it), make a reasonable ask like comp a bar tab or throw me some points.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 1:57 am
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Originally Posted by mdbe
Door won’t latch/deadbolt.
Perhaps I have misunderstood, but that strikes me as a safety issue. Did I miss something?
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 5:47 am
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Sorry, I am not staying (or leaving my belongings) in a room with a nonfunctional door lock. You don't leave the front desk until they've given you a new set of room keys.

This happened to me recently at RI Oakland and I moved immediately and they gave me 15k points.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 9:55 am
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It was a safety issue, i jammed the door with a towel and crashed out. It’s just the fact that the manager could not be bothered to do the bare minimum nor take ownership, especially at a “luxury hotel”. They’ll allegedly move the rooms today but it shouldn’t take one losing their temper and raising hell.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 10:20 am
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Originally Posted by mdbe
They’ll allegedly move the rooms today but it shouldn’t take one losing their temper and raising hell.
No, it should not. But again, I would not have left the front desk until they gave me keys to a new room.

Please identify the property.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 10:29 am
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Name the property.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 12:54 pm
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I would have demanded a new room immediately. They can take as long as they like to fix the lock problem, because it would no longer be my room. If they tried to give me even the slightest pushback, I would escalate my level of displeasure until I got what I wanted. If they really annoyed me, I would have made a point to speak with the GM at some point and explain to them that they need to better train their staff in how to handle safety issues, and probably ask for some points for my trouble.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 1:26 pm
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Name the property, please. Completely unacceptable.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 1:35 pm
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This is a brown M&Ms red flag for the whole Marriott ethos that is unfortunately one of many signals.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 5:10 pm
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Originally Posted by stvr
This is a . . . red flag for the whole Marriott ethos . . . .
Um, no. Anecdotal evidence of one occurrence of a non-functional lock cannot be extrapolated to "the whole Marriott ethos".
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 6:27 pm
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Room change. Surprised you waited for a fix.
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Old Nov 9, 2025 | 10:25 pm
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Originally Posted by Dr. HFH
Um, no. Anecdotal evidence of one occurrence of a non-functional lock cannot be extrapolated to "the whole Marriott ethos".
The claim is also simply untrue. IME the overwhelming majority of staff at Marriott hotels want to be helpful and provide a positive guest experience. The occasional instances of indifferent service are very much the exception, not the rule.

Sometimes it's for the best if we as customers help by letting staff know exactly what they have to do to make things right. For example, if the door to your room won't lock, politely insist that they give you a new room, right now.
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Old Nov 10, 2025 | 12:00 pm
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Absolutely unacceptable, especially so at Ritz prices.
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Old Nov 10, 2025 | 12:54 pm
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Unacceptable at any price since it's a question of personal safety.
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