Please be sure to quote entire posts and not edit off the emoticons which I think expressed the tongue in cheek nature of our posts. I'll worry about the complex traits and examples I teach my family if and when I travel with them.:rolleyes:

This actually seems reasonable to me. One way to differentiate between the FS properties.

Greg

You post what you wish and I'll quote what I wish.

Oh, and I always delete emoticons.

What Marriott should said is to help put newspapers out of business and reduce global warming we have decided to reduce the number of papers we give out. :D

But seriously for me this is no big deal.

same here, I don't really care.

The Q is, will we get 75 cent credit automatically when selecting 'no newspaper'?

Don't bet on getting the credit posted. A long time ago, I declined the USA Today and got no credit for my stay. I wasn't going to raise a fuss over a 75 cent credit.

I see the availability of the WSJ as a plus for Marriott since Hilton never offers it at limited service properties and Hyatt only has it at some full service properties. For those guests who like reading the WSJ in paper form, it is nice to know that almost every Marriott property has one.

Anyone ever actually ask for the 50 cent daily folio credit if you decline the paper? I always laugh when I see that on the key envelope or checkin folio. Maybe now if we say no paper on our profile we'll get 50 cents automotically? LMAO!

I was told they have to do this as they are contractually obliged something due to the rate they get on papers and being a delivery service, not a retailer or something like that.

Nail, meet hammer.

This same phenomenon occurred a few years ago with the linen change programs at hotels. Baby boomers were aghast - "how can you not change my sheets every day?" Gen Yers were delighted - "thank you for not changing my sheets every day! Much more environmentally friendly!" (Yes, it also saves the properties money.)

Today, baby boomers are aghast at not having a newspaper at their door every morning; GenYers are saying "Great! I never read that anyway! Less newsprint in landfills!" (Yes, it also saves the properties money.)

(Yes, I'm generalizing - I'm certain there are some baby boomers who support these kinds of initiatives and some GenYers who don't.)

Pretty easy - opt in or out on your profile.
I, for one, prefer handling the newspaper during the morning constitutional. It's really not good if the electronic equipment slips into the wrong places.
So quite like the X & Y'ers, us BB's can multi-task and do things 'on the go'.

Baby boomer here

Want paper ( although I dont get one at home except on Sun and read all my news online :) )

Dont want linens changed daily.

that is the funniest thing i've read all day!

I too prefer an actual paper.......(end of baby boom boomer here....."29-ish") and i don't care if the sheets are changed every day, but if i am there for a week they better get changed at least once!

BTW....today i woke up at a SHS and what was not outside, but ALL THE WAY UNDER my door, halfway into the living room??? USAT (and the bill, which really made it well past halfway!)

They have signs up all over (desk, elevators) spinning it as saving the environment....come on, tell it like it is....they are saving money first, trees second. (not sure whether this hotel delivers papers themselves or if the paper guy does it...)

I subscribe (pun intended) to a quite different view. In most cases, the immediacy of the web reporting often takes a back seat to investigation, impact and perspective. It's not "yesterday's news" if it takes a day to collect all of the facts. Big stories are usually edited several times through the course of the day (or night). The printed story is often the culmination of those "drafts."

Yes, Google News and the like are excellent aggregators but they fail when it comes to composition and editorial judgment. They do a great job doing what they do: collecting content. Newspapers do a great job at what they do: gathering the facts, reporting the story and relating content.

In my experience, the web is poor purveyor of long-form journalism. Investigative reporting, serial stories and magazine articles are poorly served via the web (e.g., try to read The New York Times Magazine on an iPhone).

The web can offer several versions of the same story. A newspaper offers related stories that share a common interest or audience.

One is not better than the other. They are complementary. Excluding either only limits one's perspective.

I submit that the recent financial struggles have more to do with declining ad (both display and classified) revenue.

There's more than just "news" in the newspaper. ;)

As far as immediate source of news goes, TV/Radio left newspapers in the dust well before you (and I) were born.

I read newspapers for 1) features, 2) business and 3) advertising. Trying to do the NY Times crossword or a 5-star Sudoku online is really tedious.

Newspapers have the advantage of being portable, not having to wait to boot up or page to load and infinitely more easy to handle in the bathroom.:D Newsprint can be easily recycled and is biodegradable if you don't so there isn't much of an environmental impact.

What Internet feature that is killing newspapers is not news, but Craigslist. Classified ads are (or were) a huge revenue stream which helped finance the news operation of most dailies and that has all but dried up.

And yes, I'm a boomer...and worked for a newspaper.:cool:

As someone in the under 30 group (for another 5 more months), I like having an actual newspaper to read. Does this make me old fashioned? Perhaps, but I have been reading the WSJ on a regular basis for almost 20 years, so old habits die hard. I like looking at a paper during breakfast when I am by myself, and it is a good break from reading a screen. As an analog object, it benefits me when I don't have internet access (when my connection goes down or I'm not with my laptop) or when the power is out.

