Works well for me too - I like that I put in my corporate code and I can also see, at a high level, the other prices available immediately - which is a good thing as previously I used to do 2-3 searches that I can now do with 1 (my typical search for any stay is corporate, m11 and then normal just in case there is a special deal on or the standard price is less than my corporate).

Marriott's website is by far and away the best of the hotel chains I use (ok... so the main competition is Hilton who have a terrible site) and I like they continue to invest in it to make it even better.

Hilton has no website - they have a disaster.

You mean I need to restart the reservation if I want to change dates or rate codes??

Initially I just thought this was a continuation of the change in presentation that brought us the new site a few weeks ago, and which for IE at least takes a litlt longer to load.

Well, so does this, but it is well worth it loading the options instead of forcing us to enter repeated codes, although it should be noted that not all specials are included so some extra work is required on those rarer codes, nonetheless, this is a great improvement.

The Marriott site was always better than that roadkill of a Hilton site, and the IHG site, now it really has raised the standard again...

And to think, on the original roll out, a couple of months ago, everyone was bashing Marriott about the new design! Now, the new design, along with the new enhancements to the new design, seems to be well received, or at least more positively received than before.

The new reservation system is definitely an improvement.

I just wish the main site would work correctly for me in Firefox. The five unselected sections on the main page (weekends on sale, member exclusives, packages, meetings & events, and elite rollover nights) highlight when I rollover them but nothing happens when I click. Thankfully "Find" is the default selection when the page loads so at least I can make a reservation easily.

Firefox works fine for me throughout the site, and a heck of a lot faster than IE. Well the latter goes for any site. Not to mention when I use FF I actually have system resource available for other things to run. IE sucks.

Like everything about the new overlay EXCEPT the removal of the comment section. NOT HAPPY about that.

+1.

Big improvement! I love this new reservation system. With one check you know if packages, points or specials are available for your dates. It's a great way to make reservations.

Although my e-mail from Marriott contained a dead link, I navigated on my own and made a reseration to try it out. My first impressions are positive. Old system was fine, but this should be an improvement.

I guess I may be in the minority as I do not like the changes. The removal of the comment box is my main gripe as I now have to call in to have a note added requesting a specific room or room location (I tend to stay at the same hotels and most of them used the note to assign me to the desired room). Perhaps that is why I have been having to wait several minutes to get a rep lately as more people now have to call in to have a special request added to the reservation.

Matt, there is a much easier solution than calling.

Since you stay at the same hotel, just get the email address of the Hotel's Reservation Mgr and email him/her directly. After a couple times s/he will know you and the the email will be superfluous. This also allows you to build up a rapport with the staff making your stay more personal.

+1 Maybe removing the comment box is an implicit admission by Marriott that many hotels weren't really looking at it anyway.


--Jon

There are other ways to deal with that besides eliminating it altogether. That is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. How about requiring the hotels to check a box next to the comment section before being able to proceed or close out that reservation for rooms assignment/control? If they could not close it out without doing that, they would have to pay attention to it in some regard.

I agree there are other ways to do it. My comment is that to date, for whatever reason, Marriott hasn't been able to to get all properties to consistently look at the comments field. If they can't do better, then eliminating the field is better than giving the illusion that it is actually reviewed. My two cents....

--Jon