I've been staying at the Marriott in Addison, TX for the past few weeks. It has been a decent experience, but I've notice that they are severely lacking in customer service skills. A prime example happened on Monday:

When I was getting ready for bed I pulled back the sheets and noticed that there were two bugs crawling around the sheets. Fantastic! Needless to say, I grabbed one of the guys and went down to the front desk.

What happened? They moved me to a smaller room. The guy at the front desk called to make sure that "the room was okay" and considered the matter to be closed. I told him I wanted to speak to the manager before I checked out, but have not heard a thing.

I would assume that as a platinum member who has already stayed 32 nights this year at Marriott properties, they would AT LEAST give me some points for the trouble. I'm going to be writing the customer support desk today, but I just wanted to ping this off the group first to ensure that I'm not out of my mind for thinking that this wasn't handled very well.

Yeah, although as much as I love points, not sure that would have solved it for me either. Bugs like bedbugs or bugs like a fly?

To be honest, they looked like bedbugs. I've never HAD bedbugs, but I looked up pictures and they looked like young ones. The man at the front desk said they weren't, but what kind of an expert is he?

I had an earwig crawl out from under my covers in the Marriott Northampton (UK) as well as one of his friends crawling up the curtain. Not cool.

Got moved rooms, but nothing along the lines of points, compensation etc.

If you want compensation then I think you may want to file a complaint at Marriott.com. Maybe you should report your bed bugs encounter at bedbudregistry.com

I also would have gotten the f*&k out of the hotel

Lots of resources available online to confirm whether or not they were bedbugs. Younger ones, and those not engourged with blood from feeding on their human buffets, tend to be about the size of a apple seed or 4mm to 5mm. If they were indeed bedbugs and you were in the room for awhile, the may have already hitched a ride on your luggage. The last thing you want to do is bring them home, unless you want to spend the next 6 months getting rid of a lot of your possessions (bedding, sofas, etc.) and treating your house.

I would follow up with the general manager before you leave and make sure you get his business card. That way if you have problems with the little critters when you get home, you may have some recourse with the hotel!

Good luck!

Regards,

RIP...

I was chewed on by bedbugs at the Courtyard in Parsippany, NJ while they were remodeling. Needless to say, they gave me upgrades to one of their few suites for the next few months since I did not complain out loud. The offending room was stripped and rebuilt the following week anyways...

I suggest you make sure they are actually bed bugs before you start publishing about your problem. EVERY single hotel in the world has "bugs" of some kind. I personally hate bugs but it's part of life. Bedbugs is more serious and needs to be treated so is a bigger issue than just regular old "bugs."

agreed - more often than not guest reports of bed bugs turn out to be a different type of bug (hotels, condo's, hospitals etc have all stepped up their lookout for Bed Bugs...a good number of hotels constantly train their staff how to identify a bed bug issue and inspect each and every room each week to catch an issue before a guest is impacted...unfortunately as noted a few posts before these bugs hitch a ride very easy and are spread from facility to facility from travelers who aren't aware of the freeloaders hitching a ride).....I had a GM tell me a story the other day of a guest who reported seeing bed bugs in their room....the person lived in a condo in the NE and wasn't allowed to enter their condo building without first meeting with a representative from the Condo Board....turns out the bugs weren't bed bugs but the guest needed a report from the hotels pest control company certifying the room as clean before she was allowed to enter her condo (home) building (how the condo board found out about the report I haven't a clue as the hotel was thousands a miles away)

Room was searched and they were not bed bugs. Just a bunch of normal bugs. I did complain on Marriott.com and got a snarky reply from the rooms manager. It took another e-mail telling them that I just wanted to feel like they actually cared about the inconvenience. 25,000 points credited. Whoop!

Yeah, brilliant idea. Do you run out of your house every time you find a fly, spider, mosquito or other gnarlies ( or larger critters ) in your house?

The OP is not sure if it is a bed bug or not and he gives a fuzzy description saying "maybe" based upon the Internet but not individual certitude. The OP also states that the desk rep affirms that it is not a bed bug. Socrates notes that Marriott associates are taught to recognize bed bugs -- afterall bed bugs are part and parcel with the hotel industry and these big chains like Marriott have a vested interest in dealing with bed bugs. So I'd assume that Marriott takes the issue seriously. Bugs, insects, and other intruders are a part of life. How one reacts depends upon if you find a solitary intruder, or hints of a larger problem ( though admittedly, bed bugs would run through my mind before I come back down to Earth and try to be a little more rational about the problem & I scrutinize the bug ).

Other than that, life goes on as the hotel offers another room. Room size is not an issue since the plat UG guarantee is always predicated upon availibility. Travel enough and stay enough nights and you're gonna have travel issues pop up at hotels, restaurants, and airlines. Context determines whether one has a genuine gripe/ compensation issue or a simple bump in the night which you leave behind you ( or on your wife's side of the bed ).

Barry

Not exactly the same situation, is it? If I am paying to rent a room in a hotel, I have a reasonable right to a bug-free experience as part of the services rendered. If there were bedbugs - and in this case, I agree that we don't know - I would not hang around to see if the next room was better.

Not sure that's exactly the same as running out of my house when I come across an unpleasant crawling friend in my own home.

Thank goodness it was not bed bugs! At least a sigh of relief for you in knowing you did not bring them home.

The 25000 for a 1 night inconvenience seems to be a very good offer of compensation, especially when they were not bed bugs.