I read a lot of stuff online for my work, but nothing will substitute a good paper (for me, the WSJ and to a lesser extent, the Washington Post). I also like reading actual books and cannot see the Kindle (or another electronic book reader) ever replacing most physical books for my personal needs. Also, some books are better in the physical format (when you have photos and charts/tables over two consecutive pages or when you need to rapidly flip through a book to find a source).

Well, let's see if this actually works...
I personally find it bothersome to have a newspaper at my door everyday, so I checked the "No newspaper" in my profile a while back. Yet I still get it every morning...
Asking the front desk to stop the delivery makes it stop though - but then what is the point of the profile in the first instance?

So if Marriott properties cannot manage NOT delivering a newspaper based on profile preferences, no wonder they have issues honoring the actual prefered choice...:rolleyes:

Thanks. :D I couldn't help it. The previous comments by the Gen X/Y'er about multi-tasking and reading on the go made me think that he/she thought this idea of electronic-multi-tasking-on-the-go is light years ahead of sitting on the can and reading the paper.

I'm surprised at some of the comments. Someone said they find it 'bothersome' that a paper is delivered in error to their room? Sheesh.

I'd be lost without either one. As dayone said, they're complementary.

Unfortunately, here in Detroit, the full newspapers (the News and the Free Press) are published and home-delivered only on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Much smaller editions are published other days, but not home-delivered. The scandal that cost Kilpatrick his job as mayor and some jail time only came to the fore because of the dogged pursuit of the story by both newspapers. Very doubtful that internet media would have produced the same results.

If most of the papers (I realize not all) didn't give their content away for free on the web this would bother me more. But since most do I don't care quite as much.

I'd like a paper to be available to be sent up at FS properties (to be slid under my door) if I call and request it, because sometimes I don't want to pay for the HSIA.

years ago as I was being transferred around I went to the habit of reading papers online, before then I read the paper daily regardless of which city I lived in....the advantage this gave me was I was not able to once again read the News (and occasionally the Freep) plus a few others....some papers have decent business sections (News) and some have eh sections (could name a few but I wont)...but in this example I was able to read how our Hometown Mayor messed things up without living in the Metro area....I dont believe I missed a thing by reading it on the internet however the real question (which you do mention) is if the print media can make a profit in cyberspace

So then, wouldn't it have been a nice thing that along with announcing its new limitations in delivering newspapers, Marriott had also announced that it was making reading (digital) newspapers easier, by providing free internet access at full service properties?

I'm currently staying at a Starwood property. They have a daily charge for internet access should I want to pay that price.

What is interesting is that they do allow complementary access to certain websites include some news media outlets. So one could still read over the news without paying the daily internet charges, but the hotel still gets revenue should I want to go to other sites.

The really interesting thing about the hotel's free access is that they don't give free access to any Starwood websites, but they do allow me to access Marriott's website. So I can check out all the Marriott properties, make/cancel Marriott reservations for free. (This is a Sheraton BTW.) :confused:

As others have said, I don't have any problem if Marriott doesn't want to waste time and money on people who don't want daily delivery of the newspaper. I happen to like getting the local paper for wherever I happen to be, but although my profile says this, I always end up getting the USAT. Probably twice in the last year I have received the local paper as requested. This is akin to the sign about hanging up your towels so that they can be reused. I would guess that 99% of the time, I hang my used towel on the hook on the back of the door. That towel is taken and replaced 99% of the time.

My unscientific guess would be that it actually takes less time (and therefore potentially less money) to just give a newspaper/change the towels for everyone than it does to have a low-on-the-food-chain staff member compile and then follow a room list for such items, not to mention the hassle if there's a mistake. I could be wrong here though, especially on the towels, for which you do have to factor in laundering. $.02.:)

Or at the very least, free access to major online newspapers. USA Today, WSJ and NYT immediately come to mind, as these are the major national papers Marriott has been providing in paper format.

I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to whitelist certain online news sites and allow those "free" in MHRS rooms, until such time as Marriott is ready to join the 21st century and offer the entire web for free.

Although some large-city newspapers still publish two or three editions and the earliest may print before midnight, most papers print after 1 am. Of course, the composition closes earlier.

actually I think it would be a better use of company resources had they announced they were giving everyone (including retiree's) $1M each because then we could all afford to pay these fees :D

Some properties have elected to under-achieve
 

I just stayed at the full service Marriott Racine (not exactly a star in the Marriott chain but...). This morning, there was not a paper at my Concierge Level room door. When I innocently asked "what happened to the paper" at the CL, the attendant gave the b.s. answer, "Oh, we've decided to go green, everybody reads the news online, this was a directive from Marriott..." I then went down to the front desk where they informed me that they get ten USATodays (don't know about the WSJ) and they were long gone. I spoke with the MOD to voice my complaint. She was very nice about it (as was I), but I wanted to let them know that this was noticed.

The Marriott web site (linked to in the original post in this thread), says that limited service properties will be affected by the program starting April 20 and full service on June 1. It also says that newspaper deliveries will continue at FS properties.

Clearly some properties don't get the message - from corporate or their customers.

I would ask for compensation in that case, since it is obvious this property has used the new directive as an excuse to eliminate a benefit.

Surely the first time such a thing has happened.

Does the newspaper delivery policy apply to weekends? There is no mention that it doesn't apply on weekends in the link from Marriott Concierge's post in this thread.
I was recently at the JW Marriott in DC and there was no weekend delivery of newspapers on the Concierge floor.

I spent the past week at 2 different properties. Neither had any local papers (the preference in my profile), except on Sunday. I guess this particular form of cost-cutting reaches much farther than they're letting on.

Room delivery of newspapers has always officially been a Monday through Friday amenity. The fact that some properties would deliver the local paper on Saturday/Sunday has been an unexpected (but appreciated!) bonus.

"Under your door" is probably not going to happen...unless you also forgive the hotel for the inevitable noise complaints that will occur from having that large of a gap between the bottom of the door and the threshold.

Is this written somewhere by Marriott? I can't find it. What would be the rationale for excluding weekend guests?

Well, by golly, it's gone from the elites benefit page...or did this become a general benefit, now retracted?

The rationale behind it was that USAToday was only published M-F. Again, some properties would go beyond on weekends.

I think that at one time, weekday paper delivery was listed as an elite benefit. As for the rationale, I would guess it would be the same reason as providing free breakfast only on weekdays for Gold/Plats. It probably has something to do with their focus on business travel (and their assumption that leasure travel makes up a much higher % of weekend travel.)

Newspaper Rebellion
 

I stayed at the CY in Dallas/Ft Worth and didn't receive my USAToday at my door as per Marriott's new policy.

I in no uncertain terms told the manager that I will not stay here again due to Marriott's new policy. He assured me that I would get my USAToday at my front door in the morning. It was there!!

I sugguest that we all complain the the manager when we check in and I can bet that within a short period of time, the papers will return to out door steps.

With the ecoomyMarriott hurting, Marriott should come out with benefits to lore more guests!!

Mr. Marriott ---- wake up!!

Seriously?????
 

I'm not sure I would have admitted that to anyone--certainly not your proudest moment. And don't think for one second that any/all staff that has heard about your tyrant behavior hasn't gotten a lot of mileage out of it already! You are probably the laughing stock of staff and you don't even know it...quite the opposite--you are proud of yourself.

Glad to see that you too are being so very flexible and taking it like an adult and "suffering" the economy woes with the rest of us....big cutbacks are hard to take.

Wow....seriously. Don't you have a laptop? Do you realize that newspapers are going to be a thing of the past in the relatively near future? Was it really that important to make such a grand deal jesture out of....are you going to be one of those people that go postal on everyone when something really of substance is taken from you? Are you really that doggmatic about something so trivial when so many people in our country are lining up at food banks because of job losses and home losses (I'm not talking about the ones that borrowed way more than they should have or took on payments they couldn't afford)...looking for their next meal....and you are looking for your morning paper with the same tenacity?

You just stick to your guns and plaster that foot down in a huff and demand your paper. You have every right.

Just FYI, we have gov't job and took a $600+ hit....mandatory 2 day per month furlough. I'm not upset....people say, "why state workers," and to that I say, "why not state workers"?

What if you found out that the fellow running the place was so scared of losing his job, he personally went out and bought you a paper with his own money. Do you feel better now? What if he has nothing to do with the cutbalks and is just trying to make ends meet with the budget given to the hotel? I have a feeling you could care less--so long as you get your *&^&$_*$$#! newspaper on your door step.

Enjoy.

While personally it certainly wouldn't be only a lack of a newspaper that would cause me to drop a property from my preferred list (poor lounge offerings and other things likely would have to be added in the mix) I wouldn't belittle someone publically for making a stand on this and assume that they were being rude when they complained. Some of us still like paper newspapers that we don't have to shut down on takeoff and landing.

May I never become like that...

I always found out that asking/reminding nicely once works wonders. Getting all pumped up for something that trivial is, like kymba said, completely out of place; crisis or not.

I was stuck in Houston during Ike, and the hotel lost power and even water for about 2-3 days, but seeing the staff working really hard to put things back together, and all those evacuees and people who lost everything; I would never have dared .....ing about anything. Yet, some people go beserk because they don't find a newspaper at their doorstep...

Set your priorities straight.

Everyone has their personal breaking point. OP's was the comic, i mean usa Today.

Personally, I hate bending over to pick up the paper as I leave the room in the morning, and am just as apt to run over it with my computer bag and pick one up in the lobby instead, so yeah, good on Marriott for eliminating this potentially back breaking benefit.